Making a fractured powder metal connecting rod

Abstract

A method of making a connecting rod for attachment to a bearing journal by separation of parts of the connecting rod, including: (a) forging a powder metal sintered preform to provide a one-piece connecting rod having an annular wall defining a crank opening with a center axis and with stress risers for establishing a cracking plane that extends across said crank opening; (b) providing access for a compression coupling across the cracking plane; (c) while at ambient conditions, applying tension substantially uniformly across the cracking plane to propogate fracture from the stress risers along said cracking plane and thereby separate the connecting rod into a cap and body with cracked surfaces; and (d) remating the cap and body by applying a compression coupling through the access to draw said cap and body together under guidance and with metal yielding pressure to effect substantially an exact rematch of said cracked surfaces. Control of the diametrical clearance between the bolt shanks and the bolt openings, of the bolts used as the compression coupling, promotes guidance needed to achieve such rematch. The cracking is effected in an improved manner by use of continuous pulling apart of the rod in a direction perpendicular to the cracking plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.