This application claims priority to German patent application no. 10 2018 221 324.0 filed on Dec. 10, 2018, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference.
The disclosure is directed to a rolling-element bearing unit having at least one sensor unit.
A rolling-element bearing unit including a sensor unit is known, which sensor unit is disposed on a rolling-element bearing of the rolling-element bearing unit.
An aspect of the disclosure relates to providing a rolling-element bearing unit of the above-described type having increased efficiency.
The disclosure emanates from a rolling-element bearing unit including at least one sensor unit.
The disclosed sensor unit is disposed axially between two rolling-element rows of the rolling-element bearing unit. That the “sensor unit is axially disposed between two rolling-element rows of the rolling-element bearing unit” is to be understood in particular to mean that the sensor unit is disposed in a spatial region whose boundaries are defined by two planes that both exclusively have surface-extension directions that are perpendicular to an axial direction of the rolling-element bearing unit, wherein the planes contact mutually facing ends of the rolling-element rows. According to the disclosure an increased efficiency can be achieved. In particular the sensor unit can measure at a point at which high-quality measurement results are achievable. Furthermore in particular installation space can be used efficiently.
Further advantages arise from the following description of the drawings. An exemplary embodiment of the invention is depicted in the drawings. The drawings, the description, and the claims contain numerous features in combination. The person skilled in the art will also advantageously consider the features individually and combine them into further meaningful combinations.
The sensor unit 10 is disposed on a circuit board 18 of the rolling-element bearing unit and attached thereto. Furthermore the rolling-element bearing unit includes a radio unit 24 and an energy-supply unit 26 configured as a battery; they are also disposed on the circuit board 18 and attached thereto. The sensor unit 10, the radio unit 24, and the energy-supply unit 26 are electrically connected to one another by the circuit board 18. Measurement results achieved by the sensor unit are transmitted from the radio unit 24 to a receiver (not illustrated) outside the rolling-element bearing unit and can be further processed there.
The sensor unit 10, the radio unit 24, the energy-supply unit 26, and the circuit board 18 are encapsulated such that they are protected from oil. The circuit board 18 is directly connected to the inner rings 22, 23 and also attached thereto. The circuit board 18 is curved (
The rolling-element bearing unit and the receiver can be part of a truck, of an automobile, or of a rail vehicle.
In an alternative exemplary embodiment the circuit board 18 is not directly attached to the inner rings 22, 23 but to a ring 19 that is attached to a small ring or to both inner rings 22, 23 and can press a seal onto a gap between the inner rings. Due to this attaching the sensor unit is also attached to the respective ring.
In a further alternative exemplary embodiment the sensor unit, the radio unit, and the energy-supply unit are not disposed on a circuit board, but rather separately disposed on the inner ring and electrically connected by cables.
Representative, non-limiting examples of the present invention were described above in detail with reference to the attached drawings. This detailed description is merely intended to teach a person of skill in the art further details for practicing preferred aspects of the present teachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Furthermore, each of the additional features and teachings disclosed above may be utilized separately or in conjunction with other features and teachings to provide improved rolling-element bearing units.
Moreover, combinations of features and steps disclosed in the above detailed description may not be necessary to practice the invention in the broadest sense, and are instead taught merely to particularly describe representative examples of the invention. Furthermore, various features of the above-described representative examples, as well as the various independent and dependent claims below, may be combined in ways that are not specifically and explicitly enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodiments of the present teachings.
All features disclosed in the description and/or the claims are intended to be disclosed separately and independently from each other for the purpose of original written disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter, independent of the compositions of the features in the embodiments and/or the claims. In addition, all value ranges or indications of groups of entities are intended to disclose every possible intermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of original written disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102018221324.0 | Dec 2018 | DE | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20200182303 A1 | Jun 2020 | US |