The present invention relates to a chain guide that slidably guides a running chain in, for instance, a timing system of an engine.
A chain guide that slidably guides a running chain is commonly used in, for instance, a timing system of an engine to stabilize the chain running between sprockets and keep tension thereof appropriately.
Such a chain guide is attached to a mounting target such as an engine block, with a mounting bolt passed through a bolt passage hole formed in a guide body (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publications Nos. 2017-078486, 2011-127741, and H10-238604). Since the mounting bolt is made of metal while the guide body is made of resin, the difference in thermal shrinkage occurs between the synthetic resin guide body and the metal mounting bolt due to the heat of the running engine, and looseness is brought about between the bolt passage hole and the mounting bolt, and this eventually, because of the difference in thermal shrinkage, leads to an unstable mounting state of the chain guide.
Hence, conventionally a metal bushing member is interposed inside the bolt passage hole of the guide body for a purpose of alleviating this problem of looseness in the mounted state of the chain guide resulting from the thermal shrinkage difference.
However, when attaching such a chain guide to the engine block or the like, it is necessary to fasten a mounting bolt, which has passed through the bushing member, to the engine block or the like, while keeping the bushing member inside the bolt passage hole of the guide body. One problem of this is a reduced assembling efficiency and possibility of accidental drop of the bushing member during the transportation of the chain guide.
The present invention is for solving these problems, its object being to provide a chain guide that can improve work efficiency during assembly and transportability with a simple structure.
The present invention achieves the above object by providing a chain guide including: a guide body having a shoe support that supports a guide shoe slidably guiding a running chain on an upper side in a guide height direction; and a bushing structure at least in one location where a bushing member is attached to the guide body. The bushing member includes a bushing cylindrical part formed with a bolt passage hole, and a flange part extending radially outward from the bushing cylindrical part at one end of the bushing cylindrical part. The guide body includes a cylindrical insertion hole formed to extend therethrough in a guide width direction so that the bushing cylindrical part is inserted from a front side to a back side in the guide width direction, and a backside restricting part that restricts movement of the flange part toward the back side in the guide width direction. The guide body includes, in each bushing structure, a front-side restricting portion that is positioned on the front side in the guide width direction of the flange part and restricts movement of the flange part to the front side in the guide width direction only in one location on an outer circumference of the cylindrical insertion hole when viewed in the guide width direction.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the guide body includes a cylindrical insertion hole formed to extend therethrough in a guide width direction so that the bushing cylindrical part is inserted from a front side to a back side in the guide width direction, and a backside restricting part that restricts movement of the flange part to the back side in the guide width direction. The guide body includes, in each bushing structure, a front-side restricting portion that is positioned on the front side in the guide width direction of the flange part and restricts movement of the flange part to the front side in the guide width direction only in one location on an outer circumference of the cylindrical insertion hole when viewed in the guide width direction. Accidental drop of the bushing member from the guide body can thus be prevented, so that the transportability of the chain guide will be improved, as well as the work efficiency when assembling the chain guide to a mounting target such as an engine block can be increased. The front-side restricting portion is provided only in one location for each bushing structure, so that the bushing member can be mounted to the guide body easily.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the guide body includes an extended part extending from the back side to the front side in the guide width direction, and a distal end on the front side of the extended part is formed with the front-side restricting portion. This imparts flexibility to the extended part, and allows for easy attachment of the bushing member to the guide body.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the front-side restricting portion is positioned below the cylindrical insertion hole in the guide height direction. Since the front-side restricting portion is formed on the side away from the shoe support where there are design limitations, this ensures a certain degree of design freedom for the peripheral structure of the front-side restricting portion.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the extended part that has the front-side restricting portion at the distal end on the front side is formed to extend from a backside boss on the back side in the guide width direction of the support wall toward the front side in the guide width direction. This way, the extended part can have a sufficient length in the guide width direction and be readily given good flexibility, so that the bushing member can be easily attached to the guide body.
