Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US5257821?ie=ISO-8859-1
Timestamp: 2015-08-04 17:28:50
Document Index: 606602068

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 82', 'art 82', 'art 82', 'art 82', 'arts 82', 'art 132']

Patent US5257821 - Steering axle for track-guidable commercial vehicles, particularly buses - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsSteering apparatus for track-guidable buses or similar commercial vehicles, in which a supporting arm carrying a track guiding roller is conventionally held on a wheel carrier and extends in the driving direction, reaching outward in front of the vehicle wheel, each wheel carrier being equipped with...http://www.google.com/patents/US5257821?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US5257821 - Steering axle for track-guidable commercial vehicles, particularly busesAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS5257821 APublication typeGrantApplication numberUS 07/817,806Publication dateNov 2, 1993Filing dateJan 8, 1992Priority dateJan 8, 1991Fee statusLapsedAlso published asDE4100294C1, EP0494392A1, EP0494392B1Publication number07817806, 817806, US 5257821 A, US 5257821A, US-A-5257821, US5257821 A, US5257821AInventorsUwe MauzOriginal AssigneeMercedes-Benz AgExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (5), Referenced by (1), Classifications (32), Legal Events (8) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetSteering axle for track-guidable commercial vehicles, particularly buses
US 5257821 AAbstract
Steering apparatus for track-guidable buses or similar commercial vehicles, in which a supporting arm carrying a track guiding roller is conventionally held on a wheel carrier and extends in the driving direction, reaching outward in front of the vehicle wheel, each wheel carrier being equipped with a control arm connected by means of a tie rod. The supporting arms according to the invention at the same time forms the steering arm, and the tie rod disposed between the steering arms supports the lateral guiding forces in the straight-ahead driving position of the wheels.
1. Steering apparatus for a track-guidable commercial vehicle of the type conventionally having:at least one wheel carrier having a wheel mounted thereon; at least one outer steering arm connected to said at least one wheel carrier at an interior side of said wheel, said at least one outer steering arm extending frontward from said wheel carrier, relative to a forward direction of said vehicle, and outward from said vehicle in front of said wheel; a guiding roll mounted on an axis of rotation at an outwardly extending end of said at least one outer steering arm; a steering gear; and a tie rod coupled between said at least one outer steering arm and said steering gear; wherein said tie rod is connected to said at least one outer steering arm near an outer end thereof, adjacent to said guiding roll, and wherein a longitudinal axis of said tie rod points substantially at said axis of rotation of said guiding roll. 2. Steering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said commercial vehicle is a bus.
3. Steering apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tie rod comprises at least two parts, with an inner end of each of said parts being pivotally connected to an intermediate steering arm which can be swivelled by means of the steering gear, and an outer end of each of said parts being pivotally connected to said respective at least one outer steering arm.
4. A steering axle according to claim 1, wherein an intermediate steering arm, in the straight-ahead position of the wheels, extends in a longitudinal center plane of the vehicle.
5. A steering axle according to claim 3, wherein the intermediate steering arm, in the straight-ahead position of the wheels, extends in a longitudinal center plane of the vehicle.
This invention relates to a steering axle for track-guidable commercial vehicles, particularly buses.
A steering axle of this type, known as a rigid axle, is disclosed in German Patent Document DE-OS 37 04 5 12. In this axle construction, the steering arms, which are rigidly connected with the steering knuckles, extend opposite to the driving direction. Accordingly, the tie rod, the ends of which are pivotally connected to the steering arms, is situated on the end of the axle opposite that which bears the supporting arms for the track guiding of the commercial vehicle.
Each of the supporting arms carries a cross guiding roller. During the drive along a track guiding path, the wheel guiding lateral forces are transmitted by way of the track guiding rollers on their track-determining cross-guiding webs, to the supporting arms extending from the axle knuckles in the driving direction. As a result of the lateral forces, and the substantial length of the supporting arm sections extending in the driving direction, bending moments are generated which require a large supporting arm cross-section and a correspondingly heavy supporting arm. The weight proportion of the supporting arms in the unsprung axle mass is therefore considerable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a steering axle of the generic type described above, which requires low construction expenditures, and for which the weight of the supporting arms can be reduced considerably.
