JPH10272909A - Suspension arm members - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: In a suspension arm member having a bush mounting portion for mounting a cylindrical bush on at least a part of a member main body, the direction of the bush mounting portion with respect to the member main body can be made variable, and furthermore, as a whole Provided is a suspension arm member that can increase the degree of freedom in design with respect to the shape, the length of the member body, and the like. A member main body and a bush mounting portion are fastened and fixed by screws.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a member for a suspension arm of an automobile or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a suspension arm member (50) constituting an automobile suspension arm, such as an upper arm, a lower arm, and a torsion bar, has a rod-shaped or other shaped member body (51) and a cylindrical protection member at both ends or one end thereof. A bush mounting portion (53) having a circular mounting hole (52) for mounting the vibration bush (40). As the bush (40), a spindle member (41) located at the center and a bush (40) are disposed around the spindle member (41) and have an outer diameter of the mounting hole (5).
A rigid sleeve (42) set slightly larger than the diameter of (2) is provided with a rubber elastic body (4) inserted between them.
Those connected by 3) are generally used, and the bush (40) is press-fitted into the mounting hole (52) to be mounted and fixed to the suspension arm member (50).

Conventionally, the suspension arm member (50) as described above is manufactured entirely by a sheet metal press using an iron-based material, or, when the member body is long, a member body (51) made of a pipe or a plate. ) And a bush mounting portion (53) separately manufactured by pressing or casting. However, iron-based materials have the disadvantage that they are heavy in weight and, in addition, the cost is high in the case of welding.

Accordingly, recently, a suspension arm member made of a lightweight aluminum material has been used. In the case of aluminum, since extensibility is good, an extruded profile in which the member main body (51) and the bush mounting portion (53) are integrally formed is exclusively used, and this extruded profile is moved in the extrusion direction. The suspension arm is cut into slices having a required thickness.

However, the member main body (5)
When 1) and the bush mounting portion (53) are integrally formed by extrusion, the direction of the bush mounting portion (53) with respect to the member main body (51) is uniquely determined, and this can be changed. Did not. In addition, there is a limit to the degree of design freedom that can be adopted, such as the shape of the suspension arm member and the length of the member body.

The present invention has been made in view of the above technical background, and allows the direction of a bush mounting portion with respect to a member main body to be variable, and also increases the degree of freedom in design with respect to the overall shape, the length of the member main body, and the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide a suspension arm member that can be used.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a suspension arm member having a bush mounting portion for mounting a cylindrical bush on at least a part of a member main body. The member main body and the bush mounting portion are fastened and fixed by screws.

With such a configuration, by adjusting the amount of screwing into one of the member main body and the bush mounting portion, the direction of the bush mounting portion with respect to the member main body can be set to an arbitrary angle in a plane including the rotation direction. Is set to

In addition, since the member main body and the bush mounting portion are separately manufactured, the degree of freedom in design that can be adopted with respect to the shape of the suspension arm member, the length of the member main body, and the like is increased.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a suspension arm member of an automobile will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 6 show a first embodiment of the present invention.

In these figures, (A) shows a member for a suspension arm of an automobile. The suspension arm member (A) is formed by a rod-shaped member main body (1) and a total of two bush mounting portions (10) (10) attached to both ends in the length direction.

The member main body (1) is formed by cutting an aluminum extruded pipe material having a hollow portion (2) to a predetermined length in the extrusion direction. The pipe material is used for weight reduction, but a solid material may be used. External thread portions (3) are formed on the outer peripheral surfaces of both ends in the length direction of the member main body (1).

On the other hand, each of the aforementioned bush mounting portions (10)
Are manufactured by slicing an aluminum extruded material into a desired thickness in the extrusion direction. The bush mounting portion (10) mounts a cylindrical anti-vibration bush (40). The bush mounting portion (10) includes a cylindrical holding portion (11) into which the bush (40) is fitted.
An opening (12) extending in the axial direction is formed by dividing one portion in the circumferential direction of 1). Therefore, this opening (1)
In 2), the holding portion (11) can be opened in an expanded state.

Further, a pair of connecting portions (13) (14) having a rectangular cross section projecting on the outer peripheral surface are circumferentially opposed to both opening edges of the opening (12) over the entire area in the axial direction. The arrangement is provided. One connecting portion (13) protrudes radially outward from the other connecting portion (14), and also protrudes toward the other connecting portion (14) to form a thick connecting portion (15).
With the opening (12) closed, the pair of connecting portions (13) (14) and the connecting portion (15) are tightly adhered to each other to form a prism. I have. Further, a screw hole (16) is formed on the end face of the connecting portion (15) opposite to the coupling portion (13), and the member main body (1) is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the screw hole (16). ) A female screw portion (17) that can be screwed with the male screw portion (3) at the end is formed.

