JPH03193513A - Independent suspension type suspension - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the degree of freedom of suspension design and the running safety in a wishbone type automobile independent suspension device by oscillatably connecting the tips of a pair of upper arms on the upper and lower sides to the upper end of a wheel knuckle connected with a lower arm so that the tip of the upper arms may oscillate in the direction of the vertical movement of a wheel. CONSTITUTION:A lower arm 4 is connected through a ball joint 13 to the tip of a yoked type arm 20 of a wheel supporting knuckle 2 having a knuckle arm 21 and yoked type arms 19, 20. A control arm 35 is connected through a ball joint 12 to a yoked type arm 19. The tip of an upper arm 6 on an upper side formed on a A type arm is oscillatably connected through a ball joint 38 to the upper end of the control arm 35, and the tip of an upper arm 7 on the lower side of the A type arm is similarly done through a shaft 8 to the middle part of the control arm 35.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to an independent suspension applied to front or rear wheels of an automobile, and particularly to a wishbone type independent suspension.

(Technical background of the invention and its problems) In order to absorb various vibrations and shocks received from the road surface while the automobile is running, a suspension device with a biased buffering effect is installed between the body and the axle. It is being Such a suspension supports the vehicle on the road surface and transmits the propulsion force from the drive wheels to the body, and at the same time protects the vehicle from damage by cushioning the impact from the road surface.It is also important for improving ride comfort and driving stability. As automobiles become faster, their functions become increasingly important as they determine the limits of speed increases, and scientific research into devices in general has progressed and many mechanism types and elements have been developed. There is.

Suspensions generally need to be soft in the vertical direction and stiff in the front, rear, left and right directions, and can be broadly classified into axle suspensions and independent suspensions based on their structure. Axle suspensions are generally used for the front and rear wheels of trucks and the rear wheels of passenger cars, while independent suspensions are often used for the front and rear wheels of passenger cars, where ride comfort and driving stability are important. There is.

Independent suspension allows the left and right wheels to move independently without being connected by a single axle, and can be roughly divided into three types based on their structure: Wishbone type, MacPherson type, and trailing type. It can be classified into arm type and swing axle type. Compared to axle-type suspensions, this type of independent suspension functions like a human knee joint, in that even if either the left or right wheel rides on a bump in the road, only that wheel moves up and down, and the body does not tilt. , it has the advantage of being able to suppress rolling (sideways shaking) and perform stable running.

The most widely used independent suspension type suspension is the wishbone type suspension (see, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application No. 53-26,020). The feature of this type is that the link mechanism with two arms acts like a parallelogram, so the wheels move up and down almost vertically, and as a result, the tires are always in horizontal contact with the road surface, improving ground contact. It is in good condition. In addition, the structure is more complex than the McPherson type, so there are various improvements that need to be made in terms of weight and cost, and the two arms protrude into the engine room, which makes the engine room narrower. Although it has some issues, it has recently come back into the spotlight for its robustness and excellent stability during cornering.

Witschborn independent suspension is the 6th
As shown in the figure, the knuckle 2 is attached to the body or frame 5 by two control arms 3 and 4, which are similar to the shape of a chicken breast prong (H) (wishbone). control arm 3
, 4 are attached to the body side 5, and the other end is connected to the lower end of the knuckle 2. The connection side between the body 5 and the control arms 3 and 4 has a bushing of 10°1.
1, and the knuckle spindle 2 and control arm 3.4 are connected by a ball joint 12.4 on both the upper and lower sides.
Generally, they are connected by 13.

As a result, the two lower control arms 3.4 of -L and the knuckle 2 constitute a link mechanism. In addition,
In addition to the wishbone type suspension in which the two control arms are both A-shaped, there are also known suspensions in which the lower arm is not A-shaped but is configured to use a tension rod to compensate for the force acting in the longitudinal direction. ing(
So-called UIJ type arm).

In order to achieve satisfactory tire wear resistance, steering stability, prevention of vibration transmission to the steering wheel, etc. in a vehicle body equipped with such a Witschborn type suspension, the length of the upper arm and lower arm, and the mounting position ( However, the lengths of the upper arm and lower arm, and the mounting positions (intervals) thereof are largely restricted by the space in which the vehicle is to be mounted. For example, in order to improve running stability when turning, it is possible to arrange the control arm so that the ground camber is 0'' even when turning. - It is preferable that the swing angle of the upper arm due to downward movement corresponds to the swing angle of the vehicle body when turning;
When the upper arm is lengthened, the fulcrum that pivots the upper arm extends into the engine room. Therefore, since this has a great influence on the external design and engine design of the automobile, the actual situation has been that the performance of the suspension has been sacrificed to some extent in the past.

