Articulated adjustable foot comprising support base

Abstract

An articulated adjustable foot, including a support base, designed at least partially in an elastomeric manner, including a mounting surface to rest on a support surface, and a ball receptacle, which is open on one side, for a ball that is attached to the end of a shaft. The ball receptacle is delimited beneath the ball by a reinforcement disk, which is embedded into the elastomer and has a central hole, in which the underside of the ball is supported.

Claims

1. An articulated adjustable foot, comprising a support base, designed at least partially in an elastomeric manner, including a mounting surface to rest on a support surface, and a ball receptacle, which is open on one side, for a ball that is attached to the end of a shaft, wherein the ball receptacle is delimited beneath the ball by a reinforcement disk, which is embedded into the elastomer and has a central hole, in which the underside of the ball is supported.

2. The adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the ball is pivotably mounted in the hole.

3. The adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the circumferential region of the hole in the reinforcement disk rests against the ball diameter engaging thereon in a form-locked manner.

4. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcement disk is made of metal.

5. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcement disk is joined to the elastomer by vulcanization.

6. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the ball is joined to a neck, which protrudes from the shaft and is tapered, in terms of the diameter, compared to the ball diameter, in a manner that uses the same material.

7. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein a detent opening is formed on the side of the support base located opposite the mounting surface by a circumferential chamfer, which transitions in a funnel-shaped manner into a collar, the inside width of which is smaller than the ball diameter.

8. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the ball and the ball receptacle in the adjustable foot form an elastomeric plug detent connection.

9. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the collar forms a circumferential expansion area for expanding the detent opening to a diameter extending around the equator of the ball.

10. An adjustable foot according to claim 1, wherein the elastomer forms an elastomeric bottom region between the reinforcement disk and the mounting surface.

Description

[0055] In the drawings:

[0056] FIG. 1 shows a front view of the partially cut adjustable foot;

[0057] FIG. 2 shows a front view of the partially cut support base;

[0058] FIG. 3 shows a front view of a shaft and a support base;

[0059] FIG. 4 shows a top view of the adjustable foot;

[0060] FIG. 5 shows a front view of the partially cut adjustable foot;

[0061] FIG. 6 shows a front view of the partially cut adjustable foot including a deflected shaft; and

[0062] FIGS. 7a to 7b show various perspective views of adjustable feet including differently shaped support bases.

[0063] FIG. 1 shows an adjustable foot 1, which comprises a shaft 2 including a thread 3, configured as an external thread. A chamfer 4 adjoins beneath the thread 3, which reduces the diameter of the shaft and transitions into a neck 5, which forms the region having the smallest diameter of the shaft 2. A ball 6, which forms a workpiece-integral part of the shaft 2, adjoins this neck in the longitudinal direction.

[0064] The ball 6, the neck 5 and at least a portion of the chamfer 4 are inserted in the support base 10, which is arranged beneath the thread 3.

[0065] A detent opening is formed on the side of the support base located opposite the mounting surface 11 by the circumferential chamfer 14, which transitions in a funnel-shaped manner into a collar 15, the inside width (W) of which is smaller than the ball diameter (D).

[0066] The ball 6 is held in the ball receptacle 16 of the support base 10, which is formed by a central clearance of the elastomer 20, in a form-locked manner.

[0067] Above the ball receptacle 16, the elastomer 20 includes the collar 15, which annularly rests against the neck 5.

[0068] Above the collar 15, the opening formed by the collar 15 expands radially as a result of the circumferential chamfer 14, which at least partially rests against the chamfer 4 of the shaft.

[0069] The ball receptacle 16 is delimited in the direction of the mounting surface 11 of the support base 10 by the reinforcement disk 19, which is embedded in the elastomer 20. The reinforcement disk 19 has a central hole 17 in which the ball underside 7 is rotatably mounted. The hole 17 includes a wall 18, which forms the inner circumference and has a shape that is complementary to the circumferential surface of the ball 6. This facilitates the rotation of the ball 6 within the hole 17, with the contact between the ball 6 and the wall 18 being maintained at a constant level.

[0070] Such a rotation is achieved by a pivoting of the shaft 2, the center axis 9 of which, proceeding from the swivel joint formed by the ball 6 and the hole 17, is pivoted at a variable angle relative to the support base 10. This, however, is limited by the hardness of the elastomer 20, which, depending on the increase in the deflection of the center axis 9 of the shaft 2, counteracts increasing resistance. When the force acting on the shaft decreases, the shaft due to the elasticity of the elastomer returns to the starting state thereof, which in the illustrated state is a position oriented perpendicularly to the mounting surface 11.

[0071] FIG. 2 shows a support base 10 without a ball inserted therein, wherein the inside geometry of the receiving space 16 can be seen. This space approximately corresponds to the rounding of the ball 6 and is downwardly delimited by the reinforcement disk 19.

