JP5641314B2 - Dust cover for ball joint - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a dust cover for a ball joint.
The present invention also relates to a ball joint dust cover used for an automobile suspension device, a steering device, and the like.

  Conventionally, a ball joint dust cover shown in FIG. 7 is known as a ball joint to which a dust cover is attached for the purpose of dust-proofing and waterproofing the ball joint joint.

In this kind of ball joint dust cover sealing structure, a ball head 200 formed at one end of a ball stud 100 is held in a socket 300.
Further, a link 900 having a circular cross section projects from the outer periphery of the socket 300.
The shaft 400 at the other end of the ball stud 100 is fastened and fixed to the knuckle 500.

On the other hand, one end large-diameter opening 800 of the rubber elastic material dust cover 600 is fixed and held on the outer peripheral surface of the socket 300 by an annular holding ring 700 embedded in the large-diameter opening 800, and the other end small-diameter opening. 120 is held on the shaft 400.
Further, as shown in FIG. 8, a plurality of holding rings 700 are equally arranged on the mold side in order to embed the holding ring 700 in the opening end (the lower end in the drawing) of the large opening 800. There is a ring receiver 61 formed by the provided pins.

The inner peripheral side tip (tooth portion) 710 of the pressing ring 700 is engaged with the annular outer peripheral surface of the socket 300 to prevent the large-diameter opening 800 from falling off the socket 300.
However, in recent years, ball joints have been miniaturized, and a situation has arisen in which a sufficient space for fitting and holding the large-diameter opening 800 to the outer peripheral surface of the socket 300 cannot be secured.
In particular, this tendency is remarkable in the ball joint in which the link 900 protrudes from the outer peripheral portion of the socket 300.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, the inner peripheral side tip portion of the pressing ring 700 cannot engage with the straight portion of the annular outer peripheral surface of the socket 300, so that the engagement force between the pressing ring 700 and the socket 300 is Decreased, causing the problem that the large-diameter opening 800 was dropped from the socket 300.

  Therefore, an attempt was made to provide a notch that can accommodate the link in the retaining ring and to suppress a decrease in the engagement force between the retaining ring and the socket. However, since the retaining ring is notched, the mechanical strength of the retaining ring is reduced. The problem and the problem that the dust cover 600 made of rubber-like elastic material was damaged were brought about. (Patent Document 2)

No. 03-56693 JP 2009-270633 A

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and without reducing the mechanical strength of the retaining ring embedded in the large-diameter opening, the ball joint in which a link protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the socket. The ball joint dust cover is provided so that the dust cover does not fall out of the socket even when the space for securing the dust cover to the outer peripheral surface of the socket cannot be secured. And

In the dust cover for a ball joint according to the present invention, a ball head formed at one end of the ball stud is held in the socket, a link having a circular cross-section is projected from the outer periphery of the socket, and the other end of the ball stud is The shaft is fastened and fixed to the knuckle. One end of the large-diameter opening is fixed and held on the outer peripheral surface of the socket by an annular holding ring embedded in the large-diameter opening, and the other end of the small-diameter opening is held by the shaft. In the dust cover for a ball joint made of rubber-like elastic material, a recess having a shape in which a part of the link can be accommodated is provided at the bottom of the dust cover for the ball joint , and a part of the bent part of the holding ring is provided in the recess. It is exposed and abuts against the link, the inner circumferential tip of the retaining ring abuts against the entire outer circumferential surface of the socket, and the recess is Has a configuration which is formed by the recess formed by the bottom of the swell is deformed in an arc shape.

The present invention has the following effects.
According to the dust cover for a ball joint of the first aspect of the invention, it is like a ball joint in which a link protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the socket without reducing the mechanical strength of the holding ring embedded in the large-diameter opening. In addition, even if there is not enough space to fit and hold the dust cover on the outer peripheral surface of the socket, the dust cover will not fall out of the socket , and the holding ring is only partially deformed. Therefore, a sufficient space for storing the link can be secured without lowering the mechanical strength of the holding ring, so that a sufficient space for fitting and holding the dust cover on the outer peripheral surface of the socket can be secured.

Furthermore, according to the dust cover for a ball joint of the invention described in claim 2 , the pressing ring can be embedded in the large-diameter opening without using any pin for the ring receiving portion provided on the mold side.

The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the dust cover for ball joints based on a reference form . The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The side view of FIG. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the presser ring used for the dust cover for ball joints based on a reference form . The top view of the presser ring used for the dust cover for ball joints based on this invention. AA sectional view of FIG. The longitudinal cross-sectional view of the dust cover for ball joints based on a prior art. The principal part enlarged view of FIG.

Hereinafter, a reference form will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4, a ball joint dust cover 6 made of a rubber-like elastic material according to a reference embodiment has a ball head 2 formed at one end of a ball stud 1 having a socket. 3, a link 9 having a circular cross section projects from the outer periphery of the socket 3, the shaft 4 at the other end of the ball stud 1 is fastened and fixed to a knuckle 5, and a large-diameter opening 8 is provided at one end of the socket 3. The outer peripheral surface is fixed and held by an annular holding ring 7 embedded in the large-diameter opening 8, and the other end small-diameter opening 12 is held by the shaft 4.

