Patent ID: 7228948

Claim:
A hydraulic damper having a compression stroke and a rebound stroke, said hydraulic damper comprising: a tube filled with a working liquid; a piston rod extending outside of said tube; a slidable piston assembly disposed inside said tube and attached to said piston rod, said piston assembly comprising: a piston having a number of rebound flow passages and compression flow passages disposed around the piston and through which the working liquid flows, said rebound flow passages being located radially inward of said compression flow passages; a rebound valve arrangement that controls the flow of the working liquid passing through the piston during the rebound stroke of the damper; and a compression valve arrangement that controls the flow of the working liquid passing through the piston during the compression stroke of the damper, said compression valve arrangement comprising: a spring retainer disposed on said rod, a spring seat guide located on one axial side of the piston, said spring seat guide provided with rebound flow passages linked with said rebound flow passages of said piston to form continuous axial passages through the piston and the spring guide, a spring seat disposed about said spring seat guide and being axially slidable therealong, a stack of resilient deflectable disks placed over said piston and covering said compression flow passages of the piston, said stack of resilient disks being held by said spring seat and being disposed radially outward of the spring seat guide and the continuous passages through the piston and the spring seat guide, and a spring mounted around said spring seat guide between said spring seat and said spring retainer, said spring acting through axially slidable spring seat on said stack of disks whereby said compression flow passages are normally closed.