JPH0626404Y2 - Air suspension device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an air suspension device, and particularly, for adjusting a vehicle height in an air chamber, a reservoir tank, etc. interposed between a vehicle body and wheels, for an air spring, etc. The present invention relates to an air suspension device including an in-vehicle compressor capable of supplying the above air.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, an air suspension device has a vibration damping function and a vehicle height adjusting function when a vehicle is assembled (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-61160).
(See No. 50814), one method is to install an air suspension device in a vehicle and then drive a vehicle-mounted compressor for air supply of the device itself. In addition, as another method, an air port having a check valve is provided in each air chamber of the air suspension device, and air is sealed by a compressor or the like exclusively provided in a factory or the like through the air port. There was a thing to mount in a vehicle.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, of the conventional techniques, the former method has a problem that it takes a long time to supply air because the air supply capacity of the vehicle-mounted compressor is relatively small. Also, in the latter method, it does not make sense if the air chamber for each wheel of the air suspension device is not equipped with an air port, so the component cost rises, but even in this case, the sub tank, piping Since it is not possible to fill the air in parts other than the air chamber of the system, etc., it is necessary to fill the air in these parts with the in-vehicle compressor in the same way as the former method after assembling. There was a problem that the work required a considerable amount of time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional method, and provides an air suspension device having a simple structure capable of performing air filling during vehicle assembly in a shorter time. The purpose is to do.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an air suspension device including an in-vehicle compressor for supplying air, and an air passage portion for allowing air from the in-vehicle compressor to pass toward an air chamber of a suspension. A feature is that an air supply port for supplying external air is provided at a portion communicating with the passage portion, and the air supply port is equipped with a backflow prevention mechanism for preventing backflow of the internal air.

[Action]

In this invention, as a method for supplying air to the air suspension device, there are a method using an in-vehicle compressor and a method using a compressor or the like specially equipped to a factory or the like having a relatively large supply capacity from an air supply port communicating with an air passage section. Can be used properly. For this reason,
In vehicle assembly, after the air suspension device in a state where air is not enclosed is installed in the vehicle, air is supplied by the latter method. At this time, the air enclosed in the device is not exhausted to the outside by the backflow prevention mechanism. Therefore, if this method is used at the time of assembling, there is an advantage that the air can be efficiently filled in the air suspension device in a shorter time and the workability can be improved.

〔Example〕

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention.

First, an outline of the air suspension device according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 2 denotes a suspension interposed between the vehicle body and the left and right rear wheels at least on the rear wheel side. The suspension 2 includes an air chamber 4 and a shock absorber 6. Of this, the air chamber 4
Is formed of an elastic body 8 made of, for example, rubber or the like that surrounds the vehicle body and the shock absorber 6 in a vertically expandable and contractible manner.

Further, 10 is a reservoir tank for supplying air to the air chamber 4, 12 is a compressor for supplying air to the air chamber 4 or the reservoir tank 10, and these form an air supply source. Further, 14 is a dryer which is communicated through a pipe line 15 for dehumidifying the air from the compressor 12, and 16 is a check valve for preventing backflow of the reservoir tank pressure.

Further, 18 is an air supply valve provided between the reservoir tank 10 and the air chamber 4, 20 is an air supply / exhaust valve provided on the inlet side of the air chamber 4, and 22 is an exhaust gas provided on the outlet side of the compressor 12. Valve, each valve 18, 20, 2
2 is an electromagnetic solenoid 18A, 20A, 2 for opening and closing the valve
Have 2A.

Reference numeral 24 is a pressure switch for detecting the internal pressure of the reservoir tank 10. The pressure switch 24 is turned on when the internal pressure of the reservoir tank 10 is a high pressure that is equal to or higher than a set value, and is off when the internal pressure of the reservoir tank 10 is a low pressure that is equal to or lower than the set value. Output a switch signal. Further, 26 is a battery, 28 is a relay, and 30 is a motor for driving the compressor 12.

