Disc Brake And Components Thereof

Abstract

A disc brake and components thereof, in which a caliper or a carrier supporting such caliper and a connecting element being arranged on a wheel axle are in attachment with each other by inclined abutment surfaces.

Claims

1. A disc brake comprising a caliper overlapping at least one brake disc and a connecting element being arranged on a wheel axle, the caliper being fixed to the connecting element by means of mounting bolts thereby abutment surfaces of said connecting element and abutment surfaces of said caliper are at least partly congruently attaching each other, wherein at least one abutment surface of said connecting element and at least one abutment surface of said caliper, which abutment surfaces are attaching each other, are defining an inclined plane, which intersects both a plane as defined by the brake disc in the idle mode and the axis of the brake disc.

2. A disc brake comprising a caliper overlapping at least one brake disc, a carrier supporting the caliper, and a connecting element being arranged on a wheel axle, the carrier being fixed to the connecting element by means of mounting bolts thereby abutment surfaces of said connecting element and abutment surfaces of said carrier are at least partly congruently attaching each other, wherein at least one abutment surface of said connecting element and at least one abutment surface of said carrier, which abutment surfaces are attaching each other, are defining an inclined plane, which intersects both a plane as defined by the brake disc in the idle mode and the axis of the brake disc.

3. The disc brake of claim 1, wherein the abutment surfaces are inclined against the orientation of the vector of a torque resulting between the leading side and the trailing side of the brake disc during braking.

4. The disc brake of claim 1, wherein the inclined plane intersects both a plane, which extends in parallel and longitudinally to said axis of said brake disc and which is perpendicular to said plane being defined by the brake disc, and said plane of the brake disc, so that lines formed at the intersections of the planes are parallel to each other, respectively.

5. The disc brake of one of claim 1, wherein the connecting element comprises support sections on both sides of the wheel axle, which support sections are being traversed by said mounting bolts, in which at least one support section on one side of the wheel axle comprises an inclined abutment surface.

6. The disc brake of claim 5, wherein the support section on one side of the wheel axle comprises a different height than the support section on the opposite side of the wheel axle.

7. The disc brake of claim 5, wherein the support sections comprise said inclined abutment surfaces to both sides of the mounting bolts in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the brake disc, which abutment surfaces are inclined in opposite directions.

8. The disc brake of claim 5, wherein at least one support section comprises a geometrically shaped element which matches with a correspondingly geometrically shaped element of the caliper or carrier.

9. The disc brake of one of claim 1, wherein an angle of inclination of the inclined plane of the abutment surfaces is in a range of 20 to 40 degrees, in relation to said axis of the brake disc.

10. A caliper of a disc brake for receiving a brake disc, the caliper comprising mounting sections to both sides of the axis of the brake disc, which mounting sections are adapted to attach to support sections of a connecting element of a wheel axle, wherein at least one mounting section comprises an abutment surface, which defines an inclined plane, which intersects both a plane as defined by the brake disc in the idle mode and said axis of the brake disc.

11. The caliper of claim 10, wherein the mounting section comprises at least one geometrically shaped element which is adapted to match with a correspondingly geometrically shaped element of a support section of said connecting element.

12. A carrier for supporting a caliper of a disc brake for receiving a brake disc, the carrier comprising mounting sections to both sides of the axis of the brake disc, which mounting sections are adapted to attach to support sections of a connecting element of a wheel axle, wherein at least one mounting section comprises an abutment surface, which defines an inclined plane, which intersects both a plane as defined by the brake disc in the idle mode and said axis of the brake disc.

13. The carrier of claim 12, wherein the mounting section comprises at least one geometrically shaped element which is adapted to match with a correspondingly geometrically shaped element of a support section of said connecting element.

14. A connecting element of a wheel axle for mounting a carrier or caliper of a disc brake to the wheel axle, the wheel axle comprising at least one brake disc and the connecting element comprising support sections at both sides of the axis of the brake disc, which support sections are adapted to attach to mounting sections of the carrier or the caliper, wherein at least one support section comprises an abutment surface, which defines an inclined plane, which intersects both a plane as defined by the brake disc in the idle mode and the axis of the brake disc.

