JPH074480A - Chain slippers - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a chain slipper which can reduce a moise by suppressing the vibration of a chain, in a simple structure and at a low cost. CONSTITUTION:A chain slipper 1 made of an aluminum die casting composes a hollow structure having a hollow 1a, and plural oil feeding holes 2 communicating to the hollow 1a are penetrated to a pressing surface 1b opposing to a timing chain 35. The lower end 1c of the chain slipper 1 is rotatably installed on an engine main body, and an oil feeding hole 3 communicating to the hollow 1a is provided at the lower end 1c. An engine oil compressed from an oil pump of the engine main body is fed into the hollow 1a through the oil feeding hole 3. As a result, the engine oil compressed from the engine main body is filled in the hollow 1a, and after absorbing the vibration of the chain slipper 1, it passes through the oil feeding holes 2, and the oil is sprayed on the timing chain from the pressing surface 1b, shown as the dotted line arrows.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a chain slipper, and more particularly to a chain slipper used in a chain tensioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a chain device that rotates at a high speed, in order to prevent slack by applying appropriate tension to the chain and to suppress unnecessary vibration of the chain,
A chain tensioner is provided. In the chain tensioner, the member that presses the chain is usually
It is called a chain slipper.

A typical chain device that rotates at a high speed is a chain device used for transmitting power from a crankshaft of an engine to a camshaft. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a chain device used for power transmission from a crankshaft of an SOHC engine to a camshaft.

A crank sprocket 32 is attached to the crankshaft 31, and a cam sprocket 34 is attached to the camshaft 33. A timing chain 35 is mounted between the sprockets 32 and 34. A chain guide 36 is provided on the tension side of the timing chain 35, and a chain tensioner 37 is provided on the slack side.

The chain guide 36 is fixed to an engine body (not shown) by a fixing member 36a, and abuts the timing chain 35 to determine its position. The chain tensioner 37 is a chain slipper 38.
And the hydraulic pressure element 39, and adjusts the tension of the timing chain 35.

That is, the chain slipper 38 made of aluminum die-cast has an arcuate shape in order to uniformly apply appropriate tension to the timing chain 35, and the lower end portion 38a thereof is rotated with respect to the engine body. It is movably attached. On the other hand, a hydraulic presser 39 is provided on the back side of the upper end of the chain slipper 38 (on the side opposite to the timing chain 35). This hydraulic presser 39
Is configured to press the chain slipper 38 to the timing chain 35 side with an appropriate pressure by hydraulic pressure. Therefore, the chain slipper 38 moves to the timing chain 35 side with the lower end portion 38a as the rotation axis, and applies a constant and appropriate tension to the timing chain 35.

For example, when the engine speed rises, a high load is generated and the tension of the timing chain 35 increases, and the chain slipper 38 abutting on the timing chain 35 tries to be pushed back toward the hydraulic pressure pusher 39 side. .
At this time, the hydraulic pressing element 39 presses the chain slipper 38 with a force corresponding to the force of the chain slipper 38 that is about to be pushed back. Therefore, the timing chain 35
Tension is kept constant. Also, the timing chain 3
Since the tension of the timing chain 35 is kept constant even when 5 is stretched to some extent, the timing chain 35 does not cause an abnormality such as riding on a gear, jumping over, improper meshing, biting, etc. with respect to each sprocket 32, 34. You can prevent it from happening.

[0008]

By the way, in a chain device rotating at a high speed, in order to prevent abnormalities such as riding on a gear, jumping, improper meshing, biting, etc., the chain tension is increased. There must be.
However, the chain stretched with a high tension has a problem that when some vibration is transmitted from the outside, it resonates with the vibration and emits noise.

For example, in the above example, each sprocket 3
There has been a problem that meshing vibrations between the second and the second gears 34 and the timing chain 35, engine vibration, and the like are transmitted to the timing chain 35, and the timing chain 35 emits noise.

Therefore, conventionally, it has been considered to attach a damping material (a rubber material such as butyl rubber or a polymer compound such as sorbosein) to the chain slipper 38.
That is, since the timing chain 35 and the chain slipper 38 are always in contact with each other, the timing chain 3
The vibration of 5 is transmitted to the chain slipper 38. Therefore, if the vibration is absorbed by the damping material attached to the chain slipper 38, the original timing chain 3
The vibration of 5 can be absorbed. That is, the chain slipper 38 is used not only as a chain tensioner but also as a vibration damping member for the timing chain 35.

However, there is a problem that the vibration cannot be sufficiently absorbed only by attaching the damping material to the chain slipper 38. For example, when a rubber material such as butyl rubber is used as a vibration damping material, it has a drawback that it can sufficiently absorb high frequency vibrations but cannot sufficiently absorb low frequency vibrations. However, some polymer compounds have high vibration damping performance against vibrations in a wide frequency range from low frequencies to high frequencies. However, since such a damping material having high damping performance is expensive, there is a problem that the cost of the entire chain device increases.

Further, in order to effectively absorb the vibration of the chain slipper 38, a damping material is used for the chain slipper 3
It must be placed in accordance with the vibration points of 8. Then, there is a problem that the cost of processing the damping material increases, resulting in an increase in the cost of the entire chain device.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a chain slipper capable of suppressing vibration of a chain and reducing noise.
It is to provide it at low cost with a simple configuration.