Next, the electric system will be described. Reference numeral 32 is a vehicle height sensor that detects a vehicle height value on the rear wheel side and outputs a vehicle height signal corresponding thereto, and 34 is a controller. Of these, the controller 34 includes a microcomputer and an electromagnetic solenoid 18
A, 20A, 22A and a drive circuit for driving the relay 28. A target value of the vehicle height is set in advance in the microcomputer, and a program for restoring the vehicle height value when the vehicle height value deviates from the target value is incorporated.

Next, the above-described air supplying compressor 12 and the motor 30 for driving the compressor 12 will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, the compressor 12 and the motor 30 have an integral structure. A shaft 30A of the motor 30 is axially supported by a bearing 40 and extends inside the compressor 12, and the shaft 30A is connected to the connecting rod 42. It is connected to the piston 44 through the, and the piston 44 slides up and down inside the cylinder 46. Here, the dryer 14 is fixed to the motor 30 via a support plate 47. Further, 30B is a counterweight and 44A is a piston band.

A cylinder head 48 having a mechanism for supplying / discharging air to / from the cylinder 46 and a head cover 48A thereof are integrally provided on the upper portion of the cylinder 46. As shown in FIG. 2, the cylinder head 48 has an air supply chamber 50 located on the outside air side and an exhaust chamber 52 adjacent to the air supply chamber 50. Of these, in the air supply chamber 50, a supply / discharge port 50A for supplying / discharging the outside air and a communication port 50B communicating with the inside of the cylinder 46 are formed, and between the supply / discharge port 50A and the communication port 50B. A filter 54 for removing dust is attached. In addition, the exhaust chamber 52 has a cylinder 46.
A communication port 52A that communicates with the inside and a supply / discharge port 52B that communicates from the exhaust chamber 52 to the dryer 14 side are formed. A check valve 56 that allows air to flow from the inside of the cylinder 46 to the exhaust chamber 52 is provided at the communication port 52A.
Is attached, and the conduit 15 leading to the dryer 14 is connected to the supply / discharge port 52B. Here, 50C, 52C
Is a communication port with the exhaust valve 22, and a, ..., A are mounting holes at locations.

On the other hand, for the exhaust chamber 52, as shown in the drawing, the air supply chamber 50
A communication passage 58 that directly communicates with the outside air is provided via a raised portion 50D formed in the air supply port 6. The outside air side outlet of this communication passage 58 has an air supply port 6 equipped with a check valve 60.
2 is installed. Here, the air supply port 62 is provided from the air supply chamber 50 side because the directionality of the air supply work in the engine room described later is taken into consideration.

Here, in the present embodiment, the exhaust chamber 52 and the pipe line 15 form an air passage portion as a portion where air can be filled at once in the entire apparatus.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

When the ignition switch is turned on, the vehicle height adjustment control is started, and the controller 34 processes the vehicle height signal from the vehicle height sensor 32 and the switch signal from the pressure switch 24 with a timer interrupt process at predetermined time intervals (for example, 20 msec). And outputs a command to adjust the vehicle height value based on a predetermined control program.

Specifically, in the adjustment for lowering the vehicle height, the electromagnetic solenoid 18A is de-energized to close the air supply valve 18, the electromagnetic solenoid 20A is energized to open the supply / exhaust valve 20, and the electromagnetic solenoid 22A is energized. This is done by opening the exhaust valve 22. That is, the air is exhausted from the air chamber 4 to the outside through the supply / exhaust valve 20 and the exhaust valve 22, and the vehicle height is lowered.

Further, in the adjustment for increasing the vehicle height, basically, it is checked from the switch signal of the pressure switch 24 whether or not the internal pressure of the reservoir tank 10 is high, and if the internal pressure is high, the accumulated pressure in the reservoir tank 10 causes the internal pressure to decrease. Compressor 1
This is done by driving 2.

When the vehicle height is increased by accumulating the pressure in the reservoir tank 10, the air supply valve 18, the air supply / discharge valve 20, and the exhaust valve 22 are opened, opened, and closed. As a result, the air is supplied from the reservoir tank 10 to the air chamber 4, and the vehicle height increases.

