JP2602789Y2 - Ball joint - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The ball joint according to the present invention is used in a state where it is incorporated in a bearing or the like of an automobile steering device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A ball joint as shown in FIG. 5 is attached to a drag rod for connecting a pitman arm and a tie rod arm which constitute a steering device for an automobile, and the drag rod is positioned relative to each other as the steering wheel is operated. The arms whose relationship changes are connected so that the force can be freely transmitted between the arms.

This ball joint is formed by combining a joint pin 1, a housing 2, a sleeve 3, a pressing piece 4, a compression spring 5, and an end cap 6. A sliding portion 7 having a spherical convex outer surface is formed at a base end portion (a lower end portion in FIG. 5 ) of the joint pin 1, and the sliding portion 7 is swingably held in the housing 2. Support hole 8 is provided. The support hole 8 has a spherical concave receiving surface 9 on a part of the inner peripheral surface, and a cylindrical fitting surface 10 formed on the remaining portion, and a step between the fitting surface 10 and the receiving surface 9. The part 11 is formed.

The sleeve 3 made of a slippery hard material such as an oil-impregnated metal or polyacetal or other synthetic resin has an inner peripheral surface on the outer peripheral surface of the sliding portion 7 and an outer peripheral surface thereof. In a state where the outer peripheral surface is closely contacted with the inner peripheral surface of the receiving surface 9, respectively, and the flange portion 12 forming the butting portion is engaged with the step portion 11 formed in the intermediate portion of the support hole 8, It is sandwiched between the outer peripheral surface of the sliding portion 7 and the inner peripheral surface of the support hole 8. The pressing piece 4, which is also made of a slippery hard material, is housed inside the fitting surface 10, and its inner surface (upper surface in FIG. 5 ) contacts the end surface (lower surface in FIG. 5 ) of the sliding portion 7. In contact.

The end cap 6 formed into a bottomed cylindrical shape by press-forming a steel plate or the like is pushed into the fitting surface 10 with its opening facing inward, and its end edge is formed. A flange 12 provided at an end of the sleeve 3 is sandwiched between the step 13 and the step 11.

Further, a compression spring 5 is provided between the end cap 6 and the pressing piece 4, and the compression spring 5
Of the pressing piece 4 with the joint pin 1
Are elastically pressed against the end face of the sliding portion 7.

The support hole 8 is formed in a part of the housing 2.
A caulking portion 14 is formed at a position surrounding the fitting surface side opening of the end cap 6. After the end cap 6 is pushed into the inside of the fitting surface 10, the caulking portion 14 is formed into a diameter of the end cap 6. The end cap 6 is bent inward in the direction, and the end cap 6 is held down by the caulking portion 14 so that the end cap 6 does not come off from the inside of the fitting surface 10.

Further, a dustproof boot 15 is provided between the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate portion of the joint pin 1 and the periphery of the opening on the receiving surface side of the support hole 8 of the housing 2 so that the outer surface of the sliding portion 7 and the sleeve 3 It prevents dust and water from entering the inside.

In the ball joint constructed as described above, the sliding portion 7 formed at the end of the joint pin 1 is used.
However, the joint pin 1 and the housing 2 are allowed to swing or rotate with each other as long as the joint pin 1 and the housing 2 can slide inside the sleeve 3.

[0010]

In the case of the conventional structure shown in FIG. 5 , a metal compression spring 5 and a seat plate 16 for receiving an end face of the compression spring 5 are required. In addition, it is inevitable that the assembling work is troublesome and the production cost increases.

The ball joint of the present invention has stable performance.
While reducing the number of parts, Make assembly work easier
Therefore, the cost of the product is reduced.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has a housing having a housing formed with a support hole, the support hole being a spherical concave surface formed in one half and having an inner diameter decreasing toward an open end. Surface, a fitting surface formed in the other half of the support hole, a cylindrical surface having a larger diameter than the largest diameter portion of the receiving surface, and a first connecting the fitting surface and the receiving surface. And a cylindrical portion having an inner diameter larger than the inner diameter of the fitting surface, and a second step connecting the fitting surface and the cylindrical portion, and further, the inner peripheral surface is a spherical concave surface. A sleeve formed of a slippery material, which has an abutting portion formed on the outer peripheral surface to abut against the first step portion, and is fitted and supported inside the receiving surface and the fitting surface; The tip is inserted from the side of the tip and projected out of the housing from the opening on the receiving surface side. A joint pin formed at a base end of the joint pin, a part of the outer peripheral surface thereof is brought into close sliding contact with the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve, and a sliding portion formed in a spherical convex surface; The lower surface of the portion is formed in a spherical concave surface that is in sliding contact with the lower surface, is made of a material that is more elastic than the sleeve and is slippery, and is fitted inside the cylindrical portion of the support hole. A pressing piece abutted on the step portion, and in a state in which the pressing piece is fitted inside the cylindrical portion of the support hole together with the pressing piece, a portion of the pressing piece near the outer periphery is pressed against an outer surface of the pressing piece near the outer circumference thereof. A pressing plate formed on a peripheral portion of the cylindrical portion of the support hole at a portion of the housing, the pressing plate being provided on at least one surface of a portion closer to the outer periphery of the pressing piece; Department or caulking The abutted against a plurality of projections on to obtain a ball joint which is provided intermittently in the circumferential direction, in which the foregoing problems are eliminated.

