JPH0714677Y2 - Air suspension - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to an air suspension used for vehicle height adjustment of an automobile or the like, and more specifically, to an outer shell and a vehicle body side sub tank or a vehicle body such as an air supply source. The present invention relates to an air suspension having an improved piping structure for connecting a side device.

(Prior Art) Generally, the air suspension can suppress the natural vibrations of the vehicle body and the spring system lower than other suspensions, so it absorbs large vibrations and the air suspension itself has damping properties, so It can absorb the fine vibration of.

Furthermore, since the vehicle height can always be kept constant regardless of the load, there is an advantage that the external appearance is improved (for example, the light-up is optimized by falling down the tail) and the stroke of the suspension is shortened. Further, it has a feature that it is possible to select an appropriate spring constant that immediately corresponds to the road surface and the degree of running condition during driving.

The above functions are summarized as follows.

(A) Vehicle height adjustment (b) Spring constant switching (c) Damping force switching (however, this is not unique to the air suspension) As an air suspension having the above function, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-141110. Are listed in.

In this device, an outer shell and a lower shell are provided on the upper part of the strut, the outer shell is fixed to the vehicle body, the outer shell and the lower shell form an air chamber, and a bearing is provided at the lower part of the lower shell, and the bearing slides and rotates the strut. Supports possible. A pipe is connected to the air chamber from a sub tank fixed to the vehicle body. Therefore, even if the strut rotates when the driver steers the steering wheel and displaces it relatively to the sub tank, the air chamber is not displaced by the bearing and the pipe is not twisted. Incidentally, when the pipe is twisted, the steering feeling is deteriorated, and the stress due to the twist is concentrated on the pipe, which deteriorates the durability of the pipe. That is, this problem is solved by the above-mentioned bearing installation.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, in such a conventional air suspension, a bearing is provided below the lower shell,
Since the structure avoids the rotational displacement of the air chamber during steering, it is possible to solve the problem caused by twisting of the pipe during steering, but the bearing must directly support the vehicle body load. Had a large size and a complicated shape, leading to an increase in cost.

(Object of the Invention) Therefore, an object of the present invention is to reduce the cost by providing a bearing member and a seal member in the mounting portion of the pipe, thereby making the bearing member necessary for preventing the twist of the pipe small and having a simple structure. .

(Means for Solving Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the air suspension according to the present invention fits and fixes a piston rod of a shock absorber inserted between a vehicle body and a wheel to an outer shell defining an air chamber. In addition, in an air suspension in which the air chamber is connected to a vehicle body side device such as a sub tank fixed to the vehicle body or an air supply source by piping, and the piston rod is rotatably supported by a bearing of an insulator provided on the vehicle body side. While providing a bearing member capable of rotating and sliding on any one of the pipe mounting portions of the pipe,
A seal member is provided on the rotary sliding portion between the pipe mounting portion and the mating mounting portion.

(Operation) According to the present invention, a small bearing member (sealing member) and a seal member are attached to a pipe mounting portion of a pipe for supplying and discharging compressed air from a vehicle body side device such as a vehicle body side sub tank or an air supply source to an air chamber of an outer shell. Is provided. Therefore, the prevention of the twist of the pipe due to the steering operation by the driver is solved by the small bearing member (bearing), and the structure is simple and the cost is reduced.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 are views showing an embodiment of an air suspension according to the present invention. First, the configuration will be described. In FIG. 1, 1 is an air suspension, and the air suspension 1 is a strut tube 2, a rolling guide 3,
It comprises a rolling diaphragm 4, an outer shell 5, an insulator 6, and the like. Strut tube 2
A spindle is provided at one end of the, and a brake device, a tire, and the like (not shown) are attached. A bracket 8 is provided near the central portion of the strut tube 2, and a brake hose fitting of a brake device (not shown) is attached to the bracket 8. One end of the rolling diaphragm 4 is in close contact with the rolling guide 3 fixed to the upper portion of the strut tube 2 by a caulking metal fitting 9, and the other end of the rolling diaphragm 4 is attached to the outer shell 5 together with the cover 10 by the caulking metal fitting 9a. It is adhered by crimping. The rolling guide 3, the rolling diaphragm 4, and the outer shell 5 define an air chamber 12 therein, and compressed air is supplied to and discharged from the air chamber 12 through a pipe 11 attached to the vehicle body at the other end.

Here, the connecting portion A between the pipe 11 and the outer shell 5 is indicated by a circle in the figure.
It is shown by a mark and its enlarged view is shown in FIG. Moving to Figure 2,
The screw portion 20 is fixed to the outer shell 5 by welding,
A compressed air passage 20a is formed in the center thereof.
A nut 21 is screwed into the threaded portion 20, and the nut 21 is a bearing.
It is rotatably supported by a fitting 23 for piping via 22. An O-ring groove is provided on the end of the mounting bracket 23 on the side where the nut 21 is mounted.
23a is machined, and an O-ring (sealing member) 24 is inserted into the O-ring groove 23a and comes into contact with the inner wall of the passage 20a to prevent leakage of compressed air. Further, a pipe mounting portion 23b is processed at the other end of the mounting bracket 23, and the pipe mounting portion 2b
3b has a tapered shape as a whole, and is provided with, for example, unevenness in three steps to prevent the fitting pipe 11 from coming out. Further, a pipe crimping metal fitting 25 for preventing the pipe 11 from coming out is fitted to the mounting metal fitting 23, and the pipe 11 is closely fixed to the pipe mounting portion 23b. The pipe 11 is made of an elastic member such as rubber, and a reinforcing yarn 26 that reinforces the strength and proof stress against bursting and the like due to expansion of compressed air is embedded inside the pipe 11. In addition, a snap ring 27 is attached to the mounting bracket 23 in order to prevent the screw portion 20 from directly contacting the bearing 22, and a nut 21 is screwed onto the screw portion 20 and fixed to the outer shell 5. Is rotatably supported by the outer shell 5 as a whole. Screw part 2 above
0, nut 21, bearing 22, mounting bracket 23, O-ring 2
4, the caulking metal fitting 25, and the snap ring 27 constitute a pipe mounting portion 28 as a whole.

