Front fork
AssigneeKayaba Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorNobumichi Hanawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A front fork, which is interposed between a vehicle body and an axle to restrain a change in vehicle attitude, comprises a fork body (101) including a reservoir chamber (106) partially filled with gas and performing an expansion and contraction operation, a reservoir tank (102) partially filled with gas and communicating with the reservoir chamber (106) through a flow path (103) in which hydraulic oil flows, an on-off valve (35) switching between opening and closing of the flow path (103), and a relief valve (40) accepting flow of hydraulic oil from the reservoir chamber (106) toward the reservoir tank (102) when a pressure of the reservoir chamber (106) reaches a predetermined pressure.
Claims14
A front fork interposed between a vehicle body and an axle to restrain a change in vehicle attitude, comprising:
- an expandable and contractable fork body including a reservoir chamber partially filled with gas;
- a reservoir tank partially filled with gas and communicating with the reservoir chamber through a flow path in which hydraulic oil flows;
- an on-off valve blocking the flow path when the vehicle is in a braking operation;
- a relief valve that accepts a flow of hydraulic oil from the reservoir chamber toward the reservoir tank when a pressure of the reservoir chamber reaches a predetermined pressure by contraction of the fork body in the braking operation in a state of the on-off valve blocking the flow path;
- and
- a check valve that accepts only a flow of hydraulic oil from the reservoir tank toward the reservoir chamber when the pressure of the reservoir chamber becomes lower than the pressure of the reservoir tank by shifting from a contraction operation to an expansion operation of the fork body in the state of the on-off valve blocking the flow path.
A front fork interposed between a vehicle body and an axle to restrain a change in vehicle attitude, comprising:
- an expandable and contractable fork body including a reservoir chamber partially filled with gas;
- a reservoir tank partially filled with gas and communicating with the reservoir chamber through a flow path in which hydraulic oil flows;
- an on-off valve switching between a communication position where it opens the flow path and a shut-off position where it blocks the flow path, the on-off valve allowing, in the communication position, the hydraulic oil to flow from the fork body into the reservoir tank when the fork body contracts, the on-off valve being in the shut-off position when the vehicle is in a braking operation;
- a relief valve that accepts a flow of hydraulic oil from the reservoir chamber toward the reservoir tank when a pressure of the reservoir chamber reaches a predetermined pressure by contraction of the fork body in the braking operation while the on-off valve is in the shut-off position;
- and
- a check valve that accepts only a flow of hydraulic oil from the reservoir tank toward the reservoir chamber when the pressure of the reservoir chamber becomes lower than the pressure of the reservoir tank by shifting from a contraction operation to an expansion operation of the fork body in the state of the on-off valve blocking the flow path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.