Moreover, in conventional suspensions, the arrangement of the upper arm and lower arm as seen from the front of the vehicle is uniquely determined by the change characteristics of the roll center height, the change characteristics of the scuff, and the change characteristics of the camber. Since the selection range is extremely limited by the other two characteristic values, there is a drawback that there is a lack of freedom in design. For example, if the camber change characteristic is 0.
If we consider the arrangement of the upper arm and lower arm in such a way, the amount of change in the scuff will be excessive and the vehicle body will be more likely to sway, or the roll center will be more displaced, resulting in a decrease in running stability when turning. I will do it.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, it is preferable that the camber angle of the wheels changes in the negative camber direction with the swing angle of the vehicle body so that the camber from the ground becomes 0° when turning; however, when driving straight, If the wheel rides on a protrusion on the ground and makes a bump stroke beyond a certain point, the wheel may suffer from campus damage!・Since this occurs, it can be said that it is preferable to suppress the negative camber tendency from that point on because it improves straight running stability. However, conventional suspensions exhibit a tendency for negative camber to increase as the vertical movement of the wheels increases, and therefore, it has not been possible to simultaneously satisfy cornering stability and straight-line running stability.

In fact, the suspension described in JP-A-64-18,710 was able to improve the degree of freedom in 1-the above-mentioned design-1- compared to the conventional wishbone type suspension. However, when trying to ensure sufficient compliance with the upper arm, it is necessary to use the connecting link (6) (the name of the member used in the publication and the explanation).

(same below) is displaced, which changes the geometry, which is undesirable. In addition, since the structure is such that the link (5) that fixes the upper ball joint is guided by the connecting link (6), depending on the arrangement of the damper unit, excessive force may be applied to the ball joint, resulting in the ball joint being damaged. There is a risk that this may lead to an increase in size. Furthermore, when applying this suspension to drive wheels, since the drive shaft is connected to the knuckle, there are restrictions on the positional relationship between each link and the drive shaft, making it extremely difficult to apply this suspension to drive wheels. It is.

Although some progress has been made in the degree of freedom in suspension design, it is still not satisfactory.

Therefore, the present inventors have discovered that the degree of freedom in design can be greatly improved by breaking away from the fixed concept that the upper arm is usually one, and by constructing the upper arm from multiple arms and by devising a method for connecting these arms. This discovery led to the completion of the present invention.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art as described above, and its purpose is to achieve different camber changes even with the same roll center height and the same scuff change. To provide a suspension that can give characteristics, greatly improve the degree of freedom in suspension design, can be applied to drive wheels, and can be set to a satisfactory running stability.

(Summary of the Invention) A first invention to achieve the above object includes two upper arms, upper and lower, whose base ends are swingably pivoted to the vehicle body side, and whose tips are attached to the lower ends of knuckles attached to the wheels. a lower arm that is swingably connected and whose base end is swingably pivoted to the vehicle body side, and the tips of the two upper arms are swingable in the vertical movement direction of the wheel. Connect with a control arm, and connect the -L end of the knuckle with this con!・It is an independent suspension that is characterized by being swingably connected to the roll arm.

Further, a second invention to achieve the above object is the above-mentioned second invention.
This independent suspension is characterized in that at least one of the upper arms of the vehicle is attached so as to be inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle body in plan view.

Furthermore, a third invention for achieving the object "-2" provides at least one of the two upper arms,
This independent suspension is characterized by being mounted at a predetermined angle with respect to the direction of travel in a side view of the vehicle body.

In the present invention configured as described above, when the vehicle is traveling straight, the upper arm is firmly supported by -1 part of the upper arm, the lower upper arm, and the control arm against external forces in the lateral direction of the vehicle body; It is possible to ensure running control when the vehicle body turns.

If the vehicle turns from this state, or
When a wheel rides on a protrusion, the relative position of the wheel with respect to the vehicle body moves in the - direction, and the lower arm rotates upward accordingly. In addition, the control arm moves upward as the knuckle moves, but at this time, the control arm is supported by the two-part upper arm and the lower upper arm, so both upper arms and the control arm move in a parallelogram shape. Do this.

Therefore, by appropriately changing the lengths of both upper arms, the amount of movement of the upper part of the knuckle can be changed, and the degree of freedom in design can be greatly improved and a desired camber change can be obtained.

At the same time, the upper part of the knuckle is supported by two upper arms, creating a sufficiently strong suspension.

