Patent ID: 7090405

Claim:
A tapered roller bearing comprising: an outer ring having a conical raceway; a steel inner ring having a conical raceway and having a large rib surface on a large diameter side of said conical raceway; a plurality of steel tapered rollers rollably arranged between said raceway of said outer ring and said raceway of said inner ring; and a retainer for keeping said tapered rollers circumferentially spaced apart a predetermined distance from each other; said large rib surface of said inner ring having: a conical surface for contacting large end faces of said tapered rollers; a flank smoothly connected to said conical surface and curving away from said large end faces of said tapered rollers; and a chamfer connected to a radially outer edge of said flank, wherein a degree of curvature of said large rib surface changes from said flank to said chamfer; said large rib surface being shaped such that a boundary between said conical surface and said flank is located at an outer edge of a maximum contact oval formed by the contact between said large end face of each of said tapered rollers and said conical surface of said large rib surface, and such that a wedge-shaped space is defined between said flank and said large end face of each of said tapered rollers, said wedge-shaped space being shaped and arranged to smoothly draw lubricating oil from an outer location to a location between said conical surface and said large end face of each of said tapered rollers so as to at least minimize damage to said large end faces of said tapered rollers if said tapered rollers are skewed relative to said inner ring during operation of said tapered roller bearing.