Plastic leaf spring with at least one spring-eye body or spring-

Details Plastic leaf spring with at least one spring-eye body or spring- Plastic leaf spring with at least one spring-eye body or spring-

1985-10-16

1987-09-29

Butler, Douglas C.

Spring devices

Vehicle

Leaf

267149, B60G 1112, F16F 128

Patent

active

046964592

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention concerns a plastic leaf spring with at least one spring-eye section or spring-eye body arranged at one of the spring ends, containing a layer of substantially constant thickness, with a center section wrapped around the spring-eye opening, and two connecting sections appropriately parallel to each other, with the latter appropriately forming at least part of the spring end, and with the outside surface of the layer forming a hollow groove at at least one transition between its center section and its end sections.


STATE OF THE PRIOR ART

A plastic leaf spring of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,958. To manufacture these springs, one starts with a thin strip consisting of non-woven glass fiber material and a soft matrix resin on an epoxy resin basis. Blanks of such a strip are placed in a mold in several plies, one above the other, and joined under pressure and at a raised temperature under cure hardening of the matrix resin to produce the finished leaf spring. FIGS. 6 and 15 of this U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,958 relate to plastic leaf springs manufactured according to this method, in which the spring-eyes are integrated in the spring body. The thusly constructed plastic leaf springs have only a low tensile strength in the direction perpendicular to the surfaces of the strip blanks that serve to construct the leaf spring, because the springs have no reinforcing fibers running in this direction. As the applicant has found, this has in many instances the effect that when an overstrain is introduced through the spring-eyes, which has an essential component also in the direction parallel to the longitudinal extension of the spring, the leaf spring will tear directly at a spring-eye in the midpoint of the spring.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the invention is to improve a plastic leaf spring of the above mentioned type with the construction and dimensioning otherwise remaining the same, in such a manner that the strength of the spring as determined by a tensile test in which the tensile force introduced through the spring-eyes essentially acts in the longitudinal extension of the spring, will be increased considerably.
The problem assigned to the invention is solved by the plastic leaf spring according to the invention in that two reinforcing elements are provided, appropriately plate-shaped, which outwardly abut under pressure the two connecting sections of the layer of the spring-eye section or spring-eye body wrapping the spring-eye opening, with at least one thereby touching the layer surface at a hollow groove, and which elements are form-locking and/or frictionally connected to each other.
At least one of the reinforcing elements advantageously closely joins with a rounded off edge the connecting hollow groove of the layer-surface.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the leaf spring according to the invention, the reinforcing elements are connected by bolts to each other and to the spring end.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the leaf spring pursuant to the invention is characterized in that the spring-eye section and the plastic leaf spring are constructed in one piece. Advantageously, the two connecting sections of the spring-eye section wrapping the spring-eye opening are joined to each other, and thereby form at least one part of the plate-shaped spring end.
In another advantageous embodiment of the leaf spring according to the invention, it is characterized in that the spring-eye body is manufactured as a body separate from the leaf spring body, which is joined to the spring end. Advantageously, the two connecting sections of the layer of the spring-eye body wrapping the spring-eye opening abut the two flat sides of the spring end, and are connected to the spring end together with the reinforcing elements.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 and 2 show schematically in vertical and plan view, respectively, the spring-eye section 1 at the end of a leaf spring of fiber-reinforced plastic, e.g., of glass-fiber

REFERENCES:
patent: 3968958 (1976-07-01), Huchette et al.
patent: 4475723 (1984-10-01), Meyer
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 8, No. 2, (M-266), (1439), Jan. 7, 1984.

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