Steering Apparatus Curved Rack Housing Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing steering apparatuses face issues with precise installation of the gear box on the vehicle body due to manufacturing process limitations, leading to potential noise, steering failures, and adverse steering feelings caused by deviations and deformations in the rack housing mounting.
Innovation Solution
A steering apparatus design featuring a gear box with curved coupling portions and a nut member with matching curved surfaces, allowing for relative rotation and tilting to compensate for deviations and clearances without additional components, ensuring stable coupling and reduced production costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the rack housing is coupled to the sub-frame using traditional mounting methods, then the gear box can be installed on the vehicle body, but manufacturing process limitations cause deviations and deformations that lead to noise, steering failures, and adverse steering feelings
Solution Approach 1:
The coupling portion of the rack housing is designed with a curved surface that matches the curved support surface of the nut member. This spherical/curved interface allows for automatic alignment and compensation of manufacturing deviations, enabling the gear box to be reliably mounted even when there are variations in the sub-frame mounting positions or angles
Solution Approach 2:
The curved surface design changes the geometric parameters of the mounting interface from flat to curved, allowing the coupling portion to rotate and tilt relative to the nut member. This parameter change enables the system to accommodate variations in mounting position and angle while maintaining proper engagement and eliminating the adverse effects of manufacturing imprecisions
2Manufacturing precision
If additional components are used to compensate for clearance and deviations in mounting, then mounting accuracy can be improved, but device complexity and production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The curved surface coupling portion and support surface combination enables the mounting structure to self-align and self-compensate for deviations. The geometry of the curved surfaces automatically guides the coupling portion into proper alignment with the nut member, eliminating the need for additional alignment components or adjustment mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The curved/spherical interface design inherently provides the compensation function that would otherwise require separate adjustment components. The curved geometry allows for rotation and tilting that absorbs clearance and deviation variations, achieving high mounting accuracy without adding device complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A steering apparatus of a vehicle includes a plurality of coupling portions formed in a rack housing of a gear box and coupled to mounting portions of a vehicle body; and a nut member having a support surface and installed in each of the mounting portions of the vehicle body. In particular, each of the plurality of coupling portions has a seating surface formed as a curved surface with a predetermined curvature, and the seating surfaces are respectively seated on the support surface of the nut member installed in each of the mounting portions of the vehicle body such that the rack housing of the gear box is fixed to the vehicle body by a bolt which passes through each of the plurality of coupling portions to be engaged with the nut member of each of the mounting portions.