Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Tetsuji Sano

Yukikazu Ueno

Setsuko Shimada

The invention provides a method of manufacturing an irregular section tubular body and axle beam. The axle beam has a tubular worked body that has sealed liquid therein and is press-formed by upper and lower press molds. One of the press molds has a convex mold portion to form a concave portion concaved in an axis perpendicular direction at an axial part of the axle beam. The press-forming of the tubular worked body is completed by a one stroke process using liquid pressure that increases as the internal volume of the worked body decreases due to formation of the concave portion. The concave portion extends substantially the length of the axle beam and has a substantially U-shaped or V-shaped cross-section forming a closed and sealed space.

Irregular-section tubular body and axle beam for torsion beam and method of manufacturing the same

A double wishbone suspension has a carrier, an upper-arm, a lower arm, a lateral link, and a connecting part, etc. The carrier supports a wheel of a vehicle. An inside end of the upper-arm is coupled to a frame of the vehicle, and an outside end of the upper-arm is coupled to a lower end of the carrier. Two inside ends of the lower-arm are coupled to the frame of the vehicle, and an outside end of the lower-arm is coupled to a lower end of the carrier. Two inside ends are separated in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. An inside end of the lateral link is coupled to the frame of the vehicle, and an outside end of the lateral link is coupled to the carrier at a point offset from the axis of the wheel in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. The connecting part is between the carrier and the lower-arm so that the carrier can move in the front-rear direction of the vehicle relatively to the lower-arm. The connecting part includes two rigid parts and a rubber bush. The rubber bush is between the two rigid parts, and the rubber bush is elastically deformable. Since the structure of this suspension is simple, a cost of the suspension is low and a reliability of the suspension is high. Furthermore, the suspension can be adopted to a vehicle having a four-wheel-steering mechanism.

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Toyota, Japan

Tetsuji Sano