Vehicle air spring assembly
AssigneeBFS Diversified Products, LLC
InventorsJoshua R. Leonard, Pradipta N. Moulik, Stephen C. Street
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle air spring assembly has a pair of spaced end plates which sealing engage a bladder to form an air chamber. A pair of bead skirts are attached to the end plates to guide the bladder radially outwardly as the air spring is compressed. By guiding the bladder as it expands radially outwardly, the bead skirts control the effective area with respect to the air spring height, thus controlling the dynamic load and dynamic spring rate of the air spring. The bead skirts are formed complementary in shape and nestle together as they move towards one another. This nestling reduces pinching of the bladder when the air spring is compressed during use.
Claims18
An air spring assembly comprising:
- a first end plate;
- a second end plate;
- a flexible bladder extending between and sealing connected to said first and second end plates to form a pressurized air chamber;
- first and second skirts surrounding said first and second end plates, respectively, each of said skirts having an annular control surface extending outwardly therefrom and engagable with the bladder to control the shape of the bladder as the first and second end plates move towards and away from one another during operation of said air spring and along said control surfaces;
- wherein said control surfaces are complementary in shape to provide a general nesting relationship therebetween when the air spring assembly is in a compressed position;
- each of said skirts having an annular configuration with a recessed central portion with the end plates being seated in the recessed central portion of the skirts;
- and
- a plurality of aligned holes formed in the central portion of one of the skirts and the corresponding end plate for receiving fasteners therethrough.
An air spring assembly comprising:
- a first end plate;
- a second end plate;
- a flexible bladder extending between and sealing connected to said first and second end plates to form a pressurized air chamber;
- first and second skirts surrounding said first and second end plates, respectively, each of said skirts having an annular control surface extending outwardly therefrom and engagable with the bladder when the bladder moves from a static at-rest position toward a compressed position to control the shape of the bladder by guiding expanded portions of the bladder radially outwardly along and beyond said annular control surfaces, as the first and second end plates move towards one another during operation of said air spring, said control surfaces being out of contact with the bladder when the air spring is in the static at-rest position and are dissimilar to each other and complementary in shape to provide a general nesting relationship therebetween when the air spring assembly is in the compressed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.