Metal deforming – Process – Tube making or reshaping
Patent
1982-01-15
1984-06-12
Larson, Lowell A.
Metal deforming
Process
Tube making or reshaping
72348, B21D 5116
Patent
active
044533950
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a shell of a universal-joint and a manufacturing method therefor, and more particularly to a technology of manufacturing the shell, which has conventionally relied upon forging and machining, by means of pressing and ironing processes.
2. Background Art
As a species of universal-joints for flexibly joining a pair of rotary shafts, one is known wherein rotary movement of one rotary shaft is transmitted to the other rotary shaft such that one end of a shell of the universal-joint is fixed to one rotary shaft, such as a differential side gear shaft in a vehicle, while the other end of the shell allows the receipt of the other rotary shaft for transmission of movement. The other shaft may, for example, include portions which engage axial grooves formed in the internal surface of the shell.
In some universal-joints of this type such as tripod joint, double offset plunging joint, Rzeppa joint, Weiss joint, etc., the shell has been conventionally manufactured by forming a hollow cylindrical material or thick-walled blank of thick wall through extrusion such as hot forging or cold forging, followed by a forging process applied to the formed thick walled, cylindrical blank with a punch and a die and a machining process for forming the grooves to a desired shape and dimension.
The above-mentioned manufacturing method is problematical in various respects, for example, being low in productivity because of its laborious and time-consuming process of machining at the final stage of manufacture. This also results in increased cost or decrease in strength of the products because of machining or cutting of the material after the forging.
Adoption of the forging process inevitably requires the products to be thick-walled in the above-mentioned method, which results in the products being heavy and expensive in material cost.
This invention was made from such a background. It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide a light and strong shell as a component of a universal-joint for flexibly coupling a first rotary shaft and a second rotary shaft which is to transmit rotation of the first rotary shaft, wherein the shell of hollow cylindrical shape is formed such that one end thereof is fixed to the first rotary shaft, while the other end is open so as to allow the second rotary shaft to be inserted thereinto, and a plurality of grooves are made inside the shell along the axis thereof for allowing engagement with engaging members disposed on the end of the inserted second rotary shaft.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method of inexpensively manufacturing such a shell as mentioned above.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
A shell of a universal-joint according to this invention is made by forming the shell with a press machine from a pipe or plate material piece, and requiring no machining for forming the grooves on the inside of the shell.
The manufacturing method for the universal-joint shell of this invention is composed of a preliminary forming process wherein a preliminary pressing process is executed to form the grooves in a hollow cylindrical material piece and a finishing process wherein a ironing process is applied to the preliminarily formed grooves for finishing them to a desired shape and dimension. The cylindrical material piece may either be a pipe of a predetermined length or one made by a drawing or stamping process from a plate member with a press machine.
In a preferred mode of the manufacturing method the above-mentioned preliminary forming process includes a process wherein the hollow cylindrical material piece is inwardly formed to have protrusions at a plurality of suitable places so as to form a plurality of grooves between every two of the neighboring protrusions. The protrusions are slanted with respect to the axis of the cylindrical piece such that the protrusion gradually slopes closer to the axial line from one end of the cylindrical material piece toward the other end thereof. Thereafter, the finishing process is ap
REFERENCES:
patent: 1248482 (1917-12-01), Grob
patent: 2947081 (1960-08-01), Clevenger
patent: 3792596 (1974-02-01), Orain
patent: 4154082 (1979-05-01), Beech
Ikeda Sadao
Matsubara Koichi
Takeda Koichi
Larson Lowell A.
Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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