A bearing retainer

Abstract: The freedom of the resilient deformation of the claws 3 is controlled by changing the configuration (diameter and depth) of the cylindrical cut out portion 7 of the bearing retainer 6. And, the necessary force to push and widen the claws 3 is optimized, thereby, it is avoided to damage the ball 11 at the time of setting the ball in the pocket 2.

Description: Background of the invention Field of the invention The present invention relates to a bearing retainer of a ball bearing. Conventional art Conventionally, a bearing retainer 1, one part of which is shown in Fig. 4, is used to the ball bearing. The bearing retainer 1 is an annular body which has a plurality of pockets 2 disposed at a given spacing, and is an integrally molded product. The pocket 2 is a portion to receive balls 11 (see Fig. 3), and by a pair of claws 3 provided per each pocket 2 the balls 11 are prevented from being removed from the pocket, and thereby it can hold the balls rotatably. Claws 3 have a shape to be able to cover 3/fourth of the whole periphery of the ball in order to effect as functioning as preventing the ball from being removed. For that purpose, at the time of having the ball coupled inside the pocket 2, it is necessary to push the ball to the ends of the claws 3 by adding a force and widen the claws 3. As mentioned above, the claws 3 are deformed resiliently at the time of ball coupling working, since the bearing retainer 1 is a product molded with a resin integrally. However, it has been threatened to damage the ball surface at the time of coupling, since the force to push and widen the claws 3 is given from the surface of the ball directly. Accordingly, it has been necessary to carry out carefully the ball-coupling work in the pocket 2, and also it has been indispensable to confirm carefully if there is any damage after completion of the work. A bearing retainer with the features of the introductory portion of claim 1 is known from US 5,015,105 or WO-A 9956029. The present invention has been made in the light of the above problem, and the object thereof is to prevent such situation in which the balls are damaged at the time of assembling the ball in the pocket of the bearing retainer and increase the yield rate. This problem is solved by a bearing retainer having the features of claim 1. In order to solve the above problem, according to the present invention, in a resin made bearing retainer having a plurality of pockets disposed at a given spacing thereon, on each of which a pair of claws to prevent a ball from being removed are provided, a cut out portion to control a freedom of a resilient deformation of the claw is provided between adjacent claws. According to the present invention, by making the resilient deformation of the claws free due to the cut out portion, it is optimized to effect the pushing-widening force to be added to the claw at the time of coupling the ball in the pocket of the bearing retainer in the ball bearing assembling process. For reference, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw is controlled by the appropriate change of the shape of the cylindrical cut out portion. Further, according to the present invention, the cut out portion is formed cylindrical and at a central portion thereof a columnar projection is provided, around of which a groove to be in communication with an inner circumference of the retainer and another groove to be in communication with a periphery of the retainer are provided. In this invention, by changing the shape of the cylindrical cut out portion (diameter, depth etc.), the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw can be controlled. Further, also by changing the shape (diameter, depth etc.)of the grooves to be in communication with the inner circumference and the periphery of the retainer provided on the inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw can be controlled. Further, the cylindrical cut out portion is used as a grease reservoir. And due to the columnar projection provided at the center of the cylindrical cut out portion, the strength of the resistance of the grease when it flows out of the cylindrical cut out portion is controlled. Further, a necessary amount of the grease is supplied through the grooves provided on the circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion to be in communication with the inner circumference and the periphery of the retainer. And, the necessary amount of the grease to be supplied is controlled by changing appropriately the diameter and depth of the cylindrical cut out portion and the diameter and height of the columnar projection, and the shape of the communicating grooves. And, according to a further aspect of a bearing retainer of the present invention, the sectional area of the groove to be in communication between the circumferential wall of the cylindrical cut out portion and the periphery of the retainer is adapted to be greater than the sectional area of the groove in communication between the circumferential wall of the cut out portion and the inner circumferential surface of the retainer. By this constitution, the amount of the grease supplied from the cylindrical cut out