Zf Friedrichshafen Ag

Wolfgang Eulerich

Manfred Heidemann

Martin Rechtien

Jochen Kruse

Wolfgang Kleiner

Dirk Adamczyk

Michael Hahn

Harold Hopkinson, Iii

Klaus Pape

Andreas Welzel

Thomas Wiegmann

Marcel Ahlbrand

Johannes Tabor

Rainer Jasper

Guido Kohlbrecher

Ulrich Schefzyk

Jürgen GRÄBER

A ball joint, in particular a chassis joint, which has a housing and a ball socket that comprises a ball bearing section for receiving a joint ball. An anti-rotation member prevents movement of the ball socket within the housing. To improve operational performance of the ball joint, the anti-rotation member is formed by a connecting element of the housing and a mating connecting element of the ball socket. The connecting elements have corresponding holding profiles so that, in an assembled condition, the connecting elements form a shape-enclosing plug-in connection.

Ball joint

A method for producing a vehicle component (), in which a joint housing () is inserted in a predetermined insertion direction () into a through-hole () of a structural component (). The insertion of the joint housing () into the through-hole () in the insertion direction () terminates when an stop element () of the joint housing () abuts against the structural component (). After the insertion, the joint housing () is connected to the structural component () in a materially-merged manner. To reduce the complexity and/or the production costs, the method includes the joint housing () being inserted into the through-hole () with its housing bottom () first.

Method for producing a vehicle component, and vehicle component produced according to said method

A method of producing a chassis module () with a structural component () having a through-going aperture () into which a ball joint housing () is inserted. An outer periphery of the ball joint housing () is connected all round to an edge section () of the aperture () by a first material-cohesive joining () without a filler. In order to stabilize the ball joint housing () in the aperture (), the ball joint housing () is additionally connected all round to an inner wall section () of the aperture () at a location spaced away from the edge section (), by a second material-cohesive joining () without a filler. The chassis module () is produced by the method, and the chassis module is in the form of a flanged connector () or a multi-point link.

Method for manufacture of a chassis module and chassis module manufactured according to such a method

A ball joint with a ball pin and a steel ball pin with a joint ball. The ball joint and ball pin are suitable for use when, for example, solid-on-solid friction predominates under high static pre-loading or high operational loads and with small joint movements. A portion of the surface of the ball pin has surface layer hardening in order to increase a fatigue strength of the ball pin. The ball pin and the ball joint, on portion of the ball pin without the any surface layer hardened, includes a nitrided layer as wear protection. The ball pin and the ball joint provide an advantageous combination of high fatigue strength, good corrosion protection and high wear-resistance. The nitrided layer of ball joints, previously only regarded as improving corrosion protection, also functions as a wear protection. Thus, these ball pins overcome the mutual exclusion between surface layer hardening and nitriding.

Ball pin and ball joint

Growing community of inventors

Osnabrück, Germany

Wolfgang Eulerich