Control arm for wheel suspension
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorFriedrich Peter Wolf-Monheim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control arm for a wheel suspension of a motor vehicle. The control arm including a base body having a spring seat for receiving a helical spring of the wheel suspension. The control arm having a first end region connected to a spring-loaded component of the motor vehicle and a second end region connected to an unsprung component of the motor vehicle. The base body includes a first partial shell composed of steel and a second partial shell composed of a composite material, the shells undetachably fixedly connected to one another at least in one region of the spring seat.
Claims7
A wheel suspension component comprising:
- a body having a first end region, a second end region, and a central region having a spring seat;
- said body having a metallic portion and a composite material portion, said portions having complementary U-shaped portions in the central region;
- the U-shaped portion of the metallic portion having an inside surface and the U-shaped portion of the composite material portion having an outside surface, the inside surface and the outside surface undetachably fixedly connected continuously along an axis extending through a center of the body and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the body;
- said metallic portion having a U-shaped portion at said first and second end regions and said composite material portion having a planar portion at said first and second end regions;
- and
- said metallic and composite material portions undetachably fixedly connected at said end regions and forming a closed, hollow structural section.
A wheel suspension component comprising:
- a body having a central region with a spring seat;
- the body having a first end region and a second end region;
- the body having a U-shaped metallic shell portion and a composite material shell portion, the composite material shell portion having a U-shape in the central region;
- the U-shaped portion of the metallic portion having an inside surface and the U-shaped portion of the composite material portion having an outside surface, the inside surface and the outside surface, undetachably fixedly connected continuously along an axis extending through a center of the body and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the body;
- a width of the central region, in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the body, is greater than the width of each of the first and second end regions, in the same perpendicular direction;
- and
- an outwardly extending upper flange of the composite material portion, said upper flange extending radially outwardly and above a leg member of the metallic shell portion and terminating flush with an outside of the metallic shell portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.