Tolerance Ring Geometry for Easy Assembly Without Entanglement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Tolerance rings with large gaps tend to entangle during use, packaging, and shipment, potentially damaging the rings and increasing manual workload, while existing solutions do not adequately address the need for easier handling and assembly in assemblies like motor, alternator, and pump systems.
Innovation Solution
A tolerance ring design featuring a sidewall with radially inward or outward waves and end portions that deform from a circumference spanning 180° or less in an uninstalled state to at least 300° in an installed state, allowing for easier packaging and assembly, and a substrate material such as stainless steel with a damping or heat transfer coating to enhance performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If tolerance rings have large gaps between ends, then assembly is easier, but rings become entangled during packaging and shipment
Solution Approach 1:
The tolerance ring is pre-formed with a controlled gap size that allows for easy assembly while preventing entanglement. The gap is deliberately designed to be small enough to avoid tangling during handling and packaging, yet large enough to facilitate installation onto shafts or other components without excessive force.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If tolerance ring gap is reduced to prevent entanglement, then handling is easier, but assembly becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the gap parameter to specific dimensional ranges that balance two opposing requirements: the gap is small enough to prevent entanglement during handling and packaging, but large enough to allow easy assembly. This parameter optimization resolves the contradiction by finding the optimal middle ground.
3Strength
If tolerance rings are made from resilient material, then interference fit is achieved, but rings may deform permanently during handling
Solution Approach 1:
The tolerance ring is pre-set with a specific gap dimension that accounts for the resilient material's deformation characteristics. This preliminary configuration ensures that during normal handling and installation, the material deforms within elastic limits and returns to its original shape, preventing permanent deformation while maintaining interference fit capability.
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 tolerance ring design reduces entanglement risks, simplifies assembly, and improves handling by deforming to fit snugly between components, enhancing assembly efficiency and reducing manual labor, while maintaining durability and noise reduction in applications like rotor and stator assemblies.
Implementation Method 1
the tolerance ring deforms upon deployment between an inner member and an outer member to have a circumference that spans at least 300°
Implementation Method 2
a substrate material such as stainless steel with a damping or heat transfer coating to enhance performance
Implementation Method 3
a substrate material such as stainless steel with a damping or heat transfer coating to enhance performance
Data Source
AI summary
A tolerance ring (200) including a tolerance ring sidewall (404) including a plurality of waves (or bridges) (452) extending at least one of radially inward or outward and having first (416) and second end portions (420) terminating at first (417) and second ends (421), respectively, where the tolerance ring has a first radius of curvature Ri, measured at a point bisecting a circumferential length, LC, of the tolerance ring sidewall, and a second radius of curvature, R2, measured along one of the first and second end portions of the tolerance ring sidewall, and wherein at least one of: 1) Ri is greater than R2, or 2) wherein Ri is negative and R2 is positive.