Further, a crushed portion (18) having a rectangular cross section extending in the axial direction in two rows inside and outside is protruded from one of the mutually facing surfaces of the coupling portions (13) and (14). On the other side, a biting groove (19) extending in the axial direction in two rows inside and outside is formed at a position corresponding to the crushed portion (18).
The crushed portion (18) and the cut-in groove (19) are connected to each other by filling the cut-out groove (19) while plastically deforming the crushed portion (18). Consequently, the opening (12) plays a role of maintaining the closed state. For this reason, the biting groove (19) is formed with an enlarged portion (19a) having a larger groove width than the upper and lower ends in the depth direction and thus a larger opening area at an intermediate portion in the depth direction, while being crushed. The protruding height of the portion (18) is set to be larger than the depth of the digging groove (19), and the cross-sectional area is set to be substantially the same as the cross-sectional area of the digging groove (19), and the opening (12) is closed. In the above, the crushed portion (18) deformed and filled sufficiently penetrates into the enlarged portion (19a) to strongly prevent the separation of the connecting portions (13) and (14).

A method of manufacturing the suspension arm shown in FIG. 6 using the suspension arm member (A) of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be described. First, as shown in FIG. The cylindrical bush (40) is inserted into the holding part (11) as shown in FIG. 3 in a state where the inner circumference of the holding part (11) is substantially increased by expanding the holding part (11). In this embodiment, the bush (40) includes a centrally located support member (41) and a cylindrical rigid sleeve (42) disposed around the support member (41). Rubber elastic body (4
The solid type connected by 3) is used, and the outer diameter of the rigid sleeve (42) is equal to the holding portion (1).
The holding portion (1) when the opening (12) of (1) is closed
It is set slightly larger than the inner diameter of 1). Thus,
Since the holding portion (11) is expanded at the opening (12), the bush (40) can be very easily held by the holding portion (1).
1) can be loaded in.

Next, when the two joints (13) and (14) are pressed in the approaching direction by a press or the like so as to close the opening (12), the crushed portion (18) of one joint (14) is moved to the other. Fits into the cut-in groove (19) of the connecting portion (13),
As shown in FIG. 4, before the opening (12) is closed, the tip of the crushed portion (18) abuts on the bottom surface of the bite groove (19). In this state, when both joints (13) and (14) are further pressed in the close contact direction, as shown in FIG.
8) is plastically deformed into a crushed shape along the shape of the digging groove (19) and is filled in the digging groove (19) including the enlarged portion (19a), and the mutually facing surfaces of the coupling portions (13) and (14) are in close contact. Approach, the opening (12) is reduced and eventually becomes closed. At the same time, the holding part (1) of the bush mounting part (10)
1) The inner peripheral surface is in close contact with the outer peripheral surface of the bush (40), so that the bush (40) is tightly wound.

In this state, even if the pressing force applied to the connecting portions (13) and (14) is released, the crushed portion (18) deformed and filled in the digging groove (19) becomes the enlarged portion (10a) of the digging groove. The bush (4)
The state of tightening and fixing in the holding part (2) of (0) is maintained. If necessary, the interface between the joints (13) and (14) is welded by laser welding, friction welding, or the like, or bonded with an adhesive such as a sealant or Loctite to completely close the gap between the joints. Mud or water may be reliably prevented from entering through the gap.

Thus, the two bush mounting portions (10)
After attaching the bush (40) to each (10),
A male screw (3) at the end of the member main body (1) is screwed into a screw hole (16) provided in a connecting portion (15) of each bush mounting portion (10), and fastened and fixed. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the member body (1) is screwed to the maximum in the screw hole (16) of each bush mounting portion (10), and the relative positions of the two bush mounting portions (10) and (10) are changed. The angle is zero degrees, that is, the axial directions of both bush mounting portions are the same.

The fastening between the bush mounting portions (10) and (10) and the member body (1) is performed by fixing the bush mounting portions (1).
0) is not required to be performed after the bush (40) is mounted, but after the bush mounting portion (10) and the member body (1) are fastened and fixed, the bush mounting portion (1) is fixed.
The bush (40) may be attached to 0).
Further, the relative angle between the two bush mounting portions (10) and (10) at both ends of the member main body (1) is not zero, but a 90 degree relative angle as shown in FIG. 7 or another arbitrary relative angle. It may be combined as follows. By adjusting the processing length of the male screw part (3) and the female screw part (17), any relative angle can be realized. In FIG. 7,
Since the configuration is the same as that shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 except that the relative angle of the bush mounting portion (10) is 90 degrees, the same reference numerals are given and the description thereof is omitted.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a nut (20) is screwed into a longitudinally intermediate portion of the male screw portion (3) of the member main body (1), and the nut (20) in the length direction of the male screw portion (3) is screwed. By setting the position, the length of the male screw part (3) screwed into the female screw part (17) of the bush mounting part (10) is adjusted, and thereby the bush mounting part (1) is adjusted.
The relative angle of 0) can be freely adjusted. With such a configuration, the bush mounting portion (10)
Since only the position of the nut (20) needs to be changed to change the relative angle of the member, the member body (1) and the bush mounting portion (1)
It is sufficient to manufacture the same as 0), which is extremely advantageous in production efficiency. The embodiment shown in FIG. 8 has the same configuration as that shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 except that a nut is used. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given and the description thereof is omitted.

