Federal-mogul Motorparts Corporation

Federal-mogul World Wide, Inc.

Other

Donald Richard Doherty

Eric M Kopsie

George Robert Schmidt

Alexander Karpman

Seth Englebright

Thomas Byrnes

James J Elterman

Larry Fitch

The assembly includes a housing that has an inner bore and a ball stud that has a ball portion with opposing first and second hemispheres. A bearing assembly is disposed in the inner bore of the housing and presents a curved first bearing surface that is in slidable contact with only the first hemisphere of the ball portion. The ball socket assembly also includes a curved second bearing surface that is presented on a different component from the bearing assembly and is in slidable contact with the second hemisphere of the ball portion. The bearing assembly has a plastic portion and a plurality of metal segments. The metal segments collectively define the first bearing surface and are fixedly attached with the plastic portion. The plastic portion allows the metal segments to individually move relative to one another to seat against the ball portion of the ball stud.

Socket assembly and method of making a socket assembly

The socket assembly includes a housing that presents an inner wall which surrounds an open bore. A stud is partially received in the open bore with a bearing interposed between the inner wall and the stud. The bearing has a bearing piece, which is in surface-to-surface contact with the stud, and a preload piece which is elastically compressed to impart a biasing force on the bearing piece, thereby preloading the bearing piece against the stud. The preload piece is in an overmolded engagement with the bearing piece to securely couple these pieces together such that the bearing can be inserted into the open bore of the housing together as a unit. The bearing and preload pieces are made of different materials with different elasticities.

Socket assembly

The movable joint assembly includes a housing which extends along an axis and has an outer surface and an open interior. A ball stud is partially disposed in the open interior and projects out of the housing. A flexible and elastic boot is sealed against the outer surface of the housing and against the ball stud. A metal insert is at least partially embedded within the boot adjacent an end of the boot for resisting pull out of the boot from the housing. The boot includes a lip which is at least partially spaced axially from the insert and extends radially inwardly and is in an interference fit engagement with the outer surface of the housing for establishing a fluid tight seal of the housing and for maintaining the fluid tight seal in response to injection of a lubricant into the open interior of the housing.

Movable joint assembly

The moveable socket assembly which includes a housing that has an inner bore. A stud projects out of the inner bore of the housing, and the stud has a shank portion which is at least partially disposed outside of the inner bore. A boot with a flexible body and an adapter is also provided to seal the housing with the stud. The flexible body and the adapter of the boot are made as separate pieces from one another, and the flexible body extends from a first end portion that is sealed with the housing to a second end portion. The adapter is interposed between the second end portion of the flexible body and the shank portion of the stud, and the adapter holds the second end portion in a predetermined location relative to the shank portion.

Socket assembly with an improved boot

A dust boot with enhanced protection from contaminants and improved lubrication characteristic includes a dust boot body having a housing opening on one end and on an opposing end a stud opening in an upper boot wall. The boot also includes a wiping lip located on an inner face of the upper boot wall in the stud opening, a grease channel on an outer surface of the upper boot wall bounded circumferentially by a rim seal, an offset opening hole through the upper boot wall into the grease channel which is offset from the wiping lip, and a flexible flap portion of said rim seal which is spaced away from said offset opening hole. The dust boot may also include an insert made from a plastic such as nylon housed in the upper boot wall such that the offset opening hole extends through the insert. The insert may also form a portion of the grease channel. The offset opening is preferably spaced opposite the flexible flap to promote the flow of grease around the outer surface of the stud. The dust boot may be incorporated into a joint assembly by placing it in sealing engagement with a housing which holds a stud in articulating engagement.

Dust boot with grease channel

A method for assembling a ball and socket assembly () includes loading a housing () with a resilient preload washer (), an inner bearing (), a ball stud () and an outer bearing (). A loading tool () forcefully compresses the assembled components, as a unit, to an overload compression condition (), and then reduces the compression until an ideal compression condition () is achieved. The outer bearing () is staked in position while the loading tool () holds the assembled components in the ideal compression condition (). Following the staking operation, the loading tool () can be removed, and a final crimping operation permanently sets the outer bearing () in position and holds the articulating components in the ideal, pre-load clearance established. The subject method is particularly well-suited for high production set-ups in which precise pre-load clearances must be achieved at high through put rates.

Growing community of inventors

St. Peters, MO, United States of America

Donald Richard Doherty