Bolt Retainer Clip Geometry to Prevent Fastener Gimbaling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bolt retainer clips allow for bolt misalignment during vehicle body assembly due to their design, which permits gimbaling movements, leading to potential assembly issues when the vehicle body is dropped onto the frame.
Innovation Solution
A bolt retainer clip with a retainer body featuring a cylindrical shape and fingers that extend into a bolt receiving aperture, providing a line contact with the bolt shank to limit gimbaling movements and maintain co-axial alignment, ensuring the bolt remains securely positioned within the vehicle body mount.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional bolt retainer clip with legs having inwardly bent ends is used, then the bolt is retained from falling out, but the bolt is allowed to pivot (gimbal) relative to the inner tube causing misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer body is designed with a cylindrical outer surface that fits within the inner tube, providing a curved geometric constraint. The fingers extend into the bolt receiving aperture with curved surfaces that contact the bolt shank, creating a geometric relationship that prevents gimbaling while maintaining retention. This curvature-based design resolves the contradiction by using geometric shapes to simultaneously achieve retention and alignment precision.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the retainer body has an uninterrupted cylindrical shape, then the outer diameter remains fixed for consistent fit, but the internal structure must be optimized to prevent bolt movement
Solution Approach 1:
The retainer body is segmented into fingers that extend into the bolt receiving aperture. These fingers are separated structural elements that can independently contact the bolt shank at multiple circumferential points. This segmentation allows the external cylindrical surface to remain simple and consistent while the internal finger structure provides complex retention and alignment functions, resolving the contradiction between external simplicity and internal functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The retainer body exhibits local quality differentiation: the outer surface maintains a uniform cylindrical shape for consistent fitting, while the inner surface features protruding fingers with specific geometries for bolt contact. This local differentiation allows each region of the retainer to serve its specific function - the outer cylinder provides stable positioning while the inner fingers provide retention and alignment, resolving the contradiction between external consistency and internal complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A bolt retainer clip for positioning a fastener and maintaining its alignment within a vehicle body mount. The bolt retainer clip includes a retainer body that has a longitudinal axis, an inside surface, and an outside surface. The inside surface defines a bolt receiving aperture in the retainer body. A plurality of fingers extend into the bolt receiving aperture from the inside surface of the retainer body. A portion of each finger is curved, creating a line contact between the fastener and each finger at a location that is spaced from a terminal end of the finger. Each line contact runs parallel to the longitudinal axis and therefore limits gimbaling movements of the fastener relative to the retainer body.