Further, in the present embodiment, a similar pipe mounting portion 29 can be arranged on the vehicle body side, which is the opposite side of the pipe 11.

Referring back to FIG. 1 again, a piston rod 13 fitted into the strut tube 2 penetrates through the center of the outer shell 5 so that the outer shell 5 and the piston rod 13 are fitted together so that they are integrally fixed. The piston rod 13 is provided with a threaded portion 15 that can be screwed into the nut 14 at the end of the piston rod 13. The insulator 6 has a substantially disk-shaped flange portion 16, and a plurality of vehicle mounting bolts 17 are fixed to the flange portion 16. A bearing 18 is arranged at the center of the bottom of the insulator 6, and the piston rod 13 penetrates the bearing 18. Piston rod
The nut 13 is fixed to a bearing 18 by a nut 14, and is rotatably supported by the bearing 18. The rolling guide 3, the rolling diaphragm 4, the outer shell 5, the cover 10 and the piston rod 13 constitute a strut upper portion 19 as a whole.

Next, the operation will be described.

A rolling guide 3 and a rolling diaphragm 4 are attached to a strut tube 2 of the air suspension 1. Also, the piston rod 13 of the strut tube 2 and the outer shell 5 are fixed,
Reference numeral 13 is rotatably supported by the vehicle body via a bearing 18 of the insulator 6. For this reason, when the driver operates the steering wheel, the strut tube 2 and the strut upper part 19 are integrally rotated by the turning angle of the wheel (not shown) (the turning angle of the spindle 7 integrated with the strut tube 2).

On the other hand, in the pipe 11 for supplying compressed air from the sub tank of the vehicle body to the air chamber 12, as shown in FIG. 2, a bearing 22 is interposed between the nut 21 of the pipe mounting portion 28 and the mounting bracket 23. There is. For this reason, the nut 21 is
It rotates together with the mounting bracket 23 and piping.
The bearing 22 does not rotate due to the action of the bearing 22, and the twisting of the pipe 11 is effectively prevented. Therefore, it is possible to prevent deterioration of steering feeling and deterioration of durability due to stress concentration on the pipe 11. It is desirable that this twist prevention be performed not only by the pipe mounting portion 28 but also by the pipe mounting portion 29. Further, even if there is a rotational displacement between the nut 21 and the mounting member 23 as described above, the O-ring 24 is provided, so that the airtightness of the compressed air is sufficiently ensured. Further, in this embodiment, since the pipe 11 is prevented from being twisted by the pipe mounting portions 28 and 29, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to support the weight of the vehicle body, the bearing 22 is extremely small, and its structure is simple. Therefore, the cost can be reduced.
Further, when the present invention is applied to an air suspension, only the pipe mounting portion needs to be changed, and the structure is remarkably simple, and the change can be easily made.

In addition, the O-ring 24 in the pipe mounting part 28 is installed in the screw part.
Either one of the 20 and the nut 21 may be used. Therefore, the O-ring 24 may be provided on the side of the screw portion 20 without being limited to the embodiment.

Further, in the present embodiment, a plurality of pipe mounting portions are attached to the outer shell side and the vehicle body side end of the air suspension, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, only one pipe mounting portion may be provided. You may make it provide in the middle of piping.

(Effect) According to the present invention, a bearing member capable of rotating and sliding is provided on either one of the pipe mounting portions of the pipe, and a seal member is provided on the rotary sliding portion between the pipe mounting portion and the mating side mounting portion. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the twisting of the pipe due to the steering of the driver by the bearing member having a small diameter while ensuring the airtightness of the pipe mounting part, and the structure of the pipe mounting part can be simplified to reduce the cost. .

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 are views showing an embodiment of an air suspension according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram thereof, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a pipe mounting portion thereof. 1 ... Air suspension, 5 ... Outer shell, 6 ...
… Insulator, 11 …… Piping, 12 …… Air chamber,
18 …… Bearing, 22 …… Bearing (bearing member), 23
...... Mounting bracket, 24 …… O-ring (seal member), 28, 29
...... Piping mount.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A piston rod of a shock absorber inserted between a vehicle body and a wheel is fitted and fixed to an outer shell defining an air chamber, and a sub tank or an air supply source fixed to the air chamber and the vehicle body. In the air suspension, which is connected to a vehicle-side device such as a vehicle body by a pipe, and rotatably supports the piston rod by a bearing of an insulator provided on the vehicle body side, can be rotationally slid on either one of the pipe mounting portions of the pipe. An air suspension characterized in that a bearing member is provided, and a seal member is provided at a rotary sliding portion between a pipe mounting portion and a mating mounting portion.