Torsional Vibration Damper Having a Bearing Device and Method for Producing the Bearing Device

Abstract

A viscous torsional vibration damper has an annular damper housing, which bounds a damper chamber; an inertia ring arranged in the damper chamber; a bearing device, which supports the inertia ring in the damper housing and which has one or more bearing elements, wherein at least one of the bearing elements is designed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed in a mounted state; a shear gap between the inertia ring and the damper housing, which shear gap is filled with a viscous fluid. The at least one bearing element designed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed is cut to length from a strip. In order to produce the bearing element, a strip is provided, on which one or more axial bearing sections and one or more radial bearing sections and preferably one or more webs are formed. Then, the bearing element is cut to length from the provided strip and the bearing element that has been cut to length is inserted into an open damper housing and laid on a bearing seat.

Claims

1.-20. (canceled)

21. A viscous torsional vibration damper comprising: a) an annular damper housing, bounding a damper chamber; b) an inertia ring arranged in the damper chamber; c) a bearing device mounting the inertia ring in the damper housing, which comprises at least one or more bearing elements, wherein at least one of the bearing elements is formed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed in an assembled state; d) a shear gap filled with a viscous fluid between the inertia ring and the damper housing, wherein e) one or more axial bearing sections and one or more radial bearing sections are provided circumferentially distributed on the at least one bearing element formed as ring that is not circumferentially closed, and f) the at least one bearing element formed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed is cut to length from a strip.

22. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the at least one bearing element formed as a ring is cut to length from a straight strip.

23. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the at least one bearing element formed as a ring is cut to length from a bent strip.

24. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 23, wherein the at least one bearing element formed as a ring further comprises radial webs, which in each case connect two of the axial bearing sections and/or two of the radial bearing sections with one another.

25. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 23, wherein in each case circumferentially distributed the radial bearing sections and the axial bearing sections complement one another to form bearing sections that are L-shaped in the cross section.

26. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 24, wherein a strip thickness of the bearing element in the region of the webs is smaller than a strip thickness in the axial bearing sections and/or in the radial bearing sections.

27. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein two of the bearing elements are arranged in the damper chamber.

28. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the damper chamber has a substantially rectangular cross section with inner and outer corner regions.

29. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 28, wherein two of the bearing elements are arranged in the outer corner regions, serving as bearing seat, of the damper chamber between the damper housing and the inertia ring.

30. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 28, wherein two of the bearing elements are arranged in the inner corner regions, serving as bearing seat, of the damper chamber between the damper housing and the inertia ring.

31. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 28, wherein one of the bearing elements is arranged in an outer corner region serving as bearing seat and one of the bearing elements is arranged in an inner corner region, serving as bearing seat, of the damper chamber between the damper housing and the inertia ring.

32. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 31, wherein the bearing elements are arranged in corner regions which are located diagonally opposite one another in the damper chamber and serve as bearing seat.

33. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the bearing elements are arranged between the damper housing and the inertia ring without preload.

34. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein one of the bearing elements only comprises only radial bearing sections and only radial webs connecting these.

35. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the bearing elements are made of plastic.

36. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein the bearing elements are formed in one piece.

37. The viscous torsional vibration damper as claimed in claim 21, wherein at least three of the axial bearing sections and/or of the radial bearing sections are provided circumferentially distributed on one or more of the bearing elements.

38. A method for producing a bearing element for a bearing device of a viscous torsional vibration damper, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a strip comprising one or more axial bearing sections, one or more radial bearing sections, and one or more webs connecting the axial bearing sections and/or radial bearing sections with one another; (b) cutting the bearing element to length from the provided strip; and (c) laying the bearing element cut to length from step (b) into a provided open damper housing on a bearing seat.

39. The method as claimed in claim 38, wherein the bearing element cut to length is bent during step (c) into a shape of a ring that is not circumferentially closed.

