Patent Description:
In a recent trend of engine or vehicle tuning, tuning a vehicle "hard" has become more desirable based on high-end European vehicles that typically have excellent handling performance, and reduction of vehicle weight has been carried out to meet the eco-friendly trend.

In order to tune a vehicle hard, wheel rate, i.e., hardness supporting a tire while applying a vertical load to the tire, should be high, and in order to increase the wheel rate, hardness of a spring connecting a suspension arm to a body member should increase.

When the vehicle weight is lightened, a force compressing the spring is reduced and thereby the amount of compression of the spring is reduced.

As described above, in a state in which the hardness of the spring increases in order to satisfy the vehicle property of being tuned hard, when the vehicle weight is lightened in order to satisfy a property of the eco-friendly vehicle, the amount of compression of the spring is further reduced when the vertical load is applied to the tire. As a result, when a rebound state is added in a full rebound state during driving (state of departing from a range in which the spring may be tensioned, state of departing from freedom height of the spring, and a state in which the tire passes through a deep puddle), there is a problem that the spring connecting the suspension arm to the body member is separated, and as a result, an accident such as a vehicle rollover may occur.

In order to prevent separation of the spring, wheel stroke of the vehicle should be reduced, and the wheel stroke is a main factor affecting the vehicle performance and merchantability, but it is difficult to change the wheel stroke.

<CIT> relates to a knee action, front wheel suspension for vehicle is, and more particularly to a stabilizer and helper spring for such suspension.

Accordingly, the present disclosure proposes a suspension for a vehicle, the suspension being configured to prevent separation of a spring connecting a suspension arm to a body member, even in a situation of departing from a range (spring freedom height) in which the spring may be tensioned, that is, a situation in which a rebound state is added in a full rebound state during driving, so that stability of the vehicle may be improved.

In order to achieve the above objective, a suspension for a vehicle of the present disclosure includes: a leaf spring provided at a suspension arm connecting a body frame to a knuckle; a spring pad coupled to the leaf spring; and a coil spring provided to be supported, at opposite ends of the coil spring, by a body member and the spring pad, the body member being located above the suspension arm.

The leaf spring may be arranged along a longitudinal direction of the suspension arm and configured to have a shape of a cantilever such that a first end of the leaf spring may be coupled to the suspension arm and the spring pad may be securely coupled to a second end of the leaf spring, the second end of the leaf spring corresponding to a free end of the cantilever.

The leaf spring may include: a coupled portion located at a first end of the leaf spring and integrally coupled to the suspension arm; a rod portion extended from the coupled portion along a longitudinal direction of the suspension arm and configured to be elastically deformed in response to external force; and a seat portion provided at an end of the rod portion and coupled to the spring pad.

The suspension arm may include a spring inserting portion located between a first end of the suspension arm coupled to a suspension arm bush and a second end of the suspension arm coupled to the knuckle; the coupled portion of the leaf spring may be securely coupled to a portion of the suspension arm between the suspension arm bush and the spring inserting portion; and the seat portion of the leaf spring may be provided to be located at the spring inserting portion.

The spring pad may have a spring coupling groove, along an outer circumference of the spring pad, into which the coil spring may be inserted and fixed.

The spring pad may include a stopper portion provided to further protrude from a lower side of the leaf spring; and the stopper portion may be configured to be brought into contact with the suspension arm by an elastic force of the coil spring.

The spring pad may be made of a rubber material in order to achieve shock absorption and prevention of noise.

In a normal full rebound state without departing from a freedom height of the coil spring, the leaf spring may be moved downward and compressed by spring force, and a lower end of the coil spring may be coupled to and supported by the spring pad while the stopper portion of the spring pad may be in contact with the suspension arm; and when a rebound state is added in the full rebound state, compression of the leaf spring may be eliminated and the leaf spring may be elastically moved upward, and the spring pad may be continuously coupled to the lower end of the coil spring to support the coil spring, so that separation of the coil spring may be prevented.

In the suspension of the present disclosure, even in a situation of departing from a range (spring freedom height) in which the coil spring may be tensioned as a rebound state is added in a full rebound state, the lower end of the coil spring is coupled to and continuously supported by the spring pad coupled to the leaf spring, so separation of the coil spring connecting the suspension arm to the body member can be prevented. Accordingly, occurrence of an accident (e.g., a vehicle rollover) can be prevented, and with improvement of vehicle stability, improvement of merchantability can be induced.

The present disclosure is configured to prevent the separation of a rear wheel spring during the full rebound in a vehicle having a high wheel rate, such as tuning where handling is a priority and a high performance vehicle, so there are advantages that round stroke can be further secured and excellent ride comport can be secured by improving shock on impact even in a high performance vehicle.

The present disclosure is configured such that the lower end of the coil spring is physically supported using the spring pad coupled to the leaf spring at a time when the vehicle reaches the full rebound state so as to prevent the separation of the coil spring. Accordingly, with the structure not affecting hardness of the coil spring during driving operation, the suspension can be used without having the sense of difference.