This object is achieved according to the invention, in which the steering arm assigned to a wheel carrier and the supporting arm form a common component, and the tie rod takes over the support of the lateral guiding forces transmitted by the track guiding rolls to the supporting arms. This eliminates equipping the axle supports with a special steering arm, and the tie rod, which is pivotally connected with the supporting arms and absorbs the lateral guiding forces, permits a correspondingly slender supporting arm construction which therefore reduces its weight. The wheel carriers may be assigned to an independent wheel suspension or to a rigid axle respectively.
FIG. 4A is a sectional view along Line IV--IV of FIG. 2 of the guiding joint of the shock absorber strut of the steering axle, with the guiding joint shown in a relaxed condition;
FIG. 4C is a sectional view of another embodiment along line IV--IV of FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is a view of the lower part of the wheel carrier viewed in the direction of the arrow C of FIG. 1;
The illustrated steering axle has two independent wheel suspensions which correspond to one another (only one of which is shown). This one suspension comprises a wheel carrier 10 having a journal 12 on which a wheel 14 is rotatably disposed. The wheel carrier 10 is guided by means of a lower semi-trailing arm 16, an upper suspension link which is, for example, constructed as a shock absorber strut 18, and a steering device 19 (FIGS. 2, 3).
The semi-trailing arm 16 comprises a control arm 20 (which preferably extends beyond the longitudinal center plane a--a of the vehicle, forming a transverse link) and by a control arm 22, which is rigidly connected with control arm 20 and forms a longitudinal link. When viewed in the top view and relative to the driving direction F, control arm 22 is situated behind the wheel spin axis 24 and extends diagonally toward the front and outside and, in the design condition, essentially horizontally. (See FIG. 3.) The control arm 20, starting from its connecting point with control arm 22, is situated forward of the wheel spin axis 24, relative to the driving direction F. Accordingly, the corresponding control arm for the opposite wheel suspension is provided behind the wheel spin axis 24.
In this manner, a correspondingly wide supporting base is created for the semi-trailing arm 16 on the vehicle body side, so that as a result of the design length of the two control arms 20 and 22 and of the fitting of the semi-trailing arm 16 into the steering axle, axle kinematics are achieved which, among others minimize, camber changes due to compressions and rebounds.
The pivotal connection of the semi-trailing arm 16 on the wheel carrier 10 is achieved by means of a suspended supporting joint 28 (see FIG. 6) which forms a ball joint. Its spherical part 30 is disposed on a preferably conical journal 32 which, in turn, is held in the wheel-carrier-side end piece 16' of the semi-trailing arm 16, with the spherical part 30 on the bottom side thereof.
A ball socket 34, which receives the spherical part 30, is provided, preferably by molding, in an end piece of a supporting member 38 fastened to the bottom side of the wheel carrier 10 inside the wheel rim 36. The ball socket 34 is situated between two upper steering arm frontal areas 40 and 42 provided in the same plane, with respect to which, when the supporting joint 28 is mounted, its journal 32 is directed at an acute angle upwards and inwards in the transverse direction of the vehicle. (See FIG. 6.)
As shown in FIG. 1, pivot point 28' of the supporting joint 28 is situated approximately in the horizontal plane of the control arm 20 of the semi-trailing arm 16, which is longer and is directed in the transverse direction of the vehicle. This is achieved by a corresponding offset of the semi-trailing arm end piece 16' diagonally upwards. As a result, it is possible to place the height of a floor 68 (such as a gangway of a bus body extending in the longitudinal center plane a--a) very low above the axles.
The pivot point 28' of the supporting joint 28 and the pivot point 72' of the guiding joint 72 of the shock absorber strut 18 define a steering axis 74 which, due to its inclination, results in a positive kingpin offset and (viewed in the driving direction F) in a track point 77 which is situated in front of the wheel contact point 75 (FIG. 2), and thus in a positive caster.
The lower end piece of the cylindrical pipe 76 of the shock absorber strut 18 ends at a correspondingly large distance above the semi-trailing arm end piece 16' (see FIG. 1) and, for this purpose, is held in an upwardly directed neck 78 which is held by a wheel carrier projection 10' extending above the control arm end piece 16' in the transverse direction of the vehicle.
