Steering Column Clamping Collar for Full-Shaft Engagement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional clamping collar designs for connecting steering components in vehicles often fail to ensure sufficient engagement, leading to poor dynamic endurance due to additional parts or machining that compromise contact zones, resulting in inadequate resistance.
Innovation Solution
A clamping collar design with an entry zone and a coupling zone, where the entry zone is dimensioned to prevent screw clamping when the shaft is not fully engaged, using a counterbore or chamfered profile to maintain resistance and simplify manufacturing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional parts (such as elastic curved blades) are added to the clamping collar to prevent insufficient engagement, then the reliability of engagement is improved, but the device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity is segmented into two distinct zones: an entry zone with a larger cross-sectional area and a coupling zone with a smaller cross-sectional area. This segmentation allows the shaft to be guided into the correct position while preventing clamping if the shaft is not fully engaged, thereby ensuring engagement reliability without adding complex additional parts.
2Reliability
If machining operations (chamfer or counterbore) are performed on the shaft to prevent poor engagement, then the engagement reliability is improved, but the contact zone area between shaft and jaw is reduced, deteriorating dynamic endurance
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of modifying the shaft in another dimension (through machining), the solution changes the dimensional configuration of the cavity itself by creating an entry zone with a larger cross-sectional area. This allows the shaft to engage properly without any machining, preserving the full contact zone area and maintaining dynamic endurance while ensuring engagement reliability.
3Strength
If the clamping collar is designed to fully clamp the shaft, then the connection strength is improved, but assembly errors due to insufficient engagement are not prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The entry zone is designed to prevent the clamping action from occurring if the shaft is not fully engaged. The larger cross-sectional area of the entry zone ensures that the shaft must be completely inserted into the coupling zone before the clamping screw can effectively clamp the collar onto the shaft. This preliminary prevention mechanism ensures both connection strength and assembly accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
A device for connecting a steering column to a steering gear housing comprising a shaft (2) having an end portion (20), a clamping collar (1) comprising two arms (10, 11) arranged relative to one another in such a way as to delimit a cavity (3) able to guide the shaft (2) into a position of engagement and keep the shaft (2) in the engaged position, and means (16) for clamping the arms (10, 11) onto the shaft in the engaged position with a set torque, the cavity (3) comprising a coupling zone (4) and an entry zone (5) situated to the rear of the coupling zone in the direction of insertion and dimensioned in relation to the coupling zone (4) in such a way as to prevent the clamping means from being clamped to the set torque when the end portion is situated in the entry zone (5).