JP2002221218A - Resin-made ball joint - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a resin-made ball joint capable of not only constantly obtaining a smooth turn of the joint to the arbitrary direction but also keeping in a stable state the position of a spherical material moved by the turn of the joint, even if the spherical material and a spherical recess are made of a relatively deflectable resin. SOLUTION: In the resin-made ball joint comprising the spherical material 18 formed at one member 4 and the spherical recess 16 formed at the other member 2 for housing the spherical material 18 so as to make the spherical material 18 spherically slide and be held at an arbitrary position, the spherical material 18 is elastically press-held by the spherical recess 16 via resin-made intermediate sliding materials 20a, 20b fitted to the external periphery of the spherical material 18. Each of the spherical material 18 and the spherical recess 16 is made of a resin material having larger flexibility against an external force, compared with that of the intermediate sliding materials 20a, 20b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a spherical body formed on one member and a spherical body formed on the other member such that the spherical body slides on a spherical surface and can be held at an arbitrary sliding position. The present invention relates to a resin ball joint comprising a spherical recess to be housed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a resin ball joint has been used as a joint for connecting two members made of a resin material so as to be slidable on a spherical surface.

[0003] This resin ball joint (hereinafter simply referred to as a ball joint) is formed at the shaft end protruding from the end of one of the members in order to connect the two resin members so as to be slidable on a spherical surface. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a spherical body provided with a spherical concave portion in which the spherical body formed on the other member is fitted and held.

[0004] This type of ball joint is connected and held so as to be freely rotatable in all directions with reference to the center of the spherical concave portion. The outer peripheral surfaces are configured to slide with each other. In the case of assembling, the ball joint is made of a resin that is relatively flexible, so that the ball joint is pressed and inserted into the spherical recess through an opening formed with a smaller diameter than the outer diameter of the spherical body. It had been.

[0005]

However, when polycarbonate is used as a relatively flexible resin, for example, the sliding surfaces of the two are microscopically similar in roughness, and the sliding surfaces of the two sliding surfaces are close to each other. Because of this, the sliding surfaces bite each other, and in the initial stage when the ball joint is used, the static friction force is large and smooth movement cannot be obtained. Since a rough surface is formed, there has been a problem that the holding force is weak.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and even if the spherical body and the spherical concave portion are made of a resin having relatively flexible properties, the spherical body and the spherical concave portion are always smoothly moved in an arbitrary direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a resin ball joint that can not only achieve rotation but also maintain the position of a spherical body moved by rotation in a stable state.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a resin ball joint according to the present invention comprises a spherical member formed on one member, a spherical member which slides spherically and an arbitrary sliding position. And a spherical recess formed in the other member so as to be able to hold the spherical body, and the spherical recess is formed on the other member. The spherical body is elastically pressed and held through the elastic member, and the spherical body and the spherical concave portion are made of a resin material having greater flexibility with respect to an external force than the intermediate sliding body. According to this feature, with respect to the spherical body and the spherical concave portion made of a resin material having a large flexibility with respect to an external force, the resin material of an intermediate sliding body disposed between the two has a small flexibility. Therefore, the direct engagement between the spherical body and the spherical concave portion is prevented, and the intermediate resin material having small flexibility is sandwiched by the resin material having large flexibility, so that the spherical body is inserted into the spherical concave portion through the intermediate sliding body. In a stable state.

In the above-mentioned resin ball joint, it is preferable that the intermediate sliding body surrounds the spherical body and is formed in a hemispherical shape. If you do this,
Since the intermediate sliding body is formed in a hemispherical shape, molding and assembling operations can be easily performed.

In the above-mentioned resin ball joint, it is preferable that a cutout groove is formed in the other member so that the one member can tilt in a predetermined direction. With this configuration, one of the members can be largely tilted via the cutout groove.

In the above-mentioned resin ball joint, one of the members is a support shaft having one end supporting a supported body,
It is preferable that the other member is a base body placed on a floor or the like. With this configuration, the supported member can be moved in an arbitrary direction by the support shaft, and thus is suitable as a support tool that performs spherical motion without changing the positional relationship between the supported member and the support shaft.