It is understood that the term "vehicle" or "vehicular" or other similar term as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles and other altemative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived from resources other than petroleum). As referred to herein, a hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has two or more sources of power, for example both gasoline-powered and electric-powered vehicles.

It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. Throughout the specification, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word "comprise" and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" will be understood to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements. In addition, the terms "unit", "-er", "-or", and "module" described in the specification mean units for processing at least one function and operation, and can be implemented by hardware components or software components and combinations thereof.

Further, the control logic of the present disclosure may be embodied as non-transitory computer readable media on a computer readable medium containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, controller or the like. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, compact disc (CD)-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, flash drives, smart cards and optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed in network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable media is stored and executed in a distributed fashion, e.g., by a telematics server or a Controller Area Network (CAN).

In the following description, the structural or functional description specified to exemplary embodiments according to the concept of the present disclosure is intended to describe the exemplary embodiment, so it should be understood that the present disclosure may be variously embodied, without being limited to the exemplary embodiments.

An embodiment described herein may be changed in various ways and various shapes, so specific embodiments are shown in the drawings and will be described in detail in this specification. However, it should be understood that the exemplary embodiment according to the concept of the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiment which will be described hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It will be understood that, although the terms first and/or second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. For instance, a first element discussed below could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure. Similarly, the second element could also be termed the first element.

It is to be understood that when one element is referred to as being "connected to" or "coupled to" another element, it may be connected directly to or coupled directly to another element or be connected to or coupled to another element, having the other element intervening therebetween. On the other hand, it is to be understood that when one element is referred to as being "connected directly to" or "coupled directly to" another element, it may be connected to or coupled to another element without the other element intervening therebetween. Further, the terms used herein to describe a relationship between elements, that is, "between", "directly between", "adjacent" or "directly adjacent" should be interpreted in the same manner as those described above.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing a particular embodiment only and is not intended to limit the present disclosure.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. It must be understood that the terms defined by the dictionary are identical with the meanings within the context of the related art, and they should not be ideally or excessively formally defined unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

A control part (controller) according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be realized by a nonvolatile memory (not shown), which may include an algorithm configured to control operations of various components of a vehicle or data regarding software instructions to play the algorithm, and a processor (not shown), which is configured to perform operations described below using the data stored in the memory. Here, the memory and processor may be realized as separate chips. Alternately, the memory and processor may be realized as an integrated single chip. The processor may take one or more form.

Hereinbelow, a suspension for a vehicle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to accompanying drawings.

In <FIG> and <FIG>, an example of a multi-link type rear suspension for describing the present disclosure is shown.

According to the present disclosure, the suspension for a vehicle is configured such that a first end of a suspension arm <NUM> is connected to a body frame <NUM> and a second end of the suspension arm <NUM> is connected to a knuckle <NUM> of a tire <NUM>.

The suspension arm <NUM> is a rear lower arm and the body frame <NUM> is a rear cross member.

The suspension of the present disclosure includes: a leaf spring <NUM> provided at the suspension arm <NUM> and connecting the body frame <NUM> to the knuckle <NUM>; a spring pad <NUM> coupled to the leaf spring <NUM>; a body member <NUM> located above the suspension arm <NUM>; and a spring <NUM> provided to be supported, at opposite ends of the spring <NUM>, by the spring pad <NUM>.

The leaf spring <NUM> may be made of one of spring steel, stainless steel, or polymeric material, and be capable of tuning of elastic force in response to the sectional thickness, width, and material of the leaf spring.

The leaf spring <NUM> has a structure covered up by the suspension arm <NUM> and arranged along a longitudinal direction of the suspension arm <NUM>.

The leaf spring <NUM> is configured to have a shape of a cantilever such that a first end of the leaf spring <NUM> is coupled to the suspension arm <NUM>, and the spring pad <NUM> is securely coupled to a second end of the leaf spring <NUM>, the second end corresponding to a free end of the cantilever.

That is, the leaf spring <NUM> includes a coupled portion <NUM> at the first end of the leaf spring <NUM>, which is integrally coupled to the suspension arm <NUM>, a rod portion <NUM> extended from the coupled portion <NUM> along the longitudinal direction of the suspension arm <NUM> and elastically deformed in response to external force, and a seat portion <NUM> provided at an end of the rod portion <NUM> and coupled to the spring pad <NUM>.

A suspension arm bush <NUM> is coupled to the first end of the suspension arm <NUM> and a bolt <NUM> passes through the suspension arm bush <NUM> and the body frame <NUM> so as to be fastened to a nut, so the first end of the suspension arm <NUM> is coupled to the body frame <NUM>.

The second end of the suspension arm <NUM> is coupled to the knuckle <NUM>, and a spring inserting portion <NUM> in which the spring <NUM> is inserted is provided between the first end of the suspension arm <NUM>, which is coupled to the suspension arm bush <NUM>, and the second end of the suspension arm <NUM> coupled to the knuckle <NUM>.

