Extruded Chassis Control Arm with Hollow Bearing Mounts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing chassis control arms face challenges in achieving a balance between lightweight construction and high load-bearing capacity while maintaining cost-effectiveness, with traditional manufacturing methods often requiring material-removing processes and complex geometries that increase production costs and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A chassis control arm is designed with a single-piece base body made from an extruded hollow profile featuring multiple hollow chambers acting as bearing mounts, where the extrusion process configures the cross-sections as bearing axes, allowing for adjustable wall thicknesses and a triangular configuration with bearing axes in different directions, enabling efficient force transmission and stiffness adjustment without additional material removal processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional manufacturing methods are used for chassis control arms, then structural strength can be achieved, but production costs increase due to material-removing processes and complex geometries
Solution Approach 1:
The hollow chambers are pre-formed during the extrusion process to serve as bearing mounts, eliminating the need for subsequent material-removing processes. This preliminary configuration of the profile directly creates the functional bearing mounts, reducing both production cost and manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges the structural profile with the bearing mount functionality by integrating hollow chambers into the extruded profile. These hollow chambers serve dual purposes: providing structural support and acting as bearing mounts, thereby combining multiple functions into a single component and eliminating separate manufacturing steps.
2Manufacturing precision
If material-removing processes are used to create bearing mounts, then precise bearing axes can be achieved, but production cost and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The extrusion process preliminarily forms the hollow chambers with precise circular cross-sections that define the bearing axes. This preliminary formation during extrusion achieves the required manufacturing precision for bearing axes without requiring subsequent material-removing processes, thereby reducing production cost while maintaining precision.
3Strength
If uniform wall thickness is used in the control arm, then manufacturing is simpler, but load-bearing capacity and stiffness are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by varying the wall thickness of the hollow profile at different locations. The extruded hollow profile has different wall thicknesses in different regions, allowing thicker walls in high-stress areas to enhance load-bearing capacity and stiffness, while maintaining thinner walls in low-stress areas to reduce overall weight and material usage.
4Ease of manufacture
If the control arm is designed as a single-piece extruded profile, then production cost decreases, but adaptability for different bearing configurations is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the control arm into multiple hollow chambers within the single extruded profile, with each hollow chamber serving as a bearing mount. This segmentation allows different bearing configurations (first, second, and third bearing mounts at different positions and orientations) to be integrated into the single-piece structure, providing adaptability while maintaining cost-effective manufacturing.
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
The solution results in a lightweight, cost-effective chassis control arm with enhanced stiffness and load-bearing capacity, allowing for the use of different materials for the base body and bearing components, and enabling a modular design for easy integration of special bearing components, such as ball joints, while maintaining structural integrity under various stress situations.
Implementation Method 1
a single-piece base body of uniform material and made from an extruded hollow profile with several hollow chambers
Data Source
AI summary
A chassis control arm includes a single-piece base body with several hollow chambers. The base body includes a plurality of bearing mounts. A first bearing mount is formed by one of the hollow chambers and traverses the base body to define a first bearing axis which extends in extrusion direction. A second bearing mount in a first end portion of the base body defines a second bearing axis in a direction which deviates from the extrusion direction of the hollow profile. A third bearing mount is positioned in a second end portion of the base body. The base body has a center portion which includes the first bearing mount and is arranged between the first and second end portions. The base body has a first leg extending from the first end portion to the center portion, and a second leg extending from the second end portion to the center portion.