阅读说明：本技术 一种转向柱与前围板的轴承密封结构 (Bearing sealing structure of steering column and front wall plate ) 是由 岳鹏 税建敏 杨洪斌 何锐 刘勇 杨渝民 唐建民 聂胤 陈昌龙 于 2021-08-26 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种转向柱与前围板的轴承密封结构,包括橡胶防尘罩和滚动轴承；所述转向柱包括转向中间轴,所述滚动轴承以小间隙装配于转向中间轴上；所述橡胶防尘罩在装配于滚动轴承上的同时还与所述前围板固定连接；所述轴承密封结构还包括阻尼环,所述阻尼环固定装配于所述滚动轴承的内圈,用于填充滚动轴承与转向中间轴之间的小间隙,同时,所述阻尼环还能提供摩擦力使转向中间轴带动滚动轴承的内圈一起转动,还可使滚动轴承相对转向中间轴进行轴向滑动。本发明通过在滚动轴承的内圈加装阻尼环以消除滚动轴承与转向中间轴之间的小间隙,完全杜绝了灰尘或泥水进入其中的可能性,大大提高了密封性能。(The invention discloses a bearing sealing structure of a steering column and a front coaming, which comprises a rubber dust cover and a rolling bearing; the steering column includes a steering intermediate shaft on which the rolling bearing is fitted with a small clearance; the rubber dust cover is assembled on the rolling bearing and is fixedly connected with the front wall plate; the bearing sealing structure further comprises a damping ring, wherein the damping ring is fixedly assembled on the inner ring of the rolling bearing and used for filling a small gap between the rolling bearing and the steering intermediate shaft, and meanwhile, the damping ring can also provide friction force to enable the steering intermediate shaft to drive the inner ring of the rolling bearing to rotate together and enable the rolling bearing to axially slide relative to the steering intermediate shaft. The damping ring is additionally arranged on the inner ring of the rolling bearing to eliminate a small gap between the rolling bearing and the steering intermediate shaft, so that the possibility of dust or muddy water entering the rolling bearing is completely eradicated, and the sealing performance is greatly improved.)

1. A bearing sealing structure of a steering column and a front wall plate comprises a rubber dust cover (2) and a rolling bearing (9); the steering column comprises a steering intermediate shaft (4), the rolling bearing (9) being fitted on the steering intermediate shaft (4) with a small clearance; the rubber dust cover (2) is assembled on the rolling bearing (9) and is fixedly connected with the front wall plate (1); the method is characterized in that: the bearing sealing structure further comprises a damping ring (10), wherein the damping ring (10) is fixedly assembled on the inner ring of the rolling bearing (9) and used for filling a small gap between the rolling bearing (9) and the steering intermediate shaft (4), meanwhile, the damping ring (10) can also provide friction force to enable the steering intermediate shaft (4) to drive the inner ring of the rolling bearing (9) to rotate together, and the rolling bearing (9) can also axially slide relative to the steering intermediate shaft (4).

2. The bearing seal structure according to claim 1, wherein: at least two rolling bearings (9) are arranged; a damping ring (10) is fixedly assembled on the inner ring of each rolling bearing (9); all the rolling bearings (9) are assembled in the rubber dust cover (2).

3. The bearing seal structure according to claim 2, wherein: a gasket (11) is arranged between two adjacent rolling bearings (9).

4. A bearing seal structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: a bearing ring body (8) is also arranged between the rubber dust cover (2) and the rolling bearing (9); the rolling bearing (9) is assembled in the bearing ring body (8), and the rubber dust cover (2) is assembled outside the bearing ring body (8).

5. The bearing seal structure according to claim 4, wherein: and a sealing ring (7) is assembled in the end part of the bearing ring body (8), and the inner wall of the sealing ring (7) is assembled on the steering intermediate shaft (4) in an interference manner.

6. The bearing seal structure according to claim 5, wherein: the cross section of the inner wall of the sealing ring (7) is in a shape of Chinese character 'ba', and the edges of the two sides of the sealing ring are closer to the outer surface of the steering intermediate shaft (4) than the middle part of the sealing ring.

