Mounting of a stabilizer in the chassis of a two-track motor vehicle

Abstract

Mounting of a stabilizer in the chassis of a two-track motor vehicle, which is mounted via a rubber bearing in a bearing base ultimately supported by the vehicle body and a substantially semi-shell-shaped retaining bracket completing this to form a closed bearing structure, wherein the retaining bracket is made of, in particular, fiber-reinforced plastic and is formed by a support wall (1) supporting the rubber bearing with adjoining bearing lugs (2) and a rib structure (4, 5) stiffening the support wall (1), characterized in that the bearing lugs (2) and the support wall (1) are supported against each other by the rib structure (4, 5), wherein the rib structure (4,5) is formed by several longitudinal ribs (4) arranged one behind the other in the direction of the central axis (3) of the rubber bearing and extending from one support flange (2) across the support wall (1) to the other support flange (2), as well as several transverse ribs (5) or oblique ribs (5) oriented at an angle to these, which ribs (4, 5) are essentially aligned with the support flanges (2) and extend from the support wall (1) and / or a support flange (2) and terminate freely.

Description

The invention relates to the mounting of a stabilizer in the chassis of a two-track motor vehicle, which is mounted via a rubber bearing in a bearing base ultimately supported by the vehicle body and a substantially semi-shell-shaped retaining bracket that completes this to form a closed bearing structure. The retaining bracket is made of, in particular, fiber-reinforced plastic and is formed by a support wall supporting the rubber bearing with adjoining bearing lugs and a rib structure stiffening the support wall. For the prior art, reference is made in particular to DE 10 2010 022 866 A1, DE 100 45 417 A1, DE 10 2009 014 194 A1 and DE 102 61 112 A1, and WO 2010 / 149 756 A1. In the aforementioned German patent DE 10 2010 022 866 A1, a fundamentally simple mounting for a vehicle's suspension stabilizer is described, in which a rubber bushing is vulcanized onto the stabilizer. This rubber bushing (along with the stabilizer) is inserted into a bearing base provided on the vehicle, after which the mounting is completed by means of a so-called bearing clamp, which is usually screwed to the bearing base. The bearing clamp, which in this case is referred to as a retaining bracket, is usually made of a metal material; however, the use of fiber-reinforced plastic, in particular, for such a bearing clamp has also been proposed, cf., for example, the aforementioned patent WO 2010 / 149 756 A1, which also uses the term "retaining bracket".Using plastic material allows for a weight reduction compared to a metal design; however, the bearing clamp must have sufficient rigidity, as it is intended to exert pressure on the rubber bearing when fully assembled. However, the retaining bracket described in the aforementioned WO 2010 / 149 756 A1 is relatively complex in construction; probably for this reason, a generally common iterative procedure is described in detail in this document, which is intended to optimize the geometry of the retaining bracket with regard to the lowest possible weight. The present invention aims to demonstrate a weight-reduced and simultaneously high-stiffness-compliant retaining bracket for a stabilizer bearing according to the preamble of claim 1, which is easy to represent and manufacture (= object of the present invention). The solution to this problem is characterized by the fact that the support flanges and the retaining wall are supported against each other via the rib structure, wherein the rib structure is formed by several longitudinal ribs arranged one behind the other in the direction of the central axis of the rubber bearing and extending from one support flange over the retaining wall to the other support flange, as well as several transverse ribs or oblique ribs oriented at an angle to these, which ribs are oriented essentially perpendicular to the support flanges, extend from the retaining wall and / or a support flange and terminate freely. As is generally known, plastic, and in particular fiber-reinforced plastic, is used as the construction material for the retaining bracket. However, a retaining bracket according to the invention has a simpler design than the prior art known from WO 2010 / 149 756 A1. In particular, a retaining bracket according to the invention has only one inner wall facing the rubber bearing (according to the terminology of the aforementioned document), which is referred to here as the support wall, against which the rubber bearing is partially supported. Analogous to the inner wall of the known retaining bracket in the prior art, so-called bearing lugs are attached to this support wall. These lugs allow the retaining bracket to rest on a structure containing