Patent Application
20080060892
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent on reading the detailed description which follows and which will be understood with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
In the description which will follow, identical reference numbers denote parts which are identical or have similar functions.
In a known manner, the pad 10 is intended to be received in a hydraulic braking caliper 12, of which part has been represented in
In particular, the pad 10 forms part, in a known manner, of a set of two pads which are received in a floating brake caliper having the form of a U-shaped saddle of which a first branch (not shown) receives a hydraulic piston which is intended to apply one of the two pads against a rotating brake disk (not shown), and of which a second branch 14, also called “caliper nose”, comprises two parallel fingers 16 against whose bearing faces 18 are received ends of the pad 10.
This configuration does not limit the invention and the second branch of the caliper 12 could have only one bearing face 18.
As has been represented in
In a known manner, the pad 10 comprises at least one plate-shaped support 20 of which an active face 22 carries a lining 24 made of a friction material and intended to be applied against the disk (not shown).
An opposed application face 26 of the support 20 is intended to be acted on by at least two bearing faces 18 of the caliper 12.
When assembling such a caliper, it is necessary to lubricate the mutual contact surfaces of the pad 10 and of the caliper nose fingers 16 so as to allow slight rotations of the pad 10 during braking actions parallel to the surface of the brake disk.
This lubrication is generally performed with a brush by an operator who coats the bearing faces 18 of the caliper nose fingers 16 and the application face 26 of the support 20 of the pad 10 with grease.
This operation is awkward since it has to be performed without depositing any grease on the lining 24 of the pad 10. Consequently, it is inappropriate for a mass-production assembly process.
To overcome this drawback, as illustrated in
In the preferred embodiment of the invention which concerns a pad associated with a caliper comprising two fingers 16 forming a caliper nose, it will be understood that the application face 26 of the pad 10 comprises two grease reservoirs 28 and two destructible walls 30 associated with the two fingers 16 of the caliper 12.
The destructible walls 30 are intended, as illustrated in
Preferably, the wall 30 of the grease reservoir 28 consists of a destructible film which entraps the grease 32 between said film 30 and the application face 26. As represented in
Advantageously, provision can be made for the capacity of the grease reservoir 28 to be greater than the volume defined between the application bearing face 26 of the pad 10 and the film 30. To this end, the reservoir 28 comprises at least one fixed wall which is delimited by a cavity 36 which is formed within the thickness of the plate-shaped support 20 and which opens out into the application face 26.
When the bearing face 18 of the caliper 12 destroys the film 30 forming the destructible wall, it pushes back the film residues 30 inside the cavity 36, the effect of which is to expel all of the grease contained in the cavity 36.
The cavity 36 thus makes it possible to benefit from an additional grease volume which can be used entirely.
The invention therefore makes it possible to automatically lubricate the mutual contact surfaces of the pad 10 and of the caliper nose fingers 16 without intervention by any operator.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0608067 | Sep 2006 | FR | national |
