US2604318A - Spring casing with integral liner - Google Patents

Description

July 22, 1952 c. s. JAcoBs SPRING CASING WITH INTEGRAL LINER ZSHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed Aug. 2, 1950 a. l l

IN VEN TOR.

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July 22, 1952 c. sr JACOBS SPRING CASING WITH INTEGRAL LINER 2 Sl-IEETS-Sl-IEET 2 Filed Aug.1 2 1950 Patented July 22, 1952 SPRING CASING WITH INTEGRAL LINER Clare S. Jacobs, Grosse Pointe Park,vMich., assignor to F. L. Jacobs Co., Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application August 2, 1950, Serial No. 177,225

4 Claims.

This invention pertains to casings or covers for the leaf springs of vehicles, and in particular to a one-piece casing of improved construction.

Leaf springs for motor vehicles are usually provided with a pair of metal covers or casings, one for each half of the spring. A canvas liner is provided between the spring and the casing for the purpose of` preventing dirt and water from reaching the spring and for preventing escape of the lubricant which is applied to the spring leaves before the cover is mounted. Sometimes the canvas liner is wrapped around the spring before the cover is mounted and sometimes the canvas liner is attached to the'metal cover as a part thereof.

My improved cover, described and claimed herein, eliminates the necessity for a separate liner, which must be cut to size and wrapped around the spring or attached to the interior of the cover as a separate operation. By eliminating the separate liner, considerable expense and assembly time are saved and the entire operation of making the cover is better adapted to mass production technique. Y

I propose to provide a cover with the liner as an integral part thereof in the form of ilock adhesively secured to the metal of the cover at the interior thereof and impregnated with lubricant. Flock, which is commercially obtainable on the open market, consists of very short fibres of animal or vegetable origin, and may be secured in any desired length. I have found goat hairs of lengths approximately one-quarter of an inch to bevsatisfactory for the purpose, but other bres, such as wool, nylon and the like, of almost any length, may be used.

In the drawings accompanying this description:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a one-piece spring casing having the liner attached as an integral part of the casing;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross-section of the casing shown in Fig. l after it has been applied to the spring and the spring has been allowed to assume its normal position;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged sectional view of the portion of Fig. 2 indicated by the circle 6;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the portion of Fig. 2 indicated by the circle l; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of one end of the casing showing the area of increased liner thickness. Y

A perspective view of my invention is lseen in Fig. 1 wherein is shown a one-piece spring casing 2 made of metal or other bendable sheet material capable of being formed which consists in general of a bottom portion 4.and sides 6 and 8 and a top cover Ill. It will be noted that the top cover I0, which is positioned adjacent the main leaf II of the spring, is a continuous member, whereas the lower channel-shaped portion, consisting of the bottom and the two sides, is Separated into a plurality of sections by the slotsv I2, I4 and I6 to provide the sectionsv I8, 2D, 22 and 24. The slots I2, I4 and I6 extend around'at least three sides of the spring,l as can be `seen from an inspection of Fig. 4 which is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

All of the sections I8, 20,22 and 24 are connected together, however, along the upper or fourth side of the spring by the longitudinally extending portions 26 and 3D, as shown in the several gures.

c Connected with longitudinally extending portion 3!) is the cover I0, having the two inwardly turned ilanges 32 and 34 of which ilange 32 is integral with longitudinally extending portion 30. Flange 32, due to its angularity, ten-ds to place the cover underlateral tension and serves the purpose of taking up vslack when the cover is nally locked in position with the flange 34, Which is set at a complementary angle to engage flange 28, thereafter is locked with flange 28 together, as shown, for example, in Fig. 3.

The transverse slots I2, I4 and I6, which are for the purpose of permitting the casing to iiex when it is in position on the spring, are closed by the slot covers 36, 38 and 40 which may be secured in position by any suitable means. One convenient method is shown in the various ligures whereby the ends of the slot covers are tucked under a narrow strip integral With the casing, but raised sufliciently above the surface to permit the passage of the slot covers thereunder. This construction can be seen in Figs. l and 4.