the aforementioned bearing lower shell and, on the other hand, to be connected to the bearing lower shell.whose structure is screwed or otherwise fastened, for example by providing a hole for a fastening screw in each support tab, as is generally customary. To achieve sufficient rigidity of such a retaining bracket, a rib structure as described in the characterizing part of the claim is provided, which can be manufactured considerably more easily than the stiffening structure shown in the prior art. Whereas in the prior art according to WO 2010 / 149 756 A1 a stiffening structure is formed by a load-bearing second, so-called circumferential wall, which is connected to the first inner wall facing the rubber bearing via a rib structure, no second circumferential load-bearing wall is provided in the present invention. Instead, in the present invention, so-called longitudinal ribs are arranged side by side or one behind the other, essentially perpendicular to the side of the support wall facing away from the rubber bearing, and are thus also essentially perpendicular to the bearing lugs.These longitudinal ribs terminate at a distance from this supporting wall, creating gaps between them. Transverse or oblique ribs are provided at angles to these longitudinal ribs, thus intersecting them. These transverse ribs are otherwise aligned with the longitudinal ribs and therefore (essentially) perpendicular to the support lugs. With such a stiffening rib structure, no undercuts result, so that in a tool used to manufacture a retaining bracket according to the invention, no slides or similar components are required to represent the stiffening rib structure. It should be noted that the individual ribs do not necessarily have to describe a two-dimensional plane, but can also form a curved plane that is essentially perpendicular to the support lugs. According to an advantageous further development, the rubber bearing receiving the stabilizer can be partially molded onto a retaining bracket according to the invention, which in particular simplifies the assembly of a bearing according to the invention. Exemplary embodiments of a retaining bracket according to the invention are shown in the accompanying Figures 1-8, with Figures 1-3 showing a first embodiment in various perspective views, while Figures 4 and 5 show a second embodiment and Figure 6 a third embodiment. Figures 7 and 8 show, in principle, two possibilities for a rubber bearing partially integrally formed with a retaining bracket according to the invention in a cross-sectional view, which represents the retaining bracket itself only in a highly abstract form. Referring first to the first embodiment and specifically to Fig. 3, one can see the shell-shaped support wall 1 of the retaining bracket, which faces the rubber bearing of the stabilizer mount (not shown in Figs. 1-6, but known to those skilled in the art) and is adapted to its shape. The two lateral support lugs 2 of the retaining bracket are attached to this support wall. The reference numeral 3 indicates the central axis of the aforementioned rubber bearing; that is, this central axis 3 is the center line of the stabilizer section received or enclosed by the aforementioned rubber bearing. Outwards, i.e. in a direction away from the rubber bearing and the (also not shown) stabilizer, which runs perpendicular to the support tabs 2 and more precisely to the lower bearing surface of the support tabs 2 visible in Fig. 3 and which in Fig. 2 points essentially towards the viewer, a plurality (eleven in this case) of longitudinal ribs 4 project from the support wall 1, arranged side by side or one behind the other in the direction of view of the central axis 3, which here are each perpendicular to the central axis 3 or a parallel to it and extend over the length of the retaining bracket (this length is measured essentially in the horizontal direction in Fig. 2 and is represented by the double arrow L) to the end of the support tabs 3, from which the same longitudinal rib 4 also projects. The word “protrudes” or “protrudes” is intended to express that each longitudinal rib 4 is materially connected to the supporting wall 1 and to the support lugs 2.This structure is formed from the supporting wall 1 and the support lugs 2. Such a structure can be easily formed, for example, using plastic injection molding. With this structure, as described so far, not only is each support lug 2 and the supporting wall 1 internally stiffened, but each support lug 2 is also braced against the supporting wall 1 (and vice versa). In addition to the longitudinal ribs 4 described so far, each of which individually describes a two-dimensional plane, the first embodiment includes so-called transverse ribs 5 or oblique ribs 5. These transverse ribs, or their two-dimensional plane, are oriented at an angle to the longitudinal ribs 4. Like the longitudinal ribs 4, they