[0014]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the first aspect of the present invention is that the chain slipper has a hollow structure, and the inside of the hollow is filled with a fluid. To do.

A second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the chain slipper has a hollow structure, and an oil passage hole communicating with the hollow inside is provided on the chain pressing surface.

[0016]

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the invention, the vibration of the chain slipper is absorbed by the fluid filled in the hollow interior. Therefore, the vibration of the chain that abuts on the chain slipper can be suppressed.

According to the second aspect of the invention, by filling the hollow interior with the lubricating oil, the lubricating oil can be sprayed onto the chain from the chain pressing surface through the oil passage hole. Therefore, in addition to the action and effect of the invention described in claim 1, it is possible to obtain a chain lubrication effect.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. It should be noted that the present embodiment embodies a chain slipper used in a chain device used for power transmission from a crankshaft of an engine to a camshaft. Therefore, in this embodiment, only the chain slipper is different from the conventional example shown in FIG. That is, the chain slipper 1 of this embodiment shown in FIG.
The chain device can be embodied by merely replacing the chain slipper 38 of the conventional example shown in FIG. Therefore, the description of the configuration other than the chain slippers will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a chain slipper 1 of this embodiment. The chain slipper 1 is made of aluminum die-cast, and its outer shape is the same as the chain slipper 38. However, the chain slipper 1 has a hollow structure having a hollow portion 1a. Further, the pressing surface 1b of the chain slipper 1 against the timing chain 35 is provided with a plurality of oil passage holes 2 communicating with the hollow portion 1a.
In addition, the hole diameter and the interval of each oil passage hole 2 are appropriately determined.

The lower end 1c of the chain slipper 1 is rotatably attached to the engine body. Also,
The lower end portion 1c is provided with an oil passage hole 3 which communicates with the hollow portion 1a. The engine oil pressure-fed from an oil pump (not shown) provided in the engine body is fed into the hollow portion 1a through the oil passage hole 3.

Therefore, the engine oil sent under pressure from the engine body passes through the oil passage hole 2 after filling the hollow portion 1a and is sprayed from the pressing surface 1b to the timing chain 35 as shown by the dotted arrow. Become.

As described above, in this embodiment, the engine oil fills the hollow portion 1a of the chain slipper 1. Therefore, the engine oil acts as a damping material for the chain slipper 1, and the chain slipper 1
Vibration is absorbed. As described above, since the chain slipper 1 is always in contact with the timing chain 35, by absorbing the vibration of the chain slipper 1,
Vibration of the timing chain 35 can be suppressed.

Here, as the engine oil that acts as a damping material for the chain slipper 1, only the oil used for lubricating and cooling the engine is diverted, so compared to the conventional example in which a special damping material is provided. And can be implemented easily and inexpensively. Further, since engine oil is a fluid having an appropriate viscosity, it can effectively absorb all vibrations from high frequencies to low frequencies. Further, since the chain slipper 1 is made of aluminum die-cast, for example, if it has a two-part structure, the hollow portion 1a can be easily formed with almost no increase in cost. By properly forming the hollow portion 1a, the engine oil that acts as a vibration damping material can be evenly distributed from the front end portion to the rear end portion of the chain slipper 1. This makes it possible to effectively absorb the vibrations of the chain slipper 1 no matter where it is.

In the present embodiment, the timing chain 35 can be lubricated by spraying the engine oil from the pressing surface 1b onto the timing chain 35. Conventionally, for lubrication of the timing chain 35,
The engine oil is jetted from an oil jet provided separately from the chain slipper 1 to generate the timing chain 35.
I was trying to spray it on. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the engine oil used as the damping material of the chain slipper 1 can be diverted to lubricate the timing chain 35, so that the oil system can be simplified as compared with the conventional example.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but may be carried out as follows. 1) The oil passage 2 is eliminated so that the engine oil is simply filled in the hollow portion 1a. In this case, although the timing chain 35 cannot be lubricated, the vibration preventing effect of the timing chain 35 is the same as that of the above embodiment.

2) The oil passage holes 2 and 3 are eliminated to fill the hollow portion 1a with an appropriate fluid having a high vibration damping property. In this case, depending on the vibration damping performance of the fluid filled in the hollow portion 1a, the vibration preventing effect of the timing chain 35 can be made greater than that of the above-described embodiment.

3) Replace each oil passage hole 2 with a slit cut in the longitudinal direction of the chain slipper 1. 4) The chain slipper 1 is formed by injection molding of an appropriate material (metal, synthetic resin, etc.) instead of aluminum.
Further, the chain slipper 1 is formed by press molding of an appropriate material.

5) Not only the chain device used for power transmission from the crankshaft of the engine to the camshaft, but also an appropriate chain device.

[0029]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the chain slipper capable of suppressing the vibration of the chain and reducing the noise can be provided at a low cost with a simple structure. There is.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a chain slipper according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a chain device used for power transmission from a crankshaft of an SOHC engine to a camshaft.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a ... Hollow part, 2 ... Oil passage hole

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A chain slipper having a hollow structure, the interior of which is filled with fluid. 2. A chain slipper having a hollow structure, and an oil passage communicating with the hollow inside is provided on a chain pressing surface.