The coupled portion <NUM> of the leaf spring <NUM> is securely coupled to a portion between the first end of the suspension arm <NUM>, which is coupled to the suspension arm bush <NUM> and the spring inserting portion <NUM> by welding or bolting as a medium, and the seat portion <NUM> of the leaf spring <NUM>, which is coupled to the spring pad <NUM> and located at the spring inserting portion <NUM> in the suspension arm <NUM>.

Accordingly, the embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to support the spring <NUM> connecting the suspension arm <NUM> to the body member <NUM> by using the leaf spring <NUM> having a length shorter than a length of the suspension arm <NUM>, such that during a bump or rebound state, the leaf spring <NUM> may reduce generated lateral force by offsetting an angle formed by arced exercise of the suspension arm <NUM> acting around the bolt <NUM>, so that separation of the spring <NUM> may be efficiently prevented.

The spring pad <NUM> according to the present disclosure includes a spring coupling groove <NUM> formed along an outer circumference of the spring pad <NUM>, and the spring coupling groove <NUM> is provided for the spring <NUM> to be inserted and fixed such that a lower end of the spring <NUM> wraps around the spring coupling groove <NUM>.

The spring pad <NUM> is preferably made of rubber or a material having elasticity in order to prevent impact generated due to a contact between steels, noise, and chipping, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

The spring pad <NUM> is securely coupled to the seat portion <NUM> of the leaf spring <NUM> and the spring pad <NUM> includes a stopper portion <NUM> provided to further protrude from a lower side of the leaf spring <NUM>. The stopper portion <NUM> of the spring pad <NUM> is brought into contact with the suspension arm <NUM> by the elastic force of the spring <NUM>, so direct contact between the steel parts (direct contact between the suspension arm and the seat portion of the leaf spring) may be prevented.

The body member <NUM> is a side member, an upper end of the spring <NUM> is supported to the body member <NUM> located above the suspension arm <NUM>, and a lower end of the spring <NUM> is coupled to the spring pad <NUM> coupled to the seat portion <NUM> of the leaf spring <NUM> and is supported.

The spring <NUM> is a coil spring connecting body member <NUM> to the suspension arm <NUM> through the spring pad <NUM> and the leaf spring <NUM>.

<FIG> shows a tolerance state, and <FIG> shows a full rebound state.

In the tolerance state or the normal full rebound state without departing from a range (spring freedom height) in which the spring <NUM> may be tensioned as the rod portion <NUM> and the seat portion <NUM> of the leaf spring <NUM> are moved downward by the spring force, the leaf spring <NUM> is compressed and the spring pad <NUM> supports the lower end of the spring <NUM> while the stopper portion <NUM> is in contact with the suspension arm <NUM> and the lower end of the spring <NUM> is coupled to the spring pad <NUM>.

Furthermore, in a normal full bump state without departing from the range (spring freedom height) in which the spring <NUM> may be tensioned, the spring pad <NUM> also supports the lower end of the spring <NUM> while the lower end of the spring <NUM> is coupled to the spring pad <NUM> due to the spring force.

<FIG> shows an additional rebound state in which a rebound state is added in the full rebound state of <FIG>.

When a rebound state is added in the full rebound state of <FIG>, the suspension arm <NUM> further rotates counterclockwise on the bolt <NUM>, so the amount of downward movement increases, as shown in the drawing (arrow M1).

However, the rod portion <NUM> and the seat portion <NUM> are elastically moved upward (direction toward body member) as the leaf spring <NUM> is released from the compression, and as a result, the spring pad <NUM> coupled to the leaf spring <NUM> is continuously coupled to and supports the lower end of the spring <NUM> and thus the spring <NUM> may be prevented from being separated.

As described above, the suspension according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is configured such that, the lower end of the spring <NUM> is continuously supported while being coupled to the spring pad <NUM> coupled to the leaf spring <NUM> even in a situation of departing from the range (spring freedom height) in which the spring <NUM> may be tensioned as a rebound state is added in the full rebound state. Accordingly, the separation of the spring <NUM> connecting the suspension arm <NUM> to the body member <NUM> is prevented, so that an accident (e.g., a vehicle rollover) may be prevented, and with improvement of vehicle stability improvement of merchantability may be improved.

The embodiment of the present disclosure is configured to prevent the separation of a rear wheel spring during the full rebound state in a vehicle having a high wheel rate, such as the tuning where handling is a priority and the high performance vehicle, so rebound stroke may be additionally secured and excellent ride comfort may be secured by improving shock on impact even in the high performance vehicle.

Claim 1:
A suspension for a vehicle, the suspension comprising:
a leaf spring (<NUM>) provided at a suspension arm (<NUM>) connecting a body frame (<NUM>) to a knuckle (<NUM>);
a spring pad (<NUM>) coupled to the leaf spring (<NUM>); and
a coil spring (<NUM>) provided to be supported, at opposite ends of the coil spring (<NUM>), by a body member (<NUM>) and the spring pad (<NUM>), the body member (<NUM>) being located above the suspension arm (<NUM>).