Air spring for supporting pad

Abstract

The utility model belongs to the technical field of air spring manufacturing, and particularly relates to an air spring for a supporting pad, which comprises a spring body surrounding along an axis and a base fixedly connected to the bottom of the spring body. The spring body is provided with a corrugated section which is configured to generate fluctuation on the axis; the straight wall section is configured to be of a straight cylindrical structure extending along the axis; wherein the upper end and the lower end of the straight wall section are connected to the corrugated section and the base respectively, and the straight wall section is configured to extend on the axis to be larger than the set length, so that the overall stability of the spring body is improved while the gas capacity is provided for the spring body. The straight wall section is additionally arranged, so that the overall performance of the air spring is remarkably improved. The straight wall section is integrally made of high-strength materials, the problem that traditional adhesive joint is prone to aging and failure is solved, the problem of stress concentration of a traditional adhesive interface is solved through the integrated design of the straight wall section and the corrugated section, the fatigue life of the spring body is remarkably prolonged, and the using stability of the spring body is remarkably improved.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The utility model relates to air spring manufacturing technical field, concretely relates to an air spring for supporting pad. BACKGROUND

[0002] Cylindrical air spring as a kind of flexible supporting element, in recent years gradually be applied to mattress design, to provide adjustable support and comfort. Its basic principle is to realize elastic support by compressed air in cylindrical air bag, user can adjust the air pressure in air bag according to individual needs, to change the hardness of mattress. Cylindrical air spring mattress is usually composed of multiple independent air bag units, these units are arranged in matrix form, and are connected to external air pump or control device by gas path system, to realize the centralized or zoned adjustment of air pressure.

[0003] In order to improve the service life of cylindrical air spring mattress in the existing design, high-strength silica gel or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material is usually used to manufacture air bag to improve its durability, or air spring is combined with traditional spring or foam material to consider support and comfort.

[0004] Since the air bag units of air spring mattress usually adopt uniform arrangement, for single air bag spring, the lower end of air bag lacks necessary support, and when bearing pressure, in order to adapt to human body curve, the pressure on the upper end of air bag spring is large, which causes large bending of the lower end of spring. After the end of pressure bearing, the lower end of spring rebounds and resets, and the lower end of spring is bent and reset for many times, which increases fatigue strength, and long time use will cause the lower end of spring to be unable to reset in time and material cracking to cause air tightness failure, so that the support uniformity of mattress cannot be guaranteed, and the comfort and service life of mattress are reduced.

[0005] In view of the problems of poor support uniformity, large local fatigue strength and short service life of traditional air spring, the application provides a new type of air spring to improve the support of air spring, reduce the fatigue strength in use and prolong the service life. CONTENT OF UTILITY MODEL

[0006] The application provides an air spring for supporting pad to solve the problems of large local fatigue strength, poor support uniformity and short service life of air spring in use.

[0007] To achieve the above purpose, the application adopts the following technical scheme: an air spring for supporting pad, comprising a spring body surrounding an axis and a base fixed to the bottom of the spring body.

[0008] The spring body has: a corrugated section configured to produce undulating fluctuations on the axis; and

[0009] A straight wall section configured as a straight cylindrical structure extending along the axis.

[0010] The straight wall section is connected to the corrugated section and the base at the upper and lower ends respectively, and is configured to extend along the axis to a length greater than a set length, so as to increase the overall stability while providing gas capacity for the spring body.

[0011] Further, the spring body and the base enclose a sealed chamber.

[0012] Further, the sealed chamber is internally configured with a gas passage communicating with the outside.

[0013] Further, a gas pipe is arranged on the straight wall section or the base, and the gas pipe communicates the sealed chamber with the outside.

[0014] Further, the spring body is also provided with an end cover, and the spring body is configured in a cylindrical or square cylindrical shape.

[0015] Further, the corrugated section and the straight wall section are integrally blow molded.

