Patent Application
20230323917
This invention generally relates to vehicle components and, in particular, to socket joints used in steering and suspension systems.
Socket joints often include flexible dust boots that hold grease to help lubricate internal components and help seal the internal components from dust, debris, and water. Dust boots typically fit onto the housing of the socket joint in one of two ways: externally around the outside of the housing, or inside in the internal bore of the housing. The dust boots can be installed by the manufacturer or by the customer, depending on the design. External dust boots that attach to the outside of the housing require additional hardware to install and hold the boot to the housing, and can be more prone to sealing deficiencies and water intrusion as the contact point with the housing is external and exposed. Many internal/integrated dust boots require a metal or plastic insert around the base of the boot where it mates with the housing to hold it in the housing and resist it being pulled out when other components such as studs, bushings, brackets, etc. that are pushed through the assembly. Dust boots with inserts or attached reinforcement components often experience bonding issues during the molding of the parts due to material differences between the pliant hyper-elastic material of the boot, and the more rigid material of the insert. This can lead to manufacturing difficulties.
According to one embodiment, there is provided a socket joint comprising a stud and a dust boot at least partially surrounding the stud. The dust boot has a fully elastomeric flange with an elastomeric bottom edge, an elastomeric top edge, and an elastomeric side edge between the elastomeric bottom edge and the elastomeric top edge. The socket joint includes a sealing ring having a planar sealing surface that extends between an inner diameter edge and an outer diameter edge. The planar sealing surface rests against the elastomeric top edge of the flange and the inner diameter edge rests against the stud.
In some embodiments, there is a housing at least partially surrounding the stud, where the housing includes an internal bore having a flange seating surface configured to contact the elastomeric bottom edge of the flange, a flange nesting surface oriented at an angle with respect to the flange seating surface and configured to contact the elastomeric side edge of the flange, and a tapered transition surface located adjacent the flange nesting surface.
In some embodiments, the tapered transition surface is configured to retain the sealing ring during manufacture.
In some embodiments, the internal bore of the housing includes a primary internal bore surface that extends between the tapered transition surface and a cover plate groove.
In some embodiments, the flange nesting surface is at least partially oriented orthogonally with respect to the flange seating surface.
In some embodiments, the tapered transition surface is at least partially oriented at an angle between 45° and 75°, inclusive, with respect to the flange seating surface.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring is a press-fit metal washer.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring is a press-fit bearing.
In accordance with another embodiment, there is provided a socket joint comprising a stud and a dust boot at least partially surrounding the stud, the dust boot having a flange. The socket joint includes a housing at least partially surrounding the stud. The housing includes an internal bore having a flange seating surface configured to contact a bottom edge of the flange, a flange nesting surface oriented at an angle with respect to the flange seating surface and configured to contact a side edge of the flange, and a tapered transition surface located adjacent the flange nesting surface. The tapered transition surface is configured to retain a sealing ring during manufacture.
In some embodiments, the flange of the dust boot is a fully elastomeric flange such that the bottom edge is an elastomeric bottom edge and the side edge is an elastomeric side edge.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring rests against an elastomeric top edge of the flange.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring has a planar sealing surface that extends between an inner diameter edge and an outer diameter edge, and the planar sealing surface rests against the elastomeric top edge of the flange and the inner diameter edge rests against the stud.
In some embodiments, the internal bore of the housing includes a primary internal bore surface that extends between the tapered transition surface and a cover plate groove.
In some embodiments, the flange nesting surface is at least partially oriented orthogonally with respect to the flange seating surface.
In some embodiments, the tapered transition surface is at least partially oriented at an angle between 45° and 75°, inclusive, with respect to the flange seating surface.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring is a press-fit metal washer.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring is a press-fit bearing.
In accordance with one embodiment, there is a method of manufacturing a socket joint comprising the steps of: inserting a dust boot into an internal bore of the housing, with the dust boot being configured to rest against a flange seating surface in the housing; inserting a sealing ring into the internal bore of the housing; pressing the sealing ring into the dust boot; and inserting a stud into the internal bore of the housing so that the dust boot and the sealing ring rest against the stud.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring is configured to rest against a tapered transition surface before the pressing step.
In some embodiments, the sealing ring has a planar sealing surface that rests against a top edge of a flange of the dust boot and an inner diameter edge that rests against the stud.
Various aspects, embodiments, examples, features and alternatives set forth in the preceding paragraphs, in the claims, and/or in the following description and drawings may be taken independently or in any combination thereof. For example, features disclosed in connection with one embodiment are applicable to all embodiments in the absence of incompatibility of features.
Preferred example embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements, and wherein:
The socket joints and manufacturing methods described herein can improve the seal of the dust boot within the assembly, while streamlining manufacturing efforts. The dust boot is internally seated in the housing of the socket joint, without an integrally attached or embedded insert. Thus, the dust boot can be made of a single, elastomeric material. To adequately seat the dust boot and create a sealing engagement with the other internal components of the joint assembly, a press-fit sealing ring is used. There is opportunity for cost savings with respect to both the direct component cost, as well as in manufacturing ease as the cost for making the dust boots is reduced by elimination of the insert and the bonding steps. The dust boot itself is less expensive than other internally seated boots, due to the lack of insert and otherwise simple design.