At the end of the large-diameter opening 8, the bottom 11 is in contact with the bent portion 73 of the holding ring 7, and a recess 10 having a shape in which a part of the link 9 is accommodated is provided.
The depth W of the concave portion 10 is substantially equal to the depth of the ring receiving portion 61 formed by a plurality of pins provided at equal intervals on the mold side for embedding the pressing ring 7 shown in the prior art of FIG. .

In this way, since the ring receiving portion 61 that has been necessary for embedding the presser ring 7 is used, the presser ring 7 can be embedded in the same manner as before without any special processing. Not only is the pin for the ring receiving portion 61 provided on the mold side unnecessary.
Specifically, since the position of the large diameter opening 8 and the holding ring 7 can be moved to the link 7 side by the depth of about 0.4 mm required for the ring receiving portion 61, as shown in FIG. The inner peripheral side tip (tooth portion) 71 of the pressing ring 7 can be reliably engaged with the straight portion of the annular outer peripheral surface of the socket 3, and the engaging force between the pressing ring 7 and the socket 3 does not decrease.

In this way, since the press ring 7 is not subjected to any new processing for forming the recess 10, the press ring 7 used conventionally can be used as it is, and the mechanical strength of the press ring 7 is increased. There is no reduction.
Further, since the bottom portion 11 is in contact with the bent portion 73 of the pressing ring 7, even if the link 9 comes into contact with the concave portion 10, the rubber-made elastic dust cover 6 is not damaged.

Next, the shape of the presser ring 7 used in the dust cover for ball joint according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the aspect according to the present invention, the depth W of the recess 10 is not sufficient for the depth of the ring receiving portion 61 formed by a plurality of pins provided at equal intervals on the mold side in order to embed the holding ring 7. Applies to cases.

That is, the concave portion 10, since that can configured to be formed by the recess 72 of the bottom of the retainer ring 7 is formed by deforming a circular arc shape shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, as in the reference embodiment, the ring receiving portion 61 It is not limited to the required depth of about 0.4 mm.
For this reason, by using the holding ring 7 according to the aspect of the present invention, it is possible to form the recess 10 that can move the positions of the large-diameter opening 8 and the holding ring 7 to the link 9 side.

  In this way, since the retaining ring 7 is not cut out and is only partially deformed, the mechanical strength of the retaining ring 7 is not lowered, and a sufficient space for housing the link 9 can be secured. A sufficient space can be secured for fitting and holding the dust cover 6 on the outer peripheral surface.

Moreover, in the aspect which concerns on this invention , the recessed part 10 is taken as the aspect provided in substantially equal circumference.
As a result, the holding ring 7 can be embedded in the large-diameter opening 8 without using any pins for the ring receiving portion provided on the mold side.

However, it is sufficient that there are as many recesses 10 as the number of links 9 can be accommodated. In the aspect according to the present invention, there is only one recess 10.
In this case, it is necessary to provide a pin for a ring receiving portion on the mold side.

  The holding ring 7 is made of an annular member that is harder than the dust cover 6 such as a metal material or a resin material having a substantially V-shaped cross section, and is integrated into the large-diameter opening 8 when the dust cover 6 is molded. It is buried in the form.

  The material of the dust cover 6 is appropriately selected from a rubber-like elastic material such as chloroprene and a thermoplastic elastomer such as a polyester-based elastomer and a thermoplastic polyurethane.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the best mode for carrying out the invention described above, and various other configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  It can be used for ball joints used in automobile suspension systems and steering systems.

1 Ball stud 2 Ball head 3 Socket 4 Shaft 5 Knuckle 6 Dust cover 7 Holding ring 8 Large-diameter opening 9 Link 10 Recess 11 Bottom 12 Small-diameter opening 71 Inner peripheral tip 72 Recess 73 Bend

Claims (2)

A ball head (2) formed at one end of the ball stud (1) is held in the socket (3), and a link (9) having a circular cross section is provided on the outer periphery of the socket (3), and the ball The shaft (4) at the other end of the stud (1) is fastened and fixed to the knuckle (5), and one end large-diameter opening (8) is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the socket (3) and the large-diameter opening (8). In the dust cover (6) for ball joint made of rubber-like elastic material, which is fixedly held by the embedded annular pressure ring (7) and the other end small-diameter opening (12) is held by the shaft (4),
A concave portion (10) in which a part of the link (9) can be accommodated is provided in the bottom portion (11) of the dust cover for ball joint (6), and one of the bent portions (73) of the pressing ring (7) is provided. A portion is exposed in the recess (10) and abuts on the link (9), an inner peripheral tip (71) of the pressing ring (7) abuts on the entire outer peripheral surface of the socket (3), The recess (10) is a recess formed by deforming the bottom of the pressing ring (7) into an arc shape.
A dust cover for a ball joint, characterized by being formed by a portion (72) . The dust cover for a ball joint according to claim 1 , wherein the recesses (10) are provided on a substantially equal circumference .

Images