JP2001235093A - Fog lubricator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continuously supply oil fog of almost fixed concentration stably to a lubricated part, by eliminating necessity for an oil fog accumulating chamber of large capacity or the like. SOLUTION: A flow of air by action of negative pressure of, of instance, a venturi nozzle 1 is generated in a lubricating oil supply pipe 5 leading to the venturi nozzle 1, an oil surface of lubricating oil L is almost uniformly leveled by the flow of air, a fixed amount of the lubricating oil is continuously supplied with no interruption relating to the venturi nozzle 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a spray lubrication device for atomizing (micro-fog) lubricating oil and supplying the lubricating oil to a lubricated portion such as a bearing or a gear. And supplying the lubricated part to the lubricated part.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a spray lubrication system (also referred to as a mist lubrication system), a lubricating oil is basically atomized using a Venturi nozzle. When supplying lubricating oil to the Venturi nozzle, in the past, lubricating oil was pushed out of the tank by air pressure and dropped onto the Venturi nozzle, but with this air pressure method, the amount of lubrication can be controlled with high precision It was difficult.

[0003] According to a metering pump, an oil supply quantity precision (e.g., 1/100 cm ³ units) can be controlled to. Therefore, in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 62-15591, a fixed amount of lubricating oil in a tank is supplied to a Venturi nozzle by a constant amount pump to be atomized.

In this case, as a problem peculiar to the Venturi nozzle, an oil mist having small particles and an oil mist having large particles are generated. Therefore, a diffusion plug is provided below the venturi nozzle (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No.
No. 084) and spraying an oil mist on the diffusion plug, the oil mist having large particles is dropped and collected in a ball which is a kind of a tank, and the oil mist having a small particle diameter is converted into compressed air. It is transported to the lubricated part via the loading manifold piping.

[0005]

According to this method, although the oil mist having large particles can be removed, the concentration of the oil mist contained in the compressed air varies. This is due to intermittent refueling of the metering pump.

That is, when observed microscopically, an oil mist is generated at the moment when the lubricating oil is dropped on the Venturi nozzle, but no oil mist is generated until the next lubricating oil is dropped. Incidentally, in many machine tools, about 0.05 cm ³ of lubricating oil is supplied to the Venturi nozzle at a stroke by a metering pump at an interval of about four times a minute.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
In the manifold pipe M reaching the lubricated portion, a high-concentration portion and a low-concentration portion of the oil mist are generated in a time series, and the mist amount is not stable. It is known that in order to reduce the difference in the concentration of the oil mist, a large-capacity buffer-like oil mist storage chamber may be prepared, and the oil mist from the Venturi nozzle may be temporarily stored therein.

[0008] However, even if large equipment machines (machine tools) can be used in terms of space, it is impossible to provide a large-capacity oil mist storage chamber in small equipment machines due to various design restrictions. May occur.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object to eliminate the need for a large-capacity oil mist storage chamber or the like and to maintain a substantially constant concentration of oil mist. It is an object of the present invention to provide a spray lubricating device capable of stably and continuously supplying a sprayed oil mist.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a spray lubrication apparatus comprising a venturi nozzle, wherein lubricating oil supplied from a pump is atomized by the venturi nozzle and fed to a predetermined lubrication target. A first pipe connected to the Venturi nozzle, the other end of which is an open end communicating with the outside air; and a second pipe for supplying lubricating oil from the pump in the first pipe, wherein the Venturi nozzle Air is sucked into the first pipe from the open end, and the oil level of the lubricating oil supplied from the second pipe into the first pipe is reduced by the sucked air flow. It is characterized in that it is leveled and introduced into the Venturi nozzle.

As another aspect, the first pipe is connected to a predetermined air supply circuit, and the oil level of the lubricating oil supplied from the second pipe into the first pipe is supplied from the air supply circuit. Alternatively, the air may be introduced into the venturi nozzle in a uniform manner, which is also a feature of the present invention.

According to the present invention, even if the oil supply pump to the Venturi nozzle is an intermittent discharge type fixed amount pump, a mist having almost no concentration difference can be obtained. That is, in the case of a pump that operates intermittently with a reciprocating pump, it is normal that
A certain amount of lubricating oil is sent to the venturi nozzle at a stroke by one lubrication operation. However, according to the present invention, since the air flow is generated in the first pipe, a certain amount of lubricating oil is discharged from the metering pump. The lubricating oil is leveled by the air flow so that the oil level is substantially uniform (contributing to the uniformity of the oil level). Therefore, a substantially constant amount of lubricating oil is continuously supplied to the Venturi nozzle without interruption, thereby obtaining a mist having almost no concentration difference.

