Wheel-driving axle unit
AssigneeNsk Ltd.
InventorsShigeoki Kayama, Hideo Ouichi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
It is an object of the invention to provide an axle unit for driving wheel which can keep the mutual contact portion between the caulk portion (29a) of a hub (6a) and the outer end face (39) of the housing portion (11) of a drive shaft member (31) from being exhausted to thereby be able to prevent occurrence of shaky motion, strange sounds and vibrations in the axle unit for driving wheel for a long period of time. In the present axle unit for driving wheel, a flat surface (38) is formed in the end face of the caulk portion (29a), and the flat surface (38) is contacted with the outer end face (39) in a large area, which makes it possible to reduce the contact surface pressure in the mutual contact portion between the flat surface (38) and outer end face (39).
Claims1
An axle unit for driving wheel, comprising:
- an outer ring including an outer raceway in the inner peripheral surface thereof and unrotatable even when said axle unit for driving wheel is in use;
- a hub including a mounting flange formed in the direction of outer-end portion of the outer peripheral surface thereof for supporting wheels, a first inner raceway formed directly or through an inner ring in the middle portion of said outer peripheral surface, a second inner raceway formed in the direction of inner-end portion of said outer peripheral surface, and a spline hole formed in the central portion thereof;
- a drive shaft member including a spline shaft disposed on the outer end portion thereof so as to be engageable with said spline hole and having an inner end portion thereof formed as a housing portion to serve as the outer ring of a constant velocity joint;
- and,
- a plurality of rolling elements rollably interposed between said outer raceway and said inner raceway,
- said axle unit for driving wheel further including:
- an inside engaging portion formed so as to extend over the entire periphery of the outer peripheral surface of said spline shaft;
- an outside engaging portion formed so as to extend over the entire periphery of the inner periphery of said hub in such position of said hub as corresponds to said inside engaging portion;
- and,
- a retaining ring made of elastic material,
- wherein said retaining ring is bridgingly interposed between said inside and outside engaging portions to thereby prevent the spline shaft from slipping out of said spline hole;
- an inner ring with said second inner raceway formed in the outer peripheral surface thereof is fixed to said hub in such a manner that the inner end face of said inner ring is held by a caulk portion formed in the inner end portion of said hub, which projects beyond said inner end face of said inner ring, by caulking and spreading such portion of the inner end portion of said hub, outwardly in the diameter direction of said hub;
- in a portion of said caulk portion opposed to the outer end face of said housing portion, there is formed a flat surface extending in parallel to said outer end face of said housing portion;
- and, said flat surface and said outer end face are butted against each other directly or through a seal member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.