The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 05, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 08, 1999
Brian Richard Morris, Uniontown, OH (US);
Jay Dudley White, Massillon, OH (US);
The Boler Company, Itasca, IL (US);
Abstract
A cam shaft support and enclosure assembly includes a tube formed with a flat on its inboard end. An outboard end of the tube is supported on a spider which in turn is mounted on an axle of a heavy duty vehicle. A bushing is mounted in each of the tube ends, and a shaft is rotatably mounted in and passes completely through the bushings and sealed and lubricated tube. An S-cam is integrally formed on an exposed outboard end of the shaft and the exposed inboard end of the shaft is formed with splines for meshingly engaging a slack adjuster of the vehicle brake system. A support plate formed with a generally D-shaped keyhole is mounted on the suspension beam, and is slip-fittingly engaged by the correspondingly shaped and sized inboard end of the tube. The weld-free keyhole connection of the tube and plate enables the plate to react rotation of the tube without the possibility of fatigue or failure of a weld. The tube-to-plate slip-fit connection further enables installation of the cam assembly on different types of axle/suspension systems, where the distance between the spider and suspension beam tube support points vary, as well as on same-type suspension assemblies without concern for differing distances between the tube support points caused by natural variations in manufacturing processes. The assembly also limits load-induced wear and contamination-induced wear to the shaft and the bushing of the assembly.