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:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Oct. 24, 2000
John W. Stuart, Romeoville, IL (US);
The Boler Company., Itasca, IL (US);
Abstract
A dual volume air spring for a truck suspension, which has an air bag chamber providing a variable volume and a fixed volume chamber. The chambers are interconnected by a closable orifice. The air bag is provided with a post-like orifice closer which is pushed into the orifice when the air bag is sufficiently compressed ad withdrawn from the orifice when the air bag is not compressed. In normal operation the orifice is open and the combined volumes of the chambers are available resulting in a low spring rate. The orifice closer has an orifice closing portion which is relatively pliant and a rigid or semi-rigid portion which acts as a bump-stop when the pliant portion is substantially completely compressed. When the orifice is completely closed the spring has a high spring rate.