Patent ID: 8393310

Claim:
A mass balancing mechanism for compensating mass forces and/or mass moments of inertia of an internal combustion engine, the mass balancing mechanism comprising a compensation shaft including a tubular carrier shaft comprising on an outer periphery, a mounting point for radial mounting of the compensation shaft in the internal combustion engine, an unbalanced mass which is connected to the carrier shaft and joined to the carrier shaft on a connecting section of the carrier shaft extending laterally of the mounting point, a needle roller bearing for a radial rolling bearing-mounting of the compensation shaft, needle rollers of the needle roller bearing being in rolling contact with the mounting point which is configured as an inner raceway, the inner raceway has a width which is variable in a peripheral direction, so that, in a region situated diametrically opposite a load zone in whose peripheral region the inner raceway is loaded by a radial load of the unbalanced mass which rotates together with the compensation shaft, a width of the inner raceway is smaller than a length of the needle rollers and tapers or is interrupted in the peripheral direction, the taper or interruption of the inner raceway comprising one or more trough-shaped depressions formed locally in the carrier shaft.