A Venturi nozzle used in a spray lubrication apparatus generally includes a drip dome (site dome) having a discharge nozzle at a lower portion and a Venturi body having a throat portion. One end of one pipe may be directly connected to the discharge nozzle and does not particularly require a drip dome. This is also one of the features of the present invention.

However, the present invention does not positively exclude the dripping dome, and one end of the first pipe may be connected to the dripping dome. In this case, it is preferable to arrange one end of the first pipe so that the lubricating oil discharged from the first pipe flows down the inner wall surface of the drip dome.

It is preferable that a heating means is provided on at least one of the first pipe and the second pipe. In other words, by heating the lubricating oil, its viscosity is reduced, so that it becomes easy to become fine particles when atomized by a Venturi nozzle, and the amount of oil in the mist per unit volume and unit time can be increased. .

[0016]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the first embodiment of the present invention.
The atomizer part of the spray lubrication device according to the embodiment is schematically shown.

The spray lubricating apparatus according to the first embodiment has a venturi nozzle 1 as an atomizer. The venturi nozzle 1 includes a discharge nozzle 2 and a venturi body 3 arranged coaxially, and the discharge nozzle 2 protrudes toward a throat portion in the venturi body 3. Between the discharge nozzle 2 and the venturi main body 3, there is provided a port 4 into which compressed air is sent from air supply means (not shown).

A first pipe 5 for supplying the lubricating oil L to the venturi nozzle 1 is connected to the venturi nozzle 1. In this embodiment, the first pipe 5 is disposed substantially horizontally, and one end 51 thereof is bent at a right angle and directly connected to the discharge nozzle 2. The other end of the first pipe 5 is an open end 52 communicating with outside air (atmosphere).

The one end 51 of the first pipe 5 may be curved at a predetermined curvature and connected to the discharge nozzle 2. Also,
The first pipe 5 is preferably made of a transparent synthetic resin pipe so that the flow of the lubricating oil L can be visually recognized. When the first pipe 5 is a metal pipe, a see-through window or the like may be provided at a predetermined portion thereof, but this is not an essential component for the present invention.

The first pipe 5 is connected to a second pipe 6 extending from the pump P side. In this case, the pump P is an intermittent discharge type metering pump, and a predetermined amount of lubricating oil L is intermittently (intermittently) fed into the first pipe 5 from the metering pump P via the second pipe 6. The amount of oil sent from the metering pump P at one time is arbitrarily set according to the stroke of the piston.
Approximately 5 cm ³ , and the interval is about four times a minute.

When the venturi nozzle 1 is operated, that is, when compressed air is sent from the port 4 into the venturi body 3, the inside of the first pipe 5 becomes negative pressure due to the venturi effect, and air is sucked from the open end 52. Then, an air flow is generated in the first pipe 5.

In this state, the metering pump P
When the lubricating oil L is intermittently supplied by a constant amount from the lubricating oil L, the lubricating oil L is flushed in the direction of the discharge nozzle 2 along the flow of the air, and the oil surface is almost evenly leveled by the air flow (air The flow promotes an even oil level).

Thus, the lubricating oil L intermittently supplied from the metering pump P as a fixed block unit amount is
The first pipe 5 is in a continuous flow state in which the oil level is substantially evenly distributed. Therefore, the discharge nozzle 2
A substantially constant amount of lubricating oil is continuously supplied without interruption, whereby a mist having almost no concentration difference in the venturi nozzle 1 is obtained.

The diameter and length of the first pipe 5 may be appropriately selected in consideration of the amount of one discharge of the metering pump P and the viscosity of the lubricating oil L. In the first embodiment, the metering pump P
Is connected to the lower surface side of the first pipe 5,
The connection point may be on the side surface or the upper surface side of the first pipe 5. In some cases, the lubricating oil L from the metering pump P may be supplied from the open end 52 of the first pipe 5.

The first pipe 5 may be appropriately inclined so that the lubricating oil L naturally flows toward the discharge nozzle 2. The inclination angle is set in accordance with the viscosity of the lubricating oil, but the point is that when the lubricating oil L is supplied from one end 51 of the first pipe 5 into the discharge nozzle 2, The angle may be such that From this description, it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to the case where the lubricating oil L is swept away only by the air flow in the first pipe 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, a heater 7 is provided at the open end 52 of the first pipe 5, for example.
It is preferable that the air sucked into the pipe 5 be heated to indirectly heat the lubricating oil L.

