Spring Support Radial Damping via Bent Collar Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing spring supports primarily address axial damping, inadequately addressing radial or lateral movements of coil springs, which leads to insufficient vibration damping and noise transmission in vehicle suspensions.
Innovation Solution
A spring support design featuring a disc-shaped damping element with star-shaped incisions, bent to form a collar, integrated with an annular receiving element, providing enhanced radial damping through a surface load distribution and additional sealing elements for environmental protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a flat damping element is used on the side facing away from the spring, then axial damping is provided, but radial or lateral movements of the coil spring are inadequately addressed
Solution Approach 1:
The damping element is transformed from a flat two-dimensional structure to a three-dimensional collar structure by bending the edges upward. This dimensional change enables the damping element to address radial and lateral movements in addition to axial damping, resolving the contradiction between maintaining axial damping performance and expanding coverage to multiple movement directions.
Solution Approach 2:
The damping element is divided into distinct functional zones: a central flat region for axial damping and upward-bent edge regions for radial damping. This segmentation allows each zone to specialize in damping specific movement directions, achieving comprehensive multi-directional damping coverage while maintaining effective axial damping performance.
2Reliability
If the damping element is bent to form a collar, then radial damping is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The damping element's geometry is modified by changing the angle parameter of its edges from flat (0 degrees) to bent (upward angle). This parameter change creates the collar structure that provides radial damping. The complexity increase is minimal because it involves a simple geometric transformation of a single component rather than adding multiple separate parts.
3Reliability
If the collar is formed by bending a disc-shaped base form, then radial vibration damping is enhanced, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Star-shaped incisions are pre-formed in the disc-shaped damping element before the bending process. These incisions act as predetermined folding lines that guide the bending operation, ensuring that the collar forms with consistent geometry and angle. This preliminary action significantly reduces the precision requirements during the subsequent bending step, as the material naturally follows the pre-marked paths.
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 effectively decouples radial movements, reduces noise transmission, enhances driving comfort, and prevents premature damage to the damping element by distributing load uniformly, while being cost-effective and easy to manufacture.
Implementation Method 1
an annular damping element which is in contact with the bottom of the receiving element... effectively decouples radial movements, reduces noise transmission
Implementation Method 2
the damping element has a collar on its inner side that extends from the bottom of the receiving element towards the coil spring
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a spring support for a coil spring (15) comprising an annular receiving element (5) with an upper face and a lower face, said upper face being designed to receive an end of the coil spring (15), and comprising an annular damping element (3) which contacts the lower face of the receiving element (5). The damping element (3) further has a collar on the inner face of the damping element, said collar extending from the lower face of the receiving element (5) in the direction of the coil spring (15), and the collar is formed by being bent out of a disc-shaped base shape of the damping element (3). The invention further relates to a method for producing a spring support according to the invention, wherein a disc-shaped damping element (3) is first inserted into a mold, and subsequently an annular receiving element (5) is produced by means of a casting or injection process on the damping element (3) such that the lower face of the receiving element (5) contacts the annular damping element (3).