Joints and connections – Articulated members – Pivoted
Patent
1999-04-07
2000-11-28
Kim, Harry C.
Joints and connections
Articulated members
Pivoted
403 50, 277635, F16C 1106
Patent
active
06152641&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a ball joint having a ball joint housing, preferably with attachment means on, a ball of a ball pivot which is pivotally mounted in a recess of the ball joint housing, and an elastic seal between the shaft and the ball joint housing.
In a known ball joint of this type the jacket provided as a seal consists of a collar or a bellows of natural or synthetic rubber or of thermoplastic elastomers. These collars or bellows are conically corrugated in the manner of a concertina. They are pushed over the pivots of the ball joint and fit with the edge of the larger opening under prestress into a peripheral groove of the ball joint housing. In addition, one or two solid circlips or spiral lock washers are tensioned via the collar or bellows. These clip(s) or washer(s) press the collar or bellows into the groove and thus attach it securely and tightly.
This manner of construction requires separate production, warehousing and assembly on the one side of the collar or bellows and on the other side of the ball joint body. For the circlip(s) and the spiral lock washer(s) in addition a corrosion-resistant and thus expensive material must be used. In addition, when the spiral lock washer is clamped, because of assembly the collar or the bellows is relatively frequently torn and thus a high scrap rate occurs and expensive retouch efforts are necessary.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of this invention is to simplify the production of ball joints of the initially mentioned type, to shorten assembly time, to cut production costs and the scrap rate. In addition the service life of these ball joints will be increased.
This object is achieved by the seal being formed of a molded-on jacket of crosslinked or non-crosslinked elastomer.
Use of the invention eliminates the necessity of separate production and warehousing of collars or bellows and the circlips and spiral lock washers since the plastic of the jacket extends into the grooves during forming and is joined by form-fit to the material of the ball joint housing. Therefore circlips or spiral lock washers are no longer needed so that they and the scrap and repairs necessitated thereby are eliminated.
Other advantageous details of the invention are given in the dependent claims and are detailed below using the embodiments illustrated in the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the bottom of the injected bearing shell and
FIGS. 2 and 2a through 5 shows other advantageous embodiments of a ball joint.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the drawings in FIG. 1 the ball joint is labelled 1. It has a ball joint housing 2 which is provided with a recess 3 which is accessible via an opening 2.1. In the recess 3 there is an injected bearing shell 4 of plastic with a low coefficient of friction. The bearing surface of the bearing shell 4 is used to support a ball 5 which is provided on the shaft 6 of a ball pivot. On the ball joint housing 2 there is an attachment means in the form of a flange 8 which projects laterally.
Production of the ball joint 1 proceeds such that the ball pivot 7 with its ball 5 is inserted in the recess 3 in its intended end position and then the opening 2.1 is closed with a mold tool plunger which is not shown. On the side opposite side 2.1 the closed bottom 2.2 of the ball joint housing 2 is provided with a gate 2.3 via which the plastic mass is injected into the remaining cavity between the inside wall 3.1 of the recess 3 and the ball 5 by a gate plunger 10 of an injection or injection molding tool which is not detailed. This forms the bearing shell 4.
For good anchoring of the bearing shell 4 in the recess 3 its inside wall 3.1 is roughened, fluted, peripherally grooved, or made adherent in some otherwise suitable manner. In particular in the production of the ball joint housing 2 using the known metal casting processes the resulting rough surface can be left unmachined, since high precision is not critical in the production
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Kim Harry C.
Sachsenring Automobiltechnik AG
Safran David S.
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