The ball joint assembly includes a housing with an inner wall that surrounds an axially extending open bore. A ball portion of a ball stud is received in the open bore of the housing, and a shank portion of the ball stud projects out of the open bore. A pair of bearings are disposed in the inner bore of the housing and are interposed between the ball portion and the inner wall. Each bearing has a curved bearing surface which slidably contacts the ball portion for allowing the ball stud and the housing articulate relative before use. Each bearing also has an outer surface that slidably contacts the inner wall. A pair of biasing elements bias the bearings in opposite directions against the ball portion of the ball stud such that the ball stud is movable relative to the housing in the axial direction before use of the assembly.

A bearing bushing for a motor vehicle includes a sleeve, a bolt arranged inside the sleeve, and at least one elastomer element arranged radially between the sleeve and the bolt for supporting the bolt in the sleeve in a damping manner. The bolt has a ball element axially between two distal ends, wherein the ball element interacts with at least two movable ball socket elements in order to change the stiffness of the bearing bushing. This allows the bearing bushing can be switched between at least two stiffness levels.

An improved mechanical joint that remains together under combined vertical, angular and torsional loads, provides vibrational isolation to the stresses experienced and transmitted by any connected members, offers increased angular movement at the joint, and will allow torsional movement. It has its primary use in the automotive industry to connect the control arms to the steering knuckles of an automobile, although they have a plethora of other mechanical applications such as in the movable joints of dolls.

An apparatus comprising a drivelink comprising a housing including a socket, wherein the socket comprises a cross-sectional area, and a bearing cartridge disposed within the socket, wherein a cross-sectional area of the cartridge is less than the cross-sectional area of the socket. An apparatus comprising a drivelink comprising a housing having a socket, and a bearing cartridge positioned within the socket and comprising a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is configured to undergo compression when a load is applied to the drivelink, and wherein the second portion is configured to not be in tension when the load is applied to the drivelink.

A bar pin bushing assembly including a bar pin having at least one end with at least one bore to receive a fastener, the at least one bore extending through the at least one end, the bar pin having a central portion having a diameter that is greater than a width or diameter of the at least one end of the bar pin, a compressible rubber section positioned around the central portion of the bar pin, the compressible rubber section further extending around downwardly tapering surfaces adjacent the central portion of the bar pin, an outer metal shell mold bonded to the compressible rubber section, a first disc insert positioned over a first end of the outer metal shell, a second disc insert positioned over a second end of the outer metal shell, and a tubular outer metal wall positioned over the outer metal shell, the first disc insert, and the second disc insert.

A resilient pivot assembly including: a first housing member and a second housing member held together side-by side; and configured to present a central aperture sized to accept a shaft or shaft sleeve wherein the first housing member has a first groove/channel and the second housing member has a second groove/channel; a shaft with a third groove/channel that extends at least partly around the circumference of the shaft or the outer surface of a sleeve; where the first, second and third grooves/channels cooperate to form a generally annular shaped channel that houses at least one tubular shaped resilient member and supports the shaft so that it may readily partly or fully rotate about its axis.

A method and apparatus for reducing a force. An apparatus comprises a multi-directional joint assembly and a damper associated with the multi-directional joint assembly. The multi-directional joint assembly has a first end and a second end. The first end and the second end move relative to each other. The damper is comprised of a number of elastomeric layers and a number of rigid layers interspersed with each other reducing at least one of a force and a moment.

The current invention discloses a thrust lever ball head assembly comprising a thrust lever ball hinge and a thrust lever ball head. The thrust lever ball head comprises a main body of the thrust lever ball head and flange structures on both sides of the main body of the thrust lever ball head, wherein the flange structures and the main body of the thrust lever ball head are an integral part, and the flange structures on both sides of the main body of the thrust lever ball head work together with the thrust lever ball hinge to limit the thrust lever ball hinge inside the thrust lever ball head. The thrust lever ball head assembly of the present invention has a simple structure, high assembling efficiency, low manufacture costs, light weight, free of maintenance and completely fulfills the requirements of light weight.

A method of manufacturing a slotted entry bearing assembly includes inserting an inner race into a central space of an outer race. The outer race is configured to receive the inner race through at least one slot. Once the inner race is fully inserted into the outer race, it is rotated approximately ninety degrees within the center space, effectively locking the inner race within the outer race. After the inner race is rotated ninety degrees, a molded seal is molded between the inner race and the at least one slot. The molded seal adheres to the at least one slot and is made of a polymeric material. The molding process used to mold the molded seal may be compression molding.

The present invention relates to a system used in the offshore renewables or oil and gas industries for providing articulation at the end of a mooring line or a riser. The design uses a nested rubber segment (14) and orthogonal cylindrical bearings (12) to provide articulation with low resistance at both small and large oscillation angles. A relative rotational force applied between the axially loaded member (1) and the anchor assembly (4) causes the angle of the axially loaded member (1) to change to reduce such forces. The securement assembly comprises a bearing assembly (10) arranged to provide rotation about a pin (11). The bearing assembly (10) is arranged to provide two distinct stages for relative rotation. In the first stage, small relative rotations are accommodated by the flexion or deformation in the rubber layer (14). This deformation of the rubber layer (14) enables the axially loaded member (1) to rotate around the pin (11) and move relative to the anchor assembly (4). In the second stage, the further and subsequent movement of the axially loaded member (1) causes an articulating surface to physically slide over the bearing surface.