Central tire inflation system with wheel hub including integrated sealing surface
AssigneeDana Italia S.R.L.
InventorsMario Bonora, Alessandro Strauss, Giovanni Mariech, Alberto Cis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various systems and methods are provided for a central tire inflation system with a wheel hub including an integrated sealing surface. In one embodiment, a system includes a vehicle wheel hub including a gas passage and a sealing surface shaped to engage directly with a seal to fluidly couple the gas passage to a counterpart gas passage of a stationary vehicle component. The sealing surface may be formed integrally with the vehicle wheel hub and shaped to engage directly with the seal with no other components disposed between the sealing surface and the seal.
Claims17
A system, comprising:
- a vehicle wheel hub or rotating vehicle component including a gas passage and a sealing surface shaped to engage directly with a seal to fluidly couple the gas passage to a counterpart gas passage of a stationary vehicle component, wherein the gas passage comprises an angled connector configured to reverse gas flow from a first direction entering the angled connector to a second direction exiting the angled connector toward the counterpart gas passage, and wherein the sealing surface and the gas passage are integrally formed with the vehicle wheel hub or rotating vehicle component, and wherein the angled connector comprises a 180 degree, U-shaped bend.
A central tire inflation system (CTIS), comprising:
- a stationary vehicle component including a first gas passage comprising an angled connector configured to reverse gas flow from a first direction entering the angled connector to a second direction exiting the angled connector;
- a wheel hub rotatably coupled to the stationary vehicle component and including a second gas passage and a sealing surface;
- and
- a sealing member engaged directly with the sealing surface and fluidly coupling the first gas passage with the second gas passage, wherein the sealing member forms a sidewall of a chamber joining the first gas passage to the second gas passage, wherein the angled connector extends from the first gas passage to the chamber, and wherein the first gas passage is linear and the angled connector is U-shaped and configured to direct the gas flow in the second direction toward the second gas passage.
A method, comprising:
- flowing gas across a seal engaged directly with a sealing surface of a wheel hub from a first gas passage formed in a stationary vehicle component to a second gas passage formed in the wheel hub, wherein the first gas passage comprises an angled connector configured to reverse gas flow toward a chamber between the first gas passage and the second gas passage, wherein the gas flow enters the angled connector in a first direction and exits the angled connector in a second direction, opposite the first direction, toward the chamber, wherein flowing the gas across the seal includes flowing the gas through the chamber bordered by the seal, and wherein the chamber is arranged between an outlet of the angled connector and the first gas passage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.