Patent ID: 6749342
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: D04B,F16C

Abstract:
A yarn feeder comprising a housing, a yarn guide drum, a shaft upon which said yarn guide drum is mounted, a plurality of bearing devices within said housing for rotatably supporting said shaft, said bearing devices having a substantially cylindrical outer surface (31);said housing having a non-divided bearing seat (21) for each bearing device which defines a receiving chamber, axially open toward one side, for the bearing device and a space between the bearing device (18) and the bearing seat (21); and a squeeze element (36) made from an elastomer and disposed in the space between each bearing device (18) and the bearing seat (21), one of said squeeze element (36) and bearing seat (21) for each bearing device having an irregular surface adjacent a surface of the other of said squeeze element (36) and bearing seat (21) that define a plurality of circumferentially spaced squeeze zones in which the squeeze element is compressible and deformable to equalize misalignment of the housing bearing seats so that the shaft rotatably supported by the bearing devices will rotate freely even if tolerance variations prevent precise alignment of the bearing seats, and said adjacent surfaces of the squeeze element (36) and bearing seat (21) of each bearing device further defining respective displacement chambers circumferentially adjacent each squeeze zone into which the squeeze element (36) can be displaced as an incident to deformation in the squeeze zone.