Adjustable Bearings for Propellor Shafts and other Sleeve Bearings.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd July, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 2nd Apr., 1896-Accepted, 27th June. 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Adjustable Bearings for Propellor Shafts and other Sleeve
Bearings.
EDWARD AUGUSTUS SANDFORD and HORATIO SANDFORD (trading as E. A. &
H. Sandford) Engineers, Thames Iron Works, Gravesend, Kent, England do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
An adjustable bearing, and it is particularly suitable for screw steamers propellor
shaft outer end bush, by this invention and design of an angular stern tube and the
wedges being in contact with separate bearing strips the wear of horizontal or
vertical shafts can be adjusted, and for this particular purpose namely stern tubes
submerged in water, enables the man in charge of engines to adjust the bearing
whilst the shaft rotates without the removal of any machinery, or the vessel being
placed in dry dock or the tube out of water. This invention will be constructed as
follows The stern tube will be made of cast iron or other suitable material, and
the onter end of stern tube will be made with an annular space round tube. The
inner circle will contain a suitable number of projections inade the length of the
bearing.
These projections may also be made moveable by means of a bolt and nut, and in
the spaces between the said projections will be adjustable strips of white metal, gun
metal, phosphor bronze or other suitable material one bearing strip to each space,
formed by the said projections. The strips will be the length of the bearing and
bored to fit shaft. The strips will be made with rabited edges and will be fitted to
the recesses formed by the projections in the inner circle, and to each strip will be
fitted a wedge backing piece, and into the recess of the said bearing strips will be
fitted one and into wedges of any suitable material to each backing the wedges will
be secured together with a rod, which rod will be carried through the annular
space and extend through the stern tube, and then have a suitable thread or screw,
and by revolving the screwed rod or nut attached to the wedges (as one wedge) can
be drawn backward or forward and by this movement the adjusting wedge will
either raise or lower bearing strip, and by the adjustment of the whole of the.
bearing strips, it will form a close filling bearing or sleeve to the revolving shaft,
and were due to the shape of the vessel it may be desirable, the said rods with
their screwed ends will pass through the ioner flange of the stern tube, and then fit
stern tube with a stuffing box and gland to prevent the water from passing into
vessel, and the adjusting screwed rods, fitted to the stuffing box gland, and by
turning (revolving) the said screwed rods the wedges will be moved and the bearing
strips raised or lowered. By either of these described' arrangements the bearing
can be adjusted whilst the shaft is revolving. The stuffing boxes and glands will
be attached to the stern tube at any suitable position according to the shape of the
vessel, and for the convenient adjustment of the bearing.

page_text: Adjustable Bearings for Propellor Shafts and other Sleeve
Bearings.
We EDWARD AUGUSTUS SANDFORD and HORATIO SANDFORD, trading as
E. A. and H. Sandford, Engineers of Thames Iron Works, Gravesend, Kent,
England, 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 :-
This invention is intended to provide means for compensating for the wear of sleeve
bearings and more especially of the outer end bush of a screw propeller shaft stern
tube of steamships, and it consists in the improved construction and means for
adjustment hereinafter described.
The invention consists in forming the sleeve or bearing of an outer wall carrying
a number of inwardly projecting ribs parallel with its axis, forming between such
ribs chambers in which are placed bearing strips movable to and from the axis
each strip forming a wedge or resting on a backing piece, the outer face of which
forms a wedge or wedges resting against a corresponding wedge or wedges to which
end wise movement may be given for adjusting the strips.
In the case of a horizontal sleeve or bearing in which the under part is exposed
to wear while the upper part suffers little or no wear, it will be necessary only to
provide the above construction for the lower part of the bearing.
In order to give end wise movement to the aforesaid wedges, screw-threaded or
other rods may engage with female screw threads therein or otherwise therewith
and may be carried parallel with the axis of the bearing to the one or other or
both ends thereof in order that the wedges may be adjusted from the exterior of
the bearing, for instance where a stern-tube is concerned, from either the interior
end or the exterior end; the bearing being adjustable in the first case from inside
the vessel during the revolution of the shaft if desired, and in the second case from
outside the vessel when the latter is in dry-dock.
