Means for lubricating the roll neck/sleeve interface of an oil film bearing

Claim 1

In an oil film bearing for a roll neck in a rolling mill, wherein a sleeve with a tapered bore is mounted on a tapered section of the roll neck for rotation therewith, the sleeve being journalled in a non-rotatable bushing contained in a bearing chock, with a hydrodynamic film of high pressure oil being maintained during rolling between the sleeve and bushing at the bearing load zone while approximately atmospheric pressure prevails between the sleeve and bushing in the unloaded zone opposite to the load zone, and with a portion of said high pressure oil being conducted from the bearing load zone to the roll neck/sleeve interface via feed holes extending radially through the sleeve into a plurality of primary grooves which extend longitudinally in the direction of the sleeve axis and which are circumferentially spaced around the sleeve bore, the improvement comprising: a plurality of secondary grooves in the sleeve bore intersperced between the primary grooves; and, connecting grooves in the sleeve bore for supplying oil from the primary grooves to the secondary grooves, said connecting grooves extending transversely between and being in communication at opposite ends respectively with adjacent primary and secondary grooves, with the interconnected primary, secondary and connecting grooves forming a plurality of discrete circumferentially isolated groove networks which are sequentially charged with high pressure oil as each rotates through the bearing load zone, said connecting grooves being adapted to maintain a pressure differential opposing an exiting flow therethrough of oil from the secondary grooves as a result of centrifugal force acting on the oil in the groove network rotating through said unloaded zone.