portion to the circumferential surface of the retainer, that is, the amount of the grease supplied to an inner race of the ball bearing is intentionally controlled, and thereby it can be prevented that a large amount of the grease is supplied to the inner race side at an initial stage. Further, according to a further aspect of the bearing retainer of the present invention, a width of a sectional area of the groove in communication with the periphery of the retainer is widened as coming close to the periphery of the retainer. Brief description of the drawing Fig, 1 is for showing a partial view of an upper of the bearing retainer of an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is for showing a partial view of a side of the bearing retainer of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is for explaining a coupling process of a ball into a pocket. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one portion of a conventional bearing retainer. Embodiment Hereinafter an embodiment of the present invention is explained referring to the attached drawings. For reference, corresponding portions identical to a conventional art are attached with identical signs and explanations thereof are omitted. Fig. 1 shows a plan view of a bearing retainer 6 of an embodiment of the present invention. Further, Fig. 2 shows a side view of the bearing retainer 6. The bearing retainer 6 is an annular body molded integrally with a resin, and comprises a plurality of pockets 2 spaced each other at a given spacing. The pocket 2 is for holding a ball 11 (see Fig. 3) and each pocket is provided with a pair of claws for preventing the ball 11 from being removed. The claw 3 is formed for having such a shape as enabling to cover 3/fourth of whole periphery surface of the ball in order to function as removal preventing operation. For reference, since the bearing retainer 6 is in form of a ring in which identical configuration is continuously repeated, in the drawing thereof only one portion is shown. A cylindrical cut out portion 7 is provided between the adjacent claws 3, 3 disposed between the pockets 2, 2. Further, at a central portion of the cylindrical cut out portion 7, a column shaped projection 8 is provided. And, on a circumferential wall of the cylindrical cut out portion 7, a groove 9 in communication with an inner circumferential surface of the retainer and a groove 10 in communication with the periphery surface of the retainer are provided. And, the sectional area of the groove 10 in communication with periphery surface of the retainer is adapted to be broader comparing with the one of the groove 9 in communication with the inner surface of the retainer. In addition, the groove 10 in communication with the periphery surface of the retainer comprises a configuration to be widened as a funnel shaped as it approaches the periphery surface of the retainer. An effect to be obtained by the above structure is as follows. When retaining the ball 11 into a pocket 2, as shown in Fig. 3 (a), a ball is pressed against the tips of a pair of claws 3. And, by pushing and widening the pair of claws 3 with the surface of the ball 11, as shown in Fig. 3(b), and makes the ball 11 fallen into the pocket 2. At this moment, it becomes possible to control the necessary force to be used for push-widening the claws 3 by controlling the freedom of the resilient deformation force of the the claw. Therefore, in the present embodiment by changing a configuration (diameter and depth) of the cut out portion 7, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3 is controlled. Concretely, by widening the diameter of the cut out portion 7, the thickness of the material which supports the proximal portion of the claw 3 is reduced to enable to increase the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3. Further, by increasing the depth of the cylindrical cut out portion 7 too, the thickness of the material to support the proximal portion of the claw 3 is reduced to enable to increase the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw. To the contrary, by reducing the diameter of the cylindrical cut out portion 7 or depth, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3 can be reduced. Further, by changing the configuration (width, depth etc.) of the groove 9 in communication with the inner circumferential surface of the retainer and the groove 10 in communication with the periphery surface portion provided on the circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion 7 too, it is possible to control the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3. Concretely, if the widths of each of the grooves 9 and 10 is increased, a reduction of the thickness of the material to support the proximal portion of the claw 3 is generated, and the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3 is increased. To the contrary, by reducing the depth or width of each of the grooves 9 or 10, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw 3 can be decreased. As mentioned above, by optimizing the force necessary to push and widen the pair of claws 3, it becomes possible to avoid the ball 11 being damaged, as a result, the yield rate of the