Metal founding – Process – Shaping liquid metal against a forming surface
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-22
2003-09-09
Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)
Metal founding
Process
Shaping liquid metal against a forming surface
C164S111000, C164S112000, C164S137000, C029S898049, C029S898043, C029S898120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06615900
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a connecting rod for use in a steering portion, stabilizer portion and the like of a vehicle, and more particularly to a connecting rod having a pair of ball joints on both ends of a rod main body and in which shanks swingably provided on the ball joints are disposed such that axes thereof intersect each other at 90°.
Conventionally, this kind of the connecting rod has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-59206. This connecting rod is so constructed by connecting two ball joints
110
,
111
in which a holder is connected to a shank in a different way as shown in FIG.
5
. That is, in the ball joint
110
, the holder
112
is connected to the ball-shank
113
in a substantially L-shape and in the other ball joint
111
, the holder
114
is connected to the ball-shank
115
in a substantially I-shape. By connecting the holder
112
of the ball joint
110
to the ball-shank
115
of the ball joint
111
, a substantially L-shaped connecting rod in which a pair of the ball-shanks are disposed such that their axes intersect each other at 90° is formed.
However, upon manufacturing the substantially L-shaped connecting rod by connecting the two ball joints, a distance between the center of swings of the ball joints or a distance between the centers has to be adjusted at the time of connecting the ball joints, so that the connecting work becomes complicated. Further, two kinds of the ball joints have to be manufactured because the connecting styles of the holder and ball-shank are different. As a result, numbers of necessary parts and manufacturing steps increase thereby leading to an increase of production cost.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-28710 has disclosed a connecting rod in which a pair of ball joints are formed integrally by aluminum die casting. This connecting rod, as shown in
FIG. 6
, comprises a rod main body
105
having a pair of ball-shanks
102
in which a ball portion
101
is formed at a front end of a shank portion
100
and a pair of socket portion
104
,
104
provided at both ends of a shaft portion
103
for accommodating a ball portion
101
of each of the ball-shank
102
. Socket portions
104
of the rod main body and shaft portion
103
are formed integrally by aluminum die casting. The ball portion
101
of each ball-shank
104
is accommodated in the socket portion
104
of the rod main body
105
together with bearing
106
made of synthetic resin. As a result, the shank portions
102
of the ball-shank
102
are swingable with respect to each of the aforementioned socket portions
104
, so that the ball joints are formed on both ends of the rod main body
105
.
However, if it is intended to produce a connecting rod in which a rod main body thereof is made of aluminum diecast and a pair of ball joints are connected in a substantially L shape, of a pair of the socket portions
104
,
104
provided on the rod main body
105
, one socket portion
104
has to be open in an axial direction of the rod main body
105
, so that strength of the ball joint to be assembled by the socket portion
104
is short. That is, in a ball joint which is connected to the rod main body
105
in line, the ball portion
101
has to be encased in the socket portion
104
against an axial force applied to the ball-shank
102
and an axial force applied to the rod main body
105
. However, because the socket portion
104
is open in the axial direction of the rod main body
105
, if an excessive force is applied thereto, the ball portion
101
may escape from the socket portion
104
together with the bearing
106
. Therefore, upon manufacturing a connecting rod in which a pair of the ball joints are connected in a substantially L shape, it is difficult to construct the ball joint by forming a pair of the socket portions in the rod main body as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-28710.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been accomplished in views of these problems and therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a connecting rod in which a pair of ball-shanks are connected to a rod main body such that they are axially perpendicular to each other, having a sufficient strength and which can be manufactured easily and at a low cost, and a manufacturing method of the same.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a connecting rod comprising first and second ball-shanks in which a ball portion is formed at a shank portion each of thereof; a rod main body having first and second ball receiving portions for holding the ball portions of the first and second ball-shanks, having a joint portion which has the ball receiving portions at both ends thereof, and connected the first or second ball-shanks freely swingably and rotatably; and wherein said first ball-shank is connected to said rod main body such that the shank portion thereof is perpendicular to the joint portion, while said second ball-shank is connected to said rod main body such that the shank portion thereof is parallel to the joint portion, and said rod main body is die-cast with the ball portion of the ball-shank being inserted as core, so that said first ball receiving portion, second ball receiving portion and joint portion are integral.
In the connecting rod of the present invention having such a structure, a rod main body for connecting a pair of the ball-shank is formed by die-casting with the ball portion of each ball-shank being inserted as a core. Thus, the ball portion is encased by the ball receiving portion of the rod main body, so that the ball-shank is firmly connected to the rod main body. Because the rod main body is cast such that the ball portion of the ball-shank is encased therein, a procedure for connecting the ball portion of the ball-shank to the rod main body such that they are freely swingable is eliminated, thereby making it possible to manufacture the connecting rod easily at low cost.
On the other hand, as for a manufacturing method of the connecting rod of the present invention having such a structure, if the aforementioned first and second ball-shanks are connected to the rod main body such that they intersect the joint portion of the rod main body, the rod main body in which the ball is encased by the ball receiving portion can be produced using the manufacturing method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-7786. That is, according to this disclosed manufacturing method, upon casting a holder with a ball inserted into a cast die as a core, the ball is sandwiched by a pair of the supporting portions projecting from the die so that it is not moved in the die. When the ball joint is completed, the shank portion of the ball-shank projects from the opening portion formed in the holder by this supporting portion. Therefore, if a pair of the ball-shanks are parallel to each other in a connecting rod of the present invention, the opening portions of the pair of the opening portions formed in the rod main body have only to be open in the same direction, so that upon casting of the rod main body, the ball can be fixed in the die easily.
However, in a connecting rod of the present invention, as described above, the first ball-shank intersects the joint portion of the rod main body and the second ball-shank is parallel to the joint portion of the rod main body. That is, the first ball-shank and second ball-shank are axially perpendicular to each other. Therefore, the opening portions to be provided in the rod main body for the ball-shanks need to be open in directions perpendicular to each other and a pair of the balls inserted into the casting die must be sandwiched from opposite directions. Thus, upon manufacturing of the connecting rod of the present invention, the manufacturing method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. HEI5-7786 cannot be just applied and a new manufacturing method needs to be invented by improving the aforementioned
Dunn Tom
McHenry Kevin
THK Co. Ltd.
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