40. The method as claimed in claim 39, wherein the bearing element cut to length, during step (b) is bent into the shape of the ring that is not circumferentially closed with a diameter corresponding to a diameter of the bearing seat.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] In the following, the invention is described in more detail by way of exemplary embodiments making reference to the drawings, in which:

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a sectional view through a ring half of a first annular viscous torsional vibration damper;

[0032] FIG. 2 shows in a) a perspective view of a bearing element formed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed and in b) a detail view of the bearing element from FIG. 2a;

[0033] FIG. 3 shows a sectional view through a ring half of a second annular viscous torsional vibration damper;

[0034] FIG. 4 shows in a) a perspective view of a further bearing element formed as a ring that is not circumferentially closed and in b) a detail view of the bearing element from FIG. 4a;

[0035] FIG. 5 shows a sectional view through a ring half of a third annular viscuc torsional vibration damper; and

[0036] FIG. 6 shows a flow diagram which illustrates the sequence of a production method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] FIG. 1 shows a viscous torsional vibration damper with an annular damper housing 1, which bounds a damper chamber 2 and which comprises a cover 1 closing the same.

[0038] The damper housing 1 can be rotatably connected to a machine shaft Min particular an engine crankshaftwhich is not shown here, the torsional vibrations of which are to be dampened.

[0039] A circumferentially closed inertia ring 3 is inserted into the damper chamber 2. Here, this inertia ring 3 in a preferredbut not mandatoryconfiguration has a substantially rectangular cross section. The inertia ring 3 is mounted in the damper housing 1 by a bearing device. The same is preferentially looselyi.e. without preloadarranged between the inertia ring 3 and the inner wall of the damper housing 1. Between the inner wall of the damper housing 1 and the inertia ring 3 a shear gap 4 is formed in the damper chamber 2, which is filled with a viscous damping medium, in particular a viscous fluid.

[0040] The bearing device comprises bearing elements 5, 6 which are formed at a point on the circumference as rings that are not circumferentially closed. The bearing elements 5, 6 serve for rotatably mounting the inertia ring 3 in the damper housing 1 relative to the damper housing 1. These bearing elements 5, 6 preferentially consist of plastic and in each case form sliding bearings between the bearing housing 1 and the inertia ring 3. The bearing elements 5, 6 are preferentially formed in one piece which makes the handling particularly easy, or in further embodiments are formed in two or more pieces.

[0041] FIG. 2a shows the bearing element 5. The assembled state is illustrated, although the damper housing 1 is not shown here. The other bearing element 6 in this case is designed so as to be identical to the bearing element 5 so that the following description also applies to the bearing element 6. The identical design of the bearing elements 5, 6 has the advantage that only one type of the bearing elements 5 has to be provided for the production. However, it is also conceivable to configure the two bearing elements 5, 6 differently so that, when the inertia ring 3 in the cross section is not configured so as to be rectangular but rather for example is stepped, so that a mounting in the axial direction has to be realized on different diameters (not shown here).

[0042] Except for a point on its circumference, the bearing element 5 is formed so as to be annular and, distributed over the circumference, includes at least two or more axial bearing sections 8 and/or at least two or more radial bearing sections 7. According to FIG. 1, the axial bearing sections 8 and the radial bearing sections 7 are arranged so as to be distributed over the circumference preferably in corresponding angular positions so thatviewed in the cross section of FIG. 1L-shaped bearing sections distributed over the circumference are formed, the legs of which in each case form one of the axial bearing sections 8 and one of the radial bearing sections 7.

[0043] In the shear gap 4, shear gap axial regions 4c, 4d and shear gap radial regions 4a, 4b are formed between the damper housing 1 and the inertia ring 3. With all configurations, the axial bearing sections 8 are located in the shear gap axial regions 4c or 4d and the radial bearing sections 7 in the shear gap radial regions 4a or 4b. Radial in torsional vibration damper technology and in this application in the figures and the description describes the direction of an engine shaft with constant radius (not shown) (which corresponds to the direction of the lower dash-dotted line in FIG. 1), axial describes the direction perpendicular thereto with variable radius.

[0044] The L-shaped bearing sections 5, each with one of the radial bearing sections 7 and one of the axial bearing sections 8, do not extend over the entire circumference of the ring-shaped bearing element 5. These are rather provided only in sections. Added up, these preferentially extend in the circumferential direction over less than 50%, preferentially over less than 40%, and in particular less than 30% of the entire circumference of the bearing element 5.

[0045] Adjacent radial bearing sections 7 are connected to one another via radial webs 9 in the circumferential direction.

