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US 9,688,347 B2Granted
Vehicle suspension damper
AssigneeFox Factory, Inc.
InventorsJoshua Benjamin Yablon, Dennis K. Wootten, Robert C. Fox, David M. Haugen, Sante Pelot
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Abstract
A vehicle suspension damper for providing a variable damping rate. The vehicle suspension damper comprises a first damping mechanism having a variable first threshold pressure, a second damping mechanism having a second threshold pressure, and a compressible chamber in communication with a damping fluid chamber, wherein the second damping mechanism is responsive to a compression of said compressible chamber.
Claims11
A vehicle suspension damper for providing a variable damping rate, said vehicle suspension damper comprising:
- a first damping mechanism having a variable first threshold pressure;
- a first fluid chamber to which a portion of said first damping mechanism abuts;
- a damping fluid disposed in said first fluid chamber;
- a second fluid chamber separate from said first fluid chamber, said second fluid chamber to receive a portion of said damping fluid;
- a first and a second flow path between said first and second fluid chambers, said first and second flow paths for said damping fluid,
- a second damping mechanism having a second threshold pressure;
- wherein said second damping mechanism comprises:
- a variable damper enclosing a fillable chamber, said variable damper comprising:
- a valve inner;
- and
- a movable valve outer to engage portions of said valve inner, said fillable chamber creates a gap between said valve inner and said movable valve outer such that said valve inner and said movable valve outer enclose said fillable chamber, and such that fluid does not flow out of said fillable chamber;
- and
- a shaft that moves further into said first fluid chamber during a compression stroke of said vehicle suspension damper, during which time a differential pressure between said damping fluid and said fillable chamber drives said movable valve outer and said valve inner more tightly together axially, to cause the gap to become partially closed and cause said movable valve outer to increase a closure force against said second flow path, said increasing closure force applied against said second flow path by said movable valve outer to create an increase in compression difficulty for said vehicle suspension damper.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.