[0016] Further, the corrugated section is configured as a corrugated pipe, and the wall thickness of the corrugated pipe gradually changes along the axis, and the wall thickness in the region close to the straight wall section increases by 10%-15%.

[0017] Further, the base and the straight wall section are welded together, and the base is configured as a disc with a cross-sectional area greater than that of the straight wall section.

[0018] Further, the spring body is made of silica gel or polyester fiber material.

[0019] The application also adopts the following technical scheme: a mattress made of the above-mentioned air spring.

[0020] The beneficial effects of the present application are as follows: based on the traditional air spring structure, the straight wall section is added to significantly improve the overall performance of the air spring. The straight wall section and the corrugated section are integrally made of high-strength material, avoiding the problem of easy aging failure of traditional adhesive bonding. The integrated design of the straight wall section and the corrugated section eliminates the stress concentration problem of the traditional bonding interface, significantly improving the fatigue life of the spring body and the stability of the spring during use. By enlarging the base area and reasonably setting the length of the straight wall section, the stability of the spring body is enhanced while the softness and hardness of the spring are considered, so that the spring body is not easy to slide or tilt under non-perpendicular load, effectively improving the support uniformity and anti-unbalanced load capacity. These improvements make the spring body more stable and durable under high load, enhance the service life of the air spring, simplify the manufacturing process, reduce the maintenance cost, and provide a better solution for the application of the air spring in the mattress. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0021] Figure 1 is a schematic view of the appearance of the utility model;

[0022] Figure 2 is the front view of the utility model;

[0023] Figure 3 is the cutting along the vertical direction of the utility model schematic view;

[0024] Figure 4 is Figure 3 the view along the direction A.

[0025] Explanation of reference numerals in the drawings:

[0026] 100, spring body; 110, corrugated section; 120, straight wall section; 130, end cover;

[0027] 200, base; 300, air path; 400, chamber. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art belong to the scope of protection of the present application.

[0029] In the description of the present application, it should be noted that the terms used herein are only for describing the specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments according to the present application. For the convenience of description, the sizes of the various parts shown in the drawings are not drawn in accordance with the actual proportional relationship. The technology, methods and devices known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art can not be discussed in detail, but in appropriate cases, the technology, methods and devices should be considered as part of the authorized description. In all examples shown and discussed here, any specific value should be interpreted as merely exemplary, and not as a limitation. Therefore, other examples of exemplary embodiments can have different values. It should be noted that similar reference numerals and letters represent similar items in the following drawings, so once an item is defined in one drawing, it does not need to be further discussed in subsequent drawings.

[0030] The traditional air spring mattress is composed of air springs arranged side by side, which are composed of cylindrical air bag springs. Due to the diversity of human body curves, when the user lies down, the waist area may feel suspended due to insufficient support, and the shoulder and hip areas bear more pressure, which will cause the stress of the air spring to be uneven locally.

[0031] To this end, although we use air mattress, by increasing the air spring pressure to ease the uneven force on the mattress local indentation situation. Or by zoning to adjust the air pressure to improve the uniformity of air spring support, but due to the size and shape of the air bag unit limit, its adjustment accuracy and effect is still not ideal, long time use still cause local position of the air spring support and loss of support.

[0032] Embodiment one:

[0033] The air spring of the embodiment is systematically improved in material selection, manufacturing process and performance optimization, which significantly improves the support uniformity, fatigue resistance and service life of the product, and solves the problems of local stress concentration, dynamic response lag and difficult maintenance in the prior art. First, in terms of material selection, the spring body 100 of the embodiment is made of a three-layer composite structure, which has higher overall performance than the single-layer rubber or TPU material of the prior art. The inner layer is made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with a thickness of 0.5mm, which has better air tightness (air permeability <0.01cc / m 2 / day) and fatigue resistance (tensile strength >40MPa, elongation at break >600%) than traditional rubber materials (air permeability usually >0.1cc / m 2 / day, tensile strength <30MPa), effectively solving the problem of air tightness decline caused by material aging in the prior art; the middle layer is made of a polyester fiber reinforced layer with a thickness of 0.4mm, which has a tear resistance (tear strength >80kN / m) about 50% higher than traditional materials, significantly reducing the risk of rupture of the spring body 100 due to stress concentration during repeated deformation; the outer layer is made of an antibacterial silicone coating with a thickness of 0.3mm, a surface hardness of 60 Shore A and an antibacterial rate >99.9% (complying with ISO 22196 standard), which not only improves the rigidity of the spring body 100, but also solves the problem of bacteria breeding caused by the accumulation of dirt on the surface of the air bag in the prior art.

