JP2011057102A - Vehicular arm member - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicular arm member including a bush connection section with an anti-vibration bush press-fitted thereinto, which is excellent in vibration absorption properties and is effective in achieving lightweight. <P>SOLUTION: The arm member connects between a plurality of members in the vehicle. The arm member has a plurality of connection holes. Among the plurality of connection holes, at least one or more are bush connection holes through a bush member. These bush connection holes connect a plurality of vertical walls extended in the orthogonal direction with respect to a bush central axis, and the space between the plurality of vertical walls, by a plurality of lateral walls. A connection portion of the uppermost lateral wall is located inside than the upper end of the vertical wall. A connection portion of the lowermost lateral wall is located inside than the lower end of the vertical wall. The individual lateral walls are partially notched to be vertically opposed to each other. Notched end portions of the plurality of lateral walls are arranged to abut against the outer peripheral edge of the bush member at substantially equal intervals. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an arm member that suspends and connects members of a vehicle, such as a suspension arm.

Various arm members such as suspensions used in suspension devices such as vehicles receive large vibrations in addition to tensile loads, compressive loads, and bending loads.
Therefore, there are many cases where they are connected via an anti-vibration bush made of rubber or the like.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a suspension arm in which a through-hole having a diameter larger than the width of the hollow portion of an extrusion-molded material formed in a pipe shape is formed, and a bush is press-fitted into the through-hole.
However, in the bush press-fitting structure disclosed in the publication, as shown in FIG. 5, the portion 100 a where the notched inner wall of the pipe material 100 and the outer peripheral surface of the bush 20 abut is the upper and lower portions in FIG. Since the position of the part 100a that is in contact in the rotation direction and the position of the part 100b that is not in contact are unbalanced as a whole, the vibration absorption pattern is different between vibrations received in the vertical direction and vibrations received in the horizontal direction. As a result, there is a problem that the vibration-proof characteristic of the bush does not sufficiently appear.

When the arm member is a suspension arm or the like, the vehicle body is suspended by connecting and supporting the vicinity of one end of the arm member to the vehicle body (suspension member) and connecting and supporting the vicinity of the other end to the wheel side. In some cases, a shock absorber, a coil spring, a stabilizer or the like is attached in the middle of the arm member.
In such a case, for example, a lower end portion of a shock absorber or the like is attached in the middle of the arm member, so that a bending load in the hanging direction is applied to the arm member.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses an arm member that can withstand a bending load by forming a stabilizer attachment portion formed between a short arm and a long arm into a vertically long rectangular shape.
However, since the arm member disclosed in the publication has a solid cross section, it is difficult to reduce the weight.

JP 2000-225821 A JP 2000-142052 A

  It is an object of the present invention to provide an arm member for a vehicle that has a bush coupling portion into which a bush for vibration isolation is press-fitted and has excellent vibration isolation and is effective in reducing the weight.

An arm member according to the present invention is an arm member that connects a plurality of members of a vehicle, and the arm member has a plurality of connection holes, and at least one of the plurality of connection holes includes a bush member. The bush connection hole is formed by connecting a plurality of vertical walls extending in a direction orthogonal to the bush central axis and a plurality of horizontal walls between the plurality of vertical walls, The connecting part of the horizontal wall is located on the inner side from the upper end of the vertical wall, the connecting part of the lowermost horizontal wall is located on the inner side of the lower end of the vertical wall, and each horizontal wall is partially cut out so as to face each other vertically. The notch end portion of the lateral wall is arranged so as to abut at substantially equal intervals around the outer periphery of the bush member.
Here, not only the connection between the vehicle body and other components but also the connection between the vehicle components is included between the plurality of members of the vehicle.
The plurality of vertical walls may be not only a pair of left and right vertical walls but also a vertical wall structure provided with three or more. The plurality of horizontal walls are not only a pair of upper and lower double horizontal walls but also more than triple. The purpose of this is to have a horizontal wall structure.
In the case of a pair of top and bottom double horizontal walls, a part of the top and bottom faces is partially cut away to form two notches at the top and two at the bottom, for a total of four notches. Therefore, the bushing comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the bush at equal intervals of 90 ° crossing up and down 45 ° in a side view.
When the lateral wall is triple, it comes into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the bush at six points at equal intervals of 60 ° at the horizontal strip-shaped contact surfaces.

