JP2000170810A - Spring kit with variable spring constant - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the spring kit with a variable spring constant which can change the spring constant without replacing the spring. SOLUTION: By screwing a spring 1 whose one end is an open end in the adjuster collar 2 having a spiral groove 2a and adjusting its free height, an arbitrary spring constant is obtained. By providing a lock means installation part on the important position of the projected parts of both sides of the groove of the adjuster collar and fixing the near position of the open end of the spring 1 by a lock means 3, both of the spring and adjuster collar 2 are integrated and the spring constant by which the height of the spring positioning to the upperside of the adjuster collar in response to the lock position is made to a free height is obtained. At the adopting time to the vehicular suspension, the effect same as the replacement of various kinds of spring can be generated by only the adjustment of the lock position instead of the spring replacement.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a so-called variable spring constant spring kit in which the spring constant of, for example, a suspension spring of an automobile can be changed by a single spring.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, the types and uses of springs are diverse, and some of them do not change their position as the most important mechanical elements. Among such springs, compression coil springs occupy an important position as various types of shock absorbing or biasing means or instrument elements.

[0003] An important standard for a compression coil spring is a free height and a spring constant. The spring constant is a numerical value indicating a ratio of a displacement to a load, and is closely related to the free height.

One of the uses of a compression coil spring is as follows.
One is a car suspension spring. This suspension spring is an important factor that affects the traveling performance and riding comfort of a car, but these are ultimately determined by whether or not a suspension spring having an optimal spring constant is mounted. For example, if a high-speed vehicle, it is desirable to increase the spring constant,
When traveling in bad weather, it is desirable to lower the spring constant.

[0005] In particular, competition vehicles are required to change the spring constant of the suspension spring in accordance with the nature of the course. For example, it is required to increase the spring constant when traveling on a course with many curves, and to decrease the spring constant when traveling on a course with many straights. Therefore, at the time of a race or the like, the vehicle travels while replacing the suspension spring with a spring constant corresponding to the course.

[0006]

However, the replacement work of the suspension spring is troublesome and troublesome. In particular, when a spring is replaced during a race, the replacement operation is performed in a timely manner. Therefore, a measure that allows the spring to be replaced in a short time is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a so-called variable spring constant spring kit which can change the spring constant in the same manner as when the spring is replaced by a simple operation.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a variable spring constant spring kit according to the present invention employs the following means.

The present invention focuses on the fact that one factor that determines the value of the spring constant of a compression coil spring is the free height of the spring, and instead of replacing the spring when a change in the spring constant is required. The feature is that the free height of the compression coil spring is changed.

[0010] The change in the free height of the compression coil spring is achieved by screwing one end of the coil spring into an open end, and screwing from the open end into an adjuster collar provided with a spiral groove on the outer periphery of the cylindrical body.
The height of the portion of the wire that is not screwed into the adjuster collar is set as the free height. The amount of screwing of the coil spring into the adjuster collar is set by locking the vicinity of the tip of the open end into which the spring has entered into the adjuster collar, thereby selecting a free height, that is, a spring constant.

A variable spring constant spring kit according to the present invention comprises the above-described compression coil spring, an adjuster collar into which one end on the open end side can enter, and a lock means for fixing the spring at a position where the spring has entered by a predetermined amount. You.

The lock means is provided at a predetermined position of the spiral groove of the adjuster collar via a lock means mounting portion so that a predetermined value of a spring constant can be obtained. When a change in the spring constant is required, the locking means is loosened, the compression coil spring is turned to adjust the height of the wire rod above the adjuster collar, that is, the free height, and the spring is adjusted by the locking means. Just by fixing to the collar, the same effect as replacing the spring can be obtained.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the variable spring constant spring kit according to the present invention comprises a compression coil spring 1, an adjuster collar 2 which can be engaged with the spring, and a lock means 3 for fixing the spring to the adjuster collar. It is configured.

As shown in FIG. 2, a spring 1 is formed by forming a spring wire S having a predetermined wire diameter (d) into a predetermined coil average diameter (D).
, A compression coil spring having one end (lower part in the drawing) as an open end and the other end as a closed end. In the vicinity of the other end (open end portion) of the wire S of the spring 1, a semilunar concave portion 1a is formed on the upper side. The recess 1a is provided for facilitating the fixing of the spring 1 to the adjuster collar by the lock means 3 as described later. The surface of the wire S is strengthened by shot peening, and is subjected to anticorrosion treatment by baking paint of an arbitrary color.

[0015] As shown in FIG.
Is formed with a spiral groove 2a on the outer periphery of a cylindrical aluminum alloy, into which the open end side of the wire S of the spring 1 can enter. The spiral groove 2a has the same spiral inclination angle as the wire rod of the spring 1, and is formed so as to be continuous from the lower end to the vicinity of the upper end. The depth of the spiral groove 2a is slightly smaller than the diameter (d) of the wire S of the spring. Therefore, when the spring 1 is mounted in the spiral groove, the outer peripheral portion of the wire slightly protrudes from the outer peripheral portion of the adjuster collar (see FIG. 1).

When the present invention is used as a suspension spring for an automobile, the through hole 2b vertically penetrating the inside of the adjuster collar has an inner diameter through which a shock absorber can penetrate. The thickness between the inner diameter and the spiral groove is set to a thickness sufficient to receive the load applied to the spring. The upper end of the adjuster collar 2 is a guide portion 2c formed in a cylindrical shape having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the spring to facilitate insertion of the spring.