[0034] In contrast, the cylindrical air spring of the prior art is made of a single rubber material, which has poor tear resistance and antibacterial performance, and is prone to material aging, surface contamination and hygiene hazards after long-term use. In addition, the three-layer material of the embodiment has a significant advantage in temperature resistance, the TPU inner layer has a temperature resistance range of -40℃ to 120℃, the polyester fiber reinforced layer has a 30% higher anti-creep performance at high temperature than traditional rubber, and the weather resistance (no cracking after 500 hours of QUV aging test) of the antibacterial silicone coating makes it still maintain stability in humid or ultraviolet environments, while the traditional single-layer rubber air bag is prone to hardening or cracking under the same test conditions.

[0035] Further, in terms of manufacturing process, the corrugated segment 110 and the straight wall segment 120 in the embodiment are manufactured by using an integrated blow molding process, which significantly improves the structural strength and fatigue life compared with the split bonding process of the prior art. The specific steps are as follows: first, the TPU / polyester fiber / silicone three-layer composite film is preheated to 180°C to ensure that the material has good fluidity and formability; then, the preheated material is placed in the mold, and compressed air (pressure 0.8 MPa) is introduced for blow molding, and the mold temperature is controlled at 60°C to ensure uniform distribution of the material and form the required cylindrical structure; finally, after molding, the mold is cooled to room temperature, demolded and the excess edge is cut off to form the complete corrugated segment 110 and the straight wall segment 120.

[0036] This integrated molding process eliminates the traditional bonding interface, avoiding the problem of local stress concentration caused by poor bonding, and increasing the fatigue cycle number of the spring body 100 from 100,000 times of the traditional structure to 200,000 times (referring to ASTM D4482 test standard). In contrast, the cylindrical air spring of the prior art is usually manufactured by bonding after splitting, and cracks are easily generated at the bonding interface due to repeated deformation, resulting in air tightness failure and an average service life of less than 3 years.

[0037] In the cyclic loading test of the traditional air bag spring, the bonding interface is obviously separated after 100,000 cycles, while the integrated design of the embodiment does not appear interface failure under the same test conditions. In addition, the blow molding process of the embodiment controls the mold temperature (±1°C) and air pressure fluctuation (<0.05 MPa) accurately, so that the wall thickness tolerance of the product is controlled within ±0.05 mm, while the tolerance of the traditional process is usually ±0.2 mm, which further improves the uniformity of the deformation of the spring body 100 and the stability of the pressure distribution.

[0038] As a preferred embodiment, to further enhance the load bearing performance of the spring body 100, the end cover 130 and the base 200 are manufactured by separate welding in the embodiment. The end cover 130 is made of ABS plastic (impact strength > 30 kJ / m 2 ), with a thickness of 2 mm and a smooth surface to reduce friction with the corrugated segment 110 and the pressure-bearing object; the base 200 is made of high-strength polypropylene (PP), with a thickness of 3 mm and an anti-slip texture (friction coefficient > 0.6) added at the bottom.

[0039] In order to balance the response speed and stability of the spring 100, the height of the spring body 100 is generally set to 10 cm, and the length of the straight wall segment 120 is set to a certain length, so that the gas capacity provided by the spring body 100 can be considered while the overall stability of the spring body 100 is increased. The length of the straight wall segment 120 is generally selected to be 30%-50% of the total length of the spring body 100, and the length of the straight wall segment 120 is preferably 4 cm.