15. The connecting element of claim 14, wherein the support section on one side of the wheel axle comprises a different height than the support section on the other side of it.

16. The connecting element of claim 14, wherein at least one support section comprises a geometrically shaped element which is adapted to match with a correspondingly geometrically shaped element of said caliper or said carrier.

17. The connecting element of claim 14, in which the connecting element is integral with the wheel axle.

18. The disc brake of claim 9, wherein an angle of inclination of the inclined plane of the abutment surfaces is in a range of 25 to 35 degrees in relation to said axis of the brake disc.

19. The disc brake of claim 9, wherein an angle of inclination of the inclined plane of the abutment surfaces is 30 degrees in relation to said axis of the brake disc.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disc brake being mounted on a wheel axle according to the prior art;

[0026] FIG. 2 is an explosive view of a carrier and a connecting element of such a disc brake according to the prior art;

[0027] FIG. 3 is an explosive view of a first embodiment according to the invention showing a connecting plate on a wheel axle and a carrier;

[0028] FIG. 4 is an explosive view of a second embodiment according to the invention showing a connecting plate on a wheel axle and a carrier;

[0029] FIGS. 5a and 5b are cross-sections through a support section and mounting section of a connected carrier and torque plate;

[0030] FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of a third embodiment according to the invention showing a geometrically shaped element at the support section of the connecting element;

[0031] FIG. 7a schematically shows the orientation of the inclination of the abutment surfaces in relation to the torque resulting during braking; and

[0032] FIG. 7b schematically shows the position of intersecting lines between the different planes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0033] FIG. 3 shows a first embodiment of the invention in an explosive view. For ease of understanding the caliper with the brake actuation mechanism and the brake disc are not shown in the drawings, but their respective positions will become apparent from FIG. 1.

[0034] A carrier 13 for supporting a caliper overlapping a brake disc is to be mounted on a connecting element or torque plate 14 via four mounting bolts 15. The connecting element 14 is fixedly connected to a wheel axle 16.

[0035] The connecting element 14 comprises to both sides of the wheel axle 16 one support section 17, respectively. Accordingly, the carrier 13 comprises mounting sections 18 being arranged at corresponding lateral locations of it and extending towards the support sections 17 of the connecting element 14.

[0036] As can be seen in FIG. 5a, the support sections 17 comprise through holes 19 which receive the mounting bolts 15, whereas the mounting sections 18 of the carrier 13 comprise threaded openings or blind holes 20, into which the mounting bolts 15 will be fixedly inserted.

[0037] According to the invention, the support sections 17 comprise plane P abutment intersects both a plane Pose as defined by the brake disc and the axis W of the brake disc. The axis W of the brake disc actually corresponds to the axis of the wheel axle 16. The idle mode refers to the condition of the disc brake in which there is no engagement between the brake pads and the brake disc, thus the latter will be exactly orientated perpendicular to the axis W of the brake disc.

[0038] By that, as can be seen best in FIG. 7b, the inclination of the abutment surfaces 21 is thereby also directed towards a plane P.sub.axis, which plane P.sub.axis is defined in parallel to the longitudinal direction of axis W of the brake disc or of the wheel axle 16. Such inclination towards said plane P.sub.axis is defined by an angle α.

[0039] In accordance thereto, the mounting sections 18 of the carrier 13 comprise inclined abutment surfaces 22, which are congruently inclined with respect to the inclination of the abutment surfaces 21 of the torque plate 14 by the same angle α, but orientated to the opposite.

[0040] As can be particularly seen in FIGS. 5a and b, the inclined surfaces 21 and 22 of both the support section 17 and of the mounting section 18 are provided at both sides of a symmetry line being defined by the mounting bolts 15, in which the inclination of the abutment surfaces 21 and 22 is directed towards each other so as to form some kind of wedge-like connection between the carrier 13 and the connecting element 14. The inclination to both sides of such symmetry line could be identical with an equal angle α or it could differ between both sides by corresponding differing angles.

