High-performance ball socket

Abstract

A bearing shell for a ball and socket joint made of plastic as well as the ball and socket joint per se, wherein the bearing shell has first areas, which are subject to higher mechanical loads than the other areas of the bearing shell, wherein the material of the bearing shell forming the first areas is formed from a reinforced plastic, and the other areas are made of a less reinforced or unreinforced plastic.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a divisional under 37 CFR 1.53(b) of pending prior application Ser. No. 10 / 895,122 filed Jul. 20, 2004 and claims the benefit (35 U.S.C. § 120 and 365(c)) of International Application PCT / DE 2003 / 002387 of Jul. 16, 2003, which designated inter alia the United States and which claims the priority of German Application DE 102 33 489.7 of Jul. 24, 2002. The entire contents of each application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention pertains to a bearing shell made of plastic for a ball and socket joint, especially for motor vehicles as well as to the ball and socket joint per se. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] A bearing shell of this class for ball and socket joints, especially for motor vehicles, is known from DE 29722507 U1. DE 29722507 U1 discloses a bearing shell, which has slots for elastic deflection during the mounting of a joint ball in the beari...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The design enhances the service life of ball and socket joints by maintaining all contact surfaces under load, reducing the risk of joint ball deflection and wear, while allowing for cost-effective manufacturing and improved load distribution, thus extending the joint's operational life and reducing material stress.

Problems solved by technology

However, the pretension brought about by the spacer nubs on the outer sides of the bearing shell acts on the entire bearing shell or the mounted joint ball and consequently also in areas in which such a pretension counteracts the actual task of the ball and socket joint, or leads to increased wear in certain areas, and thus shortens the service life of the ball and socket joint.

However, the bearing shell must be lengthened in this embodiment to mount the joint ball in the bearing shell, which is equivalent to a great mounting effort as well as a high load on the material, which may lead to rupture of the bearing shell.

This design leads in practice to the problem that if an inexpensive plastic is used, it is tribologically well suited in the unreinforced form but does not have sufficient strength, or it has good strength properties due to fiber reinforcement.

Good strength properties are, however, equivalent to a loss of the tribological properties in case of inexpensive plastics.

Pretensioning of the bearing shell to achieve better transmission of forces also cannot be achieved with these plastics because of the lack of flexibility.

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