Even in the event of spring movements of the wheel 14, the semi-trailing arm arrangement ensures an extensive constancy of the inclination. Moreover, the bending stress of the cylindrical pipe 76 of the shock absorber strut from bending moments resulting from lateral and longitudinal forces is correspondingly reduced by the fact that a supporting element in the form of a neck extension 78' is provided which partially reaches around the cylindrical pipe 76 along a portion of its length.
In order to provide a sufficient clearance for the wheel 14 during compression, the neck extension 78' is preferably supported on the circumferential pipe part facing the longitudinal center plane a--a of the vehicle. For generating the required reaction force, on this supporting side, a screwed connection 80 with the pipe jacket is provided on the free end of the neck extension 78'.
Reference number 82 indicates an inner bearing part in the form of a spherical joint part fastened to the upper end of a piston rod 84. The inner bearing part 82 is vulcanized into a rubber body 86 (preferably in the form of a rubber metal element) which, in turn, is vulcanized into an outer bearing part forming the bearing housing 88. The bearing housing 88, in turn, is inserted into a support 90 which can be fastened to a receiving base of a vehicle body. (For the sake of simplicity, the receiving base is not shown in FIGS. 1 and 4).
As shown in FIG. 4, the spherical part 82 has a blind bore hole 83 which is penetrated at its bottom 85 by a central bore 89, which in turn is penetrated by a threaded shaft 91 molded onto the free front face of the piston rod 84.
The front end of the piston rod 84 is supported on the bottom 85 of the blind-hole bore 83 where it is secured by a threaded nut 93 screwed onto the threaded shaft 91.
The diameter of the blind-bore hole 83 is selected to be slightly larger than the outside diameter of the upper end piece 76' of the cylindrical pipe 76.
The engaging of the piston rod 84 in the blind bore hole 83 offers the advantage that it facilitates a relatively small distance between the pivot point 74' and the upper end piece 76' of the cylinder pipe 76 in all suspension conditions of the wheel suspension.
In the case of a maximal compression, this end piece 76' can penetrate the spherical joint part 82, which offers advantages with respect to the overall height of the wheel suspension. The arrangement of the spherical joint part 82 on the piston rod 84 is easy to achieve, and the mutual bracing of these parts 82 and 84 ensures a secure shock absorber force transmission into the ball joint 72 as well as the same type of support of tensile and pressure forces and of the torque.
The rubber metal element 86 comprises several partially spherical rubber body sections. For example, three such 87, 87', 87" are shown in FIG. 4. In order to achieve certain desired spring characteristics, and to generate the required bearing prestressing forces, intermediate metal sheets 94 and 96 are vulcanized to the respective body section and are constructed in the manner of hollow spheres which are truncated on mutually opposite circumferential areas, in the same manner as the rubber sections 87, 87' and 87".
In the design position of the guiding joint 72 illustrated in FIG. 4, axis 84' of the piston rod 84 extending through the hinge point 72' differs from that of the axis 89' of the bearing housing 88, penetrating pivot point 72'.
During the installing of the guiding joint 72, the bearing housing 88 and the piston rod 84 in the plane of the drawing of FIG. 4 are swivelled relative to one another such that both axes 84' and 89' preferably substantially coincide. The rubber metal element 86 is therefore prestressed in such a manner that, in the installed position of the guiding joint 72, relative to the construction position of the vehicle body, the piston rod 84 can easily break off in the upper piston rod guide of the shock absorber strut cylinder pipe 76 or is guided by means of an optimally minimized friction. For this purpose, the prestressed rubber metal element 86 seeks to swivel the piston rod 84, according to FIG. 1, clockwise and thus the shock absorber strut cylinder pipe 76 in the transverse direction of the vehicle toward the outside.
A compressed-air controlled actuating device, which is known per se, for a disk or drum brake, which is not shown in detail, as a whole, has the reference number 108.
The steering arm 38, 38' will then extend toward the outside, while an arm section 38" reaches over the wheel 14 on the front side, and will then carry a track guiding roll 124 which rolls along a track guiding path on a cross-guiding web (not shown) during driving, and, in the process, transmits the wheel-guiding lateral guiding forces to the steering arm 38, 38', 38".
The tie rod sections 110, 110' cooperate with the intermediate steering arm 114, to bridge the distance between the steering arms 38, 38', 38" of both independent wheels suspensions and form steering arm supporting struts which favorably transmit the lateral guiding forces (particularly in the case of a straight-ahead driving position of the wheels 14) and permit a favorable slim design of the steering arm cross-sections.