  Such an arm member can be easily manufactured with an extruded material having a hollow cross section of an aluminum alloy, has two or more vertical wall portions, and the vertical wall portions are connected by two or more horizontal walls. There will be.

  In the present invention, the arm member is a suspension arm, and the suspension arm has a body side connecting portion near one end portion, and has a wheel side connecting portion near the other end portion, There is an absorber connecting portion for connecting the lower end portion of the shock absorber between the connecting portion and the wheel side connecting portion, and at least one of the body side connecting portion, the wheel side connecting portion and the absorber connecting portion is bush connected. It may be a hole.

  In addition, by forming a thick part near the lower end of the vertical wall to form a neutral axis for bending stress below the center of the connecting part, it is possible to increase the section modulus for the bending moment in a vertical load and reduce the weight. The lower end mounting position of the shock absorber is lowered along with the increase in the length, and the length of the shock absorber can be increased accordingly.

In the present invention, the notched end portion of the lateral wall of the arm member contacts and supports the bush member around the circumference of the bush member at equal intervals. Acts more uniformly than the one in contact.
In addition, when the arm member is made of an aluminum alloy extruded material, the thick wall portion can be formed more easily than the lower end portion of the vertical wall, so that the neutral axis is more than the center of the mounting portion against the bending load in the vertical direction. Riding comfort and handling stability can be improved by adopting a longer shock absorber that can move downward.
The same effect can be obtained when an impact member such as a coil spring is attached.

An example as a suspension arm in an arm member concerning the present invention is shown. The external appearance figure of a suspension arm is shown, (a) is the perspective view seen from upper direction, (b) shows the perspective view seen from the lower side. (A) of the suspension arm is a side view, (b) is a bottom view, (c) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA, and (d) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB. The enlarged view of a bush connection hole is shown, (a) is an enlarged side view, (b) is a front view of a bush, (c) shows the perspective view of a bush. The example of conventional bush fitting is shown.

The arm member according to the present invention can be applied to various arm members that are attached between the members of the vehicle and receive a tensile load and a compressive load. In particular, it is effective to deploy the suspension component to which a bending load or the like is applied.
Hereinafter, a description will be given of an embodiment of the suspension arm.

As shown in FIG. 1, the arm member 10 as a suspension arm is connected and supported near one end to a member on the body side 1 and the other end is connected and supported to an axle carrier on the wheel side 2 and the like. .
The arm member 10 is an example having a shock absorber connecting hole 16 between the connecting hole 15 on the body side and the connecting hole 17 on the wheel side and attaching the lower end side of the shock absorber 3 from the wheel side.
Further, the arm member 10 may be provided with a stabilizer mounting portion 18 and may have a coil spring mounting portion or the like.
In FIG. 1, GL represents a road surface, and the neutral axis of tensile stress and compressive stress with respect to the bending load in the vertical direction is located below the mounting center line connecting the connection holes 15, 16, and 17. It has become.

The arm member 10 has a first vertical wall 11 and a second vertical wall 12 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and is located on the inner side [lower side in FIGS. 3C and 3D] from the upper end of the vertical wall. It is a hollow cross-section aluminum alloy extruded material in which the position is connected by the first horizontal wall 13 and the position inside [the upper side in FIGS. 3 (c) and 3 (d)] from the lower end of the vertical wall is connected by the second horizontal wall 14. .
When the connecting holes 15, 16, 17 are formed by penetrating the left and right vertical walls 11, 12, the upper and lower horizontal walls 13, 14 are partially cut out in a substantially rectangular shape at a position facing the upper and lower sides.
3C will be described as an example. The distance t ₁ between the upper and lower horizontal walls 13 and 14 is larger than the diameter t ₀ of the bush connection hole 15 for press-fitting a rubber bush 20 for vibration isolation. they become smaller, lateral walls a double case FIGS. 4 (a) are shown as bushing 20 in the peripheral surface at 45 ° bush press-fit diameter dimension t ₁ as notch end to the cross abuts t It is set for ₀ (diameter after press-fitting).

