Sealing system for road wheel suspension
AssigneeEx-Cell-O Corporation
InventorGlenn R. O'Rourke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hydropneumatic suspension unit includes a large diameter flanged road arm spindle which is bolted to the vehicle hull; a road arm has one end rotatably mounted on the road arm spindle and another end mounting a road wheel; a gravity oriented oil barrier is defined with a free volume enclosed within the road arm to submerge a sealing system for an in-arm mechanically operated pneumatic spring which has a gas volume trapped behind the oil barrier to support the sprung mass of the vehicle; the seal system is defined by a pair of spaced O-rings and a packing ring which seals the outer surface of a reciprocating rod that displaces the seal oil barrier to vary gas compression and produce a resultant force equivalent to pressure times the area of the rod to counteract vertical forces on the road wheel.
Claims6
A self-contained road wheel suspension system comprising in combination, a spindle fixedly secured to a vehicle hull, a unitary road arm having a spindle housing on one end and a road wheel support on the opposite end thereof, bearing means for supporting said spindle housing for rotation relative to said spindle, means defining a single chamber gas spring means at the opposite end of said arm, and a fluid controlled damper means included within said spindle, said spring means including a gas volume and a piston rod relatively reciprocated with respect to said arm, seal assembly means carried by said arm, means defining a low pressure oil region on one end of said piston rod and means defining a high pressure oil region on the opposite end of said piston rod to submerge said seal assembly in oil and separate it from the gas volume, said rod displacing said high pressure oil region to vary the gas volume pressure.
A self-contained road wheel suspension system comprising in combination, a large diameter spindle fixedly secured to a vehicle hull, a road arm having a spindle housing on one end and a road wheel support on the opposite end thereof, bearing means for supporting said spindle housing for rotation relative to said spindle, a fluid filled crankcase defined by said spindle housing and said spindle, mechanically operated single chamber gas spring means at the opposite end of said road arm, a mechanically operated fluid controlled damper means remote from said gas spring means and included within said spindle, means for removing heat from said damper means, and means for absorbing and dissipating said heat without adversely affecting the performance of said gas spring means, said spring means including a gas volume and a piston rod relatively reciprocated with respect to said arm, seal assembly means carried by said arm, means including said fluid filled crankcase defining a low pressure oil region on one end of said piston rod and means defining a high pressure oil region on the opposite end of said piston rod to submerge the seal assembly in a volume of oil which separates said seal assembly from the gas volume, said rod displacing said high pressure oil region to vary the gas volume pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.