Furthermore, the second and third upper arms are attached with at least one of the two upper arms inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the traveling direction h in plan view or side view of the vehicle body.
In the invention, by appropriately changing this inclination angle, the camber change characteristics or caster change characteristics can be varied in various ways, and the degree of freedom in design can be greatly improved, and the straight running performance and turning performance can be improved. It is possible to provide a suspension that satisfies the above requirements at the same time.

As described above, the suspension of the present invention has a significantly improved degree of freedom in suspension design, can be applied to drive wheels, and can be set to a level that satisfies driving stability. can be provided.

(Detailed description of the invention) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of the first invention;
The figure is a conceptual diagram explaining the operation of the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of main parts showing the second embodiment of the invention. The same reference numerals are given.

1.2 Example The knuckle 2 to which the wheel 1 is rotatably attached includes a spindle 18 that supports the wheel 1 via a bearing (not shown), and a spindle 18 that branches upward and downward from the base end of this spindle and extends. It consists of bifurcated arms 19 and 20, and a knuckle arm 21 to which a steering mechanism (not shown) is connected to change the steering angle of the wheel 1 as appropriate. As shown in FIG. 1, the lower arm 4 is connected to the tip of the bifurcated arm 20 via a pole joint 13, while the control arm 4 is connected to the tip of the bifurcated arm 19 via a ball joint 12. 35 are connected. Note that the caster is determined by the inclination of the straight line connecting the centers of both pole joins 1-12°13.

The lower arm 4 is a so-called A-type arm, and the base end side of the lower arm 4 is attached to the vehicle body 5 with two bushes 11.
11, whereby the lower arm 4 rotates about an axis 14 against the shearing force of the bush 11.

On the other hand, the upper arm according to the present embodiment is composed of a part of the upper arm 6 and a lower upper arm 7, both of which are A-shaped arms. This lower upper arm 7
is attached to the vehicle body 5 at its base end side, and similarly to the lower arm 4 described above, it is attached to the vehicle body 5 by a bushing 10.
(see FIG. 2) and rotates around an axis 15.

The upper arm 6 is also attached to the vehicle body 5 at its base end, connected to the vehicle body 5 by a bush 36 (see FIG. 2), and rotates around an axis 37.

Moreover, the upper end of a control arm 35 is swingably attached to the tip of the -1 part upper arm 6 via a ball joint 38.

In the suspension of this example, there is an additional con!・
The middle part of the roll arm 35 and the tip part of the lower upper arm 7 are connected by a bushing 39 so as to be rotatable around the shaft 8, so that when the wheel 1 moves downward, Also, even if the wheel 1 is steered by the steering mechanism, the knuckle 2 is the control arm,
It is swingable with respect to 3 and 4.

Here, if the shafts 15 and 37 are arranged in approximately the 1i row, and the shaft 8 is also arranged in the 1i row, as shown in FIG.
In place of the ball joint 38 that connects the upper end of 5,
It is also possible for the hood 40 to consist of a bush 41 arranged substantially parallel to the axes 15, 17.8.

Further, a suspension spring 22 is provided between the lower upper arm 7 and the vehicle body 5, and urges the lower upper arm 7 downward.

Note that the lower arm can be configured as a summer type arm, but in this case, one end of the tension rod 42 is fixed to the lower arm 4, and the base end of the tension rod 42 is connected to the vehicle body side via a tension rod bracket or the like. Preferably, the device is configured to be attached to the device by a bushing. This makes the summer arm strong against external forces in the direction of vehicle movement.

In addition, two upper arms 6.7 and a lower arm 4
The support for the base end is not limited to the vehicle body, and it is also possible to attach it to the vehicle body via a frame.

As described in 1- below, the two upper arms 6.7, lower arm 4, knuckle 2, and control arm 35 constitute a link mechanism.

Next, the operation of the suspension of this embodiment will be explained.

FIG. 2 is a hand pressure surface view of the suspension of this embodiment installed in an automobile, viewed from the front of the vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the vehicle is traveling straight, the upper arm is strongly supported by the upper upper arm 6, the lower upper arm 7, and the control arm 35 against external forces in the lateral direction of the vehicle body. Running stability can be ensured.

When the vehicle body turns from this state, or when the wheel 1 runs over a protrusion on the road, the relative position of the wheel 1 with respect to the vehicle body 5 moves to one side by -1, and as a result, the lower arm 4 rotates upward around the bushing 11. Furthermore, as the knuckle 2 moves, the control arm 35 moves to one side by -1, but at this time, since the control arm 35 is supported by the upper upper arm 6 and the lower upper arm 7, both upper arms 6, 7 and the control arm 35 move in one direction. The arm 35 performs a parallelogram-like movement. Therefore, both upper arms 6
．． By appropriately changing the length of the knuckle 7, the amount of movement of a portion of the knuckle 2 can be changed, and a desired camber change can be obtained.

