Ball and Socket Joint Retention for a Hydraulic Pump/Motor
OwnerDaniel W. Barba, Charles L. Gray, JR. +1inventors
InventorsDaniel W. Barba, Charles L. Gray, JR., Mark Doorlag
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments for retaining the spherical ball of a piston connecting rod within a socket in a bore in a drive plate of a bent-axis pump/motor comprise swaging material at the periphery of the socket cavity toward the ball, to an outer diameter such that the swaged region is fully supported against pullout by the cylindrical wall of the bore. Alternatively, a retention ring which is fully supported by the walls of the cylindrical bore retains the ball within the socket and is in turn retained by a snap ring extending into a groove within the bore.
Claims10
A ball and socket joint for a hydraulic pump/motor, comprising:
- a cylindrical socket body, having a substantially semi-spherical socket cavity residing in a first end;
- a substantially spherical or semi-spherical connecting rod ball end seated within the socket cavity, and having a spherical diameter substantially equal to the spherical diameter of the socket cavity, wherein the end of the socket body opposite the socket cavity resides at the bottom of a cylindrical bore of a drive plate of the hydraulic pump/motor;
- and
- a retention means for keeping the connecting rod ball end seated within the socket cavity, wherein the retention means is radially fully supported by side walls of the cylindrical bore such as to limit deformation of the retention means by pull-out forces that occur in operation of the pump/motor.
A method for assembling a ball socket, comprising:
- placing a connecting rod ball end into a socket interior cavity residing in an end of a cylindrical socket body, the socket body having a socket lip with a first, initial outer cylindrical diameter at the ball entrance into the socket cavity larger than a second outer cylindrical diameter of the socket body below the socket lip;
- swaging the socket lip region of the socket body radially toward the ball such that the final outer cylindrical diameter of the socket lip equals the second outer cylindrical diameter.
A swaging tool used for assembling a ball socket, comprising:
- a cylindrical bore;
- a swaging cavity radially symmetrical with the bore, including a first, slanted region and a second, straight region, wherein the slanted region has a frustoconical interior surface having a central axis substantially parallel to the central axis of the swage cavity and having the larger frustoconical diameter oriented toward the engaging end of the tool, and wherein said straight region has a substantially cylindrical interior surface that is substantially parallel to the central axis of the swage cavity, and
- wherein said swage cavity is configured such that the slanted region is nearest the engaging end of the tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.