According to another aspect of the present invention, at the distal end on the front side of the extended part is formed with the front-side restricting portion in a protruded shape so as to protrude toward the center of the cylindrical insertion hole. The guide body includes a guide through hole extending therethrough in the guide width direction at a position coinciding with the front-side restricting portion when viewed in the guide width direction. This guide through hole can serve as an oil passage for letting oil travel between the front side and the back side in the guide width direction, so that oil can be distributed favorably in the bushing structure, in particular in the gap between the cylindrical insertion hole of the guide body and the bushing cylindrical part, and to the extended part having the front-side restricting portion. Moreover, the guide through hole facilitates demolding of the injection-molded synthetic resin guide body, i.e., the guide through hole can be used as a section for setting the mold that forms the back side in the guide width direction of the front-side restricting portion in the protruded form. Therefore, the front-side restricting portion in the protruded shape can be formed easily and favorably, which in turn can improve the flexibility of the extended part.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the flange part includes a flange restricted portion where the flange part is restricted by the front-side restricting portion from moving to the front side in the guide width direction, and a flange small radius portion that is smaller than the flange restricted portion in terms of radius thereof from a center of the bushing cylindrical part to an outer edge of the flange part.
When attaching the bushing member to the guide body, after the front-side restricting portion has been matched in circumferential position with the flange small radius portion and the bushing cylindrical part has been inserted into the cylindrical insertion hole of the guide body, the bushing member is rotated to bring the front-side restricting portion to a matching circumferential position of the flange restricted portion, so that the front-side restricting portion restricts movement of the flange part toward the front side in the guide width direction. This way, interference between the flange part and the front-side restricting portion when attaching the bushing member to the guide body can be avoided, so that the extended part need not have flexibility, i.e., the degree of design freedom for the extended part and front-side restricting portion can be increased.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the guide body includes a rotation restricting part that restricts rotation of the flange portion in a state in which the front-side restricting portion restricts movement of the flange restricted portion to the front side in the guide width direction. This can prevent accidental drop of the bushing member resulting from accidental rotation of the bushing member after the bushing member has been attached to the guide body.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the reinforcing rib of the guide body includes a peripheral rib formed to surround the outer circumference of the flange part, with the bushing member being attached to the guide body. The reinforcing rib including the peripheral rib not only strengthens the guide body but also prevents a tool or the like from hitting the flange part of the bushing member attached to the guide body and therefore can prevent accidental drop of the bushing member from the guide body.
A chain guide 10 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be hereinafter described with reference to the drawings.
The chain guide 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a timing system set inside an engine room, fixedly attached to an engine block E that is the mounting target with a mounting bolt B, to slidably guide a chain CH that runs between sprockets S1 to S3 respectively provided to a crank shaft and cam shafts, as illustrated in
The chain guide 10 includes, as illustrated in
The guide body 20 is made of a synthetic resin or the like by an injection molding technique or the like and includes, as illustrated in
The shoe support 21 is a part that supports the guide shoe (not shown) attached to the guide body 20 on its upper surface, protruding outward in the guide width direction more than the support wall 22 on both sides in the guide width direction, as illustrated in
The support wall 22 is a flat plate part formed to extend downward from the lower surface of the shoe support 21 perpendicularly to the guide width direction, as illustrated in
The reinforcing ribs 23 include, as illustrated in
Some of the connecting ribs 23b function as a peripheral rib 23c surrounding a part of the region on the outer circumference of a flange part 32, with the bushing member 30 attached to the guide body 20, as illustrated in
The backside boss 24 is a part formed on the back side in the guide width direction of the support wall 22 as illustrated in
The cylindrical insertion hole 25 is formed to extend through the guide body 20 in the guide width direction as illustrated in
The backside restricting part 26 is positioned on the back side in the guide width direction of the flange part 32, with the bushing member 30 attached to the guide body 20, as illustrated in
The extended part 27 is formed to extend from part of the guide body 20 from the back side to the front side in the guide width direction as illustrated in
The extended part 27 is located a predetermined distance below from the guide body 20 (support wall 22 and bottom rib 23a) and is flexible so that it can move closer to and away from the center of the cylindrical insertion hole 25 (in the guide height direction in this embodiment).
The guide body 20 includes, in each bushing structure 40, a front-side restricting portion 27a, which is positioned on and engages with the front side in the width direction of the flange part 32, only in one location on the outer circumference of the cylindrical insertion hole 25 when viewed in the guide width direction as illustrated in
In other words, with only one front-side restricting portion 27a provided for each bushing structure 40, the chain guide 10 is provided with a total of two front-side restricting portions 27a, because the bushing structure 40 is provided in two locations in this embodiment.
