US2921553A - Adjustable date indicator - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 19, 1960 F. o. LUENBERGER ADJUSTABLE DATE INDICATOR Filed Nov. 12, 1957 INVENTOR. E/VBERGEE,

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United States ADJUSTABLE DATE INDICATOR Frederick 0. Luenberger, Los Angeles, Calif assignor to U.S. Electrical Motors, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Application November 12, 1957, Serial No. 695,676 1 Claim. (Cl. 116-133) This invention relates to a means for indicating when an act in the future need be performed. For example, an embodiment of the invention will be described, useful to determine when lubricant had been last changed in a well for supplying such lubricant.

It is one of the objects of this invention to provide a simple and effective date indicator of this general character.

It is another object of this invention to provide a drain plug for the well, that serves also to accommodate the indicator. In this way, the person charged with draining and refilling the oil or other lubricant is reminded to keep the indicator properly adjusted to show when the last oil change took place.

This invention possesses many other advantages, and has other objects which may be made more clearly apparent from a consideration of one embodiment of the invention. For this purpose, there is shown a form in the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the present specification. This form will now be described in detail, illustrating the general principles of the invention; but it is to be understood that this detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, since the scope of this invention is best defined by the appended claim.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is an elevation of a vertical electric motor in which the invention is used;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view, taken along a plane corresponding to line 2-2 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 3 is a view taken from the left-hand side of Fig. 2 and as indicated by the line 33.

In Fig. l a housing structure 1 is indicated which may serve to house a vertical electric motor arranged, for example, at the top of a well. This housing is shown merely diagrammatically. It includes a weather-proof top or cover 2, and the casing proper 3. Within the casing 3 there is provided an oil well 4 (Fig. 2) adapted to provide an oil reservoir for lubricating at least one of the bearings of the motor.

The oil reservoir can be drained through a nipple 5 that is threaded into the wall of the casing 3. The nipple 5 may be closed in any appropriate manner as, for example, by the aid of a plug or cover 6 that is internally threaded and adapted to engage the external threads on the left-hand end of nipple 5.

The closure or cover 6 is provided with an end flange 7 having a plane surface 8. Between this flange 7 and the left-hand end of nipple 5 a resilient gasket or washer 9 may be provided. In this way, the nipple 5 is sealed ice by appropriate tightening of the cover 6 over the nipple 5. In order to facilitate tightening or removal of the cover or closure 6, a radial slot 10 is provided on the exterior of the cover 6 so that a tool may be engaged in the slot for loosening or tightening the cover 6.

When it is desired to replenish or replace lubricant in the well 4, the cover 6 is removed and the oil or other lubricant drains out through the nipple 5. Then the cover 6 can be replaced and the oil well 4 refilled.

In order to indicate when the refilling took place so as to determine, at a later time, the age of the lubricant in the well 4, use is made of a pair of disks 11 and 12 (see particularly Fig. 3). The disk 11 extends outwardly beyond the disk 12. It carries indices 13 corresponding to years, and adapted to cooperate with a triangular index mark 14 on the exterior of the flange 7. The inner disk 12 carries indicia 15 corresponding to the months of the year. For the particular setting of the indicator in Fig. 3, angular adjustment of these two disks is such that it indicates October, 1957 as the month in which oil or lubricant was changed.

In order to support the disks 11 and 12 upon the cover 6, use is made of a machine screw 16 threadedly engaging a central threaded aperture 17 in the flange 7.

In order to adjust the setting of the two disks 11 and 12, the screw 16 is loosened and the disks angularly moved to the desired indicating positions. Then the screw 16 is tightened to hold the disks 11 and 12 in adjusted positlon.

The adjustment of the disks is such that the year and month fall in the same radial line as the index 14.

Instead of indicating the year and month of the time when the lubricant was renewed, the date indication may be such as to correspond to the month and year when the lubricant is to be changed in the future.

The inventor claims:

In combination, a lubricant reservoir, a drain conduit in the bottom of said reservoir, a removable closure plug carried by said conduit, a threaded bore formed in a surface of said plug, a screw threaded in said bore, said screw having a head, a first disk axially mounted on said screw behind said head, a second disk superposed on said first disk and axially mounted on said screw behind said head, both said'disks being rotationally adjustable on said screw, said first disk being of larger diameter than said second disk to provide an exposed periphery on said first disk, cooperating date indicia inscribed on the exposed periphery of said first disk and on the periphery of said second disk, and an index mark inscribed on said surface of said plug adjacent the periphery of said first disk, whereby loosening of said screw permits relative rotational adjustment of said disks to denote desired date information with reference to said index mark, and tightening of said screw clamps said disks in adjusted position between said surface and said head.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 828,353 Walsh Aug. 14, 1906 1,705,866 Johnson Mar. 19, 1929 2,707,452 Schwartz May 3, 1955 2,820,430 Pulaski Jan. 21, 1958

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