project outwards or upwards from the support wall 1 and / or a bearing lug 2 in the same direction, namely in a direction perpendicular to the bearing lugs 2. These transverse ribs 5 or oblique ribs 5 significantly increase the stiffness of the retaining bracket by also supporting the longitudinal ribs 4 against each other. Thus, the longitudinal ribs 4 and the transverse or oblique ribs 5 together form a rigid rib structure. Viewed along the length L of the retaining bracket, the height of each longitudinal rib 4 and transverse rib 5, extending perpendicularly to the support wall 1 and the bearing lugs 2, is selected such that the stiffness and strength requirements are met by the chosen material, while also showing a harmonious profile in the side view (see, for example, Fig. 3). In the area of ​​the bores 7 provided in the bearing lugs 2 for the (not shown) fastening screws with which the retaining bracket is bolted to the aforementioned bearing structure or to the vehicle, a so-called round rib 6 is provided surrounding the bore 7. This round rib extends vertically upwards in the same direction from the respective bearing lug 2 and is integrated into the rib structure formed by the longitudinal ribs 4 and the transverse ribs 5 or diagonal ribs 5. In the second embodiment according to Figs. 4 and 5 (where Fig. 5 is a view similar to that of Fig. 3), the longitudinal ribs 4 and, in particular, the transverse ribs 5 are shaped differently than in the first embodiment, and the support flange 2 does not constitute a continuous, closed structure. Rather, the support flange 2 is essentially formed by the already described round rib 6 and the sections of the longitudinal ribs 4 that quasi-intersect it. Seven of these longitudinal ribs 4 are provided in this second embodiment. In particular, the five transverse ribs 5 that intersect the longitudinal ribs 4 largely describe a curved plane that extends in a direction perpendicular to the bearing surface of the support flanges 2, with the center of curvature located in the area of ​​the bore 7 of the nearest support flange 2. In the embodiment according to Fig. 6, some of the nine longitudinal ribs 4 also describe curved planes, either sectionally or in part more strongly than in the embodiment according to Fig. 4, which, however, are again essentially perpendicular to the support tab 2 or to its bearing surface, with which the support tab 2 or the retaining bracket rests on a structure containing a bearing lower shell. The embodiments shown in Figures 7 and 8 will be briefly discussed below. These figures depict a highly abstract cross-sectional view of the retaining bracket H according to the invention. Also shown in cross-section is the aforementioned rubber bearing for receiving the stabilizer (not shown), designated by the letter G. In the embodiment shown in Figure 7, this rubber bearing G consists of two parts, G1 and G2. In the embodiment shown in Figure 8, the rubber bearing G is a single piece and is designed such that a lower part of the rubber bearing, as shown in the figure, can be partially folded away from an upper part of the rubber bearing, which is located entirely within the retaining bracket H. This allows the stabilizer, with its corresponding bearing section, to be inserted into the central receiving opening O of the rubber bearing G. In both embodiments, the rubber bearing G is partially integrally formed, in particular vulcanized, with the support wall 2 of the retaining bracket H.

Claims

Mounting of a stabilizer in the chassis of a two-track motor vehicle, which is mounted via a rubber bearing in a bearing base ultimately supported on the vehicle body and a retaining bracket completing this to a closed bearing structure and essentially semi-shell-shaped, wherein the retaining bracket is made of, in particular, fiber-reinforced plastic and is formed by a support wall (1) supporting the rubber bearing with adjoining bearing lugs (2) and a rib structure (4, 5) stiffening the support wall (1), characterized in that the bearing lugs (2) and the support wall (1) are supported against each other by the rib structure (4, 5), wherein the rib structure (4,5) is formed by several longitudinal ribs (4) arranged one behind the other in the direction of the central axis (3) of the rubber bearing and extending from one support flange (2) across the support wall (1) to the other support flange (2), as well as several transverse ribs (5) or oblique ribs (5) oriented at an angle to these, which ribs (4, 5) are essentially aligned with the support flanges (2) and extend from the support wall (1) and / or a support flange (2) and terminate freely. Stabilizer bearing according to claim, characterized in that the rubber bearing is at least partially molded onto the support wall (1) of the retaining bracket, in particular vulcanized onto it.

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