Check Rail Ball-and-Socket Joint Plastic Embedding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing check rails with ball-and-socket joints for vehicle wheel suspensions require additional housing components, increasing manufacturing costs and weight, while also facing challenges in securely embedding the articulated ball and maintaining rotational freedom.
Innovation Solution
The ball-and-socket joint pan is formed within the check rail body, with a plastic injection layer embedding the articulated ball, eliminating the need for additional housing and ensuring secure embedding and rotational freedom.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional housing components are used for the ball-and-socket joint, then secure embedding of the articulated ball is achieved, but manufacturing costs and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The ball-and-socket joint pan is integrated directly into the check rail body, eliminating the need for separate housing components. This merging of the joint pan with the check rail body reduces the number of parts, decreases weight, and simplifies manufacturing while maintaining secure embedding of the articulated ball through the injected plastic layer.
2Reliability
If additional housing components are used for the ball-and-socket joint, then secure embedding of the articulated ball is achieved, but manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The joint pan is merged with the check rail body as an integrated component, reducing the number of separate parts that need to be manufactured and assembled. This integration simplifies the manufacturing process, reduces assembly steps, and lowers manufacturing costs while maintaining secure embedding through the plastic injection process.
Solution Approach 2:
The mechanical assembly of separate housing components is replaced by an injected plastic layer that secures the articulated ball. This substitution of the mechanical fastening system with an injected material system simplifies manufacturing and reduces costs while achieving reliable embedding.
3Ease of operation
If plastic injection layer is used to embed the articulated ball, then rotational freedom is maintained, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Complex mechanical retention mechanisms are replaced by a plastic injection process that secures the articulated ball while allowing rotation. The injected plastic layer provides the necessary retention without requiring complex mechanical structures, maintaining rotational freedom while simplifying the overall device design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces manufacturing costs and weight by integrating the joint directly into the check rail, providing a secure and low-resistance rotary movement for the articulated ball, effectively connecting the check rail to the wheel carrier and structural body parts.
Implementation Method 1
a layer of injected plastic which is injected for the embedding of the articulated ball in the ball-and-socket joint pan between the circumferential inner wall of the ball-and-socket joint pan and the articulated ball
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a check rail for a rail suspension in a vehicle. The check rail may include a check rail body, and a ball-and-socket joint pan formed in the check rail body, wherein the ball-and-socket joint pan may include a circumferential inner wall and a receiving opening, with a ball-and-socket joint pin with an articulated ball in the ball-and-socket joint pan, and with a plastic injection layer configured to embed the articulated ball in the ball-and-socket joint pan between the circumferential inner wall of the ball-and-socket joint pan and the articulated ball.