US 2020/0130048 A1Published application

Vehicle knuckle

AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)

InventorsHiroaki HOSOI, Kouki SUGINO, Keiji YAZAKI, Teppei HOSHINO

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Abstract

The objective of the present invention is to improve the rigidity of a vehicle knuckle made from an aluminum alloy with respect to a force directed from the outside to the inside in the width direction of a vehicle. A vehicle knuckle (11) is provided with a bearing support portion (111), a knuckle upper portion (113) and a knuckle lower portion (112). With the vehicle knuckle (11) in a position fitted to a vehicle main body, the knuckle upper portion (113) has a shape in which, if the knuckle upper portion (113) is divided equally into five or more regions in a vertical direction, and the center of the bearing support portion (111) is fixed and a horizontal load F is applied to a knuckle upper end portion (115) from the outside toward the inside in the width direction of the vehicle, the minimum value of a value obtained by dividing the strain energy in each of the five or more regions other than a first region (11A) by the mass of the corresponding region is at least equal to 0.70 times the maximum value thereof.

Claims3

Dependent claims

A vehicle knuckle made of an aluminum alloy, comprising:

a bearing support portion configured to support a bearing portion forming a rotational axis of a wheel;
a knuckle upper portion extending upward from the bearing support portion, the knuckle upper portion having a knuckle upper end portion;
and
a knuckle lower portion extending downward from the bearing support portion and connected to a lower arm,
wherein in a position where the vehicle knuckle is fitted to a vehicle main body, the knuckle upper portion has a shape in which, when the knuckle upper portion is equally divided into five or more regions along a vertical direction and a horizontal load directed from an outside to an inside in a width direction of a vehicle is applied to the knuckle upper end portion while fixing a center of the bearing support portion, a minimum value among values obtained by dividing a strain energy in each of other regions of the five or more regions, except for a region including the knuckle upper end portion and located at an uppermost position, by a mass of the corresponding region is at least equal to 0.70 times a maximum value thereamong.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.