In addition, the upper part of the knuckle 2 is supported by two upper arms 6.7, and since the suspension of this embodiment is necessarily high-mounted, the suspension is 1.0 times stronger. I will do it.

As described above, in the suspension of this embodiment, the degree of freedom in suspension design is greatly improved when determining the geometry of the suspension. Moreover, since there are no suspension components between the lower arm 4 and the lower upper arm 7, there is no problem in arranging the drive shaft, and it is possible to provide a suspension that can also be applied to drive wheels.

Third Embodiment The present invention is not limited to the first and second embodiments described in - but can be modified. Figure 4 shows the third embodiment of the present invention.
1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment, parts common to those of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals, and some explanations thereof are omitted.

In this embodiment, the connecting means between the control arm 35, the upper upper arm 6, and the lower upper arm 7 is modified. That is, the tip of the upper upper arm 6 and the 1] end of the control arm 35 are connected by a bushing 45 that is rotatable around a shaft 44 that is approximately in line 1 with respect to the shaft 15.37. 7 and the center part of the control arm 35 by a ball joint 46
It is connected at.

The suspension of this embodiment configured in this manner also has the same effects as the two-way suspension of the first embodiment.

Fourth Embodiment FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

In the suspension of this embodiment, the tip of the upper upper arm 6 and one end of the control arm 35 are connected by a bush 48 that extends along a shaft 47 that is approximately in line 1 with respect to the shaft 37, and further, control arm 35
The center part of the knuckle 2 and the tip of the forked arm 19 of the knuckle 2 are connected by a ball joint 12.

Further, a lower upper arm 7 is connected to the lower end of the control arm 35 via a ball joint 49, and the base end of the lower upper arm 7 is connected to the vehicle body side 5 by a bushing 10.
It is attached to. This bushing 10 rotates around a shaft 15, and in this embodiment, the shaft 15 is rotated at a predetermined angle α in the traveling direction of the vehicle body 5 in a plan view with respect to the shaft 37.
It is set only at an angle. This means that the upper upper arm 6 and the lower upper arm 7 are connected to the rotating surface of the lower arm 4.
By appropriately changing this inclination angle α, a suspension having desired camber change characteristics and caster change characteristics can be obtained.

According to the suspension of this embodiment configured in this way, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment described above, the lower upper arm 7 is attached at a predetermined angle α inclination with respect to the traveling direction in a plan view of the vehicle body. Therefore, by appropriately changing this inclination angle α, the camber change characteristics can be varied in various ways, and a suspension that can simultaneously satisfy straight running performance and cornering performance can be provided.

Note that this inclination angle α is not limited to the case where it is provided when the vehicle body is viewed from above, but may be provided when the vehicle body is viewed from the side.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the embodiment described above, the lower upper arm 7 was installed so as to be inclined with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle body, but only the upper upper arm 6 may be inclined,
Further, both upper arms 6.7 may be inclined. Furthermore, not only the upper upper arm 6 and the lower upper arm 7 but also the lower arm 4 can be tilted.

Further, the arms constituting the upper arm 6.7 and the lower arm 4 may have either the IJ or Affi structure.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, the degree of freedom in suspension design is significantly improved, the suspension can also be applied to drive wheels, and running stability can be set to be satisfactory.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the first invention, Fig. 2 is a conceptual diagram explaining the operation of the embodiment, and Figs. 3 to 5 are perspective views showing other embodiments of the invention. 6.7 are conceptual diagrams showing a conventional suspension. 1...wheel, 2...knuckle, 3
...Upper arm, 4...Lower arm, 5.
...Vehicle body (frame), 6...Top upper arm,
7...Lower upper arm, 35...Control arm.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) Two upper and lower upper arms (6, 7) whose base ends are swingably pivoted on the vehicle body side (5), and the lower end of a knuckle (2) attached to the wheel (1). and a lower arm (4) whose tip end is swingably connected to the lower arm and whose base end is swingably pivoted to the vehicle body side (5), and the tips of the two upper arms (6, 7) are The wheel (1) is connected to the control arm (35) so as to be swingable in the vertical movement direction, and the upper end of the knuckle (2) is swingably connected to the control arm (35). Independent suspension characterized by connected suspension. 2) At least one of the two upper arms (6, 7) is attached at a predetermined angle with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle body (5) in plan view. Independent suspension. 3) At least one of the two upper arms (6, 7) is attached at a predetermined angle with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle body (5) in a side view. Independent suspension.