When the vehicle height is increased by driving the compressor 12, the air supply valve 18, the air supply / discharge valve 20, and the exhaust valve 22 are closed, opened, and closed, and the relay 28 is turned on to drive the motor 30. Done by.

That is, the relay 28 is biased to be turned on, the motor 30 rotates, and the cylinder 44 of the compressor 12 reciprocates up and down. As a result, in the suction process, outside air is sucked into the cylinder 46 through the supply / discharge port 50A of the cylinder head 48, the filter 54, and the communication port 50B, and conversely,
In the discharging process, the air inside the cylinder 46 is connected to the communication port 52.
It is discharged to the dryer 14 side through A, the check valve 56, and the supply / discharge port 52B (see arrow A in FIG. 2). Then, the air sent from the compressor 12 is supplied to the air chamber 4 through the pipe line 15, the dryer 14, other pipe lines, and the like, and the vehicle height increase adjustment is performed.

As described above, even if there is a load movement such as getting on and off of the occupant, the vehicle height adjustment is appropriately performed each time, and the vehicle height value is adjusted so that the target value matches.

By the way, the procedure of the air filling work at the time of assembling the air suspension device in a factory or the like will be described.

First, after mounting the entire air suspension device before being filled with air on a vehicle, a relatively large compressor separately installed in a factory or the like is provided with an air supply port 62 of the in-vehicle compressor 12.
To supply air to the air suspension device (at this time, the air supply valve 18 is closed, the air supply / discharge valve 20 is open, and the exhaust valve 22 is closed). The air thus supplied passes through the cylinder head 48 portion and the same outlet / outlet 52B through the same route as described above, as shown by the arrow B in FIG. 4, Air is sent at once to the reservoir tank 10 and each piping system, and air is filled. The air thus enclosed is retained inside the device by the check valve 60.

Since this air supply is performed at the time of assembly at the factory, etc., it can be performed by an air supply device such as a relatively large compressor, so compared to each conventional method, it is possible to supply air in an extremely short time and once. Since it can be carried out, the work efficiency is remarkably improved, and since the air supply port 62 is provided only at one place of the device, the structure is simple and the cost of parts hardly increases. Further, since the compressor 12 is usually installed in the engine room, the work of air filling after the assembly can be easily performed.

In the above-described embodiment, the air supply port 62 is attached to the compressor 12 to communicate with the air passage portion (exhaust chamber 52), but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and may be, for example, as necessary. Accordingly, it suffices if it is a part that can be filled with air for the entire air suspension by one time of air supply, such as being mounted on the discharge side pipe line 15 of the compressor 12.

Further, the air suspension device may be a device in which a spring mechanism capable of changing the spring constant hard or soft is added to the above-described configuration, or may be only the spring mechanism.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the present invention, in addition to the air supply by the conventional vehicle-mounted compressor, the air passage part is provided with the air supply port for performing the air filling by using the external device, and the air supply port is internally provided with the air supply port. Since the backflow prevention mechanism that prevents the backflow of air is equipped, when assembling the air suspension device to the vehicle at the factory etc., first install the device before enclosing air, then after that, install the air supply port with the separately installed air supply device. Air can be filled via Therefore, the work can be performed in an extremely short time as compared with the conventional method such as injecting air with an in-vehicle compressor, and the assembling to the vehicle is easy, and the work efficiency is remarkably improved. On the other hand, it is possible to provide an unprecedented and practical air suspension device that has a simple structure and hardly raises the component cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway side view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic partial cross-sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an example of an air suspension device. It is a schematic block diagram which shows. In the figure, 2 is a suspension, 4 is an air chamber, 10 is a reservoir tank, 12 is an on-vehicle compressor, 15 is a conduit as an air passage portion, 52 is an exhaust chamber of a cylinder head as an air passage portion, and 60 is an air supply port. , 62 are check valves as a check valve.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An air suspension device comprising an on-vehicle compressor for supplying air, and an air passage portion for allowing air from the on-vehicle compressor to pass toward an air chamber of a suspension or the like. A portion communicating with the air passage portion. An air suspension device comprising an air supply port for supplying external air, and a backflow prevention mechanism for preventing backflow of the internal air at the air supply port.