US 7,022,932 B2 · Outer shell unit and method of manufacturing the unit

Abstract

A manufacturing method for an outer shell unit (10) provided with a cylindrical outer shell (3) housing a damping force generating mechanism and a knuckle bracket (7) mounted on the outer shell (3) to connect a knuckle. The knuckle bracket (7) is fixed by welding to the outer shell (3) after closing the bottom (31) of the outer shell (3) with a closing process. Consequently productivity is increased due to the fact that the number of processing operations for cutting an inlay and the number of operations for assembling the lower cap are reduced because the bottom is formed using a closing process. Furthermore productivity is increased since it is not necessary to seal the bottom by welding since the sealing characteristics of the bottom of the outer shell are ensured by the closing process.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method of manufacturing an outer shell unit provided with a cylindrical outer shell housing a damping force generating mechanism and a knuckle bracket mounted on the outer shell to connect a knuckle, the method comprising the steps of;

forming a bottom of the outer shell using a closing process which totally closes the bottom of the outer shell with a process using a cored bar disposed coaxially with the outer shell, the cored bar rotating with the outer shell, and a die pressing the bottom of the outer shell, the die rotating around a die axis having a predetermined offset from a rotation axis of the outer shell, and
welding the knuckle bracket to the outer shell after forming the bottom.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Outer shell unit and method of manufacturing the unit

Life of this patent

Outer shell unit and method of manufacturing the unit

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims10