Land vehicles: wheels and axles – Wheel – Compression wheel
Patent
1995-09-13
1996-11-26
Stormer, Russell D.
Land vehicles: wheels and axles
Wheel
Compression wheel
29894323, B60B 304
Patent
active
055778100
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel disk for an automobile.
2. Description of Related Art
As illustrated in FIG. 7, a wheel is a welded assembly of a dish-like disk 1 and an annular rim 2. A disk for a large-sized wheel such as wheels for busses and trucks, made according to the process of FIG. 8, is manufactured by the steps of die-cutting a circular blank 4 from a square flat plate 3 (step 2), drawing the blank 4 into the form of a disk configuration by a press (step 3), perforating a hub hole and decoration holes by a press (step 4), and drilling nut holes by a multiple drill and machining nut seats (step 5). The thus constructed disk manufactured from a flat plate has a substantially uniform thickness as shown in FIG. 7.
Alternatively, a disk may be formed to a disk configuration through cold spinning so as to have a thickness gradually decreased from a hub coupling portion to a disk end portion. In the case of a gradually changing thickness, it has been thought to be preferable that the thickness of the disk end portion should be decreased to one half of the original thickness of the plate.
However, according to a stress analysis of a disk wheel conducted using a finite element method, it is clear that the stress distributions of the conventional disk having a substantially uniform thickness and the conventional disk having a gradually decreased thickness are not ideal. As a result, a relatively large stress concentration is caused at a weld portion connecting the disk end portion and the rim, and a portion of the disk is thicker than needed to be accompanied by an increase in weight.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a disk improved in stress distribution thereby improving the fatigue strength of the disk and enabling a decrease in weight of the disk.
The disk includes a hub coupling portion disposed perpendicular to an axis of the disk. The hub coupling portion is coupled to a curved portion, which in turn is coupled to a hat portion, which is coupled to an end portion. The end portion is formed to have a thickness greater than that of the hat portion and less than that of the hub coupling portion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent and will be more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view of a wheel which includes a disk having a non-uniform thickness according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the disk of FIG. 1 denoted with positional reference letters at respective positions of the disk;
FIG. 3 is a graph showing a thickness distribution of the disk of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the wheel of FIG. 1 denoted with positional reference characters at respective positions of the disk;
FIG. 5 is a graph showing a stress distribution in the disk of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating steps for manufacturing the disk having a non-uniform thickness according to the present invention including the step of cold spinning;
FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view of a conventional disk having a uniform thickness; and
FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating steps for manufacturing the conventional disk.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a wheel 10 includes an annular rim 12 having a rim configuration and a disk 11 having the form of a disk inserted in and welded to the rim 12 at a disk end.
The disk 11 includes a hub coupling portion 13, a curved portion 14, a hat portion 15, and an end portion 16. The hub coupling portion 13 extends perpendicularly to a disk axis (i.e., a wheel axis). The curved portion 14 is integrally connected to the hub coupling portion 13 and curves radially outwardly and axially inwardly a
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Abe Kishiro
Itoh Mitsuru
Stormer Russell D.
Topy Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
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