Patent ID: 6354745
Filing Date: 2002-03-12
Classification: F16C

Abstract:
An antifriction bearing for facilitating rotation about an axis, said bearing comprising:an inner race having a raceway presented outwardly away from the axis; an outer race having a raceway presented inwardly toward the axis and surrounding the raceway of the inner race; one of the raceways being cylindrical and the other raceway being spherical; rollers arranged in a row between the races and contacting the raceways of the races, each roller having end faces and at least one generally cylindrical region and at least one generally arcuate region located between the end faces, the rollers being positioned between the raceways such that portions of both raceways extend beyond each of the end faces on the rollers, the cylindrical region contacting the cylindrical raceway and being set inwardly from the ends of the cylindrical raceway, so that one of said races can shift axially relative to the rollers, the arcuate region generally conforming longitudinally in contour to the spherical raceway and being set inwardly from the ends of the spherical raceway so that the rollers may assume varying inclinations with respect to the race along which the spherical raceway extends and thus accommodate axial misalignment of the races; wherein the cylindrical raceway is on the inner race and the spherical raceway is on the outer race; wherein the arcuate region of each roller is in two segments with each segment taking the form of an arcuate end surface and wherein the cylindrical region of each roller takes the form of an intervening cylindrical surface that lies between the two arcuate end surfaces; wherein the cylindrical surface intersects the arcuate end surfaces at circular edges; and wherein the cylindrical surface of each roller is slightly crowned so that deflection of the roller and surface elastic deformation do not produce excessive contact stresses between the rollers and raceways at the circular edges of the rollers.