Method for making a pressure-tight attachment of an elastomeric tubular piece to a connecting part

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method for making a pressure-tight attachment of an elastomeric tubular piece to an attachment part. For making the pressure-tight attachment, an open end of a tubular piece made of elastomeric material is pushed onto a connecting part and a metal clamping ring is positioned thereon. While radially pressing the jaws of the clamping device together, the diameter of the clamping ring is reduced and the tubular piece is thereby tightly clamped to the connecting part. The clamping operation is ended before damage occurs but only when an adequate strength is ensured. During clamping, the force/displacement curve is observed and a characteristic feature of the measured curve is used as a basis of computation for a switchoff criterion. Preferably, the clamping operation is only ended when the clamping force begins to drop for the first time after the maximum force is exceeded in a defined manner in a predetermined localized or bounded curve segment. The method of the invention is especially for attaching a resilient member to a cover and/or to a roll-off piston of an air spring of a motor vehicle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.