Fiber reinforced bearing for a ball socket assembly, ball socket assembly therewith and methods of construction thereof

A ball and socket joint, comprising:

• a housing with an inner bore extending along a central axis between a closed first end region and an open second end region;
• a ball stud having an outer ball surface that forms part of a sphere with a predetermined diameter of dimension A;
• a bearing received in the inner bore of the housing;
• the bearing being fabricated of a single piece of bearing material and including a lower closed portion and an upper open portion collectively defining a socket;
• the lower closed portion having an inner bearing surface with a part-spherical shape that conforms in size to the part of the sphere of the outer ball surface;
• the upper open portion of the bearing having an inner surface extending from the lower closed portion inner surface, wherein the inner surface of the upper open portion has an as-formed first condition that does not conform to the shape and size of the sphere;
• the upper open portion being biasable inwardly from the as-formed first condition to an assembled second condition in which the inner surface of the upper open portion fully conforms to the shape of the sphere;
• the inner surface of the upper open portion defining a mouth at a distal end that has a first diameter of dimension B when in the as-formed first condition and a second diameter of dimension C when in the assembled second condition, wherein the dimension of B=0.5 (A+C);
• and
• wherein the bearing material comprises fiber-reinforced plastics material and the bearing includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced longitudinal slots extending from the mouth to define a plurality of elastic wall segments of the upper open portion that flex outwardly to receive the ball-shaped end portion into the socket and which then return inwardly upon passage of the ball-shaped end portion, and wherein the open second region of the housing is plastically deformable inwardly to engage and bias the flexible wall segments and inner surface of the upper open portion of the bearing inwardly into the assembled condition against the ball-shaped end portion.

A method of making a ball and socket joint assembly, the method comprising:

• preparing a ball stud having a shank portion and having a ball end of predetermined outer surface diameter A;
• preparing a housing having a bore;
• preparing a bearing fabricated of a single piece of bearing material and including a lower closed portion and an upper open portion defining a socket, and wherein the upper portion is formed with a plurality of flexible fingers separated by slots and defining a mouth of the socket at an upper and inner free edge of the fingers, and wherein the mouth has an as-formed first diameter of dimension B;
• forcing the ball end of the ball stud axially into the mouth of the bearing and causing the fingers to flex outwardly to expand the mouth from the as-formed first diameter of dimension B to an outwardly-flexed diameter corresponding to the diameter A of the ball end, and continuing to move the ball stud axially into the bearing until the ball end is fully received into the socket upon which the fingers self-bias inwardly and the mouth returns to the as-formed first diameter of dimension B;
• inserting the bearing into the bore of the housing;
• plastically deforming the housing and flexing the fingers inwardly against the ball end to constrict the mouth from the as-formed first diameter of dimension B to a relatively smaller inwardly-flexed diameter of dimension C;
• and
• wherein the bearing is dimensioned such that B=0.5 (A+C).