Controlled replenishing lubrication system

Claim 1

A controlled replenishing bearing lubrication system comprising: a) rolling element bearing means (36) having relatively rotatable inner (16) and outer (22) races defining a raceway therebetween; b) a plurality of lubricated rolling elements (18) moveable in said raceway in response to relative rotational movement between said inner and outer races; c) rolling element retainer means (20) moveable with said rolling elements (18); characterized by d) sensing means (32,34,37,38,48,50,33) responsive to the relative movement of the retainer means (20) and a rotatable race (16 or 22) for providing signals representative of changes in the lubricant film thickness; and e) control means (54,52,53) responsive to said signals for maintaining a desired lubricant film thickness.

Claim 6

The system of one of the preceding claims, charac­terized by said sensing means including display means (74a) responsive to said signals for providing a display representative of the lubricant film thickness.

Claim 7

The system according to one of the preceding claims comprising a bearing housing (12) and a shaft (14) connected to the rotatable race (16), characterized in that a) the retainer has a first light reflective indicia (50) moving therewith; b) the shaft has a second light reflective indicia (38) moving therewith; c) the sensing means (32) is mounted adjacent the housing (12) for emitting light toward said first and second indicia and for sensing variations in reflection of said light, and the control means (52,54) are responsive to said variations.

Claim 10

The system according to one of the claims 6 to 8, characterized by a) first buffer means (62) coupled to said sensing means (32) for receiving pulses responsive to shaft speed and for generating shaft pulses; b) second buffer means (64) coupled to said sensing means (32) for receiving pulses responsive to retainer speed and for generating reatiner pulses; c) first counter means (66) coupled for summing the shaft pulses and, in response to a preset number of shaft pulses being summed, the first counter means generates a counter output pulse; d) second (68) and third (70) counter means coupled for receiving the first counter output pulse, the third counter means (70) also summing retainer pulses, the third counter means being stopped by the counter output pulse of the first counter means; and e) comparator (72) means coupled for receiving a signal from the third counter means, the comparator means coupled to a pump actuator counter (76) and a pump relay (78), the comparator means comparing the signal received with a preset standard whereby, when the retainer pulses are less than the preset standard the comparator means is reset and, when the retainer pulses are greater than the preset standard, the comparator means generates a pump output pulse to the pump actuator counter, and when the pump actuator counter accumulates a preset number of pump output pulses, a pump actuation signal is generated to the pump relay.