After the cover has been brought to the form shown in Fig. 1 by suitable forming operations, the liner 4I is applied. While there are numerous adhesives having rubber-like characteristics that are suitable for the purpose, I have found that a synthetic viscous rubber-like material sold commercially under the trade-name Hycar is particularly satisfactory. This material is butadiene-acrylonitrile type copolymer, and is obtainable commercially from Hydrocarbon Chemical Co.

The integral liner is applied as follows:

The bands 36, 38 and 40 are first sprayed with a light coating of adhesive and the adhesive is allowed to dry. A fairly thick coating of adhesive is then sprayed over the entire interior surface of the cover including the bands 36, 38 and 4D. It is not particularly necessary to coat the ii interior surface of the top l0 with liner because lubricant usually is not applied to the top of the spring, but this is a matter of choice.

It is quite important that the initial coating of adhesive over the bands .be allowed to dry thoroughly before application of the all-over coat. The adhesive is characteristic in that the second coat will not then adhere to the initial coat and the complete liner will bridge" the bands as shown in Fig. 6. The function of this feature will be explained later on herein.v r-

After the all-over coat of adhesive has become tacky, the flock is applied by spraying or by other suitable means. Enough flock is applied to substantially completely cover the adhesive and provide a relatively thick hairy surface over vthe interior surface of the cover. An additional coat of adhesive is then applied over the flocked surface at a point near each end of the cover and when this layer of adhesive has become tacky, a layer of flock is applied. This provides a thickened layer or .pad at each end of the casing as indicated by numerals 44 and 46 which seals the casing against escape of lubricant and entry of water and dirt.

After the. fiockV layers are completely dry, a coating: of. lubricant, usually heavy grease, is applied theretoy and the cover is mounted on the spring. For the sake of clearness of disclosure, the lubricantA is not shown in the drawings. As hereinbefore mentioned, two covers are used in each semi-elliptic spring and these are applied with the assistance of a loading machine and power-operated tools.

The spring is placed in a loading machine and flexed until` the main leaf I l is substantially straight. The casing is then positioned on the spring, the bottom 4 extending along the staggered ends of the several leaves. While holding the bottom 4 of the casing against the spring, the sides and 8 of sections I8, 20, 22 and 24 are' pressed toward each other until flange 34 has 'snapped over flange 28, which action takes place automatically thereby locking the casing on the spring. The casing is thereafter permanently secured by pressing downwardly on cover I0 normal to the main spring leaf, whereby the flange 32 is folded against cover I0 and against the longitudinally, extending portion 30, and flange 34 is securely interlocked with flange 28 as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. The combined action of take-up flange 32 and locking flanges 34 and 28 serve to draw the sides 6 and 8 to a snug position about the spring.

During flexing of the spring in use, the flocked liner 4l slides with respect to the bands 36, 38 and 40, which were given an initial coating of adhesive, and thus there is no tendency for the liner to wear through or tear at these points and cause leakage of lubricant.

It will thus be seen that I have provided a unitary cover or casing for leaf springs with an integral liner which makes the use of canvas wrappings and fabric-liners unnecessary.

While` I have shown and described a `preferred form of my invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is to be limited only by the appended claims.

Y I claim:

1. A spring casing comprising a sheet shaped for enclosing at least three sides of a laminated leaf spring and transversely slotted at intervals between its ends, independent cover bands for each slot, means for retaining each `band in position, andy a liner of ock adhesively secured to the interior surfaces of said casing but unsecured to said bands.

2. The process of applying a flock liner. to a spring casing of the type having transverse slots and cover bands for each slot comprising applying `adhesive to said bands, app-lying adhesive to the interior surfaces of said casing after the adhesive on the bands has dried, and applying flock to said adhesive.

3. The process set forth in claim 2 with the additional steps of applying a second layer of adhesive and a second layer of fiock to portions near the ends of the casing thereby to provide sealing pads.

4. In combination, a laminated leaf spring having a casing thereon, said casing comprising a unitary cover having spaced sections movable with respect to each other covering at least three sides of the spring, members covering the spaces between said sections, and a liner of locculent material adhesively secured to the interior of said cover and unsecured to the members covering said spaces.

CLARE S. JACOBS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the .file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,765,863 Clapp June 24, 1930 1,791,252 Tibbetts Feb. 3, 1931 2,128,238 Eisenhauer Aug. 30, 1938 2,534,113 Egger Dec. 12, 1950

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