As a result, as indicated by imaginary lines in FIG. 4C, horizontal belt-like contact support surfaces are formed at four locations a, b, c, and d, and a, b, c, and d are 90 around the circumference. It is arranged at equal intervals every °°.
In addition, in FIG.4 (c), the part shown by the imaginary lines e and f is a contact surface with the connection hole edge part formed in the vertical wall.

  In this embodiment, each of the body side connecting hole 15, the shock absorber connecting hole 16, and the wheel side connecting hole 17 is partially cut away from the lateral wall to form openings 13a, 13b, 13c, 14a, 14b, and 14c, respectively. Although it is an example of a connection hole, if at least 1 or more of them is a bush connection hole, it will not be limited to a present Example.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, thick portions 11a and 12a are formed in the vicinity of the lower ends of the vertical walls 11 and 12, and as described above, the neutral shaft is located below the mounting center of the bush 20. This is an example of moving and forming.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 1, the section modulus in the bending moment is increased by the amount that the neutral shaft is moved downward by the dimension d from the mounting center, the generated stress can be relieved, and the stroke of the shock absorber 3 can be reduced. Can be long.
The shapes of the thick portions 11a and 12a are not limited to the example in which the protrusions are formed on the inner side as in the present embodiment, and the thicker portions 11a and 12a are gradually increased in thickness or the lower ends of the left and right vertical walls. The shape which connected the part may be sufficient.
However, when the lower end part of the vertical wall is connected, it is not included in the horizontal wall in the present invention.
Further, the thick portion may be formed over the entire length, but from the viewpoint of weight reduction, the thinned portions 11b and 11c may be formed except for the portion where stress is concentrated as shown in FIG. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Body side 2 Wheel side 3 Shock absorber 10 Arm member 11 1st vertical wall 11a Thick part 12 2nd vertical wall 12a Thick part 13 1st horizontal wall 14 2nd horizontal wall 20 Bush

Claims (4)

An arm member for connecting a plurality of members of a vehicle,
The arm member has a plurality of connecting holes,
Among the plurality of connection holes, at least one is a bush connection hole via a bush member,
The bush connection hole includes a plurality of vertical walls extending in a direction orthogonal to the bush central axis,
A plurality of horizontal walls are connected between the plurality of vertical walls,
The connecting part of the uppermost horizontal wall is located inside the upper end of the vertical wall, the connecting part of the lowermost horizontal wall is located inside the lower end of the vertical wall,
An arm member characterized in that each lateral wall is partially cut away so as to face each other, and the cut-out end portions of the plurality of lateral walls are arranged so as to contact the outer periphery of the bush member at approximately equal intervals. The arm member is made of an extruded material having a hollow cross section of an aluminum alloy,
The arm member according to claim 1, wherein the arm member has two or more vertical wall portions, and the vertical wall portions are connected by two or more horizontal walls.   The arm member is a suspension arm, and the suspension arm has a body side connecting portion near one end, a wheel side connecting portion near the other end, and the body side connecting portion and the wheel side connecting. An absorber connecting portion for connecting a lower end portion of the shock absorber between the at least one portion, and at least one of the body side connecting portion, the wheel side connecting portion and the absorber connecting portion is a bush connecting hole. The arm member according to claim 1 or 2.   The arm member according to claim 3, wherein a neutral shaft for bending stress is formed below the center of the connecting portion by forming a thick portion near the lower end of the vertical wall.

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