Patent Application
20250172076
The present disclosure relates to the technical field of vehicles. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to a cam phase adjuster.
In order to obtain optimal combustion efficiency in an internal combustion engine, it is typically necessary to vary the air intake volume of the combustion chamber according to the operating state of the engine, which gave rise to variable valve timing (VVT) technology. The main component for implementing variable valve timing is the cam phase adjuster. The cam phase adjuster drives, by a hydraulic fluid, a rotor to rotate relative to a stator, thereby adjusting the phase of the camshaft. The stator is commonly integrated with a sprocket wheel for being engaged with a chain. When the sprocket wheel is operating, the chain continuously makes contact with and collides with the sprocket wheel and the stator, causing problems such as wear and noise.
In the prior art, a cushioning ring may typically be provided on the stator to reduce noise produced when the chain makes contact with the stator or the sprocket wheel. In the prior art, the cushioning ring is bonded to an outer side face of the stator by means of gluing, and the bonding surface of the stator is generally a smooth surface. Since gluing requires relatively highly of surface roughness in the bonding region, it is necessary to use a sandblasting process to increase the surface roughness of the bonding surface, to ensure bonding quality. After sandblasting, it is further necessary to additionally perform a cleaning process to remove sandblasting residues, to ensure the bonding quality. The sandblasting and additional cleaning processes increase production costs of the cam phase adjuster.
Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present disclosure is to provide a cam phase adjuster that is easy to produce and has low manufacturing costs.
The above-mentioned technical problem is solved by the cam phase adjuster according to the present disclosure. The cam phase adjuster comprises a stator, a sprocket wheel and a cushioning ring, wherein the sprocket wheel radially protrudes from an outer side face of the stator, and the cushioning ring surrounds the outer side face of the stator. The stator and/or the sprocket wheel comprise(s) a groove or trench feature region, which is formed on a surface, a plurality of grooves or trenches extending at an inclined angle or obliquely with respect to a circumferential direction are formed in the trench feature region, and the cushioning ring is bonded to the trench feature region. The trenches in the trench feature region can increase the surface roughness in the region and improve the bonding firmness between the cushioning ring and a bonding surface of the stator, and therefore can replace a surface formed by sandblasting. The trenches extend at an inclined angle or obliquely with respect to the circumferential direction, such that the bonding surface has relatively high resistance to relative movements along a tangential direction. Moreover, the trenches in the trench feature region may be formed by simple processes such as machining or integral molding, such that a manufacturing process can be simplified, and manufacturing costs can be reduced.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the trench feature region may be formed on a radially outer side surface of the stator and adjacent to the sprocket wheel along an axial direction. The radially outer side surface of the stator is a main surface to which the cushioning ring is bonded. In addition, the trench feature region may also be alternatively or additionally formed on a side surface of the sprocket wheel, which extends perpendicularly to the axial direction and is adjacent to the stator along the axial direction, and the cushioning ring may abut against the side surface along the axial direction.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned plurality of trenches may respectively extend along the axial direction. The trenches extending along the axial direction are easy to process and have higher resistance to the relative movements along the tangential direction, such that the bonding firmness between the cushioning ring and the outer side face of the stator can be improved. The above-mentioned plurality of trenches can be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction. This allows the annular trench feature region to have a uniform bonding effect in the entire circumferential direction.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the trench feature region may have a saw-toothed profile in a cross-section perpendicular to the axial direction. In other words, cross-sections of these trenches each have a triangular profile, and are adjacent to one another along the circumferential direction. This can effectively increase the density of the trenches, such that relatively high surface roughness can be obtained in the trench feature region.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned plurality of trenches may be integrally formed with the stator by a powder metallurgy process. When the trenches extend along the axial direction, the entire product is easy to demold, and therefore, it is convenient to use the powder metallurgy process for manufacturing. Manufacturing the stator by using the powder metallurgy process may form the trench feature region at one time, thereby greatly simplifying a machining process.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned plurality of trenches may extend in parallel to one another. Such trenches are easier to manufacture. Alternatively, the above-mentioned plurality of trenches may also comprise a plurality of first trenches extending in parallel and a plurality of second trenches extending in parallel, and an extending direction of the plurality of first trenches is not parallel to an extending direction of the plurality of second trenches. This enables a mesh-like pattern to be formed in the trench feature region. The plurality of first trenches can be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction, and/or the plurality of second trenches can be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction.
According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the above-mentioned plurality of trenches may be formed by a turning or knurling process. The use of the turning or knurling process also facilitates achieving trench patterns that are more complex.
