Spring devices – Vehicle – Elastomeric
Patent
1988-06-28
1990-09-25
Kashnikow, Andres
Spring devices
Vehicle
Elastomeric
2671405, 2671412, 2671403, 267153, 248635, F16F 308
Patent
active
049588125
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a suspension spring system.
Especially, the invention relates to a spring system with a soft suspension spring, whereat said soft suspension spring is a tension spring or a pressure spring.
Soft suspension springs with a flat linear force-deflection curve are theoretically perfect for supporting and suspension purposes in numerous applications. Practically, however, their use almost always fails because the spring strokes are too large, because the material of the soft suspension spring, which may be spring steel or elastomer material, the high local loads connected therewith, and because the hard action of the necessary end stop means limit the spring stroke.
Similar problems arise when using stiffer and mechanically more rigid suspension springs that undergo large, especially dynamic loads.
Thus, the invention is designed to provide a suspension spring system which, particularly when using a soft and/or highly loaded suspension spring, shows a high mechanical stability under load and a long working life even when undergoing dynamic loads. Additionally, when leaving the linear working range, the limitation of the spring stroke is to start softly without any hard stop characteristics without having to use soft stop buffers which would have to undergo too high requirements with respect to their mechanical stability.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
For solving this problem, a suspension spring system according to the present invention includes a bistable control spring coupled to a suspension spring, wherein both stable final positions of said control spring are on top of each other with respect to the direction of the spring deflection path of the suspension spring.
The suspension spring system according to the present invention comprises two essential and fundamental advantages: (1) The control spring may have a high or very high mechanical rigidity, so that the control spring is able to protect effectively a soft suspension spring without changing significantly by the unstable range of its force-deflection curve the force-deflection curve of the suspension spring within the coupled range. (2) The control spring used in a suspension spring system according to the present invention shows a force-deflection curve starting from a first overstretched final range, followed by a first stable final range, then changing from an unstable intermediate range showing practically almost a zero spring rate followed by the range of the restoring force of the control spring to a second stable final range, followed again by a second overstretched final range. In a suspension spring system according to the present invention, this force-deflection curve of said control spring is acting additively to the force-deflection curve of the suspension spring, so that a person skilled in the art constructing a suspension spring system according to the principles of the present invention has practically unlimited possibilities for influencing the force-deflection curve of the suspension spring system by choosing the working range of the spring characteristics of the control spring according to the respective application.
Preferably, the control spring is used such that the unstable neutral range of the control spring with respect to the spring deflection path, which is in-between the two stable final positions of the control spring, is within the working range of the suspension spring, which in most applications will be linear. For realizing such a suspension spring system, a person skilled in the art will find a large number of possible spring combinations without any problems. Preferably, the suspension spring system is formed such that the suspension spring is a pressure spring or a tension spring and the control spring is either a pressure or a tension spring radially pre-stressed with respect to the suspension spring, or a pressure or tension spring system consisting of several pressure or tension springs with or without inserted lever systems, or a disc spring
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Pletsch Hubert
Wolf Franz J.
Kashnikow Andres
Le Mark T.
WOCO Franz-Josef Wolf & Co.
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