In the above-mentioned resin ball joint, one member is a support shaft having a spherical body formed on both ends, and the other member is a base body mounted on a floor or the like holding the one spherical body; It is preferable that the supporting member holds the other spherical body. With this configuration, the position of the supported body can be adjusted by the sliding movement of one spherical body, and the direction of the supported body can be adjusted by the sliding movement of the other spherical body.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

First, FIG. 1 relates to a use example of a resin ball joint according to the present invention, in which a supported member is mounted on a top end of a support shaft held on a base body via a resin ball joint via a resin ball joint. FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion B in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an assembling procedure of a resin ball joint.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the support is indicated by reference numeral 1, and the support 1 is, for example, an upper surface of a rectangular base body 2 placed on a horizontal desk D (not shown). The support shaft 4 is held by a ball joint 8 made of resin so as to be slidable on a spherical surface, and the upper end of the support shaft 4 is provided with a rectangular support 6 via a ball joint 10 made of resin. It is configured to be movably held.

A resin ball joint (hereinafter referred to as a ball joint) 8 provided at the upper and lower ends of the support shaft 4;
10 have the same structure, and in this embodiment,
The ball joint 8 provided at the lower end will be described.

That is, the ball joint 8 shown in FIG.
Is a resin spherical body 18 formed on a small-diameter shaft end 4a formed at the lower end of a support shaft 4 having, for example, a circular cross section, which is one member, and is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the spherical body 18. The intermediate sliding body 20 is formed of a resin material whose inner and outer peripheries have the same center, and which are less flexible with respect to an external force than the resin material forming the spherical body 18 and a spherical concave portion 16 described later.
And a spherical concave portion 16 formed in the raised portion 12 of the base body 2, which is the other member that rotatably fits and holds the spherical body 18 on which the intermediate sliding body 20 is attached within a predetermined angle. I have.

The support shaft 4 as one member and the base member 2 as the other member are formed of substantially the same resin material having flexibility. A notch groove 14 (see FIGS. 1 and 4) in which a small-diameter shaft end 4a integrally formed with the spherical body 18 can be fitted into a part of a peripheral edge of an opening 16a formed above the spherical concave portion 16. ) Is formed.

The intermediate sliding body 20 is attached to the spherical body with a thin resin material so as to surround the spherical body. However, from the viewpoint of assembly and manufacture, the intermediate sliding body 20 is divided into right and left to form a pair of hemispheres. Keep it.

In this case, the support shaft 4 on which the spherical body 18 is formed and the base body 2 on which the spherical recess 16 is formed
Is molded from polycarbonate or polyacetal as a flexible resin, and the intermediate sliding body 20 is made of an ABS resin having a smaller flexibility than the resin material having the spherical body 18 and the spherical recess 16 formed thereon.

The inner diameter of the spherical concave portion 16 is formed to be slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the spherical intermediate sliding body 20 by being attached to the spherical body 18. In addition, the support shaft 4 and the base body 2 made of the same kind of resin material can be colored with a pigment. In this case, since the support shaft 4 and the base body 2 are colored with a desired color, the aesthetic appearance is improved and the degree of flexure is adjusted. Can also be planned.

Next, the procedure for assembling the resin ball joint constructed as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, on the outer periphery of the spherical body 18 of the support shaft 4 integrally formed of polycarbonate or polyacetal, two thin-walled intermediate sliding bodies 20a and 20b are formed on both sides with respect to the axis L of the support shaft 4. The two divided surfaces 22a and 22b are formed as a joint surface 22 on a plane including the axis L.

Next, the thin intermediate sliding bodies 20a, 20
The spherical body 18 to which b is attached is fitted into the spherical concave portion 16 through the opening 16a of the raised portion 12 of the base body 2. At the time of this fitting, the intermediate sliding body 20 attached to the spherical body 18
a and 20b have the resin material forming the spherical recess 16 when the opening 16a having a diameter slightly smaller than its outer diameter is elastically bent outward and pressed into the spherical recess 16; By the inherent elastic force, the outer peripheral surfaces of the intermediate sliding bodies 20a and 20b made of different kinds of resin materials are clamped and held.

When the support 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is assembled in this manner, the support 1 is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 2 placed on the desk D via the ball joint 8 for example. A lower end of the support shaft 4 is rotatably held, and a rectangular supported member 6 is rotatably held at an upper end of the support shaft 4 via a resin ball joint 10. Therefore,
The sliding motion of one of the ball joints 8 causes the supported
Can be adjusted, and the direction of the supported member 6 can be adjusted by the sliding motion of the other ball joint 10.

