The object of the present invention is a lubricating arrangement for a slide bearing, the slide bearing comprising at least one elongated guide part which comprises receiving means for receiving a slide block, wearing components provided in connection with the receiving means, the said wearing components being arranged to support the slide block when the slide block is moved along the guide part, and fastening means for fastening the wearing components to the guide part.

A further object of the invention is that the lubricating arrangement for a slide bearing according to any of the claims 1 to 5 is used for slide bearings used in guide clamps. The slide bearings disclosed above are needed, for example, in industry for bringing about the linear movements of a mechanical part or component. One such typical application is known, for example, from devices intended for transporting and/or moving goods, which are connected to the front of a forklift truck or the like, such as lifting devices (fork lift) moving on guide clamps or guides. An assembled guide clamp is shown in Figure 1 as an example of a prior art arrangement. Slide bearings used in such applications are typically provided with a lubricant. The lubricant, such as lubricating oil, lubricating grease or vaseline, is spread manually with a brush on the counterpart of the guide part or a wearing component arranged in connection with it, before the slide blocks connected in conjunction with the guide clamps are fitted in place in the counterpart of the guide part. After this, the bearings are no longer lubricated or else it will require a new, corresponding lubricant spreading procedure. Also in that case, for most of the time there is too little lubricant in the slide bearing in between lubricating procedures to provide sufficient lubrication, as a result of which the slide blocks and counterparts or their wearing surfaces wear rapidly. Manual lubrication (greasing) is facilitated partly by providing the slide bearing with a grease nipple or the like through which the lubricant can be supplied. However, this requires channels to be formed in the slide bearing, through which the lubricant can be supplied.

The aim of the present invention is to eliminate or substantially reduce the lubricant supplying problems of the slide bearings disclosed above. The aim of the invention is to facilitate the supply of lubricant and at the same time ensure that there is always sufficient lubricant in the right place. A further aim is to achieve a more simple structure than the separate oil supplying means of the prior art. The purpose of these is, in turn, to ensure a longer service life for the slide bearing compared with the prior art arrangements and reliable operation even in demanding applications. To achieve the above aim, the present invention is characterised in that the wearing components are comprised of two profile components fitted in the receiving means, abutting surfaces are formed on the fastening means and on each profile component are formed counter-surfaces, and that the abutting surfaces can be fitted against the counter-surfaces to fasten the wearing components in a shape-locking manner to the guide part, and that the fastening means are provided with feeding channels, through which the lubricant can be supplied between the slide block and the wearing components optionally either automatically or manually. By means of the arrangement according to the invention is achieved the advantage that the wearing components can be fixed in place with the same fastening means and lubricant can be supplied according to need to provide sufficient lubrication of the slide bearing. In addition to this, the lubrication system becomes simpler, because the lubricant feeding channels are ar- ranged in the fastening means. In this way, arranging separate oil nipples or the like in connection with the slide bearing is avoided. This type of ar- rangement facilitates the use and lubrication of the disclosed slide bearings, especially in demanding conditions, such as in slide bearings used in guide clamps. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.

The present invention is described in greater detail in the following, with reference to the drawings, the sole purpose of which is to illustrate the inven- tion on the basis of an example embodiment, and in which drawings:

Figure 1 shows an axonometric view of a guide clamp provided with slide bearings according to the prior art, Figure 2 shows an axonometric exploded view of a guide clamp provided with the lubricating system for a slide bearing according to the invention,

Figure 3 shows a partial cross-section of the guide clamp of Figure 2 from the side when folded,

Figure 4 shows a partial enlargement of Figure 3, and

Figure 5 shows a cross-section of fastening means according to an em- bodiment of the invention.

Figures 2 to 5 show a lubricating arrangement for a slide bearing according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 2 shows an axonometric exploded view of the guide clamp 1 shown in Figure 1, which is provided with the lu- bricating arrangement according to the invention. The guide clamp 1 is connected, for example, to the front of a forklift truck or the like (not shown), for example, by means of a guide plate or profile plate 4. The structure and operation of the lubricating arrangement for a slide bearing is described in greater detail in the following. The guide clamp 1 applying the slide bearing arrangement comprises - here in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the forklift truck - corresponding jaw parts la and lb or the like, which are arranged to move on elongated slide blocks 2a and 2b. In this direction of travel of the forklift truck, the jaw parts la and lb are vertically arranged plate-like parts extend- ing forward from the plane running through the slide blocks 2a and 2b, the shape of the parts being dependent on the intended use of the guide clamp. In this case, there are two slide blocks per jaw part, the blocks being arranged vertically at a distance from one another. The jaw parts la and lb are fastened with corresponding connecting parts lc and Id to correspond- ing slide blocks 2a and 2b. Furthermore, the slide blocks of two jaw parts are also arranged in such a way that each slide block is at a different vertical height when the guide clamp is assembled. The heights of the slide blocks 2a and 2b (two per jaw part, that is, four slide blocks in total) are determined in such a way that they can be fitted in conjunction with the corresponding slide blocks 3a and 3b arranged at different heights in the guide plate 4, which ensures as extensive as possible movement of the jaw parts la and lb in the above-mentioned transverse direction, when the slide blocks of different guide clamps pass one another. Bringing about the movements of the jaw parts la and lb with respect to one another by means of actuators, such as hydraulic cylinders, is as such previously known and they are, therefore, not shown here.

In the following is described in greater detail the structure of a slide bearing 3b according to the invention in connection with the arrangement disclosed above, to which the lubrication arrangement for a slide bearing according to the invention is not, however, limited. This embodiment is described with the sole purpose of clarifying the idea of the present invention.

