US 6,854,574 B2Granted

Shock absorber

AssigneeAsteer Co., Ltd.

InventorsHiroshi Yoshida, Hiroshi Goto, Koji Shimotsu

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Abstract

A shock absorber as being of a bumper supporting member and a shock absorber as being of a side member, which retain the sinking motion of a smaller-diameter tube portion into a larger-diameter tube portion even if an impact is applied at a larger angle obliquely of an axial direction, thereby to achieve the absorption of the impact energy by a plastic deformation. A plastically deformable straight tube is partially reduced or partially enlarged to form a smaller-diameter tube portion and a larger-diameter tube portion, which join to each other through a step portion. The step portion is formed by joining a folded-back portion of the smaller-diameter tube portion and a folded-back portion of the larger-diameter tube portion, which have circular arc-shaped sections having arcuate angles more than 90 degrees.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A shock absorber comprising a smaller-diameter tube portion and a larger-diameter tube portion integrally formed by partially reducing or partially enlarging a plastically deformable straight tube, and a step portion that joins the smaller-diameter tube portion and the larger-diameter tube portion, wherein

the smaller-diameter tube portion includes a guiding member fixed on its inner surface for retaining or preventing the inclination of the smaller-diameter tube portion when the smaller-diameter tube portion sinks into the larger-diameter tube portion,
the guiding member has a smaller-diameter annular guiding portion having an external diameter equal to the internal diameter of the smaller-diameter tube portion and a larger-diameter annular guiding portion having an external diameter equal to the internal diameter of the larger-diameter tube portion,
the smaller-diameter annular guiding portion is fixed on the inner surface of the smaller-diameter tube portion and protruding across the step portion from the smaller-diameter tube portion into the larger-diameter tube portion, and
the larger-diameter annular guiding portion contacts the inner surface of the larger-diameter tube portion at a position where the smaller-diameter annular guiding portion crosses the step portion.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.