[0041] The orientation of the inclination of the inclined abutment surfaces 21 and 22 according to the invention is explained further down below in detail with respect to FIG. 7a and FIG. 7b.

[0042] A further embodiment is shown in FIG. 4. According to this embodiment, only one support section 17 on one side of the wheel axle 16 comprises an inclined abutment surface 21, whereas the other support section 17 opposite of the wheel axle 16 comprises a flat abutment surface 23, which cooperates with a flat abutment surface 24 of the carrier 13.

[0043] It can be also seen from FIG. 4 that the support section 17 comprising the inclined abutment surface 21 is offset with respect to the height in relation to the support section 17 comprising the flat abutment surface 23.

[0044] The outer mounting bolt 15 in the support section 17 comprising the flat surfaces 23 comprises a radial guiding surface 25, which cooperates with a corresponding radial ring (not shown) in an opening of the corresponding mounting section 18 of the carrier 13. The guiding ring 25 serves to accurately guide the carrier 13 on the torque plate 14 laterally, i.e. traverse to the wheel axle 16.

[0045] FIG. 6 schematically shows a sectional view of one side of the connecting element 14. The support section 17 comprises a step 26 which is arranged halfway between the two bolts (indicated by the dotted lines of the through holes), which step 26 will match with a correspondingly shaped step (not shown) of the related mounting section 18 of the carrier 13, so that the correct carrier 13 fits to the correct connecting element 14 in an accurate way. The abutment surface 27 relating to the inner mounting bolt 15 is thus flat. Mistakes during assembly can be avoided thereby. However, all kind of geometrically shaped elements, which allow matching between two components, could be used for that purpose.

[0046] FIG. 7a schematically shows the position of the support sections 17 to both sides of the wheel axle 16, wherein the carrier 13 and the torque plate 14 are omitted for better understanding.

[0047] When the brake pad engages with the brake disc during braking, the carrier 13 tends to be pushed away from the brake disc at the disc-leading side, while at the disc-trailing side the carrier 13 is pushed towards the brake disc, so that a torque M is generated, which acts in a plane P.sub.torque, the plane P.sub.torque being both parallel to the axis W of the brake disc (or wheel axle 16) and perpendicular to the plane P.sub.disc as defined by the brake disc, when this plane P.sub.disc is seen in the idle mode. The orientation of the torque M is such defined by the vector force F in relation to the vector lever I.

[0048] According to the invention, both the abutment surface 21 of the connecting element 14 and of the abutment surface 22 of the carrier 13 shall be inclined against the orientation of the vector of the torque M, which appears between the disc-leading side and the disc-trailing side, as can exemplarily be seen in FIG. 7a. Or in other words, the abutment surfaces 21, 22 are inclined against the tangential orientation of the force F relating to the torque M during braking, which torque M acts in the plane P.sub.torque being perpendicular to the plane P.sub.disc of the brake disc.

[0049] As an alternative, FIG. 7b schematically shows the inclination of the abutment surfaces 21 and 22 to be of such kind that these surfaces 21 and 22 each define one plane P.sub.abutment, respectively, the planes P.sub.abutment being inclined towards a plane P.sub.axis being defined by the axis W of the brake disc (or of the wheel axle 16) by an angle α, which angle α actually defines the magnitude of the inclination of the abutment surface 21 and 22. The plane P.sub.disc as being defined by the brake disc is perpendicular to the plane P.sub.axis.

[0050] According to the invention the inclination of the abutment surfaces 21 and 22 by the angle α shall thus further be of such kind that the lines L, which are formed at intersections between the plane P.sub.abutment and the plane P.sub.disc on the one hand and between the plane P.sub.abutment and the plane P.sub.axis on the other are parallel to each other, respectively.