A ball joint has a ball stud, a housing and a ball seat (seat). The seat is an elastic body in a tubular shape with the top and the bottom being open, and has a spherical space to accommodate a ball portion. The housing has a spherical inner face that is close to an outer periphery of the ball portion, to accommodate the ball portion in the inner face via the seat so as to support the ball stud. A clamped portion arranged at a peripheral end of the housing is clamped to press the seat so that the ball stud can be swung and rotated.

A protective cap (1, 30) for covering some areas of a fully assembled ball joint (50). The protective cap (1, 30) can be screwed, by virtue of a multi-turn, all-round internal thread (11), onto a threaded section (53) of a ball stud (51) of the ball joint (50). Furthermore, a ball joint (50) with a ball stud (51) having a protective cap (1, 30) screwed onto a threaded section (53) of the ball stud (51). Also a two-point linkage (80) with at least one ball joint (81, 82) having a ball stud (51) with a protective cap. The linkage is in the form of a steering rod (80), a track rod, a stabilizer tie-rod, an operating link or a Panhard rod.

A ball joint for interconnecting relatively movable components includes a housing and a stud with a spherical bearing surface disposed in the housing. The bearing has a concave spherical bearing surface which is brought into sliding abutment with the spherical bearing surface of the stud. The bearing is of a monolithic piece of fiber-reinforced polyoxymethylene material and includes carbon fibers which extend circumferentially about the concave spherical bearing surface.

A ball joint for interconnecting relatively movable components includes a housing and a stud with a spherical bearing surface disposed in the housing. The bearing has a concave spherical bearing surface which is brought into sliding abutment with the spherical. bearing surface of the stud. The bearing is of a monolithic piece of fiber-reinforced polyoxyinethylene material and includes carbon fibers which extend circumferentially about the concave spherical bearing surface.

The socket assembly includes a housing with an inner bore and a stud with a first portion and a shank portion. The first portion is disposed in the inner bore of the housing, and the shank portion extends out of the inner bore. The socket assembly further includes a boot with a boot body that extends from a first boot end to a second boot end. The first boot end is received in the inner bore of the housing and is operatively sealed with the housing. The second boot end is operatively sealed with the ball stud. The boot further includes an insert that is in an overmolding engagement with the first boot end. The insert has a plurality of raised sections and a plurality of recessed sections and has a plurality of vertical sections that interconnect adjacent ones of the raised and recessed sections.

This ball join includes a ball stud with a spherical ball section and a shaft-shaped shaft section and a holder that rotatably bolds the ball section, and has a machining surface subjected to cutting in a welded portion obtained by welding the ball section and the shaft section, and the machining surface has a curve-shaped first corner section. In addition, a method for manufacturing this ball joint includes a welding step of welding the ball section and the shaft section and a cutting step of forming the machining surface by subjecting the welded portion obtained by welding the ball section and the shaft section to cutting, and the cutting step executes processing including forming the curve-shaped first corner section on the machining surface. Consequently, a ball joint with a large oscillation angle can be obtained.

A spheroidal joint for a tuned mass damper system includes a base having a concave seat and a lubricious liner secured thereto. The base defines a first mounting portion under the concave seat and a circumferential rim opposite the first mounting portion. The concave seat tapers radially outward to define a chamfer which terminates at a radially inner edge of the rim. The spheroidal joint includes an inner member that has a convex seat. The inner member has a second mounting portion extending from the convex seat and an indentation circumferentially extending around the inner member between the convex seat and the second mounting portion. The indentation cooperates with the chamfer for misalignment of the inner member relative to the base. The convex seat slidingly engages the lubricious liner.

A ball joint has a dust cover fitted onto the outer periphery of a socket formed into the shape of a cylinder with a bottom. The socket has a dust cover groove into which a socket-fitting portion of the dust cover is fitted, and a dust cover-recieving surface for supporting a socket-facing surface of the dust cover. The dust cover-recieving surface inclines toward the socket-facing surface while extending from the outer side toward the inner side. Radial projections are formed on the inner peripheral surface of the socket-fitting portion of the dust cover. An axial projection which projects toward the dust cover-recieving surface is formed on the socket-facing surface of the dust cover.

A dust cover in which an improvement in sealing performance is achieved. A dust cover 100 used in a ball joint includes a seal main body made of an elastic body and integrally having a body portion 110, a fixed portion 130 that is provided on one end side of the body portion 110, and a seal portion 120 that is provided on the other end side of the body portion 110, and an annular auxiliary seal 150 made of resin and provided in the seal portion 120. The seal portion 120 includes an inner peripheral seal portion and a dust lip 122, and the auxiliary seal 150 includes an auxiliary inner peripheral seal portion 151, an auxiliary dust seal portion, and a supported portion 153 that is supported by a collar fixed to a shaft portion on an opposite side to the auxiliary dust seal portion in an axial direction.

A suspension arm includes a ball stud including a spherical ball; a bearing in which the spherical ball is accommodated; a housing having an inner peripheral portion and an outer peripheral portion; an arm body coupled to the outer peripheral portion of the housing; and an insert molding part which is injected to a lower portion of the bearing and the outer peripheral portion of the housing to be coupled to the bearing, the housing, and the arm body. The housing includes a matching portion having a matching surface formed to protrude in a radially outward direction from an upper portion of the outer peripheral portion and to be brought into contact with a mold. By forming the matching portion, it is possible to reduce the volume of the housing and to reduce the weight of the suspension arm while providing the matching surface with the mold.