Air springs and methods for making the same
AssigneeILJIN USA Corporation
InventorsRon J. Johnson, Angad Vasant Patil, Michael L. Crabtree, Jeremy Mercer, Ken Casagrande, Young Chun Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A spring assembly for a non-rail wheeled or tracked vehicle is provided. The spring assembly includes a piston, and a sleeve with variable thickness. The sleeve is made from an unreinforced synthetic elastomeric material and being free of reinforcing fibers. The sleeve is coupled with a plurality of end components and defines a deformable pressure vessel, and the deformable pressure vessel supplies a support force.
Claims19
A spring assembly for a vehicle, the spring assembly comprising:
- at least a piston;
- and
- a sleeve with variable thickness, the sleeve made from an unreinforced synthetic elastomeric material and being free of reinforcing fibers,
- wherein the sleeve is coupled with a plurality of end components and defines a deformable pressure vessel, and the deformable pressure vessel supplies a supporting force,
- wherein the sleeve includes at least one segment along a length of the sleeve to form a rolling lobe, and
- wherein a thickness of the segment forming the rolling lobe varies along the length of the sleeve.
A composite spring assembly for a vehicle, the composite spring assembly comprising:
- a first spring that is structurally configured to deform according to Hooke's law;
- a second spring that is structurally configured to deform according to Boyle's law, wherein the second spring is positioned in parallel with the first spring, and wherein the second spring comprises:
- a sleeve with variable thickness, the sleeve made from an unreinforced synthetic elastomeric material and being free of reinforcing fibers;
- and
- end components engaged with the sleeve, the sleeve and the end components defining a deformable pressure vessel, and
- wherein the sleeve includes at least one segment along a length of the sleeve to form a rolling lobe, and
- wherein a thickness of the segment forming the rolling lobe varies along the length of the sleeve.
A method for forming an air spring for a vehicle, the method comprising:
- heating an elastomeric base material to a melting point of the elastomeric base material, thereby forming a melted elastomeric base material;
- forming a sleeve with variable thickness from thermoplastic including the melted elastomeric base material;
- and
- engaging the sleeve with end components, the sleeve and the end components defining a deformable pressure vessel, wherein the deformable pressure vessel supplies a supporting force,
- wherein the sleeve includes at least one segment along a length of the sleeve to form a rolling lobe, and
- wherein a thickness of the segment forming the rolling lobe varies along the length of the sleeve.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.