Land vehicles: wheels and axles – Wheel – With drive or brake attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-10
2003-04-22
Stormer, Russell D. (Department: 3617)
Land vehicles: wheels and axles
Wheel
With drive or brake attachment
C295S007000, C074S443000, C181S290000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06550868
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a damper plate for an automobile wheel, and more particularly to a damper plate for an automobile wheel by which ride comfort and interior noise characteristics are improved.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been hitherto proposed a damper plate for an automobile wheel, for example, made of rubber or synthetic resin as disclosed in Japanese utility model application Kokai publication No. 59-83102. Such a damper plate is interposed between the wheel and an axle, so that vibrations transmitted from the wheel to a vehicle body are suppressed and ride comfort and interior noise characteristics are improved.
However, when the damper plate for the automobile wheel made of an elastic material as described above is interposed between the wheel and the axle, driving stability is significantly deteriorated. Further, nuts which connect and secure the wheels to the axle are apt to be unfastened during traveling. Accordingly, it has been difficult to put the above-described damper plate for the automobile wheel to practical use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a damper plate for an automobile wheel capable of improving ride comfort and interior noise characteristics without significantly deteriorating driving stability and unfastening nuts.
For achieving the above-described object, a damper plate for an automobile wheel according to the present invention is characterized in that a metal plate and a buffer member are laminated, more preferably, a plurality of layers of metal plates and a plurality of layers of buffer members are alternately laminated.
With adopting a structure in which the metal plates and the buffer members are laminated as described above, the rigidity of the damper plate can be increased higher than that of a conventional damper plate composed only of an elastic material. Therefore, when the damper plate is interposed between the wheel and the axle, vibrations transmitted from the wheel to the vehicle body can be suppressed by the buffer members, without significantly deteriorating the driving stability and with maintaining the fastening torque of the nuts stable. As a result, the ride comfort and interior noise characteristics can be improved.
In the present invention, a rubber composition or synthetic resin may be employed as the buffer member. Further, a setting of the rigidity corresponding to desired vehicle characteristics can be arranged if a plurality of buffer areas composed of respectively different materials are provided in the buffer member, if the materials of the buffer members are different mutually among the layers, if the materials of the metal plates are different mutually among the layers, and further if rigid members having the equal thickness as that of the buffer member are embedded in the buffer members.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1818447 (1931-08-01), Baker
patent: 4183572 (1980-01-01), Albrecht et al.
patent: 4392681 (1983-07-01), Raquet
patent: 5454628 (1995-10-01), Maiworm et al.
patent: 5734133 (1998-03-01), Mayer et al.
patent: 6055140 (2000-04-01), Marchon
patent: 6177173 (2001-01-01), Nelson
Kobayashi Yuichi
Sekiguchi Takumi
Stormer Russell D.
The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd.
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