The housing 12 is a generally circular cylindrical component that surrounds the internal components of the joint 10. The housing 12 has an internal bore 28 in which the bearing 14, stud 16, cover plate 18, dust boot 20, and sealing ring 22 are situated. The internal bore 28 includes a groove 30 for seating the cover plate 18, a primary internal bore surface 32, a tapered transition surface 34, a flange nesting surface 36, and a flange seating surface 38. The tapered transition surface 34, the flange nesting surface 36, and the flange seating surface 38 are shown more particularly in
The dust boot 20 includes a radially extending flange 40 extending from an axially extending body 42 that surrounds and seals the stud 16 and the other internal components of the socket joint 10. One advantage of the embodiments described herein is that the dust boot 20 has a fully elastomeric flange 40 and body 42 with the flange being internally seated within the housing 12. More particularly, the dust boot 20 is made from a single elastomeric material, and is accordingly easier to manufacture and less likely to delaminate from an attached or integrated metal component. For example, some dust boots include a vulcanized or otherwise permanent or semi-permanent attached metal reinforcement component. Others include a metal insert that is embedded or otherwise molded with the elastomeric flange. These embodiments are more prone to delamination or the like, and a fully elastomeric dust boot 20 is easier to manufacture. In an advantageous embodiment, the dust boot 20 is made entirely of neoprene, polyester, polyurethane, or some other rubber-like material. Moreover, the dust boot 20 material may have fillers of various compositions or the like, but by “fully elastomeric” it is meant that the dust boot 20 does not have a structural metal component that is attached or embedded within the flange 40 or the body 42.
The flange 40 of the dust boot 20 includes an elastomeric bottom edge 44, an elastomeric top edge 46, and an elastomeric side edge 48 that defines the outer circumference or perimeter of the dust boot flange 40 and connects the bottom edge and the top edge. The elastomeric bottom edge 44 directly contacts the flange seating surface 38 of the housing 12, and the elastomeric top edge 46 directly contacts the sealing ring 22. The elastomeric side edge 48 directly contacts the flange nesting surface 36 of the housing 12. Having the fully elastomeric flange 40 with the elastomeric bottom edge 44, the elastomeric top edge 46, and the elastomeric side edge 48 provides for increased flexibility and compressibility, particularly once the flange 40 is seated between the flange seating surface 38 and the sealing ring 22. As compared with inserts having a vulcanized or otherwise more permanently attached or inserted metal component, the elastomeric flange 40 has the potential to shear or expand further into the space between the flange seating surface 38 and the sealing ring 22, which can improve the seal of the dust boot 20. In some embodiments, this expansion can be on the order of 150% or more, which can help improve sealing performance.
The sealing ring 22 is used to secure the flange 40 of the dust boot 20 with respect to the housing 12. The sealing ring 22 is a component that is wholly external and separate from the boot 20, and can either be a new component to the assembly for retention, or an existing press-fit component that is already present in the assembly and presses right on top of the boot. The sealing ring 22 includes a planar sealing surface 50 that extends between an inner diameter edge 52 and an outer diameter edge 54. A top surface 56 of the sealing ring 22 rests directly against the bearing 14. The planar sealing surface 50 allows for the seating ring 22 to be easily press-fit in place against the flange 40 to create a non-bonded elastomeric-metallic interface 58 between the ring and the flange. This arrangement is advantageous, as it does not involve any additional crimping manufacturing steps or steps to more integrally attach a metal sealing component to the dust boot 20. Moreover, as illustrated, the planar sealing surface 50 is configured to contact only a single edge of the edge of the dust boot 20 (the elastomeric top edge 46) which can provide additional elastomeric material to interface with the stud 16 and housing 12.
With reference to
Returning to
In terms of configurations of the internal bore 28 of the housing 12 to better accommodate the fully elastomeric flange 40 of the dust boot 20 and the sealing ring 22, the flange nesting surface 36 is also at least partially oriented at an angle α2 which is orthogonal with respect to the flange seating surface 38. This provides a more planar sealing area which can result in a more uniform expansion of the flange 40 when it is pressed into place against the housing 12 and the sealing ring 22, particularly given the configuration of the planar sealing surface 50 of the sealing ring 22. The flange nesting surface 36 additionally includes another slightly tapered surface 70 directly adjacent the flange seating surface 38, which may or may not be included depending on the desired implementation. While not required, this second tapered surface 70 can be used to better accommodate tooling during manufacture or to more tightly constrain the flange 40, to cite a few examples.
After the sealing ring 22′ is dropped into the housing, it is physically press-fit down against the tapered transition surface 34 until the outer diameter edge 54 rests directly against the flange nesting surface 36, particularly at the portion that is oriented orthogonally with respect to the flange seating surface 38. After the press-fit step, the stud 16 is inserted into the internal bore 28 of the housing 12. As shown in
It is to be understood that the foregoing is a description of one or more preferred example embodiments of the invention. The invention is not limited to the particular embodiment(s) disclosed herein, but rather is defined solely by the claims below. Furthermore, the statements contained in the foregoing description relate to particular embodiments and are not to be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention or on the definition of terms used in the claims, except where a term or phrase is expressly defined above. Various other embodiments and various changes and modifications to the disclosed embodiment(s) will become apparent to those skilled in the art. All such other embodiments, changes, and modifications are intended to come within the scope of the appended claims.
As used in this specification and claims, the terms “for example,” “e.g.,” “for instance,” “such as,” and “like,” and the verbs “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and their other verb forms, when used in conjunction with a listing of one or more components or other items, are each to be construed as open-ended, meaning that the listing is not to be considered as excluding other, additional components or items. Other terms are to be construed using their broadest reasonable meaning unless they are used in a context that requires a different interpretation. In addition, the term “and/or” is to be construed as an inclusive OR. Therefore, for example, the phrase “A, B, and/or C” is to be interpreted as covering all the following: “A”; “B”; “C”; “A and B”; “A and C”; “B and C”; and “A, B, and C.”