A locking means mounting portion 2e formed of a partially circular concave portion is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the projection 2d on both sides of the spiral groove portion 2a.
Are provided in four places (only one place is shown in FIG. 3). A female screw hole 2f is provided in the center of the bottom surface of the mounting recess 2e. The lower part of the locking means mounting portion 2e is partially circular because the locking means mounting portion 2e partially covers the spiral groove portion 2a.

The locking means 3 includes a sleeve 4 with a flange which can be engaged with the above-mentioned locking means mounting portion 2e, and a mounting screw 5 which is screwed into a female screw hole 2f at the center of the bottom surface of the mounting portion to fix this sleeve. Consists of

As shown in FIG. 4, the flanged sleeve 4 has a flange 4b at one end (right end in FIG. 4) of the body 4a.
The center of the end face of the flange is provided with a recess 4c capable of accommodating the head of the mounting screw 5. At the center of the bottom surface of the concave portion 4c, a through hole 4d through which the screw portion of the mounting screw 5 passes is provided. The radius of curvature of the concave portion 1a of the spring 1 is substantially the same as the radius of curvature of the outer periphery of the body 4a of the sleeve, and when the body 4a is partially engaged with the concave portion 1a, the locking means is formed. Mounting recess 2e
, The spring 1 can be locked to the adjuster collar 2.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mounting screw 5 is
a and a cylindrical head 5b, and at the end of the head is provided a hexagonal hole 5c into which a hexagonal wrench can be engaged.

To fix the spring 1 to the adjuster collar 2, one end of the spring on the open end side is inserted along the guide portion 2c, and the spring is turned to insert the wire S downward from the upper end of the spiral groove portion 2a. Let it.
When the spring is advanced to a position where the concave portion 1a near one end of the spring 1 is opposed to the lock means attaching portion 2e provided at a predetermined value, the two are locked using the lock means 3. To lock the spring 1 to the adjuster collar 2, turn the mounting screw 5 using a hexagon wrench,
Is engaged with the mounting recess 2e and the spring recess 1a (see FIG. 1).

The spring constant of the spring 1 fixed in this manner is such that the portion where the spring is fixed does not deform even when a load is applied. It is determined by the height (H) of the upper part. Therefore, the free height of the spring, which is an element that determines the spring constant, corresponds to the height (H) of this portion. In this embodiment, the lock means attaching portion 2e is provided at two places, one at the right side and the other at the back in FIG. Therefore, four types of spring constants can be obtained by selecting any one of these four mounting concave portions and locking the concave portion 1a of the spring accordingly.

To change the spring constant, loosen the mounting screw with a hexagon wrench to remove the locking means, and
Then, the position of the concave portion 1a may be moved to another lock position, and may be fixed again by the lock means. Therefore, conventionally, when the spring has to be replaced in the middle of the race, it is only necessary to change the lock position of the spring instead of this replacement, so that the trouble of changing the spring constant can be significantly reduced.

FIG. 6 shows the measurement result of the spring constant at the mounting position (lock position) of the lock means in the above embodiment. Here, the lock position 1 is the position where the mounting recess 2e provided on the adjuster collar 2 is located at the top, and the lock position 4 is the position where the mounting recess 2e is located at the bottom.
This measurement is applied to the front suspension of an automobile, and shows the results of measuring the right (R) and left (L) separately. This graph shows that the higher the lock position, the higher the free height (H) of the spring, and accordingly the lower the spring constant.

Table 1 shows the change in the spring constant at various lock positions for other embodiments.

[0026]

[Table 1] As is clear from this table, it is shown that various spring constants can be obtained only by changing the lock position.

The present invention can be applied to various mechanical elements other than the suspension of the automobile.

[0028]

According to the present invention, a desired spring constant can be obtained only by changing the lock position of the spring by the lock means. Therefore, it is only necessary to change the lock position instead of replacing the spring. Therefore, when a change in the spring constant is urgently required, such as in a car race, the spring constant can be easily changed without requiring troublesome replacement of the spring. In particular, the replacement of the spring in the course of the car race is facilitated, so that the car can be quickly maintained in the race.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an entire configuration of an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B show an example of a spring, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a front view.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an adjuster collar, in which (a)
Is a plan view, and (b) is a front view.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show an example of a flanged sleeve constituting a locking means, wherein FIG. 4A is a sectional view and FIG. 4B is a side view.

5A and 5B show an example of a screw constituting a locking means, wherein FIG. 5A is a front view and FIG. 5B is a side view.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a relationship between a lock position and a spring constant.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Compression coil spring 2 Adjuster collar 2a Spiral groove part 2e Lock means attaching part 3 Lock means S Wire d Wire diameter D Average diameter H Free height

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A compression coil spring having a wire having a predetermined wire diameter, a predetermined average diameter and a predetermined free height, one end of which is an open end and the other end of which is a closed end. An adjuster collar provided with a spiral groove portion, one end of which can enter from the open end side, and a plurality of lock means mounting portions provided at predetermined positions of the spiral groove portion; Locking means for locking a tip end on the open end side to the adjuster collar, wherein a desired spring constant can be obtained by selecting and locking the position of the locking means mounting portion. Spring constant spring kit.