Patent ID: 7370872

Claim:
A rigid vehicle axle comprising an axle beam consisting of two halves with axle journals as wheel carriers arranged at the ends thereof, and at least two trailing arms rigidly fixed to the axle beam, each half of the vehicle rigid axle—as viewed from the middle of the axle—comprising an axle tube section ( 1 ), a trailing arm section ( 10 ) and a wheel head section ( 40 ) arranged one after the other, and the wheel head section ( 40 ) comprising at least one axle journal ( 41 ) for carrying a wheel, the axle tube sections ( 1 ) and the trailing arm sections ( 10 ) being fabricated from a closed hollow profile at least along the axle center line ( 3 ) in the region of the common contact zones, the axle tube having an average wall thickness of less than the average wall thickness of the trailing arms section ( 10 ), the axle tube sections ( 1 ) being welded to the trailing arm sections ( 10 ), and the trailing arm sections ( 10 ) being welded to the wheel head sections ( 40 ), and the axle tube and the trailing arm sections ( 1 and 10 ) which are adjacent to one another being inserted into one an other in a centering fashion in the regions of the welds ( 7 ) so as to form centering overlaps ( 9 ), the lengths of the centering overlaps ( 9 ) being less than five times the average wall thickness of the axle tube sections ( 10 ).