Richard C Bohde

US Patent:

42079314, Jun 17, 1980

Filed:

Sep 28, 1978

Appl. No.:

5/946569

Inventors:

James M. Tomson - Fort Wayne IN
Richard C. Bohde - New Haven IN

Assignee:

General Electric Company - Fort Wayne IN

International Classification:

B65B 304
B65B 310

US Classification:

141 1

Abstract:

This application discloses methods and apparatus particularly useful for repetitively charging consistently accurate quantity charges of a lubricant retaining and wicking material to bearing lubricant reservoirs of dynamoelectric machines. A metering head is movably supported on a base for motion toward and away from a bearing and its support while both are held in alignment with the metering head. The metering head includes chamber means in the form of one or more dispensing chambers which may be sealingly coupled to the bearing support structure. The chamber means receives lubricant retaining material through a given port from a source with excess material returning to the source. A valving arrangement interrupts the supply of material without substantially changing either the volume or pressure of the material in the dispensing chamber. An evacuation passage material flow path from the same given port of the chamber to the bearing support structure or other workpiece is established and the material is extruded from the chamber through the same port.

US Patent:

44576706, Jul 3, 1984

Filed:

Sep 28, 1978

Appl. No.:

5/946554

Inventors:

James M. Tomson - Fort Wayne IN
Richard C. Bohde - New Haven IN

Assignee:

General Electric Company - Fort Wayne IN

International Classification:

F04B 2310

US Classification:

417 53

Abstract:

A preferred method includes pumping extrudable and compressible lubricant storage and wicking material from a supply hopper and into a supply conduit wherein passive valve means are utilized so that material is automatically supplied to a pump mechanism from the hopper and automatically prevented from being urged back into the supply hopper while the material being pumped is being forced out of a pumping chamber. In a most preferred form, the method includes utilizing pressure differentials established by the pump means to control the valving action of a valve or flow control member that is interposed between a pumping chamber and a supply hopper. Apparatus embodying the invention in one preferred form includes means for rotating an auger as well as stirring rods (if so desired), and means for operating a reciprocating positive displacement pump in a pump chamber which is supplied with material from the continuously rotating auger. The preferred apparatus includes passive valve means which may be in the form of a check valve, a single reed valve, or a double reed valve which is illustrated herein as a double flapper valve. In an embodiment of the invention illustrated herein, a positive pressure is applied to one side of the passive valve means by a feed auger and the other side of the valve means is exposed to an intermittently varying pressure caused by reciprocation of piston means that form part of a positive displacement pump.