Jtekt Corporation

Makoto Taenaka

Kazuhiro Watanabe

Akitake Kawakubo

Hidetoshi Sumihara

Tetsuji Miyano

Yasuto Takaki

A rack guide device includes a rack guide, a blocking member, a plate spring and a holding member. The rack guide is accommodated in an accommodating portion that is formed in a housing through which a rack shaft is inserted so as to move towards or away from the rack shaft and that supports the rack shaft so that the rack shaft slides in an axial direction thereof. The blocking member is fixed to an external opening end provided on an opposite side of the accommodating portion to a side thereof that faces the rack shaft. The disc spring is interposed between the blocking member and the rack guide to bias the rack guide towards the rack shaft. The holding member holds the disc spring and is directly or indirectly held to the rack guide or the blocking member through frictional engagement.

Rack guide device and steering apparatus including same

A rack guide unit includes a closure member, a rack guide, and an urging unit. The closure member is secured to an external opening end of an accommodation portion of a housing. The rack guide is accommodated in the accommodation portion so as to be movable in an advancing/withdrawing direction and supports the rack shaft so that the rack shaft is slidable in an axial direction. The urging unit is arranged between the closure member and the rack guide. The urging unit includes a stack of a plurality of coned disc springs urging the rack guide toward the rack shaft and arranged in an identical orientation, and an auxiliary coned disc spring that serves as a holding member holding the stack.

Rack guide unit

A rack guide unit includes a closure member secured to an external opening end of an accommodation portion of a housing, and a rack guide. A compression coil spring and a coned disc spring that urge the rack guide toward a rack shaft are interposed between the closure member and the rack guide. A holding member that holds the coned disc spring includes a guide tube that guides a radially inner portion of the coned disc spring and a seat plate that receives a load from the coned disc spring. An elastic member held in an accommodation groove formed in the outer periphery of the guide tube is frictionally engaged with the inner periphery (opposed portion) of a tubular portion of the rack guide.

Rack guide unit and steering system including the rack guide unit

A rack guide unit includes a closure member secured to an external opening end of an accommodation portion of a housing, and a rack guide. Coned disc springs that urge the rack guide toward a rack shaft are interposed between the closure member and the rack guide. A protrusion of the closure member is passed through the coned disc springs and inserted in a recessed portion of the rack guide. An O-ring held in an accommodation groove formed in the outer periphery of the protrusion, at a position closer to the distal end of the protrusion than the coned disc springs are, functions as a retaining protrusion that restrains the coned disc springs from coming off the protrusion. For example, the coned disc springs and the closure member constitute a subassembly formed in advance.

Growing community of inventors

Kashiba, Japan

Makoto Taenaka