[0072] The chamfer 14 initially tapers in the axial direction and transitions into the collar 15, which has a cylindrical design. The ball receptacle 16, in which the cavity beneath the collar initially increases radially with a first bearing surface 22, encompassing approximately ⅓ of the ball receptacle, starts beneath the collar 15. The bearing surface 22 meets with a second bearing surface 23, which has a cylindrical design and extends over approximately ⅔ of the ball receptacle 16, before ending on the reinforcement disk 19. In this way, very good insertion and removal of the ball 6 can be achieved in a production operation of the elastomer that is as cost-effective as possible, at comparatively low mold costs.

[0073] The reinforcement disk has the central hole 17, including the circular wall 18 tapering in the direction of the mounting surface 11.

[0074] The clearance 21, which is present for manufacturing-related reasons, is located beneath the hole 7. This clearance 21 can be hidden by a rubber pad extending across the entire mounting surface 11.

[0075] The clearance 21 is situated within the bottom region 8, which is situated beneath the reinforcement disk 19. The bottom region 8 is a subregion of the elastomer 20, which is at least partially separated from the main elastomer 20 by the reinforcement disk 19. This bottom region thus forms an elastomeric support for the reinforcement disk 19 to prevent the reinforcement disk from coming in direct contact with the surface on which the support base rests. This bottom region 8 counteracts the forces introduced into the support base 10 by means of the shaft 2 in a damping and resilient manner.

[0076] FIG. 3 shows an adjustable foot 1 comprising the shaft 2. The shaft has a chamfer 4 in the region of the support base 10, which reduces the diameter of the shaft and transitions into a neck 5, which forms the area having the smallest diameter of the shaft 2. The ball 6, which forms a workpiece-integral part of the shaft 2, adjoins this neck in the longitudinal direction.

[0077] The ball 6, the neck 5 and at least a portion of the chamfer 4 are inserted in the direction of the arrow 24 into the support base 10, which is seated with the mounting surface 11 on a surface (not shown).

[0078] FIG. 4 shows a top view onto a shaft 2 that is inserted centrally with respect to the support base 10 and comprises, for example, an internal polyhedral or internal round holder 25 for a tool. In this way, the shaft can be rotated about the center axis 9 thereof by way of a tool engagement, which can also take place on an arbitrary other geometry.

[0079] FIG. 5 shows a shaft 2 inserted into a support base 10. A detent opening is formed on the side of the support base 10 located opposite the mounting surface 11, by the circumferential chamfer 14, which transitions in a funnel-shaped manner into a collar 15, the inside width (W) of which is smaller than the ball diameter (D).

[0080] The ball 6 is held in the ball receptacle 16 of the support base 10, which is formed by a central clearance of the elastomer 20, in a form-locked manner.

[0081] The collar 15, which is situated above the ball receptacle 16, rests annularly around the neck 5 after the ball 6 has been inserted.

[0082] Above the collar 15, the opening formed by the collar 15 expands radially as a result of the circumferential chamfer 14, which at least partially rests against the chamfer 4 of the shaft.

[0083] The ball receptacle 16 is delimited in the direction of the mounting surface 11 of the support base 10 by the reinforcement disk 19, which is embedded in the elastomer 20. The reinforcement disk 19 has a central hole 17 in which the ball underside 7 is rotatably mounted. The hole 17 includes a wall 18, which forms the inner circumference and has a shape that is complementary to the circumferential surface of the ball 6. This facilitates the rotation of the ball 6 within the hole 17, with the contact between the ball 6 and the wall 18 being maintained at a constant level.

[0084] Such a rotation is achieved by a pivoting of the shaft 2, the center axis 9 of which, proceeding from the swivel joint formed by the ball 6 and the hole 17, is pivoted at a variable angle relative to the support base 10. This is shown in FIG. 6, wherein the original center axis 9, as a result of the deflection 26, transitions into the center axis 9′, which is no longer congruent with the axis of symmetry of the support base 10.

[0085] This, however, is limited by the hardness of the elastomer 20, which, depending on the increase in the deflection of the center axis 9 of the shaft 2, counteracts increasing resistance. When the force acting on the shaft decreases, the shaft due to the elasticity of the elastomer returns to the starting state thereof, which in the illustrated state according to FIG. 4 is a position oriented perpendicularly to the mounting surface 11.

[0086] FIGS. 7a to 7c, by way of example, show various shapes of support bases, wherein FIG. 7a shows a round support base 10, FIG. 7b shows an angular support base 10a, and FIG. 7c shows an approximately oval support base 10b.

TABLE-US-00001 Drawing legend 1 adjustable foot 2 shaft 3 thread 4 chamfer 5 neck 6 ball 7 ball underside 8 bottom region 9, 9′ center axis 10, 10a, 10b support base 11 mounting surface 12 rubber pad 13 casing 14 chamfer 15 collar 16 ball receptacle 17 hole 18 wall 19 reinforcement disk 20 elastomer 21 clearance 22 first bearing surface 23 second bearing surface 24 direction of arrow 25 internal polyhedral holder 26 deflection D diameter of the ball W inside width of the collar