US712254A - Automatic gravity-feed lubricator. - Google Patents

Description

No. 712,254. Patented Oct. 28, [902' v T. n. snown.

AUTOMATIC GRAVITY FEED LUBRIOATDB.

(Application filed Aug. 16, 1901.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS E. BROWN, OF WILMERDING, PENNSYLVANI A,-ASSIGNOR OF TlVO-THIRDS TO WILLIAM C. DALLAS, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, AND J. S. SEELEY AND EDWARD MCVIOKER, OF FRANKLIN, PENNSYL.

VANIA.

AUTOMATlC GRAVITY-FEED LUBRlCATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 712,254, dated October 28, 1902.

Application filed August 16, 1901. Serial No. 72,304. (No morlelJ To all whom it may cor warm Be it known that I, THOMAS R. BROWN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Wilmerding, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Gravity-Feed Lubricators, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

Myinvention relates to lubricators, and has for its objects to provide a dash-feed automatic cut-off oil-cup adapted for use on main rods, driving-shafts, and other movable parts of locomotives and other machinery, provided vention- Fi s. 2 3 and 4 similar views of modified forms of the device.

Referring to the drawings, A, Fig. 1, is the cap or plug of the lubricator, which is pro- 0 3 and with screw-threads to engage the body B of the cup. Seated-in the neck of the body portion below the plug is a strainer S, which is adapted to protect the entrance to the cup from cinders and other foreign matter when theplugisremoved. Extendingdownwardly from the body of the cup, within the same, is a circumferential guide-wall or hood B.

The body B of the cup is preferably made of brass and at its lower end is provided with a screw-threaded flange b, which screws within a corresponding flange on a base portion C. This base is made of malleable iron or crucible-steel in order to obtain sufficient strength. With this difference in metals of he body portion and the base it is possible at, should the shaft become heated and heat e base, owing to the difference in the coefents of expansion of the respective parts,

with means to eifectually catch and retain in vided with a head for engagement by a wrench than the base. To prevent this expansion the body would be caused to expand more 9 from loosening the joint between body and base, the former is screwed within'thebase, as described, whereby on expansion the body would expand against the base, and thereby maintain a tight joint. The stud C of base attachment of the cup to the rod or shaft.

A stem 0 rises from the interior of the base 0 to near the upper part of the cup, where it is provided with a flaring receptacle O, having a reversely-curved lip H. A passage E E is formed in this stem and is continued through the stud C The passage is made larger than necessary for the proper feed in order to provide a range of reduction at F, where the passage is reduced to the size proper to provide "a proper amount of oil. This reduction-check F is purposely located at a distance from the bottom of the cup, so that it cannot be enlarged or tampered with, the opening of. passage E being so small that no ordinary tool can be inserted.

In the inner receptacle and reservoir 0 is placed a valve-ball D, which when the rod and lubricator are at rest is caused by the sloping bottom of the receptacle to roll to the center of the same, and thus close the entrance to the passage E and cut off the feed of oil to the rod. The guide or hood B is adapted to extend down and inclose the ball and serves to limit the movement thereof upon its seat.

The transverse diameter of the body Bis made greater than the height in order to offectually feed out all the oil contained in the cup.

One practical advantage of having. the

O is exteriorly screw-threaded to permit of month of the inner flaring cup 0 open is to prevent clogging, which may occur in cases where cups have small perforations for admission of the oil. With the open mouthfree access to the receptacle is afforded, and a sufficient flow of oilis not only always insured around the dependent hood B, which extends down to the ball when such hood is used, but by the function of the reversed curved lip H such greater supply is retained instead of being thrown out or back into the outer cup, as is apt to be the case with open shallow saucers after the supply in the outer cup has been entirely or nearly exhausted.

The operation of the device is as follows: The agitation of the cup by the movement of the rod will cause the oil to surge and rush over the lip of the receptacle, which offers a much larger surface for catching the oil than the usual plain stem of other devices of this class. The motion also unseats the valveball and permits the oil to enter the passage, whence it will be fed through the tube to the rod or shaft, the reduced portion F serving to check the flow to the required amount. The guide or hood B limits the lateral movement of the ball and can be of such size as to provide an easy rolling motion for the ball when the speed of the rod is not sufficient to lift the ball in a vertical direction away from the seat. This provides a feed of oil when starting the rod. When the engine or other machinery stops, the ball will lodge in the seat over the passage and stop all flow of oil from the receptacle. On the stoppage of the engine it will be found that the inner lip H has prevented the escape of all the oil from the inner cup, which will contain enough oil to lubricate the rod upon starting.

In Fig. 2 a form of lubricator is shown in which in place of the guide B of Fig. 1, made integral with the body of the cup, the plug A is provided with a guide or hood B", which is adapted to fit over and inclose the ballvalve.

In Fig. 3 another form of cup is shown in which a cap or lid G is provided and in which the saucer-receptacle C and a hood or guide B form part of said lid.

In Fig. 4. a form of lubricator is shown especially adapted for rods of slow speeds. The guide or hood to limit the movement of the ball is dispensed with, and the receptacle 0 is made deeper and with a greater angle of slope toward the center than in the other forms. In this construction at slow speeds the ball will roll back and forth more or less from its seat and produce a feeding action similar to that in the devices of Figs. 1 to 3, or when the engine reaches a sufficient speed the ball will hug the sides of the saucer and have a circular movement, following the insidc curved portion of the inner cup as though on a track, in this way leaving the opening to the oil-passage continuously open while the speed is maintained and providing practically a constant feed to the rod. The angle or pitch of the bottom of the saucer is such that at the greatest angle which the cup may assume in the stopping of the engine the ball will roll in its seat and secure the cup from any waste of oil.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. A dash-feed lubricator comprising in combination an outer oil-cup, an interior stem arising from the base of the oil-cup provided with a central oil-channel and terminating at its upper end in an imperforate flaring cupshaped receptacle having a central uncovered opening at its top and a reversed lip extending around said opening, substantially as described.

2. In a dash-feed lubricator, an outer oilcontaining cup, an inner tubular feed-stem rising from the base of said cup, an inner open oil-catching receptacle at the upper end of said stem, having a contracted open mouth consisting of a reversed lip and central opening in line with but below the mouth of the outer cup, said outer cup made of greater transverse diameter than height, substantially as described.

3. In a lubricator, a tubular stem terminating at the upper end in an open receptacle, said receptacle having a ball-seating center portion, a wide circumferential base portion sloping up from the center of the stem and having a turned-in lip forming an annular groove and a way for the ball, and a ballvalve in said receptacle, substantially as de scribed.

4c. In an automatic gravity-feed lubricator, an outer oil-containing cup, an oil-feed stem, an inner receptacle at the upper end of the stem, having a valve-seat, and a wide base portion extending around said seat, a ball in said receptacle, a closure member for said outer cup and a guide-wall depending from said member above said receptacle t0 inclose and guide said ball,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

THOMAS H. BROWN.

Witnesses:

R. F. EMERY, E. A. WRIGHT.

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