[0013]

The ball joint of the present invention is held down by the caulked portion of the housing and supports the spherical sliding portion with the lubricating and elastic pressing piece, so that a conventional compression spring is unnecessary. The elasticity for elastically bringing the pressing piece 17 into contact with the sliding portion can be stretched depending on the strength of the caulking portion of the housing. Protrusions are scattered around the outer periphery of the pressing piece sandwiched between the housing and the caulking portion together with the pressing plate, so that the elasticity of the pressing piece can be adjusted by caulking in a wider range.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In a ball joint according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a pressing piece 17 for pressing a spherical sliding portion 7 of a joint pin 1 is made of an elastic material softer than a sleeve 3 and is formed on a housing. Second step portion 24 and swaging portion 20
This adjusts the caulking strength of the caulking portion 20 to adjust the elasticity of the pressing piece 17 applied to the sliding portion 7. For this reason, the compression spring 5 and the seat plate 16 are omitted from the structure shown in FIG. 5, and the sliding portion 7 of the joint pin 1 is suppressed by the elasticity of the pressing piece 17 without rattling.

The pressing piece 17 is made of an elastic material which is softer than the sleeve 3 and has lubricity, and is entirely made in a substantially disk shape. On one surface of the pressing piece 17, a spherical concave surface 18 which is in sliding contact with the sliding portion 7 is formed.
Thereby, the sliding portion 7 can be freely pressed toward the sleeve 3. In a state where the pressing piece 17 is fitted inside a cylindrical portion 25 provided on the opening end side of the fitting surface 10 of the support hole 8, a portion of the pressing piece 17 near the outer periphery of one surface projects into the second step portion 24. The sleeve 3 is pressed into the support hole 8 via the pressing piece 17 and is locked to the first step portion 11.

Further, the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8 is provided below the fitting surface 10, and its inner diameter is formed larger than the inner diameter of the fitting surface. Are connected by the second step portion 24. A pressing plate 19, which is formed into a generally circular dish shape by press-forming a metal plate having sufficient rigidity, is fitted inside the cylindrical portion 25 together with the pressing piece 17. And this holding plate 1
A portion of the housing 2 near the outer periphery is formed by a swaging portion 20 formed in a part of the housing 2 around the peripheral portion of the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8.
, And is pressed down toward the second step portion 24. With the holding plate 19 and the pressing piece 17 fixed inside the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8 in this manner, a gap 21 is formed between the inner surface of the holding plate 19 and the outer surface of the pressing piece 17. . Therefore,
The spherical concave surface 18 of the pressing piece 17 is elastically deformable by the thickness of the gap 21. The pressing piece on which the convex portion 23 is formed is formed as illustrated in FIGS.

In this case, the spherical concave surface 18 of the pressing piece 17
The elasticity of pressing the sliding part 7 of the joint pin 1 by
The pressing piece 17 is obtained by elastically deforming the pressing piece 17 in a state where the pressing piece 17 is supported and fixed to the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8. The amount of elastic deformation of the pressing piece 17 depends on the manufacturing of the pressing piece 17 and the sleeve 3. Due to the unavoidable dimensional errors, it is unavoidable that they differ slightly. Therefore, in this embodiment, the second step portion or a plurality of convex portions abutting against the holding plate 19 is intermittently provided on at least one surface of the pressing piece near the outer periphery in the circumferential direction. By providing
The range of the elasticity change due to the compression of the pressing piece 17 is widened so that the pressing piece 20 can be favorably held by the caulking portion 20. That is, a spherical concave surface 18 which is in sliding contact with the sliding portion 7 is formed on one surface of a pressing piece 17 entirely made of a resilient material softer than the lubricating sleeve 3. Is brought into contact with the lower surface of the sliding portion 7 to press the sliding portion 7 toward the sleeve 3. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a groove 22 for retaining grease is formed in the spherical concave surface 18 to lubricate the outer peripheral surface of the sliding portion 7 with the inner surface of the sleeve 3 and the spherical concave surface 18. I'm trying.
Then, in a state where the pressing piece 17 is fitted in the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8, a portion of the pressing piece 17 near the outer periphery is abutted against the second step portion 24 of the housing.

