Spring devices – Resilient shock or vibration absorber – Including energy absorbing means or feature
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-30
2004-10-12
Siconolfi, Robert A. (Department: 3683)
Spring devices
Resilient shock or vibration absorber
Including energy absorbing means or feature
C267S293000, C267S141000, C267S004000, C248S562000, C248S638000, C248S635000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06802498
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to cylindrical mounting apparatuses equipped with brackets, which are useful as mounts for automotive vehicles, such as engine mounts, body mounts, deferential mounts and cab mounts. More specifically, the invention is concerned with a cylindrical mounting apparatus, which is novel in construction and which ensures improved efficiency in assembling the cylindrical mount with the bracket.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cylindrical mount is known as one type of a vibration damping coupling (bushing) or mount, which is interposed between two members of a vibration system so as to flexibly connect these two members or mount one of these members on the other member in a vibration damping fashion. A known cylindrical mount includes a metallic inner and outer sleeve which are disposed in mutually spaced-apart relation with each other, and an elastic body interposed between the inner and outer sleeves so as to elastically connect the inner and outer sleeves. The known cylindrical mount is capable of exhibiting desired damping effects with respect to various kinds of vibrations applied thereto in a plurality of directions orthogonal to a center axis thereof.Byforming axial bores in the elastic body, the cylindrical mount can be easily tuned in terms of a ratio of spring stiffness values in different diametric directions thereof. For the above advantages, the cylindrical mount has been widely used as engine mounts, body mounts or other mounts for automotive vehicles.
When installing such a cylindrical mount into a desired vibration system, it is important to fixedly attach the inner and outer sleeves to respective members of the vibration system, e.g., a power unit and a body of an automotive vehicle. To this end, there has been widely employed to use a bracket specifically configured in consideration of configurations or other features of seat portions of the respective members of the vibration system so that the inner and outer sleeves are firmly attached on the seat portions of the respective members of the vibration system via the bracket. In this regards, a bracket for the inner sleeve generally includes a pair of support plates opposed to each other with a spacing substantially corresponding to an axial length of the inner sleeve. The cylindrical mount is inserted into the spacing between the pair of support plates of the bracket and fixed firmly to the bracket by fastening a long mounting bolt extending through a bore of the inner sleeve and through holes formed through the respective support plates to the bracket.
However, the bracket of conventional structure as described above requires manual operations in a blind manner: of inserting the cylindrical mount into the spacing between the support plates; of arranging the bore of the inner sleeve in alignment with the through holes of the support plates; and of inserting the bolt into these through holes of the support plates and the bore of the inner sleeve to fasten the same to the bracket. Therefore, the use of the bracket of conventional structure inevitably requires cumbersome and prolonged operations, and causes a problem of variation in operation efficiency depending on skills of operators.
Additionally, many conventional cylindrical mounts require adjustment of their angular orientations when assembled with the brackets, in consideration of their spring characteristics in diametric directions orthogonal to their axial directions. In each case, the conventional cylindrical mount needs further a manual operation for appropriately positioning the cylindrical mount about its center axis, in addition to the above-described cumbersome manual operations. This makes the assembly more complicate, and may possibly cause deterioration in operability as well as occurrence of defective products due to directional errors during assembling the cylindrical mounts with the bracket.
JP-A-2001-180296 discloses one example of the conventional cylindrical mount wherein a bracket of sideway U-letter shape has opposite side walls between which the cylindrical mount is extended. A pair of reinforcing plates are welded to respective inside surfaces of the opposite side walls of the bracket, to thereby provide stoppers projecting inwards from the respective inside surfaces of the opposite side walls in order to mark the ending of insertion of the cylindrical mount into the bracket. However, the stoppers just make it possible to position the cylindrical mount relative to the bracket in a direction of insertion of the cylindrical mount to the bracket, it is still difficult to position the inner sleeve of the cylindrical member in alignment with bolt holes formed through the bracket. In particular, the angular orientation of the cylindrical mount is not taken into consideration at all in the cylindrical mount of construction disclosed in JP-A-2001-180296. If it is needed to consider the angular orientation of a cylindrical mount when assembling the cylindrical mount with the bracket, the structure or other teaching of the cylindrical mount disclosed in JP-A-2001-180296 never shows a measure for this problem, i.e. for appropriately positioning the cylindrical mount in its circumferential direction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore one object of this invention to provide a cylindrical mounting apparatus equipped with a bracket, which is novel and simple in construction, which makes it easy to insert a mounting bolt into a bore of an inner sleeve of a cylindrical mount to fasten the mount into the bracket, and which makes it possible to assemble the cylindrical mount with the bracket with ease and excellent efficiency.
The above and/or other objects may be attained according to at least one of the following modes of the invention. Each of these modes of the invention is numbered like the appended claims and depending from the other mode or modes, where appropriate, to indicate possible combinations of elements or technical features of the invention. It is to be understood that the following modes or elements of the invention may be adopted at any possible optional combinations, and that the present invention is not limited to the following modes or combinations of these modes, but may otherwise be recognized based on the thought of the present invention that described in the whole specification and drawings or that may be recognized by those skilled in the art in the light of the disclosure in the whole specification and drawings.
(1) A cylindrical mounting apparatus equipped with a bracket comprising: (a) a cylindrical mount including an inner and outer sleeve disposed in mutually spaced-apart relation with each other, and an elastic body interposed between the inner and outer sleeves so as to elastically connect the inner and outer sleeves; (b) a bracket independent of the cylindrical mount, having a pair of support plates opposed to each other with a spacing therebetween, and assembled with the cylindrical mount such that the cylindrical mount is inserted into the spacing between the pair of support plates and fasten to the bracket by means of a mounting bolt extending through a bore of the inner sleeve across the pair of support plates; (c) two positioning protrusions formed on and protruding from at least one of the pair of support plates toward an other of the pair of support plate; and (d) a mounting plate disposed on one of axially opposite end portions of the inner sleeve so as to extend in a direction orthogonal to an axial direction of the inner sleeve, the mounting plate being held in contact with an inside surface of the at least one of the pair of support plates, and having an engaging portion of recessed shape, which is open in an outer circumferential surface of the mounting plate, and which is brought into abutting contact with the two positioning projections so as to place the mounting plate in a predetermined position about a center axis of the inner sleeve on the inside surface of the at least one of the pair of support plates.
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Makino Takashi
Mayama Akihiro
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Kramer Devon
Siconolfi Robert A.
Tokia Rubber Industries, Ltd.
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