BEARING SYSTEM WITH LUBRICATED EXCLUSION SEAL

摘要

A bearing system includes a bearing housing configured to house a bearing and enclosing a free volume for receiving a lubricant, a bearing, a pump configured to pump lubricant into the free volume, a shaft in an opening in the housing rotatably supported by the bearing, an exclusion seal between the shaft opening and the shaft that is repeatably and non-destructively shiftable from a sealing state in which it substantially prevents lubricant from leaving the free volume and a release state in which it allows lubricant to escape between the exclusion seal and the shaft. The exclusion seal is caused to shift by increasing and decreasing a pressure in the bearing housing, and the system includes a controller configured to repeatedly shift the exclusion seal by raising and lowering the pressure in the free volume to continuously maintain a lubricating film between the exclusion seal and the shaft.

主权项

1. A bearing system comprising:
a bearing housing configured to house a bearing, the bearing housing enclosing a free volume for receiving a lubricant and including a shaft opening; a bearing in the bearing housing; a pump configured to pump lubricant into the free volume; a shaft in the shaft opening and rotatably supported by the bearing; an exclusion seal between the shaft opening and the shaft, the exclusion seal being repeatably and non-destructively shiftable from a sealing state in which the exclusion seal substantially prevents lubricant from leaving the free volume and a release state in which the exclusion seal allows lubricant to escape between the exclusion seal and the shaft, the exclusion seal being shiftable from the sealing state to the release state by increasing a pressure in the bearing housing to above a first level and being shiftable from the release state to the sealing state by decreasing the pressure to below the first level; and a controller configured to repeatedly shift the exclusion seal between the sealing state and the release state by raising and lowering the pressure in the free volume to continuously maintain a lubricating film of the lubricant between the exclusion seal and the shaft.