According to this, the viscosity of the lubricating oil L decreases,
When atomized by the Venturi nozzle 1, it becomes easy to become fine particles, and the concentration of oil mist in the mist per unit volume / time can be increased. The position where the heater 7 is provided may be on the downstream side of the first pipe 5 or the second pipe 6.

As a second embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, the discharge nozzle 2 may be provided with a dome 21 (preferably a sight dome whose inside can be seen through).
In this example, one end 51 of the first pipe 5 is made to face the ceiling of the dome 21 and the lubricating oil L is dropped onto the discharge nozzle 2 therefrom. The air pressure is generated in 5 by the negative pressure of the Venturi nozzle 1. Thus, the present invention is also applicable to a Venturi nozzle having a dome.

In order to make the continuous supply of the lubricating oil L to the discharge nozzle 2 more stable, one end 51 of the first pipe 5 is brought close to the inner wall surface of the dome 21 as illustrated in FIG. The lubricating oil L discharged from one end 51
However, the air may flow down the inner wall surface of the dome 21.

In each of the above embodiments, the other end of the first pipe 5 is an open end 52 communicating with the outside air, but the other end of the first pipe 5 is connected to a predetermined air supply means (air circuit) not shown. Thus, an airflow toward the Venturi nozzle 1 may be positively generated in the first pipe 5. In this case, if the air is heated on the air supply means side, it is not necessary to particularly provide the heater 7. The present invention is particularly suitable when a metering pump is used, but a pump for supplying the lubricating oil L to the first pipe 5 may be another type of pump.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An air flow is generated in the pipe leading to the Venturi nozzle, and the level of the lubricating oil is evenly and evenly distributed by the air flow. Can be supplied. Therefore, an oil mist having a substantially constant concentration can be stably supplied to the lubricated portion continuously without requiring a large-capacity oil mist storage chamber or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing an atomizer part of a spray lubrication apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 1, showing a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an essential part cross-sectional view showing a modification of the second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a concentration difference of lubricating oil atomized by a conventional spray lubrication device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Venturi nozzle 2 Discharge nozzle 21 Dome 3 Venturi main body 4 Port 5 1st pipe 51 One end of 1st pipe 52 Open end (other end) of 1st pipe 6 2nd pipe 7 Heater L Lubricating oil P Metering pump

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A spray lubrication device comprising a Venturi nozzle, wherein a lubricating oil supplied from a pump is atomized by the Venturi nozzle and fed to a predetermined lubricated part. One end is connected to the Venturi nozzle, and the other end is provided. Has a first pipe having an open end communicating with the outside air, and a second pipe for supplying lubricating oil from the pump in the first pipe, and the first pipe is provided by a negative pressure generated in the Venturi nozzle. Air is sucked into the pipe from the open end, and the oil level of the lubricating oil supplied from the second pipe into the first pipe is leveled by the sucked air flow and introduced into the Venturi nozzle. Spray lubrication device characterized by the following. 2. A spray lubrication device comprising a Venturi nozzle, wherein lubricating oil supplied from a pump is atomized by the Venturi nozzle and fed to a predetermined lubricated part. One end is connected to the Venturi nozzle, and the other end is provided. Has a first pipe connected to a predetermined air supply circuit, and a second pipe for supplying lubricating oil from the pump in the first pipe,
A spray lubrication device, wherein an oil level of lubricating oil supplied from the second pipe into the first pipe is leveled by an air flow supplied from the air supply circuit and is introduced into the Venturi nozzle. . 3. The pump according to claim 1, wherein the pump is an intermittent discharge type fixed quantity pump, and the oil level of the lubricating oil intermittently supplied from the identified quantity pump is leveled by the air flow and introduced into the Venturi nozzle. The spray lubrication device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: 4. The spray lubrication device according to claim 1, wherein one end of the first pipe is directly connected to a discharge nozzle of the Venturi nozzle. 5. The spray lubrication device according to claim 1, wherein one end of the first pipe is connected to a drip dome of the Venturi nozzle. 6. The spray according to claim 5, wherein one end of the first pipe is arranged so that lubricating oil discharged therefrom flows down along the inner wall surface of the drip dome. Lubrication device. 7. The spray lubrication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a heating means is provided on at least one of the first pipe and the second pipe.