For this purpose, the arrangement of the joints 111 and 113 of the tie rod section 110 and the corresponding joints of the other tie rod section 110' (of which only the inner joint 111' is shown) is selected such that the longitudinal axis 115 of the tie rod sections 110, 110', in the straight-ahead driving position of the wheels 14, points substantially at the rotating axis 117 of the track guiding roll 124 disposed on the respective steering arm 38, 38'. The outer joint 113 is disposed on the steering arm 38, 38+, 38" at its outer end and adjacent to the track guiding roll 124. Thus, in this wheel position, the tie rod, comprised of tie rod sections 110, 110', forms a bridge between the steering arms with respect to guiding forces transmitted by the track guiding rolls 124 to the steering arms 38, 38', 38" and releases the steering arms.
A blind bore hole entered into the bearing part 132 on its front side facing the shock absorber 76, 84 has the reference number 144, the axis of the blind bore hole coinciding with the axis 84' of the piston rod 84.
To achieve the required prestressing of the guiding joint 130, the blind bore hole 144 is disposed at an angle α with respect to the bearing axis 146. The fastening of the piston rod 84 is analogous to the construction according to FIG. 4.
As indicated at 148 in FIG. 4C, the rubber body 138 may be constructed as a rubber metal element by the vulcanizing of at least one rubber metal element.
Patent CitationsCited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS3208400 *May 18, 1964Sep 28, 1965Bingham Sidney HRubber tired railway truck and guiding deviceUS3393762 *Jul 26, 1966Jul 23, 1968Carl G. MatsonVehicle guidance systemUS3812789 *Oct 13, 1972May 28, 1974Ltv Aerospace CorpTransportation systemUS4454819 *Mar 30, 1982Jun 19, 1984S.A. Constructions Ferroviaires Et MetalliquesSystem for automatically guiding a vehicle provided with tired wheelsDE3704512A1 *Feb 13, 1987Aug 25, 1988Daimler Benz AgTransverse guide roller, with solid rubber tyre, for track-guidable buses* Cited by examinerReferenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS20140306412 *Apr 14, 2014Oct 16, 2014Ford Global Technologies, LlcArticulated connection for transferring a steering movement onto a vehicle wheel* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification280/93.503, 280/93.512, 180/401, 280/93.507, 105/215.1, 105/72.2International ClassificationB60G7/00, B60G15/06, B60G7/02, B62D7/00, B60G3/26, B62D1/26, B60G13/00Cooperative ClassificationB62D7/00, B60G7/005, B60G13/008, B60G15/062, B62D1/265, B60G2200/44, B60G2206/722, B60G7/02, B60G3/26, B60G2206/8103, B60G2206/50, B60G2300/14European ClassificationB60G3/26, B60G13/00B4D, B62D1/26B, B62D7/00, B60G15/06D, B60G7/02, B60G7/00BLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionMar 6, 1992ASAssignmentOwner name: MERCEDES-BENZ AG, GERMANYFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST.;ASSIGNOR:MAUZ, UWE;REEL/FRAME:006032/0866Effective date: 19920116Apr 17, 1997FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Aug 6, 1998ASAssignmentOwner name: DAIMLER-BENZ AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, GERMANYFree format text: MERGER;ASSIGNOR:MERCEDES-BENZ AG;REEL/FRAME:009360/0937Effective date: 19970605Owner name: DAIMLER-BENZ AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, GERMANYFree format text: MERGER RE-RECORD TO CORRECT THE NUMBER OF MICROFILM PAGES FROM 60 TO 98 AT REEL 9360, FRAME 0937.;ASSIGNOR:MERCEDES-BENZ AG;REEL/FRAME:009827/0145Effective date: 19970605Jul 30, 1999ASAssignmentOwner name: DAIMLERCHRYSLER AG, GERMANYFree format text: MERGER;ASSIGNOR:DAIMLER-BENZ AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT;REEL/FRAME:010133/0556Effective date: 19990108Apr 25, 2001FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 8May 18, 2005REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailedNov 2, 2005LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance feesDec 27, 2005FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance feeEffective date: 20051102RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services