[0046] According to FIG. 2a, the bearing element 5 is not formed/produced so as to be circumferentially closed, but rather so as to be open at a point on its circumference. At this point, a gap 11 is formed in the assembled state. In the assembled state, this gap can be very small and tend to zero. When the strip is very thin, even an overlapping of the ends (not shown) is theoretically possible. The design as a ring which is not circumferentially closed makes it possible to offset tolerances in an easy manner. The bearing element 5 has not been directly produced as a ring that is not circumferentially closed, as proposed by EP 0 423 243 B 1. This is because this would also require providing separate production tools for the bearing elements for different radii.

[0047] The preferred manner of the production of the bearing element 5 according to the invention avoids this. Preferentially, see also FIG. 6 in this regardthe following steps are carried out:

[0048] Step A):

[0049] In Step A) a strip is provided on which at least one or both of the following features are present: [0050] one of the axial bearing sections 8 or a plurality of axial bearing sections 8 and/or [0051] a radial bearing section 7 or a plurality of radial bearing sections 7.

[0052] In addition, one or a plurality of [0053] axial webs; and/or [0054] radial webs 9 are preferentially formed on the strip, which if applicable connect the multiple axial bearing sections 8 and/or radial bearing sections 7 to one another.

[0055] The strip provided in Step A) can be straight or slightly bent. In the latter case, the strip can be wound onto a reel like a type of continuous strip, which further simplifies handling. The radius of the bend of the provided strip in this case is larger than that of the bearing seat.

[0056] Step B):

[0057] In Step B) the bearing element 5 is cut to length from the provided strip according to the respective circumference of a bearing seat in a damper housing 1. According to FIG. 1, corner regions 12, 13 of the damper housing 1 each form one of the bearing seats.

[0058] Step C):

[0059] The at least one bearing element 5 cut to length in Step b) is inserted into the bearing seat of the damper housing 1 that is not yet closed by the cover 1. Here it is advantageous to assemble the bearing element or elements 5, 6 before the inertia ring 3.

[0060] Following this, the damper housing 1 provided for completing the production of the torsional vibration damper is closed with the cover 1, wherein a filler opening for the viscous medium still remains (not shown). After this, the viscous medium is filled in and the filler opening of the damper housing 1 closed.

[0061] In particular when a bearing element 5, 6 located, based on the inertia ring 3, axially outside is to be realized, the strip cut to length hugs the outer damper housing 1 towards the outside when being inserted into the damper housing 1 because of its bending stiffness so that the inertia ring 3 in a Step D) can be easily placed in the damper housing 1.

[0062] It is conceivable to cut multiple of the bearing elements 5, 6 of the viscous torsional vibration damper to length from a single strip. However, strips of a different type can also be provided when the bearing elements 5, 6 cannot all be cut to length from the same strip.

[0063] With the strip material or strip, bearing elements for bearing seats (preferentially the corner regions of the damper housing 12, 13 and/or of the inertia ring 3) of different diameter can be realized. This saves tool and storage costs. The production logistics are also simplified. In addition, the prototype construction time is shortened and assembly errors avoided.

[0064] Since the bearing sections 8, 9 no longer extend over almost the entire circumference of the bearing element or bearing ring, but rather are only provided so as to be angularly distributed in sections, regions are created which can be additionally filled by the viscous medium so that additional regions compared with the generic prior art can be formed in which a viscous coupling between the inertia ring 3 and the damper housing 1 is possible. This makes it possible to maximize the shear gap and to optimize the coupling between the inertia ring 3 and the damper housing 1. In order to design the regions, which are to be additionally filled by the viscous medium, to be large in size, the added circumferential length of the axial bearing sections 8 and/or of the radial bearing sections 7 should preferentially amount to less than the mentioned 50% of the circumference, preferentially less than 40%, and in particular less than 30% of the bearing element and/or of the inertia ring 3.

[0065] Preferentially, the strip thickness X1 and/or Y1 of the axial bearing sections 8 and/or the radial bearing sections 7 is greater than the strip thickness X2 and/or Y2 in the region of the axial and radial webs 9 connecting the bearing sections. In addition, the axial width of the axial bearing sections 8 and/or the radial width of the radial bearing sections 7 is preferentially greater than in the bearing sections per se. This also brings with it the advantage of additional space for viscous fluid for coupling between the inertia ring 3 and the damper housing 1 in each case.

