Vehicle mounted bearing assembly
First Claim
1. A vehicle mounted bearing assembly, operable to rotatably support a vehicle wheel relative to a vehicle body structure, which comprises:
- an outer member having an inner peripheral surface formed with at least two axially spaced apart raceways;
an inner member positioned inside the outer member and having raceways defined therein in cooperative relation with and in alignment with the raceways in the outer member;
rows of rolling elements positioned within an annular space, delimited between the inner and outer members, and accommodated in part within the raceways in the outer member and in part within the raceways in the inner member;
a rotation detecting sensor for detecting a relative rotation between the outer and inner members;
at least one status detecting sensor for detecting a status of the bearing assembly other than the relative rotation that is detected by the rotation detecting sensor; and
a transmitting device for transmitting wireless respective sensor outputs generated by the rotation detecting sensor and the status detecting sensor.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
To enhance a detecting capability for monitoring a bearing assembly and also to minimize complication of the structure resulting from increase in functionality, a vehicle mounted bearing assembly 51 includes inner and outer members 2 and 1 with rows of rolling elements 3 operatively interposed between the inner and outer members 2 and 1, and a rotation detecting sensor 4. A sensor output from the rotation detecting sensor 4 is digitalized by a digitalizing unit 101 and is subsequently transmitted wireless by a transmitting unit 105. One or both of status detecting sensors 52, 53 for detecting different statuses of the bearing assembly 51 other than rotation such as temperature and vibration occurring in the bearing assembly 51 may be additionally employed. A signal coordinating unit 104 may also be used for coordinating the respective sensor outputs from the rotation detecting sensor and the status detecting sensors to enable those sensor outputs to be transmitted wireless by the transmitting unit 105.
47 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A vehicle mounted bearing assembly, operable to rotatably support a vehicle wheel relative to a vehicle body structure, which comprises:
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an outer member having an inner peripheral surface formed with at least two axially spaced apart raceways;
an inner member positioned inside the outer member and having raceways defined therein in cooperative relation with and in alignment with the raceways in the outer member;
rows of rolling elements positioned within an annular space, delimited between the inner and outer members, and accommodated in part within the raceways in the outer member and in part within the raceways in the inner member;
a rotation detecting sensor for detecting a relative rotation between the outer and inner members;
at least one status detecting sensor for detecting a status of the bearing assembly other than the relative rotation that is detected by the rotation detecting sensor; and
a transmitting device for transmitting wireless respective sensor outputs generated by the rotation detecting sensor and the status detecting sensor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A vehicle mounted bearing assembly which comprises:
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an outer member having an inner peripheral surface formed with at least two axially spaced apart raceways;
an inner member positioned inside the outer member and having raceways defined therein in cooperative relation with and in alignment with the raceways in the outer member;
rows of rolling elements positioned within an annular space, delimited between the inner and outer members, and accommodated in part within the raceways in the outer member and in part within the raceways in the inner member;
a rotation detecting sensor for detecting a relative rotation between the outer and inner members;
a digitalizing device for digitalizing a sensor output from the rotation detecting sensor; and
a transmitting device for transmitting wireless the sensor output which has been generated by the rotation detecting sensor and subsequently digitalized by the digitalizing device. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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Specification