[0040] The end cover 130 and the base 200 are manufactured by an injection molding process: ABS or PP particles are heated to 220°C and injected into a mold, the mold temperature is controlled at 60°C, and after cooling, the end cover 130 and the base 200 are demolded, and then the base 200 is sealed and connected to the straight wall section 120 by welding, and the end cover 130 is welded to the upper end of the corrugated section 110.

[0041] This design not only improves the load-bearing performance of the end cover 130, but also enhances the overall stability of the spring body 100 by increasing the area (diameter 80mm) of the base 200, solving the problem of tilting or instability of the spring body 100 caused by the small area of the base 200 in the prior art. In contrast, the cylindrical air spring in the prior art usually uses a small base 200 (diameter usually < 50mm), which is prone to instability under non-vertical load conditions, limiting its application in high eccentric load scenarios. For example, when the user is lying on one side, the base 200 of the traditional air spring is prone to side slipping due to insufficient contact area, resulting in a shift in support force distribution. The enlarged base 200 design of the present embodiment increases the contact area by 60%, and in combination with the anti-slip texture at the bottom, the amount of lateral slipping can be reduced by 80%.

[0042] In addition, the base 200 and the straight wall section 120 of the present embodiment use an ultrasonic welding process (frequency 20kHz, amplitude 50μm, time 5 seconds), with a welding strength of 15MPa, nearly double the traditional adhesive bonding strength (usually < 8MPa), and the welding process does not require the addition of chemical adhesives, avoiding the problem of interface failure caused by aging of the glue.

[0043] In terms of air path 300 design, the present embodiment configures an air path 300 that communicates with the outside in the sealed chamber 400, which is achieved by welding a gas pipe. The gas pipe can be welded at the same time as the base 200, or it can be welded to the through hole on one side of the straight wall section 120 before the straight wall section 120 and the base 200 are welded, forming an air path 300 that communicates with the outside.

[0044] The gas pipe is preferably a medical-grade silicone tube with an inner diameter of 4mm, an outer diameter of 6mm, and a pressure resistance of >0.5MPa. The joint of the gas pipe is made of brass with nickel plating to ensure corrosion resistance and sealing. This bifurcated air path 300 design allows each spring body 100 to have an independent air path 300 branch, which is collected into an integrated electromagnetic valve group to achieve independent air pressure control in multiple areas, thereby greatly shortening the air pressure adjustment response time.

[0045] In contrast, the prior art cylindrical air spring mostly adopts a centralized gas path 300 design. The transmission delay of gas in the long pipeline causes the support force adjustment to lag, making it difficult to match the user's turning or posture changes in real time. The traditional gas path 300 system needs to supply gas to multiple air bags through a single air pump. When the user turns from lying to lying on one side, the gas pressure adjustment delay can be more than 3 seconds. The branch gas path 300 of the present embodiment combined with a high-speed electromagnetic valve (response time <0.1 seconds) can reduce the delay to within 0.5 seconds.

[0046] In addition, the gas path 300 of the present embodiment can be embedded with a miniature air pressure sensor (such as MS5803-01 BA, accuracy ±0.1% FS) and a Bluetooth module according to customer and market demand. The pressure data of each spring body 100 can be monitored in real time and transmitted wirelessly to the user terminal. The user can achieve precise adjustment (pressure resolution 0.1 kPa) through the mobile phone APP. The traditional system usually only supports manual knob or button adjustment, with an accuracy of only 1 kPa and no real-time feedback.

[0047] In terms of optimization design of the corrugated section 110, the corrugated section 110 of the present embodiment is designed as a corrugated pipe structure. The corrugated pipe has good stretching performance and can produce a large displacement change after inflation, thereby meeting the user's adjustment requirements for the softness and hardness of the mattress.

