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:
Oct. 28, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 19, 2001
Siegfried Reck, Nienburg, DE;
Volker Plett, Langenhagen, DE;
Contitech Luftfedersystem GmbH, Hannover, DE;
Abstract
An air spring system for a motor vehicle includes essentially a flexible member ( ) having first and second ends. At a first end, the flexible member is closed off by the cover plate ( ) as a connecting part and, at its second end, by a roll-off piston ( ) as a second connecting part. To carry out a contactless distance measurement in accordance with the pulse/echo method in the interior space ( ) of the air spring ( ), an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver ( ) is mounted on one of the two connecting parts ( ) and a reflector ( ) is provided on the other one of the two connecting parts ( ). A separate reference reflector ( ) is not used in order to simplify the construction and to save mounting space for the components. Instead, the reflector is configured as a two-step reflector. The one step functions as a target reflector ( ) and the other step ( ) functions as a reference reflector. A bumper ( ) is preferably configured as a two-step target reflector ( ). The step, which is configured in the bumper ( ) is realized as a blind bore ( ).