The annexed drawings illustrate this invention as applied to the stern-tube of a
screw steamship; Fig. 1 being a longitudinal section of one form of the con-
struction, Figs. 2 and 3 end views thereof, Fig. 4 a cross section; Fig. 5 a
longitudinal section, Figs. 6 and 7 end views and Fig. 8 a cross-section of another
form of construction. Fig. 9 is a longitudinal section, Figs. 10 and 11 end views
and Fig. 12 a cross section of another form of construction.
Referring to Figs. 1 to 4 the stern tube consists of the inner tube A and the
outer tube B which may be made in one piece with tube A or separately so as to
leave between the two tubes a space which is annular when adjustment is required
all round the circumference of the bearing but may be crescent shaped when
adjustment is only required around about half of the circumference as illustrated.
Webs D extend from the inner to the outer tube for the requisite distance from
the outer end of the stern-tube, in order to form chambers C opening longitudinally
into the inner tube A to house the bearing strips and wedges. Suitable shoulders
are made on the webs D or otherwise as at d on which bear the outer flat faces of
the sliding wedges E. The inner faces of these wedges are made with a series of
inclined faces as at e to bear against equivalent inclined faces on the counter
wedges F the interior faces of which are plane and support the bearing strips G
which may be made of white metal, gun-metal, lignum vitæ or any other suitable
material and are intended to have contact with the shaft revolving in the bearing.
The bearing strips are preferably rebated or provided with outwardly projecting
flanges as at g to house the wedges E and counter wedges F.
It will be obvious from this construction that by endwise movement of the
wedges E the bearing strips are either forced towards the axis of the bearing or

page_text: are suffered to recede therefrom according to the direction of movement of the
wedges.
This movement is, in this example of the invention, performed from the inner
end of the stern tube by means of the rods J attached to the wedges E and
adjustable longitudinally by means of nuts such as 1, engaging on each rod, one
on each side, of the stationary flange L through which it passes. Such flange may
be the flange of a stuffing-box L' at the inner end of the stern tube, the said box.
having a gland L. L³ are stuffing boxes or bushes through which the rods J pass..
In this example of the invention the bearing may be adjusted without
removal of any part and while the machinery is in motion and the vessel in the
water.
Figs. 5 to 8 illustrate a form of stern tube and parts in which the wedges are
adjusted by a rotary movement of the rods J which are screw-threaded to engage
with female threads in the wedges E. In this example also the wedges are divided
transversely and the two parts of each wedge are movable in inverse directions,
such movement being provided for by right and left handed screw threads on the
rods J as at H H¹ respectively engaging with corresponding female threads in the
two parts of each wedge. These figures also illustrate the method of dispensing
with the counter wedges F by forming the undersides of the strips G so that they
act as counter wedges. The rods J being prolonged through the exterior end of
the stern tube are also adjustable from outside, for instance when the vessel is in
dry-dock.
•
In the example shown in Figs. 9 to 12 the encasement of the inner tube A by an
outer tube B is confined to that part near the outer end of the stern-tube where the
adjustable bearing strips are situated.
The shoulders d are replaced by the floors of the chambers C on which the
wedges E run, and the rods J traverse the wedges with which they engage by
screw threads, the rods being in this example adjustable from outside the
stern-post.
Having now. particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. An adjustable bearing comprising an exterior casing having interiorly
projecting webs forming chambers parallel with the axis of the bearing in
combination with bearing strips in said chambers, and wedges adapted to be moved
longitudinally in said chambers for the adjustment of said bearing strips for the
purpose set forth.
2. A stern tube bearing comprising an exterior casing formed with interior webs
to constitute chambers in the lower part of said casing substantially as set forth
and illustrated, bearing strips in said chambers and wedges with or without corre-
sponding counter wedges adapted to adjust the bearing strips and to be themselves
moved from the exterior of the stern tube for the purpose set forth.
3. The construction Substantially as illustrated and described of a stern tube
bearing with means for adjusting the bearing strips from the exterior of the tube
from inside or outside the vessel as herein before set forth.
Dated this 2nd day of April 1896.
HERBERT HADDAN & Co.,
18 Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C.,
Agents to Applicants.