Appliance for Distributing Lubricating Material to the Bearings of Shafts.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 29th J.n., 1895-Accepted, 2nd Mar, 1895
[Communicated from abroad by THE GASMOTOREN FABRIK DEUTZ, of Koeln-
Deutz, Germany, Manufacturers.]
Appliance for Distributing Lubricating Material to the Bearings
of Shafts.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane, in the County. of London, Consulting Engineer and Chartered Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
When it is desired to supply several bearings on a length of shafting by means
of a central boring of the shaft communicating at one end with a vessel containing
lubricant, and by lateral channels at intermediate points with the several bearings
to be lubricated, it is difficult to insure the uniform distribution of the lubricant
to the several bearings, as on forcing the lubricant into the central boring the
greater portion will pass through the lateral passage leading to the bearing which
is nearest the supply, while little or no lubricant will pass to the other bearings, as
the frictional resistance to the flow of the lubricant on its passage to the first
bearing is much less than the resistance to its flow to the other bearings.
Although this difficulty can of course be obviated in certain cases by providing
each bearing with its own supply of lubricant yet in many cases, such as where the
several bearings are inaccessible, or where there is no room for fixing lubricating
vessels, this is not possible.
The present invention has for its object to overcome the above mentioned
difficulty, and insure a uniform distribution of the lubricant from a single lubricating
vessel at one end of the shaft to several bearings along the same.
For this
purpose the lubricating vessel has attached to it a tube of smaller external
diameter than the internal diameter of the bore of the shaft into which it is
inserted and along which it extends to any required distance.
This tube is so arranged relatively to the lateral channels leading to the several
bearings, that for gaining access to the bearing farthest from the supply the
lubricant can flow through the full bere of the shaft while for gaining access to
the other bearing or bearings, it has to flow through a certain length of the annular
space between the tube and the bore, so that by this means the resistance to the
flow of the lubricant can be rendered approximately equal for all the bearings.
The accompanying drawing shews by way of example a part longitudinal section
of a shaft g with the said invention applied thereto; the shaft has a central bore k,
having three lateral channels h, c, d, leading respectively to the bearings lef. Into
the bore k is introduced a tube 6 of somewhat smaller diameter, to the outer end
of which is attached the vessel a containing the lubricant. Assuming in the first
instance that it were only required to lubricate the bearings e and fand that there
were no hole such as i in the tube b, then one portion of the lubricant issuing from
the open inner end of the tube at n would pass onward through the full bore k to
the channel d leading to the bearing, while another portion would pass backward
from the tube in the annular space between this and the bore to the channel c
leading to e. The proportion in which the lubricant would be so distributed would
depend upon the relative degree of frictional resistance which it has to overcome
in travelling to the one channel and to the other, i.e. in the passage from n to d in
the bore k, and in the passage from n to c in the annular channel between k and b.

page_text: By experiment it could easily be ascertained what the proportions of those channels
should be to insure an equal resistance in either case, and consequently a uniform
supply of lubricant to the two bearings. If in addition to the bearings e and f,
there be a third bearing an equal supply of lubricant to this bearing can also be
insured without interfering with that of the other two, by forming a lateral hole i
in tube b at a certain distance from the lubricating channel h. Thus the lubricant
flowing along will at i pass partly through the hole i, and partly onward to the
channels c and d and bearings e and f, that issuing through i being made to pass
backward along the annular channel between and to the channel h and
bearing 1.
The proportion of lubricant that is delivered to the latter will depend upon the
frictional resistance which it has to overcome in travelling along the annular
passage from ito h, and consequently, by properly determining the position and
size of the hole i, the said resistance can be so proportioned as to insure a supply
of lubricant to the bearing 1, equal to that to the other bearings.
The ring m inserted between the tube 6 and the bore k serves both to hold the
tube centrally and to prevent the lubricant from flowing from i towards the
channel c.
If the bearings are situated at a greater distance from each other, the ring would
be unnecessary for the last named purpose.
Ji
It is therefore a characteristic feature of this means of lubricating, that the
lubricant is subjected to a throttling action in the narrow annular channel between
the tube and bore k, along the distance for the bearing e and along the distance y
for the bearing. It will be seen that it is necessary to make the distance y
greater than as the lubricant flowing to e is subject to additional resistance in
flowing from i to n, and consequently more lubricant would be supplied to I than
to e if x and y were made equal.
From the above it will also be seen that the method of supplying the bearing
through a side opening i can be applied to any desired number of bearings if the
tube is of considerable length, the distances y from the several lubricating
channels to their respective side holes being made proportionately less the farther
they are away from the point of entrance of the lubricant.
The condition of subjecting the lubricant to a greater degree of throttling along
the distance y than along a might also be fulfilled by making the annular sectional
area at y smaller than that at, the tube b, being made of different diameters for
this purpose.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. An appliance for effecting the uniform supply of lubricating material to the
bearings of a shaft through a central bore thereof, consisting of a tube such as b
introduced into such bore, to the outer end of which tube the vessel containing the
lubricant is attached, and which is so arranged that while the most distant bearing
is supplied directly from the full bore of the shaft, the intermediate bearing or
bearings is or are supplied from a restricted annular channel formed between the
said tube and the bore of the shaft, substantially as described.
2. In the appliance for lubricating the bearings of shafts referred to in the
preceding claim, forming one or more lateral holes in the tube for the issue of
the lubricant in cases where several bearings have to be supplied from the annular
passage between the bore of the shaft and the tube, substantially as described.
Dated this 29th day of January 1895.
ABEL & IMRAY;
Agents for Applicant.