In the above embodiment, the bush mounting portion (1
As 0), a winding type having an opening (12) is shown. However, it is not a winding type, and there is no opening as shown in FIG. 9 and the bush (40) is inserted into the holding portion (11) by press-fitting. Press-fit type bush mounting part to be fitted (10)
It may be. However, compared to the press-fit type, the winding type can eliminate the need for strict dimensional accuracy between the bush (40) and the holding portion (11), and can reduce the holding portion (11) of the bush mounting portion (10). This is preferable because special processing for finishing the inner peripheral surface to the required dimensional accuracy can be made unnecessary.

Also, a winding-type bush mounting portion (1)
In (0), the coupling structure of the coupling portions (13) and (14) is not limited to the one utilizing the plastic deformation of the crushed portion (18). Alternatively, other various coupling structures may be adopted. Further, as a vibration-isolating bush (40), a spindle member (41) located at the center and a cylindrical rigid sleeve (42) disposed around the spindle member (41) are arranged between them. The solid type is connected by a rubber elastic body (43) interposed therebetween, but has no outer rigid sleeve (42) and is provided on the outer peripheral surface inside the rubber elastic body (43). It is also possible to use a type in which a liquid is sealed from the inlet and the vibration-proof function is exhibited by the sealed liquid. In this case, the joint (13) (1)
If the joining operation of 4) is performed in a liquid, the sealing of the liquid into the rubber elastic body (43) and the fastening operation of the joining portions (13) and (14) can be performed at the same time. is there.

Although aluminum is used as the material for the bush mounting portion (10) and the member body (1), for example, an iron-based material or the like other than aluminum may be used. The main body (1) may be formed of a different material. For example, while aluminum is used for the bush mounting portion (10), the member body (1) may be formed of an iron-based material or resin. In addition, the bush mounting part (1
When aluminum is used for (0) and an iron-based material is used for the member body (1) and the nut (20) in FIG. 8, the member body (1) and the nut (20) shown in FIG. It is desirable that the nut (20) be subjected to anticorrosion treatment.

Although the suspension arm member having the bush mounting portions (10) at both ends of the member main body (1) is shown, one bush mounting portion or three or more bush mounting portions are mounted on the member main body (1). The member body (1) may be provided with a portion, and the shape of the member main body (1) is not limited to a rod shape, and another shape such as an A shape may be adopted. A male screw part (3) is provided on the member body (1) side, and a bush mounting part (10) is provided.
The case where the female screw part (17) is formed on the side and the member main body (1) is screwed into the screw hole (16) of the bush mounting part (10) is shown, but the screw hole and the female screw part are formed in the member main body (1). A male screw portion may be formed in each of the bush mounting portions (10), and the bush mounting portion (10) may be screwed into a screw hole of the member body (1).

[0027]

According to the present invention, there is provided a member for a suspension arm having a bush mounting portion for mounting a cylindrical bush on at least a part of a member main body. Is fastened and fixed by a screw, by adjusting the amount of screwing into one of the member body and the other of the bush mounting portion, the orientation of the bush mounting portion with respect to the member main body in any plane including the rotation direction Angle can be set. Therefore, for example, in the case where a plurality of bush mounting portions are provided in the member main body, the relative angle in the axial direction of each bush mounting portion can be arbitrarily set. It is possible to provide a suspension arm that can easily cope with this without any change.

Naturally, since the member main body and the bush mounting portion can be manufactured separately, the degree of freedom of design that can be taken with respect to the shape of the suspension arm member and the length of the member main body can be increased, and the two can be joined by welding. Therefore, the joining work is easy and the production efficiency is good.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a suspension arm member according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a member main body and a bush mounting portion are separated.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a bush mounting portion.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a state in which a bush is loaded in a bush mounting portion of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which a connecting portion of the bush mounting portion in FIG. 3 is pressed in a contact direction.

5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which a coupling portion in the bush mounting portion of FIG. 4 is further pressed to wind the bush around the bush mounting portion.

6A is a front view of a suspension arm in which a bush mounting portion and a member main body of FIG. 5 are fastened and fixed, and FIG. 6B is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 7A is a front view of the suspension arm in which the relative angles of the bush mounting portions at both ends of the member main body are changed.
(B) is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part before fastening the bush mounting portion and the member main body, and FIG. 2B is a front view of the main part after fastening.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a modification of the bush mounting portion.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a suspension arm using a conventional suspension arm member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A: Suspension arm member 1 ... Member body 3 ... Male screw part 10 ... Bush mounting part 16 ... Screw hole 40 ... Bush

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masaharu Tochigi 6,224, Kaiyama-cho, Sakai City Showa Aluminum Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masatoshi Enomoto 6,224, Kaiyama-cho Sakai City, Showa Aluminum Co., Ltd. (72) Invention Shunta Ushioda 6,224, Kaiyama-cho, Sakai-shi, Showa Aluminum Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bush mounting portion (10) for mounting a cylindrical bush (40) on at least a part of a member body (1).
The suspension arm member (A), wherein the member main body (1) and the bush mounting portion (10) are fastened and fixed by screws.