In this embodiment, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
The front-side restricting portion 27a (i.e., extended part 27) is positioned below the cylindrical insertion hole 25 in the guide height direction as illustrated in
The guide through hole 28 is a part coinciding with the front-side restricting portion 27a when viewed in the guide width direction as illustrated in
Put differently, the guide through hole 28 is formed to allow the entirety of the front-side restricting portion 27a in a protruded shape to be visible therethrough when viewed from the back side in the guide width direction.
In this embodiment, a hole that extends through the backside boss 24 in the guide width direction, and a groove that extends through in the guide width direction at the lower edge of the support wall 22 and the bottom rib 23a together form the guide through hole 28.
The bushing member 30 is made of metal such as iron, and includes, as illustrated in
The bushing cylindrical part 31 is partly located inside the cylindrical insertion hole 25 as illustrated in
Part of the outer circumference of the flange part 32 functions as a flange restricted portion 32a where the flange is restricted by the front-side restricting portion 27a from moving toward the front side in the guide width direction, with the bushing member 30 attached to the guide body 20, as illustrated in
The flange part 32 is surrounded by the shoe support 21 and the peripheral rib 23c except for a lower part in the guide height direction, with the bushing member 30 attached to the guide body 20, as illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
In the first embodiment described above, as can be seen from
The chain guide 10 is set, with its back side in the guide width direction of the guide body 20 facing the engine block E that is the mounting target, and the bushing cylindrical part 31 of the bushing member 30 abutting on the engine block E as illustrated in
Next, the chain guide 10 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
In the first embodiment described above, as illustrated in
The flange part 32 of the second embodiment includes, as illustrated in
In the second embodiment described above, when attaching the bushing member 30 to the guide body 20, the front-side restricting portion 27a of the guide body 20 is matched in circumferential position with the flange small radius portion 32b of the flange part 32 as illustrated in
After that, the bushing member 30 is rotated around the bushing cylindrical part 31 to the state shown in
As a variation example of this second embodiment, a rotation restricting part 29 may be provided to the guide body 20 as illustrated in
Next, the chain guide 10 according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
In the first embodiment described above, as illustrated in
Specifically, in the third embodiment, the extended part 27 is formed to protrude from a side face of the support wall 22 toward the front side in the guide width direction in a location above the cylindrical insertion hole 25 in the guide height direction as illustrated in
The front-side restricting portion 27a is formed in a protruded shape at the distal end on the front side of the extended part 27 such as to protrude toward the center of the cylindrical insertion hole 25 (in this embodiment, downward).
In the third embodiment, as illustrated in
Specific locations of the front-side restricting portion 27a (and the extended part 27) and the guide through hole 28 of the guide body 20 are not limited to the position below the cylindrical insertion hole 25 as in the first embodiment or the position above the cylindrical insertion hole 25 as in the third embodiment and may be set anywhere on the outer circumference of the cylindrical insertion hole 25.
While embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and may be carried out with various design changes without departing from the scope of the present invention set forth in the claims.
For example, various features of the embodiments and variation examples described above may be combined as desired to configure another chain guide 10.
While the chain guide 10 is provided inside an engine that has a timing system in the embodiments described above, the chain guide is applicable not only to this but to various equipment.
The chain guide 10 is applicable in various industrial fields including similar drive mechanisms using not only chains CH, but also belts, ropes and the like.
Unlike the embodiments described above in which the guide shoe (not shown) and the guide body 20 are separately provided and the guide shoe (not shown) is attached to the guide body 20, the guide shoe (not shown) may be integrally formed to the guide body 20.
Further, the materials for the guide body 20 and the guide shoe (not shown) may be selected from known suitable materials in accordance with various conditions such as elasticity, friction resistance, rigidity, durability, formability, cost, and so on. Synthetic resin materials are particularly suitable.
The material for the bushing member 30 may be selected from known suitable metal materials in accordance with various conditions such as rigidity, durability, formability, cost, and so on. Preferably, the bushing member 30 should be made of the same metal material as the mounting bolt B.
In the embodiments described above, as illustrated in
In the embodiments described above, the chain guide 10 is configured as a fixed guide that is fixedly attached to the engine block E. Instead, the chain guide 10 may be configured as a pivotable guide G axially supported such as to be pivotable inside the engine room. When configured as a pivotable guide G, the chain guide 10 need only be provided with one bushing structure 40 where a bushing member 30 is attached to the guide body 20, the bushing member having a bolt passage hole 31a for a mounting shaft (pivot shaft) to be inserted.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2021-002836 | Jan 2021 | JP | national |
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