The lower slide block 2b of the second jaw part lb of the guide clamp 1 is fitted to the lower slide bearing 3b in connection with the guide plate 4. Slide bearing 3b (like the other slide bearings) comprises an elongated guide part 30 which has a shaping for receiving the wearing component 6 and thus acts as receiving means. The material of the guide part 30 is preferably steel or an alloy. The shaping (receiving means) is in this case a space or groove 31 having a rectangular cross-section and extending essentially over the entire longitudinal direction of the slide bearing 3b, which shaping is delimited within the inner walls of the slide bearing 3b. Here, the side of the space (groove) on the side of the guide clamps la and lb is open in order that the part of the slide block 2b fitted in the space and thus the part extending be- yond the slide bearing 3b, in connection with the connecting parts, can be moved with respect to the slide bearing 2b by means of actuators (not shown), supported by the slide bearing 2b.

The slide bearing 1 is provided with a wearing component which is indicated by reference numeral 6 in Figures 2 to 4. The material of the wearing component 6 is preferably bronze for bearings, tin, a tin alloy, lead, a lead alloy, plastic or a composite or other very wear-resistant material. The wearing component 6 is here comprised of two elongated profile components 6a and 6b with an essentially U-shaped cross-section fitted in the space (receiving means) 31. The profile components 6a and 6b are fitted in the space 31 in such a way that the U-branches of the profile components point towards each other and their outer sides correspond in shape to the inner surfaces of the space 31 in such a way that the outer sides are supported against the inner surfaces of the space 31, as shown especially in Figure 4. The same obviously also applies to profile components with different cross-sections and the designs of the inner surfaces of the space 31. The wearing component 6 of the slide bearing 3b, which is comprised of profile components 6a and 6b, is fixed in place removably by the fastening means according to the invention, which are indicated by reference numeral 5 in Figures 2 to 5. There are preferably several fastening means 5 per one slide bearing, as shown in Figure 2. The fastening means 5 preferably comprise a circular fastening component 5a, the thickness of which corresponds essentially to the material thickness of the wearing components. In this application, the material thickness is preferably 2 to 3 millimetres, but may differ from the above depending on the application.

When in place, the face 51 of the fastening component 5a extends essentially to the level of the surfaces of those profile components 6a and 6b which are against the sliding surface (with a layer of lubricant in between) or remains at a distance below that level. The edges of the fastening compo- nent 5a curve radially and thus form an annular surface 50, which forms an abutting surface 50 for fastening both corresponding profile components in a shape-locking manner to the guide part 30. For this purpose, essentially semicircular recesses are formed on both profile components 6a and 6b on the edges of the wall, which, when positioned against or opposite one an- other, form an opening corresponding to the diameter of the fastening component 5a, into which the fastening component 5a can be fitted. The abutting surface 50 and the opening formed by the recesses of the edges of the profile component walls may obviously also be made a shape other than circular, such as wedge-shaped, as long as it is ensured that the shape makes possible the above-mentioned shape-locking fastening. The abutting surface 50 pushes both profile components 6a and 6b in opposite directions (upwards and downwards in Figure 4) against the inner surface of the space 31. The wearing component 6 is thus fixed tightly to the guide part 30 of the slide bearing 3b. Furthermore, in the fastening component 5a are formed feeding channels 5c, the inlet opening of which is in the centre at the rear of the fastening component. The feeding channels 5c extend radially to the edges of the fastening component or its vicinity and they open at least onto the face 51 of the fastening component 5a. The fastening component 5a thus also forms a nozzle through which the lubricant is supplied. In other words, lubricant supplied through the inlet opening onto the face of the fastening component can be supplied between the slide block 2b and the wearing component 6. The lubricant may be, for example, lubricating oil, lubricating grease or vaseline. The lubricant may also be other than a substance suitable for lubrication.

At the inlet opening, on the guide part 3b and in the guide plate 4 is formed an opening 7 through which are fitted, in connection with the fastening component 5a, additional feeding means 5b of the fastening component 5. The purpose of the additional feeding means is to conduct the lubricant from outside the slide bearing to the fastening component 5a (nozzle). Here the lubricant can be fed through the additional feeding means 5b from the opposite side of the slide bearing 3b body (wall towards which the inlet opening opens) and the guide plate 4 to the inlet opening.

Here, the additional feeding means 5b include a pipe provided with an external thread which comprises an additional feeding channel 5d parallel to the longitudinal axis of the pipe. The first end of the additional feeding channel 5d is in contact with the lubricant feeding system 20 which may be manually operated or automated. The feeding system may be connected, for example, to the lubricant system of a forklift truck or the like. The other end of the additional feeding channel is led through the guide plate 4 and guide part 3b opening in conjunction with the inlet opening. The inlet opening is provided with an internal thread which matches with the said external thread of the additional feeding means 5b. Thus, the close fitting between the fastening component and 5a and the additional feeding means 5b, as shown in Figure 5, makes it possible to feed lubricant from the additional feeding channel 5d of the lubricant supply to the inlet opening of the fastening component. The fixing of the additional feeding means in place is secured by a screw 5e. The wearing component 6 may be continuous, that is, cover the entire length of the slide bearing, or it may alternatively consist of several successive wearing component elements, as shown in Figure 2. Each wearing component element is in this example fastened with two wearing component fastening means 5. The number of fastening means per slide bearing may obvi- ously vary, for example, according to the length and intended use of the slide bearing.

The present invention is not limited only to the disclosed embodiment, but may be applied within the scope of protection defined by the claims. For ex- ample, the slide bearings may be arranged in a vertical position, in which case the movement of the slide block and the processing means connected to it is vertical. This arrangement, on the other hand, is suitable for applications other than guide clamps, for example, for lifting goods.