[0048] To further optimize the fatigue resistance of the spring body 100, the wall thickness of the corrugated pipe of the corrugated section 110 is designed to gradually change. The wall thickness near the straight wall section 120 area increases by 10%-15% to alleviate the material wear and tear and cracking problems caused by stress concentration in the transition area.

[0049] In addition, the curvature radius ratio of the wave crest to the wave trough of the corrugated pipe is 1:1.2-1.5 to optimize the stress distribution and improve the service life. In contrast, the prior art cylindrical air spring mostly adopts a uniform wall thickness design. The transition area is prone to cracks due to stress concentration, resulting in insufficient local fatigue strength.

[0050] In terms of the shape and arrangement of the spring body 100, the spring body 100 of the present embodiment can be configured in a cylindrical shape or a square cylindrical shape to adapt to the use requirements of different areas of the mattress. For example, at the edge position and corner of the mattress, a square cylindrical air bag spring can be used to improve the comfort of the edge use. In the overall design of the mattress, multiple air springs are arranged in a longitudinal and transverse manner to form an array, the diameter of the spring body 100 is controlled to be 100-150 mm, and small springs with a diameter of 30-50 mm are arranged between the gaps of the larger diameter springs to fill the gaps and increase the flatness of the mattress, thereby improving the comfort of the user's body feeling. In contrast, the cylindrical air springs of the prior art are mostly designed with a single size, and their support uniformity is poor, which cannot fully adapt to the diversity of human body curves. For example, the waist area of the traditional mattress is prone to have a support blind area due to the lack of small size air bag filling. In addition, the square cylindrical design of the spring body 100 can form a continuous support surface at the edge of the mattress, avoiding the gap pressure feeling caused by the arrangement of traditional cylindrical air bags.

[0051] As another embodiment, the straight wall section 120 and the base 200 can be formed by integral blow molding.

[0052] The present application also uses the following technical solutions; a mattress, which uses the above-mentioned air spring when manufactured.

[0053] The embodiments of the present application are described above in combination with the drawings, and in the case of no conflict, the embodiments and the features in the embodiments of the present application can be combined with each other, the present application is not limited to the above-mentioned specific embodiments, the above-mentioned specific embodiments are only illustrative, but not limited, and those skilled in the art can make many forms under the inspiration of the present application without departing from the scope of the present application and the scope protected by the claims, all of which belong to the protection of the present application.

Claims

1. An air spring for a support cushion comprising a bellows surrounding an axis and a base attached to the bottom of the bellows; characterized in that, The spring body comprises: a corrugated section configured to produce undulating fluctuations along the axis; and a straight wall section configured as a straight cylinder structure extending along the axis; wherein the upper and lower ends of the straight wall section are respectively connected to the corrugated section and the base, and the straight wall section is configured to extend along the axis to a length greater than a set length, thereby increasing the overall stability while providing a gas capacity for the spring body.

2. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 1, wherein, The spring body and the base enclose a sealed chamber.

3. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 2, wherein, The sealed chamber is configured to have a gas passage connected to the outside.

4. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 2, wherein, A gas pipe is arranged on the straight wall section or the base, and the gas pipe connects the sealed chamber to the outside.

5. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 4, wherein, The spring body further comprises an end cap, and the spring body is configured as a cylindrical shape or a square cylindrical shape.

6. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 5, wherein, The corrugated section and the straight wall section are integrally blow molded.

7. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 6, wherein, The corrugated section is configured as a corrugated pipe, and the wall thickness of the corrugated pipe gradually changes along the axis, and the wall thickness in the area close to the straight wall section increases by 10%-15%.

8. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 6, wherein, The base and the straight wall section are welded together, and the base is configured as a disc with a cross-sectional area greater than that of the straight wall section.

9. The air spring for a support cushion of claim 1, wherein, The spring body is made of silica gel or polyester fiber material.

10. A mattress characterized in that, The mattress has the air spring for supporting the mattress according to any one of claims 1-9.

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