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US 7,921,974 B2Granted
Damping cylinder with annular bladder
AssigneeFox Factory, Inc.
InventorWilliam H Becker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improvement to damping cylinders in which the damping fluid needs to be separated from a gas is disclosed. In particular, an annular bladder is used. An annular bladder allows for a control shaft to extends at least a portion of the length of the damping cylinder. This configuration effectively and simply reduces most issues that result from when an IFP is used for the same purpose.
Claims16
A fluid damper, comprising:
- a cylinder having a wall partially defining a damping fluid chamber;
- a base attached to a first end of the cylinder;
- a partition partially defining the damping fluid chamber and having one or more valves;
- a shaft extending through the base and into the damping fluid chamber;
- and
- an annular bladder having inner and outer walls made from an elastomeric material and at least partially defining a sealed gas chamber,
- wherein;
- the damping fluid chamber has a pressure,
- the bladder walls are operable to transmit the pressure to the gas chamber during compression and rebound of the fluid damper,
- the walls are parallel to the shaft, and
- first ends of the inner and outer walls are mounted to the base.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.