The present disclosure is further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals in the drawings will be used to refer to elements with the same functions. Therein:
Specific implementations of the cam phase adjuster according to the present disclosure will be described below in conjunction with accompanying drawings. The following detailed description and drawings are intended to exemplarily illustrate the principle of the present disclosure. The present disclosure is not limited to the described example embodiments, and the scope of protection of the present disclosure is defined by the claims.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a cam phase adjuster for a motor vehicle is provided. The cam phase adjuster is mounted in a timing system of the motor vehicle.
The cam phase adjuster further comprises a buffer gasket 30 (hereinafter referred to as a cushioning ring 30). The cushioning ring 30 is an annular component made of rubber or other elastic materials. The cushioning ring 30 surrounds the outer side face of the stator 10, and is bonded to the outer side face of the stator 10 by an adhesive. The cushioning ring 30 is adjacent to the sprocket wheel 20 in an axial direction. When the chain is engaged with the sprocket wheel 20, the chain generally abuts against the cushioning ring 30 along a radial direction. The cushioning ring 30 may buffer vibration of the chain and reduce wear. Although only one cushioning ring 30 is shown in
As shown in
The above-mentioned trenches can be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction. In addition, each of these trenches may have a same profile in the cross-section perpendicular to the axial direction. Since contact portions of the chain with the sprocket wheel 20 and with the trench feature region 11 change along with rotation position, the above-mentioned design is conducive to enabling the cushioning ring 30 to have uniform bonding firmness in the entire circumferential direction. Further, each trench can have a triangular profile in the cross-section perpendicular to the axial direction, and these trenches may be adjacent to one another along the circumferential direction. This allows the trench feature region 11 to have a saw-toothed profile in the cross-section perpendicular to the axial direction. Such a design can effectively increase the density of the trenches and increase the overall roughness of the trench feature region, thereby obtaining greater bonding firmness.
In an alternative embodiment, the trenches in the trench feature region 11 may also not extend along the axial direction, but extend obliquely with respect to the axial direction. However, these trenches cannot extend along the circumferential direction, in other words, they must be oblique with respect to the circumferential direction (extending along the axial direction means being perpendicular to the circumferential direction, namely, being oblique at 90 degrees with respect to the circumferential direction). As long as an extending direction of the trenches is not parallel to the circumferential direction, the shape of the trenches can produce effective tangential resistance to the cushioning ring 30 bonded to the surface, which prevents the cushioning ring 30 from sliding along the circumferential direction.
When the trenches do not extend in parallel to the axial direction, there arc a variety of means for arranging these trenches. For example, in a first case, all the trenches may extend in parallel to one another. In this case, these trenches may be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction.
In a second case, all the trenches may be divided into two groups with different extending directions, where one group of trenches comprises a plurality of first trenches extending in parallel along a first direction, and the other group comprises a plurality of second trenches extending in parallel along a second direction. As mentioned above, the first direction and the second direction are both directions oblique with respect to the circumferential direction but not parallel to the axial direction. The first direction is not parallel to the second direction, such that the first trenches and the second trenches can intersect on the outer side face, thereby constituting a mesh-like pattern. These first trenches can be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction. Similarly, these second trenches may also be evenly distributed in a spaced manner along the circumferential direction. The mesh-like trench pattern can effectively improve the surface roughness of the trench feature region 11, and increase bonding force.
In the above-mentioned alternative embodiment, since the extending direction of the trenches is not parallel to the axial direction, which is not conducive to demolding, it is inconvenient to use the powder metallurgy process for manufacturing. However, such a trench feature region 11 may be formed on a blank of a manufactured stator 10 by machining means such as turning or knurling. These machining processes are technically mature, easy to perform, and still highly cost-effective.
In other embodiments, the trench feature region may also be alternatively or additionally formed on a side surface of the sprocket wheel 20, which extends perpendicularly to the axial direction and is adjacent to the stator 10 along the axial direction, and the cushioning ring 30 may abut against and be bonded to the side surface along the axial direction.
According to the cam phase adjuster of the present disclosure, the cushioning ring is provided on the trench feature region, and the trench feature region has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture, such that not only better bonding firmness can be obtained, but also manufacturing is facilitated, thereby improving cost-effectiveness.
Although possible embodiments have been described illustratively in the above description, it should be understood that there are still a large number of embodiment variations through combinations of all known technical features and embodiments as well as those that are readily apparent to those skilled in the art. In addition, it should be further understood that the exemplary embodiments are just examples and shall not in any way limit the scope of protection, application and construction of the present disclosure. The foregoing description is more intended to provide those skilled in the art with a technical guide for converting at least one exemplary embodiment, in which various changes, especially changes in the functions and structures of the components, can be made as long as they do not depart from the scope of protection of the claims.
This application is the U.S. National Phase of PCT Application No. PCT/CN2022/07442 filed on Jan. 27, 2022, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2022/074422 | 1/27/2022 | WO |