[0066] The bearing elements 5, 6 can be placed in the damper chamber 2 in the outer corner regions 12, 13 between the inertia ring 3 and the damper housing 1. For this purpose, the inertia ring 3 preferentially comprises radially and axially extending recesses 14, 15 in the region of the corresponding corner regions 12, 13, which recesses preferentially extend in each case radially or diagonally opposite, the depth of which is smaller than that of the strip thickness of the bearing elements 5, 6, which is advantageous in order to configure the shear gap 4 to be narrow and in order to keep the space taken up by the bearing elements 5, 6 small and to create a suitably dimensioned space for the viscous fluid in the shear gap 4. The corner regions 12, 13, here the recesses 14, 15, form one of the bearing seats each in this case.

[0067] FIG. 3 shows an alternative version of a torsional vibration damper in the case of which the bearing elements 5, 6 are formed in such a manner that they can be inserted into radially inner corner regions 16, 17 of the damper chamber 2 between two the inertia ring 3 and the damper housing 1. These bearing elements 5 and 6 as well as the torsional vibration damper are also produced according to the method described above. Here, the corner regions 16, 17 each form one of the bearing seats for the bearing elements 5, 6.

[0068] A bearing element 6 that is suitable for the construction of FIG. 3 is shown by FIG. 4. Illustrated is the assembled state although the damper housing 1 is not shown here. In this state, the bearing element of FIG. 4 is already inserted into a viscous torsional vibration damper as shown in FIG. 3. Otherwise, the construction of the viscous torsional vibration damper of FIG. 3 corresponds to that of FIG. 1.

[0069] FIG. 5 shows a further version with which the one bearing element 5 is formed in the manner of FIG. 2 and is inserted into an outer corner region 11 of the damper chamber 2, whereas the other bearing element 6 is designed in the manner of FIG. 4, and is inserted in an inner corner region 17 of the damper chamber 2. Here, the bearing elements 5, 6 are located diagonally opposite one another, i.e. they are inserted into corner regions 12, 17 of the damper chamber 2 located diagonally opposite one another. The corner regions 11 and 17 and/or corresponding corner regions of the inertia ring 3 in this case each form the bearing seats for the bearing elements 5, 6.

[0070] It is advantageous in each case to connect the axial bearing sections 8 and the radial bearing sections 7 of the bearing elements 5, 6 to one another not by axial webs and radial webs 9 but to provide radial webs 9 only. In this manner, the bearing element cut to length from the provided strip can be particularly favorably bent into a ring shape with the required diameter. For this reason it is provided in each case according to FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 that only the radial bearing sections 7 are connected to one another by radial webs 9.

[0071] Finally it is also conceivable to provide the axial bearing sections 8 and the radial bearing sections 7 not at the same points on the circumference but rather so as to be circumferentially offset relative to one another (not shown). In this case, for example, axial bearing sections 8 would be formed on the bearing element 5 of FIG. 2 at distances of 40 and radial bearing sections 7 angularly offset by 20 thereto, in each case. The axial and radial bearing sections 7, 8 in this case again have a greater strip thickness than the radial webs 9 connecting them.

[0072] According to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the damper housing 1 comprises in each case at least one section for assembly to the machine shaft (not shown). Here, this section is a flange 18 in each case which extends radially to the inside.

[0073] LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS [0074] 1 Damper housing [0075] 1 Cover [0076] 2 Damper chamber [0077] 3 Inertia ring [0078] 4 Shear gap [0079] 4a, b Shear gap radial regions [0080] 4c, 4d Shear gap axial regions [0081] 5, 5 Bearing element [0082] 6, 6 Bearing element [0083] 7 Radial bearing section [0084] 8 Axial bearing section [0085] 9 Radial web [0086] 11 Gap [0087] 12 Corner region [0088] 13 Corner region [0089] 14 Recess [0090] 15 Recess [0091] 16 Corner region [0092] 17 Corner region [0093] 18 Flange [0094] X1, Y1 Strip thickness [0095] X2, Y2 Strip thickness