Apparatus for controlling friction between the leaf springs of a laminated leaf spring assembly of a vehicle

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling the friction between the leaf springs of a laminated leaf spring assembly comprises a clamping mechanism, a hydraulic cylinder mechanism, a hydraulic control mechanism and a detecting mechanism. The clamping mechanism includes a guide member and a press member. The guide member and the press member hold and clamp the laminated leaf spring assembly. The detecting mechanism detects the values of the predetermined factors of a body supported by the laminated leaf spring assembly and supplied signals representative of the values to the pressure reducing valve. According to the signals from the detecting mechanism the pressure reducing valve controls the pressure of the liquid supplied to the cylinder of the hydraulic cylinder mechanism. The detecting mechanism includes a pressure sensor for sensing the pressure of the compressed oil acting on the power steering assembly and a comparator for comparing a signal from the pressure sensor with a predetermined value and for supplying a signal corresponding to the sensed pressure to the control valve when the sensed pressure exceeds the predetermined value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.