productivity of the ball bearing can be increased. For reference, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claws 3, 3 is adapted to be controlled within the extent .where the ball 11 is not fallen out from a pocket 2 unintentionally. In addition, the cylindrical cut out portion 7 functions as a grease reservoir too. And, the grease sealed in the cut out portion 7 is flown to the inner and outer races by a centrifugal operation at the time of rotation of the bearing retainer 6 with the ball 11, which makes the rolling resistance reduced to contribute to increase the durability of the ball bearing. For reference, the flowing amount of the grease from the cylindrical cut out portion 7 to the inner and outer races had better been in much amount in order to make an initial lubricating function of the ball bearing improved. However, if such amount becomes surplus, an influence due to the grease being sound around the bearing is increased, which causes to increase an averaged value and a change of the torque of the bearing at an initial stage. In this embodiment, in consideration of a viscosity of the grease and a necessary amount of sealed grease, the supplying amount of the grease to the inner race side of the ball bearing can be controlled by regulating the flowing resistance of the grease being flown from the cylindrical cut out portion 7 appropriately, while changing the diameter and the depth of the cylindrical cut out portion 7, the diameter and height of the columnar projection 8 and the configuration of the grooves 9 and 10 and so on. Further, the supplying amount of the grease from the cylindrical cut out portion 7 to the inner circumferential surface of the retainer, that is, the grease supplying amount to the inner race of the ball bearing is controlled intentionally by making the sectional area of the groove 10 in communication with the periphery surface of the retainer greater than the one of the groove 9 in communication with the inner circumferential surface of the retainer, whereby the grease is prevented from being flown to the inner race side of the ball bearing in much amount at the initial period. Further, a desired amount of the grease can be securely supplied from the cylindrical cut out portion 7 to the outer race of the ball bearing by making the width of the groove 10 in communication with the periphery surface of the retainer widened as it approaches the periphery surface as a funnel shape. Since the present invention is structured as described above, the following effects are expected. First, in the assembling process of the ball bearing, at the time of coupling the ball with the pocket of the bearing retainer, any occurrence of damaging the ball can be avoided to increase the yield. According to present invention, the freedom of the resilient deformation of the claw can be controlled. Further, in accordance with the viscosity of the grease and the necessary amount to be sealed, the supplying amount of the grease can be freely controlled. The supplying amount of the grease to the inner race side can be controlled. Further according to the present invention, the working process of the grease sealing is made to be simple and secure x can be controlled, and the supply of the desirable amount of the grease in the inner and outer race sides of the ball bearing can be carried out securely.

Claims: A bearing retainer (6) made of a resin which has a plurality of pockets (2) disposed at a given spacing each of which is provided with a pair of claws (3) to prevent a ball (11) from removing, wherein a cut out portion (7) to control the resilient deformation of the claw (3) is formed between the adjacent pairs of claws (3), characterized in that the cut out portion (7) is formed cylindrical, in that at a central portion of the cut out portion (7) a columnar projection (8) is provided and in that on a circumferential wall of the cut out portion a groove (9) in communication with an inner circumferential surface of the retainer (6) and a groove (10) in communication with a periphery surface of the retainer (6) are provided. A bearing retainer (6) according to Claim 1, wherein a sectional area of the groove (10) formed between the circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion (7) and the periphery surface of the retainer (6) is greater than the sectional area of the groove (9) formed between the circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion (7) and the inner circumferential surface of the retainer (6). A bearing retainer according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the width of the groove (10) formed between the circumferential surface of the cylindrical cut out portion (7) and periphery surface of the retainer (6) is made to be widened as the groove (10) approaches the periphery surface of the retainer (6).

Inventors: FURUKOSHI AKIMI, KOYAMA TOSHISADA, YAJIMA HIROYUKI, FURUKOSHI, AKIMI, KOYAMA, TOSHISADA, YAJIMA, HIROYUKI, Furukoshi, Akimi, Karuizawa Manufacturing Unit, Koyama, Toshisada, Karuizawa Manufacturing Unit, Yajima, Hiroyuki, Karuizawa Manufacturing Unit
Applicants: MINEBEA KK, MINEBEA CO., LTD.
Application year: 2000
Main classification: F16C33
IPC codes: F16C33