7. The bearing seal structure according to claim 4, wherein: the bearing sealing structure further comprises a locking piece (5), and the locking piece (5) is used for locking the rubber dust cover (2) to the bearing ring body (8).

8. A bearing seal structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the bearing sealing structure further comprises a locking piece (5), and the locking piece (5) is used for locking the rubber dust cover (2) to the rolling bearing (9).

9. A bearing seal structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the bearing sealing structure further comprises a pressing plate (3), and the pressing plate (3) is used for pressing and fixing the rubber dust cover (2) to the front wall plate (1).

10. A bearing seal structure according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the inner ring of the rolling bearing (9) is provided with a circumferential groove (12), and the damping ring (10) is assembled in the groove (12).

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of automobile steering isolation, dust prevention and noise reduction, in particular to a bearing sealing structure of a steering column and a front wall plate.

Background

The front wall board of a car is a partition board between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment of the car. It should be noted in this connection that it should bear a large part of the torsional stiffness (similar to the partition between the passenger compartment and the luggage compartment). The consideration here should be taken in connection with warm air, pedals, steering wheel posts, various cable channels and the like in a similar assembly relationship. The joints of the dash panel and the floor, and the dash panel and the front pillar are at the front and below the cowl top. In the engine compartment, consideration should be given to vibration spaces of the engine, windshield wipers, an intake system, a fan mount, sound and heat insulation measures, various fasteners, and the like, in designing the dash panel. The dash panel has a plurality of openings for passage of operating wires, rods, pipes and wiring harnesses and for attachment of pedals, square columns and the like. In order to prevent exhaust gas, high temperature and noise in the engine compartment from entering the vehicle compartment, the dash panel is provided with sealing measures and heat insulation devices. In the event of an accident, it should have sufficient strength and rigidity. Compared with other parts of a vehicle body, the most important process technology for assembling the front wall panel is sealing and heat insulation, and the quality of the front wall panel is reflected by the quality of vehicle operation.

For rear-drive and four-drive vehicles, the power assembly needs to occupy most of the engine compartment space, so that the steering system cannot be arranged behind the front axle. Such vehicle types often employ a front-mounted trapezoidal steering column, and a steering intermediate shaft needs to penetrate through the dash panel in order to be connected to the steering gear. When the vehicle wades or runs on poor road conditions for a long time, the through position of the steering intermediate shaft and the front wall plate is poorly sealed, so that muddy water enters the cockpit easily. Because the steering intermediate shaft performs steering operation, rotation is required, and sealing with the front panel is particularly important, two sealing structures for the steering intermediate shaft exist at present:

1) the steering intermediate shaft and the front wall plate are fixed by a rolling bearing and a support, and the steering intermediate shaft is sealed by adopting a rubber seal or a seal structure of the bearing (hereinafter collectively referred to as a fixed type).

2) The steering intermediate shaft and the front wall plate are sealed through a rubber dust cover structure, the lip of the rubber dust cover is directly contacted with the outer circle of the steering intermediate shaft to seal, a sliding plastic bearing structure is adopted to seal, and a combined structure of the rubber dust cover with the lip and the sliding plastic bearing is adopted to seal (hereinafter, the combined structure is generally called as a combined type).

The two sealing structures have the following advantages and disadvantages:

1) fixed: the structure has good protective performance, but the position of the steering middle shaft is fixed, the precision requirement on related parts is very high, the assembly manufacturability of the parts of the whole vehicle is very poor, and the structure has limitation.

2) Combination type: the steering intermediate shaft and the rubber dust cover can move relatively in the axial direction, and the steering intermediate shaft and the rubber dust cover are convenient to assemble and can adapt to large axial errors. However, when a large radial error is faced, a gap is generated between the sealing lip and the steering intermediate shaft, the sealing performance is reduced, even the sealing is failed, and once muddy water enters, the probability of steering abnormal sound is high. In order to ensure the sealing performance, the design interference of the lip is often larger, and the structure is sliding friction, so that the rotating moment is large, and the steering operation is not favorable.

