ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,467,501, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to NSK LTD. (Tokyo).
"Crown-shaped retainer for ball bearing, and ball bearing" was invented by Masahito Matsui (Kanagawa, Japan), Takefumi Kichikawa (Kanagawa, Japan), Haruhisa Ashida (Kanagawa, Japan) and Taketoshi Chifu (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A crown type cage for a ball bearing includes an annular main portion, a plurality of pillar portions protruding in an axial direction from the main portion at predetermined intervals in a peripheral direction, and a spherical pocket formed between the adjacent pillar portions and capable of holding balls. The pillar portion has a ...