A controlled-inlet oil pocket with hydraulic-feed piston supplies cool oil to the hydrodynamic pad with fewer parts and a simpler assembly than other directed-lube designs. Result: higher load capacity and efficiency.
The inlet feeds each pad's front edge. Fluid flows radially in and axially up to the cool-oil pocket. In the pocket, cool oil mixes with the hot boundary-layer carryover oil. Optimized mixing geometry at the center one-third of the pad's front edge minimizes local temperatures downstream, near the pad's trailing edge.
The controlled inlet consists of a precavity and hot-oil director that removes some of the hot oil from the previous pad, radially out of the bearing. At its front edge, the wiper sheds some of the boundary fluid to further reduce carryover oil. The reduced boundary layer mixes in the pocket cavity with cool inlet oil before entering the pad.
Jim Ball, Orion Corp., 1111 Cedar Creek Rd., Grafton, WI 53024-0084, PHONE (414) 377-2210.
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