In the case where the spherical body 18 is formed on the small diameter shaft end 4a of the support shaft 4 as one member,
By inserting the small-diameter shaft end 4a of the support shaft 4 into the notch groove 14, the small-diameter shaft end 4a can be tilted to a position close to the base plate 2 of the support 1. still,
Resin ball joint 1 provided above support shaft 4
Since 0 is similarly configured, it is needless to say that the same operation and effect can be obtained.

Further, according to the resin ball joint according to the embodiment configured as described above, the intermediate sliding member 20 is provided.
Is made of ABS resin, which is slightly less flexible than the resin material forming the spherical body 18 and the spherical concave portion 16, so that the sliding surfaces of each other are less worn, and the spherical body 18 is loaded. Therefore, a predetermined frictional force is generated between the sliding surfaces even in the state in which is applied, so that it can be stably held at a predetermined angular position.

Further, since the intermediate sliding bodies 20a and 20b formed of a thin resin material are divided into hemispheres, the forming and assembling operations can be performed efficiently.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to these embodiments. For example, only the connection between the base body 2 and the support shaft 4 is a ball joint. Therefore, it is not always necessary to connect the supported body 6 to the support shaft 4 by a ball joint. For example, the supported body 6 can be used as a support for performing a spherical motion without changing the positional relationship between the supported body and the support shaft. .
Further, although the notch groove 14 is shown as being formed at one place, a plurality of notch grooves 14 may be formed around the opening 16a.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(A) According to the first aspect of the present invention, the intermediate sliding member is disposed between the spherical member and the spherical concave portion made of a resin material having high flexibility with respect to an external force. Since the resin material of (1) has a low flexibility, the direct engagement between the spherical body and the spherical concave portion is prevented, and the intermediate resin material having a low flexibility is pressed by the resin material having a large flexibility, so that the spherical The body can be stably held in the spherical recess through the intermediate slide.

(B) According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the intermediate sliding body is divided into hemispheres, the forming and assembling operations can be easily performed.

(C) According to the third aspect of the invention, one of the members can be largely tilted via the notch groove.

(D) According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the supported member can be moved in any direction by the support shaft, so that the positional relationship between the supported member and the support shaft is not changed. It is suitable as a support for spherical movement.

(E) According to the fifth aspect of the invention, the position of the supported body can be adjusted by the sliding movement of one spherical body, and the orientation of the supported body can be adjusted by the sliding movement of the other spherical body. Can be adjusted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 relates to a use example of a resin ball joint according to the present invention, and a supporter holding a supported body via a resin ball joint at an upper end of a support shaft held on a base body via a resin ball joint. It is a perspective view of.

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion B in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a procedure of assembling a resin ball joint.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Supporting tool 2 Base plate 4 Support shaft 4a Small diameter shaft end 6 Supported body 8, 10 Resin ball joint 12 Raised part 14 Notched groove 16 Spherical concave part 16a Opening 18 Spherical body 20 (20a, 20b) Intermediate sliding body 22 Joining surface 22a, 22b Dividing surface D Desktop

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A spherical body formed on one member and a spherical recess formed on the other member for accommodating the spherical body so that the spherical body slides spherically and can be held at an arbitrary sliding position. In the resin ball joint, the spherical concave portion elastically presses and holds the spherical body through a resin intermediate sliding body fitted on the outer periphery of the spherical body, and the spherical body and the spherical concave portion are A resin ball joint made of a resin material having greater flexibility with respect to an external force than the intermediate sliding body. 2. The resin ball joint according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate sliding body surrounds the spherical body and is formed in a hemispherical shape. 3. A notch groove is formed in said other member so that said one member can be tilted in a predetermined direction.
Or the resin ball joint according to 2. 4. The device according to claim 1, wherein one of the members is a support shaft having one end supporting the supported member, and the other member is a base member mounted on a floor or the like. Resin ball joint. 5. One of the members is a support shaft having spherical bodies formed at both ends, and the other member is composed of a base body mounted on a floor or the like holding one spherical body, and the other spherical body. The resin ball joint according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which is a supported body to be held.