Gas Spring End Member Variable Compression Crimp
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gas spring assemblies face challenges in securely retaining flexible walls, particularly under varying conditions such as elevated internal gas pressures and low temperatures, which can lead to reduced retention and increased manufacturing costs.
Innovation Solution
The development of end members with a progressively varied crimp area and surface profile, featuring grooves and ridges that generate a variable-compression wedge effect, enhances the securement of flexible walls, ensuring a fluid-tight seal and improved retention without increasing radially inward forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional securing arrangements are used to retain the flexible wall, then manufacturing costs are reduced, but retention reliability deteriorates under elevated internal gas pressures and low temperatures
Solution Approach 1:
The end member features a progressively varied crimp area with non-uniform wall thickness and cross-sectional area along its length. The thickest section is positioned at the crimped region where the flexible wall is secured, providing localized reinforcement exactly where retention forces are most critical. This allows the structure to withstand elevated internal gas pressures and low temperature conditions without requiring uniform thickening throughout the entire end member, thus maintaining cost-effectiveness while improving retention reliability at the critical interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible wall is crimped onto the end member during manufacturing to pre-establish a secure mechanical interlock and fluid-tight seal before the gas spring assembly enters service. This preliminary securing action ensures that the flexible wall is firmly retained from the outset, preventing degradation under subsequent operational conditions such as pressure cycles and temperature variations, thereby improving long-term retention reliability without requiring complex additional features.
2Reliability
If uniform compression force is applied to secure the flexible wall, then assembly simplicity is maintained, but sealing performance deteriorates under varying operational conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The end member employs a progressively varied crimp area with continuously changing cross-sectional dimensions along its length, creating zones of different compliance and compression characteristics. The tapered geometry provides progressively increasing compression force from the base toward the tip of the crimped region, ensuring optimal sealing pressure distribution that adapts to varying operational conditions such as pressure fluctuations and temperature changes, thereby improving sealing performance without requiring active control mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The crimp area geometry is designed with continuously varying parameters including wall thickness, cross-sectional area, and curvature radius along the length of the end member. These parameter variations are optimized to generate the desired progressive compression effect, transforming a simple passive component into an active sealing system that automatically adapts to operational conditions through its geometric design, thus improving sealing performance without increasing device complexity.
3Reliability
If radially inward forces are increased to improve retention, then securement of the flexible wall is enhanced, but manufacturing costs and structural complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The end member concentrates its structural reinforcement locally at the crimped region through a progressively varied crimp area with increased wall thickness and cross-sectional area precisely where retention forces are applied to the flexible wall. This localized strengthening provides the necessary retention strength without requiring uniform thickening throughout the entire end member structure, avoiding unnecessary material costs and manufacturing complexity in non-critical regions while maintaining high retention strength at the critical interface.
Solution Approach 2:
The crimped region of the end member features a curved, tapered geometry that progressively varies in cross-sectional area along its length. This curved profile allows the structure to distribute and manage radially inward forces more effectively, providing enhanced retention strength through geometric optimization rather than simply increasing material quantity, thus improving retention strength without proportionally increasing manufacturing cost.
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 provides enhanced retention and sealing capabilities while maintaining low manufacturing costs, ensuring reliable performance across different operational conditions.
Implementation Method 1
Each of the first, second and third grooves can have a groove depth with the groove depths progressively decreasing in an axial direction such that the first, second and third grooves are capable of generating a variable-compression wedge effect during abutting engagement with the associated flexible spring member.
Data Source
AI summary
An end member is dimensioned to engage an end of a flexible spring member to at least partially form a gas spring assembly. The end member includes an end member wall that has a longitudinal axis. The end member includes a securement wall portion having an outer surface with a surface profile dimensioned to abuttingly engage the end of the flexible spring member. The surface profile includes a plurality of concave profile sections and a plurality of convex profile sections that are dimensioned to generate a progressively increasing compression force along at least a section of the securement wall portion. A gas spring assembly including such an end member is included. A suspension system including one or more gas spring assemblies and a method of assembly are also included.