The applicant has previously proposed a bearing structure (CN203685845U) for a steering intermediate shaft, which can solve the disadvantages of the two sealing structures to some extent, but because the bearing is sleeved on the steering intermediate shaft with a small clearance fit, although the oil storage groove is arranged on the inner side of the bearing, the small clearance between the bearing and the steering intermediate shaft still has the situation of incomplete sealing, so that the entry of foreign matters such as muddy water and dust into the bearing cannot be completely avoided, and the sealing performance of the bearing structure needs to be further improved.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a bearing sealing structure for a steering column and a dash panel, and aims to solve the problem of the prior bearing sealing structure that the sealing between a bearing and a steering intermediate shaft is not tight.

In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:

a bearing sealing structure of a steering column and a front coaming comprises a rubber dust cover and a rolling bearing; the steering column includes a steering intermediate shaft on which the rolling bearing is fitted with a small clearance; the rubber dust cover is assembled on the rolling bearing and is fixedly connected with the front wall plate; the bearing sealing structure further comprises a damping ring, wherein the damping ring is fixedly assembled on the inner ring of the rolling bearing and used for filling a small gap between the rolling bearing and the steering intermediate shaft, and meanwhile, the damping ring can also provide friction force to enable the steering intermediate shaft to drive the inner ring of the rolling bearing to rotate together and also enable the rolling bearing to axially slide relative to the steering intermediate shaft.

As a further technical solution of the above solution, at least two rolling bearings are provided; a damping ring is fixedly assembled on the inner ring of each rolling bearing correspondingly; all rolling bearings are assembled in the rubber dust cover.

As a further technical scheme of the scheme, a gasket is arranged between every two adjacent rolling bearings.

As a further technical scheme of the above scheme, a bearing ring body is further arranged between the rubber dust cover and the rolling bearing; the rolling bearing is assembled in the bearing ring body, and the rubber dust cover is assembled outside the bearing ring body.

As a further technical scheme of the above scheme, a seal ring is assembled in an end portion of the bearing ring body, and an inner wall of the seal ring is in interference fit with the steering intermediate shaft.

As a further technical scheme of the scheme, the cross section of the inner wall of the sealing ring is in a shape like a Chinese character 'ba', and the edges of the two sides of the sealing ring are closer to the outer surface of the steering intermediate shaft than the middle part of the sealing ring.

As a further technical solution of the above aspect, the bearing sealing structure further includes a locking member for locking the rubber dust cover to the carrier ring body.

As a further technical solution of the above aspect, the bearing sealing structure further includes a retaining member for retaining the rubber dust cover to the rolling bearing.

As a further technical solution of the above aspect, the bearing seal structure further includes a pressing plate for pressing and fixing the rubber dust cover to the dash panel.

As a further technical solution of the above aspect, the inner ring of the rolling bearing has a circumferential groove, and the damping ring is fitted in the groove.

In summary, compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages and beneficial effects: on the basis that the existing rubber dust cover combined rolling bearing realizes sealing, a damping ring is additionally arranged on an inner ring of the rolling bearing to eliminate a small gap between the rolling bearing and a steering intermediate shaft, so that the possibility of dust or muddy water entering the rolling bearing is completely eradicated, and the sealing performance is good; meanwhile, the steering intermediate shaft can be ensured to freely rotate and axially slide, the rotating torque is small, the whole vehicle error is adapted, and the assembly requirement is met; even if the steering intermediate shaft has radial runout, the intermediate shaft can be corrected in time through the damping ring and the rubber dust cover, and the intermediate shaft is guaranteed to have better sealing performance all the time.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the overall structure of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of a part of the structure of the bearing seal body of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a partial structural view of the rolling bearing of the present invention.