A press plate 19 formed entirely by pressing a metal plate having sufficient rigidity into a circular dish shape is fitted in the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8 together with the pressing piece 17. are doing. Then, a portion of the outer surface of the holding plate 19 near the outer periphery is partly formed with the cylindrical portion 2 of the support hole 8 by a part of the housing 2.
5 is held down by a caulking portion 20 formed on the peripheral portion. By caulking and pressing the pressing piece 17 and the holding plate 19, the sleeve 3 is pushed upward, but the outer surface side of the sleeve 3 is not pushed upward beyond a certain amount by the first step portion 11. Yes,
The outer peripheral edge of the pressing piece 17 is also prevented from being pushed upward by a second step portion 24 of the cylindrical portion 25 beyond a predetermined amount. With the holding plate 19 and the pressing piece 17 fixed inside the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8 in this manner, a gap 21 is formed between the inner surface of the holding plate 19 and the outer surface of the pressing piece 17. . Therefore, the spherical concave portion 18 of the pressing piece 17 can be elastically deformed by the thickness of the gap 21.

Further, on the peripheral edge of one side of the pressing piece 17,
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the plurality of convex portions 23 are provided intermittently in the circumferential direction. Each convex part 23, 23
In a state where the pressing piece 17 is fitted inside the cylindrical portion 25 of the support hole 8,
It is abutted against a second step portion 24 connecting the fitting surface 10 and the cylindrical portion 25. The end of the sleeve 3 is
It is abutted against one surface of the pressing piece 17 on the inner side in the diametric direction than 3.

The pressing piece 17 having the convex portions 23, 23 formed on one side as described above is pressed together with the pressing plate 19 into the cylindrical portion 2 of the support hole 8.
5, and each of the projections 23, 23 is held in the state where the outer surface of the holding plate 19 is held down by the caulking portion 20.
It is elastically compressed between the main body 4 and the pressing piece 17.
The thickness of the pressing piece 17 compressed by the caulking portion 20 is determined by the thickness of the pressing piece peripheral portion and the convex portion 23 whose compression amount is larger than that of the peripheral portion.
, The range of elasticity adjustment by compression is expanded. Accordingly, the spherical concave surface 18 of the pressing piece 17 presses the sliding part 7 of the joint pin 1 by adjusting the caulking force of the caulking part 20 irrespective of the dimensional error generated at the time of manufacturing the sleeve 3 and the pressing piece 17. Elasticity can be made constant.

The projections 23 are provided only on the outer peripheral portion of one side of the pressing piece 17, or may be provided on the outer peripheral portion of both sides as shown in FIG.

[0022]

The ball joint of the present invention is constructed and operates as described above. Therefore, the outer peripheral portion of the pressing piece that slidably supports the spherical sliding portion of the joint pin is referred to as a second step portion. It is sandwiched between the clamps and supports the sliding part while applying an appropriate elasticity, so unlike the conventional ball joint that generates elasticity to support the sliding part by a compression spring, the production management of parts , Easy to assemble,
Production costs can be kept low.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a pressing piece incorporated in the ball joint of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view showing another shape of the pressing piece and corresponding to a portion B in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional ball joint.

[Explanation of Signs] 1 Joint pin 2 Housing 3 Sleeve 4 Pressing piece 5 Compression spring 6 End cap 7 Sliding portion 8 Support hole 9 Receiving surface 10 Fitting surface 11 First step 12 Flange 13 End edge 14 Caulking portion DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 15 Dust-proof boot 16 Seat plate 17 Pressing piece 18 Spherical concave surface 19 Suppression plate 20 Caulking part 21 Gap 22 Depressed groove 23 Convex part 24 Second step 25 Cylindrical part

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A having a housing formed with supporting Jiana, the support hole is formed on one half portion, and the receiving surface is a spherical concave surface whose inner diameter becomes smaller as toward the open end of the support hole is formed on the other half, than the maximum diameter portion of the receiving surface and the fitting surface is a cylindrical surface of large diameter, a first stepped portion for coupling the fitting surface and the receiving surface, the fitting An inner diameter larger than the inner diameter of the mating surface
Connecting the cylindrical part, the fitting surface and the cylindrical part
It consists of a second step , and the inner peripheral surface is a spherical concave surface,
A butt portion formed on the outer peripheral surface to butt against the first step portion is fitted and supported inside the receiving surface and the fitting surface, and a sleeve made of a slippery material is provided inside the sleeve. A joint pin which is inserted from the side of the distal end and whose distal end protrudes out of the housing from the opening on the receiving surface side, and which is formed at the base end of the joint pin and a part of the outer peripheral surface thereof is formed by the sleeve And a sliding portion formed in a spherical convex surface and a spherical concave surface in sliding contact with the lower end surface of the sliding portion .
Made by slippery material which is more elastic than Reeve, or
One, while fitted in the cylindrical portion of the support hole, the pressing piece on one side near the outer periphery portion that abuts on the second stepped portion, and fitted in the cylindrical portion of the support hole with the pressing piece In this state, the inner surface outer peripheral portion is abutted against the outer surface outer peripheral portion of the pressing piece, and the outer surface outer peripheral portion is suppressed by a caulking portion formed on a peripheral portion of the cylindrical portion of the support hole in a part of the housing. A pressing plate to be attached, and the second step is provided on at least one surface of a portion near the outer periphery of the pressing piece.
A ball joint in which a plurality of convex portions abutting against a portion or a caulking portion are provided intermittently in a circumferential direction.