Ball joint and work process for preparing same
AssigneeLemforder Metallwaren AG
InventorsMetin Ersoy, Dirk Mahlmann, Klemens Meyer, Paul Westphal, Uwe Zeibig
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A ball joint and a work process for preparing such a ball joint are described, in which the housing is prepared in one piece by a sheet metal shaping process. An edge bead, which is used to close the housing by a cover, is prepared by material deformation on the outer circumference of the housing. A groove for receiving the sealing bellows, which groove is likewise located on the outer circumference of the housing, is formed during the shaping process, so that machining of the housing is not necessary.
Claims10
A ball joint comprising:
- a joint ball;
- a ball pivot connected to said joint ball;
- a bearing shell, said joint ball being mounted movably in all directions in said bearing shell;
- a housing cover;
- a sealing bellows fastened to said ball pivot;
- and
- a ball joint housing and integral housing shaft for fastening, said housing and shaft being formed of a single piece of sheet metal, said ball joint housing accommodating said bearing shell for mounting said ball pivot, said ball joint housing being formed with portions of said single piece of sheet metal closed in a ring-shaped manner to form an annularly-closed structure with open cover side and open ball pivot side, said annularly-closed structure having an inner wall which is uninterrupted from said open cover side to said open ball pivot side, said annularly-closed structure being formed in one piece with said housing shaft by shaping said sheet metal in a non-cutting process.
A process for forming a ball joint, comprising the steps of:
- providing a ball pivot with a joint ball mounted movably in all directions in a bearing shell;
- forming a ball joint housing of sheet metal by shaping a single piece of sheet metal without cutting any portion of said sheet metal which is to form part of the housing, to close the ball joint housing in a ring-shape manner to form an annularly-closed structure with an open top and an open bottom out of said single piece of sheet metal, said annularly-closed structure having an inner wall which is uninterrupted from said open top to said open bottom, and positioning said bearing shell within said annularly-closed structure and forming a housing shaft of the same single piece of sheet metal, with the housing shaft extending from the annularly-closed structure and formed integral therewith;
- closing the ball joint open top with a housing cover and fastening a sealing bellows to said ball pivot to close the open bottom.
A process for forming a ball joint, comprising the steps of:
- providing a ball pivot with a joint ball mounted movably in all directions in a bearing shell;
- forming a ball joint housing of sheet metal by shaping a single piece of the sheet without cutting the sheet metal to close the ball joint housing in a ring-shape manner to form an annularly-closed structure with an open top cover side and an open bottom ball pivot side, said annularly-closed structure having an inner wall which is uninterrupted from said open top cover side to said open bottom ball pivot side, and positioning said bearing shell within said annularly-closed structure and forming a housing shaft of the same single piece of sheet metal, with the housing shaft extending from the annularly-closed structure and formed integral therewith;
- closing the ball joint on said cover side with a housing cover and fastening a sealing bellows to said ball pivot to close the ball pivot side.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.