The explanation of each reference number in the figure is: the device comprises a front wall plate 1, a rubber dust cover 2, a pressing plate 3, a steering intermediate shaft 4, a locking part 5, a bearing sealing body 6, a sealing ring 7, a bearing ring body 8, a rolling bearing 9, a damping ring 10, a gasket 11, a groove 12 and a riveting edge 13.

Detailed Description

In order that those skilled in the art will better understand the technical solutions of the present invention, the present invention will be further described in detail with reference to the following embodiments.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship referred to in the description of the orientation, such as the upper, lower, front, rear, left, right, etc., is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and is only for convenience of description and simplification of description, and does not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, the meaning of a plurality of means is one or more, the meaning of a plurality of means is two or more, and larger, smaller, larger, etc. are understood as excluding the number, and larger, smaller, inner, etc. are understood as including the number. The terms first, second and the like, if any, are used for distinguishing technical features only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated or implicitly indicating the precedence of technical features indicated.

In the description of the present invention, unless otherwise explicitly limited, terms such as arrangement, installation, connection and the like should be understood in a broad sense, and those skilled in the art can reasonably determine the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention in combination with the specific contents of the technical solutions.

As shown in fig. 1, a bearing seal structure of a steering column and a cowl according to the present invention includes a dust boot 2 and a bearing seal body 6. The steering column comprises a steering intermediate shaft 4, the bearing sealing body 6 is assembled on the steering intermediate shaft 4, and the rubber dust cover 2 is assembled on the bearing sealing body 6 and the front wall plate 1 at the same time.

The bearing seal body 6 includes a rolling bearing 9, and the rolling bearing 9 is fitted to the steering intermediate shaft 4 with a small clearance of less than 0.1mm, which may cause entry of dust or muddy water and incomplete sealing, as described in the prior art. In order to solve the problem, a damping ring 10 is specially and additionally arranged in the bearing sealing body 6, the damping ring 10 is fixedly assembled on an inner ring of the rolling bearing 9, and the damping ring 10 is an elastic body and is used for filling a small gap between the rolling bearing 9 and the steering intermediate shaft 4. Meanwhile, the damping ring 10 can also provide friction force to enable the steering intermediate shaft 4 to drive the inner ring of the rolling bearing 9 to rotate together, so that the rolling bearing 9 and the steering intermediate shaft 4 are assembled in an interference mode, the rolling bearing 9 supports the rotation of the steering intermediate shaft 4 conveniently, the rolling bearing 9 is in rolling friction, the rotating torque is small, and the rotation is easy. The damping ring 10 can also enable the rolling bearing 9 to axially slide relative to the steering intermediate shaft 4 so as to adapt to the error of the whole vehicle and meet the assembly requirement.

When the steering intermediate shaft 4 has large radial deflection, the steering intermediate shaft 4 transmits force to the rolling bearing 9 to drive the whole bearing sealing body 6 to generate radial displacement, so that the rubber dust cover 2 generates deformation, the damping ring 10 also has certain deformation capacity, and the deflection requirement can be met after the two are combined. In the process of deflection, the steering intermediate shaft 4 and the damping ring 10 are generated without gaps, and good sealing is always kept.

In order to reinforce the sealing of the bearing seal 6 with the steering intermediate shaft 4, at least two rolling bearings 9 are provided in the bearing seal 6. Each rolling bearing 9 is fixedly fitted with a damping ring 10 on its inner ring. All rolling bearings 9 are fitted in the dust rubber boot 2. The plurality of rolling bearings 9 and the damping rings 10 are arranged, so that a plurality of sealing structures are arranged between the bearing sealing body 6 and the steering intermediate shaft 4, and even if the first sealing structure is not effective, the subsequent sealing structure can ensure the complete sealing between the bearing sealing body 6 and the steering intermediate shaft 4. The two adjacent rolling bearings 9 can be separated by a gasket 11, so that the movement of the two adjacent rolling bearings 9 is not interfered with each other.

