Sealing Mechanism for Bearings

This invention relates to a sealing mechanism for bearings of reciprocating or revolving shafts.

For bearings, especially in the steel making industry for bearings of revolving rolls equipped for elongators and continuous casting machines, a sufficient lubricating effect is required, and for this purpose oil seals of elastic material have been used as being ringedly interposed between an outer hausing and a shaft. The oil seals of an ordinary type found in the prior art are installed in a special accompanying tool by hammering or pressing. Such a manner of installation, however, not only requires a considerable numbers of operations but also often develops machine troubles. Moreover, the oil seals installed in such a manner are very difficult to remove, and thus unable to reuse.

It has been proposed to adhere a metallic shell to an elastic oil seal for more stable installation. However, when such a prior art oil seal is used for bearings provided for elongators which will be subjected to high temperature conditions, adhesive property of a bonding agent is decreased or denatured so that the oil seal portion and the metallic shell might be separated from each other.

In operation of elongators and continuous casting machines, generated dust, earth, sand, scale, cooling water and the other foreign materials will often enter the bearing portion and thus affecting its lubricating property. Although many attempts have been made for establishing sealing mechanism which prevents the entry of the harmful materials, satisfactory results have not been shown.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved sealing mechanism for bearings of reciprocating or revolving shafts, which eliminates defects and disadvantages inherent in the prior art sealing mechanism.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel oil seal which completely prevents leakage of lubricating oil from bearings.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an oil seal which is easy for installation and removal without being damaged and thus reusable for many times as it is.

Yet still another object of the invention is to provide an oil seal which effectively follows up swinging and eccentricity of shafts.

Yet still another object of the invention is to provide a novel sealing mechanism which will also prevent the entry of harmful materials into bearings, thereby protecting the bearings.

The foregoing and other objects as well as the characteristic features of the invention will be more easily understood by the following description and the appended claims when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a sealing mechanism for bearings embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, showing an oil seal member shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view, on an enlarged scale and partly in section, showing the oil seal member;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, showing a dust seal member shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a front view, on an enlarged scale and partly in section, showing the dust seal member.

Referring specifically to FIG. 1, a bearing 12 is provided within a cylindrical housing 11 through which a rotating shaft 10a of a roll 10 extends concentrically therewith. On both sides of the bearing 12, a pair of ringed oil seals 1 are symmetrically provided within the housing 11 and surround the rotating shaft 10a.

The oil seal 1 made of elastic material such as rubber and synthetic resin has an unique configulation as shown in FIG. 2. More particularly, the oil seal 1 has substantially a plain outer surface 4 which provides a sufficient contact area with an inner surface of the housing 11, whereas an inner surface of the oil seal 1 is provided with two lips 5 and 7 which will contact with the shaft 10a. One of the lip 5 provided near the bearing 12 is an oil sealing lip and preferably formed as a W-lip as shown which makes it possible to retain a lubricating oil in a groove 6 for reducing wear resistance to the shaft 10a. The other lip 7 will mainly prevents the entry of dust, water and the other harmful materials into the bearing 12 and also strengthen the oil sealing effect. An annular surface of the oil seal 1 of a side facing the bearing 12 has a V-shaped annular groove 2 which is inwardly cut out to a depth greater than half a width of the oil seal 1. The other side of an annular surface of the oil seal is provided with a W-shaped annular groove 8 which cooperate with the V-shaped groove to form a narrow expansion part 9, thus the oil seal 1 is very much flexible especially in a radial direction.

Reference numeral 3 identifies a prop ring made of steel wire, for example. The prop ring 3 is buried in and extends through the oil seal 1 just beneath the outer surface 4, as viewed in FIG. 2. The prop ring 3 is partly cut out at 3a so that its elasticity will provide a radially outwardly directed force without loosening, resulting in that a constant pressing of the oil seal 1 to the housing 11 by means of the prop ring 3 eliminates leakage of any material.

The V-shaped groove 2 has preferably a radially outwardly gouged portion 14 positioned just above the oil sealing lip 5, and a partially cut-out elastic ring 13 providing a radially inwardly directed force may be additionally set to improve oil-sealing effect of the lip 5.

As hereinbefore described the expansion part 9 will provide a radially directed flexibility, which not only makes it possible to effectively absorb swinging and offcentering of the shaft 10a while maintaining a sufficient oil sealing effect, but also makes it easy to install the oil seal 1 within a definite space between the housing 11 and the shaft 10a by hand or by using a mallet and to remove it with a lever or the like. In operation of installation and removal the oil seal 1 of the invention will not break down or will not damage the shaft 10a, the housing 11 and the bearing 12 and is thus reusable as it is.

Since the prop ring 3 is fully surrounded by the elastic material of the oil seal, the oil seal of the invention can provide the maximum heat resistance that the material possesses. Unlike the conventional oil seals of a type using an adhesive (its maximum heat resistance is about 180.degree. C.), the oil seal of the invention can be used under a high temperature condition, namely about 200.degree.-230.degree. C., even in which case the oil seal of the invention offers less bore expansion and outer diameter shrinkage, and no possibility for oil leakage. This fact also means that a secondary valcanization (at 200.degree. C. for 24 hours, for example) can be applied to the material of the oil seal of the invention for the purpose of eliminating compression set of rubber.

A pair of guard rings 18 may be provided so as to position the oil seal 1 between the guard ring and the bearing 12 for preventing cracking or turning-over of the oil seal that might be caused by high oil pressure, resulting in higher pressure resistance of the oil seal 1.

The sealing mechanism according to the invention preferably includes additionally a ringed dust seal 15. Thus, the dust seal 15 is received within a space between the housing 11 and the shaft 10a and positioned back to back with one of the oil seal 1, and thus faces a roll neck 10b for preventing the entry of dust, water, scale or any other harmful material from the roll neck 10b into the bearing portion. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the dust seal 15 has configulation and structure substantially similar to those of the oil seal 1 hereinbefore described in detail. More particularly, the dust seal 15 has a plain outer surface and a prop ring 18 partially cut out at 18a, which corresponds to the elements of the oil seal 1 designated by numerals 4, 3 and 3b, respectively. An annular surface of the dust seal 15 of a side facing the roll neck 10b has a V-shaped annular groove 16 which is inwardly cut out to a depth greater than half a width of the dust seal 15, and namely which is provided in substantially the same manner as the groove 2 of the oil seal 1. Beneath the V-shaped groove 16, the dust seal 15 has an obliquely projecting dust lip 17 for sealing the entry of harmful materials. Since functions and advantages of various elements of the dust seal 15 resemble those of corresponding elements of the oil seal 1, they are not repeated hereby.

Although the invention has been shown and described in terms of preferred embodiments thereof, it should be understood that many changes and modifications will be obvious to one skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.