Because the width of the rolling bearing 9 is narrow, and the installation position of the rolling bearing 9 is difficult to ensure after a plurality of rolling bearings 9 are arranged, as shown in fig. 2 and 3, a bearing ring body 8 is also arranged between the rubber dust cover 2 and the rolling bearing 9; the rolling bearing 9 is assembled in the bearing ring body 8, and the rubber dust cover 2 is assembled outside the bearing ring body 8. The bearing ring body 8 well plays a role of over-assembly so as to be beneficial to the assembly of the rubber dust cover 2 and the assembly of the rolling bearing 9, and the assembly positions of the rubber dust cover 2 and the rolling bearing 9 are provided with enough support guarantee.

And a sealing ring 7 is assembled in the end part of the bearing ring body 8, and the inner wall of the sealing ring 7 is assembled on the steering intermediate shaft 4 in an interference fit mode. The gasket 7 may be mounted only at the end of the carrier ring body 8 near the engine compartment, since dust or muddy water normally only invades from the engine compartment. However, in order to ensure good sealing, it is also possible to mount the sealing rings 7 at both ends of the carrier ring body 8. The sealing ring 7 provides another layer of protection for the damping ring 10, and dust or muddy water must pass through the sealing ring 7 before the dust or muddy water can contact the damping ring 10, so that the sealing performance is further ensured.

The cross section of the inner wall of the sealing ring 7 is in a shape of Chinese character 'ba', the edges of two sides of the sealing ring are closer to the outer surface of the steering intermediate shaft 4 than the middle part of the sealing ring, the edges of two sides are always attached to the outer surface of the steering intermediate shaft 4, and the middle part of the sealing ring is separated from the outer surface of the steering intermediate shaft 4 by a certain distance. The V-shaped structure enables the sealing ring 7 to have double sealing effect, and even if dust or muddy water breaks through one side edge, the other side edge is difficult to break through and is accumulated in the middle of the sealing ring.

Because the rubber dust cover 2 has certain flexibility, the rubber dust cover is easy to be dislocated due to larger amplitude vibration after being assembled with the rolling bearing 9 or the bearing ring body 8. For this purpose, the invention also provides a locking element 5 for locking the dust rubber boot 2 to the rolling bearing 9 or the carrier ring body 8, for example a clip, which ensures that the dust rubber boot 2 is always connected to the rolling bearing 9 or the carrier ring body 8 in a good and stable manner.

Meanwhile, the edge 13 of the bearing ring body 8 is riveted to prevent the sealing ring 7 from falling off, and the edge 13 can prevent the sharp edge of the bearing ring body 8 from scratching other parts.

The damping ring 10 and the inner ring of the rolling bearing 9 can be directly connected in an interference fit mode, but the rolling bearing 9 and the steering intermediate shaft 4 can axially slide, and long-term axial sliding can cause the damping ring 10 to be separated from the inner ring of the rolling bearing 9, so that the sealing performance is influenced. Therefore, the annular groove 12 is arranged on the inner ring of the rolling bearing 9, the damping ring 10 is arranged in the groove 12, and preferably is in interference fit in the groove 12, so that the damping ring 10 can be always assembled with the inner ring of the rolling bearing 9.

In addition to the connection method commonly used in the prior art, the invention also provides a pressing plate 3 for connecting the dust rubber cover 2 to the dash panel 1, wherein the pressing plate 3 is used for pressing and fixing the dust rubber cover 2 to the dash panel 1 and can be connected by means of bolts or clamping. The pressing plate 3 increases the connecting area of the rubber dust cover 2 and the front wall plate 1, so that the connection is not easily affected by deformation.

The rolling bearing 9 in the present invention may be a deep groove ball bearing, a needle roller bearing, an angular contact bearing, a self-aligning ball bearing, a self-aligning roller bearing, a thrust ball bearing, a self-aligning roller thrust bearing, a cylindrical roller bearing, a tapered roller bearing, an outer spherical ball bearing with a seat, or the like.

The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.

The above preferred embodiments should not be considered as limiting the invention, which is subject to the scope defined by the claims. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and these modifications and adaptations should be considered within the scope of the invention.