JPH0386614A - Variable damping force suspension unit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a variable damping force suspension unit applied to a vehicle.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, a variable damping force type suspension unit is known, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 181908/1983.

This unit includes a shock absorber interposed between the vehicle body and the axle,
The shock absorber was configured to include a variable orifice provided in the piston rod, and an actuator attached to the upper end of the piston rod to operate the variable orifice.

Further, the drive of the actuator is controlled by a control means such as an on-vehicle microcomputer, and this control means detects the behavior of the vehicle based on the vertical acceleration obtained by an acceleration sensor installed in the vehicle body. Correspondingly, the shock absorber was controlled to obtain the optimum damping force.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a conventional variable damping force suspension unit, since the sensor and the actuator are separately attached, there are problems listed below.

■ Installation space for each sensor and actuator is required.

(2) A mounting member is required for each of the sensor and actuator, and mounting work is required for each, which increases costs and has poor mounting workability.

■ The input harness for sending information detected by the sensor to the control means and the drive harness for sending control signals from the control means to the actuator must be routed separately, which takes up a lot of space. Securing and arranging the cables takes time.

The present invention was made by focusing on such problems,
The installation space for sensors and actuators can be reduced, and the wiring space for harnesses can be reduced, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a variable damping force suspension unit that can improve the workability of installing sensors and actuators and the workability of wiring harnesses.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the variable damping force suspension unit of the present invention has a variable damping force suspension unit that is interposed between the vehicle body and the axle,
A shock absorber having a damping force changing means, an actuator attached to the shock absorber via a bracket and actuating the damping force changing means, and a means positioned and fixed to the bracket for controlling drive of the actuator. a sensor that detects physical factors related to vehicle behavior;
A sensor-side connector portion formed on the sensor and provided at the tip of a wiring that sends detected information as an electric signal; and a sensor-side connector portion formed on the casing of the actuator and coupled to the sensor-side connector portion in a state of positioning with respect to the bracket. An actuator side connector section is provided.

(Function) When mounting the variable damping force type suspension unit of the present invention on the vehicle body, first attach the bracket to the shock absorber when mounting the device on the vehicle body, and then attach the sensor to the shock absorber. Position and fix to the bracket.

Next, the actuator is attached to the bracket. At this time, when the actuator is positioned with respect to the bracket, the actuator side connector part and the sensor side connector part are connected.

Therefore, the detection information of the sensor is transmitted via the casing of the actuator.

In this way, the actuator and the sensor are attached to the same bracket, and the sensor detection signal is transmitted via the actuator casing, so the wiring connecting the sensor and the control means, , the wiring connecting the actuator and the control means can be arranged together, there is no need to secure space for this wiring separately, and the wiring work can be completed in one time. .

In the suspension unit of the present invention installed in the vehicle in this way, information based on physical factors indicating the vehicle body behavior detected by the sensor is sent to the control means, and the control means uses this information to determine the optimal The damping force is calculated, and based on the calculation result, the actuator is driven and the damping force changing means is operated to control the damping force to the optimum damping force.

(Embodiments) Below, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.6 First, the configuration of the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the main parts of the suspension unit S according to the embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in this figure, this suspension 3 unit S is of a strut type, and includes a cylinder tube 1, a piston rod 2, and a spring 3, which constitute a shock absorber A.
It is equipped with

The spring 3 has its lower side seated on a lower spring seat 3a attached to the cylinder tube 1, and its upper side seated on an upper spring seat 3b attached to the upper part of the piston rod 2.

The shock absorber A is of a variable damping force type, and an actuator 4 is connected to the upper end of the piston rod 2 to operate a mechanism for changing damping force characteristics.

Note that the drive of the actuator 4 is controlled by a control signal output from the controller 5 via the harness 51.

Next, FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view showing the mounting structure of the upper end of the shock absorber A to the vehicle body B. As shown in this figure, the piston rod 2 is attached to the vehicle body through a mount insulator 6. It is attached to B. The mount insulator 6 includes an outer bracket 6b and an inner bracket 6c to which an insulator main body 6a made of an elastic body is welded.

Then, the outer bracket 6b is attached to the port 7 with respect to the vehicle body B.
, and nuts 8, while the piston rod 2 is attached to the inner bracket 6C with collars 10.1 above and below.
A thrust bearing 12 is interposed between the inner bracket 6c and the piston rod 2, as shown in the figure. A pan-balance bar 13 is provided below the upper spring seat 3b, and a dust cover 14 is provided to cover the outer periphery of the piston rod 2 and the upper end of the cylinder tube 1.

Between the collar 11 and the inner bracket 6c, a load sensor 21 and a mounting bracket 22 are collinearly sandwiched at the top and bottom.

As shown in FIG. 3, the mounting bracket 22 includes a flat supporting portion 22a and two mounting holes projecting upward from the supporting portion 22a in an L-shape and having mounting holes 22b formed therein. Arms 22c, 22c and 1 protruding straight upwards
It has two connector protrusions 22d.

The load sensor 21 is bonded and fixed to the upper surface of the support portion 22a of the mounting bracket 22.

This load sensor 21 has a base 21a provided with a resistance pattern whose resistance changes due to distortion caused by input loads from above and below, and a connector pattern 21b connected to the resistance pattern of this base 21a. There is. That is, this load sensor 21 is provided to determine the relative speed between the sprung mass and the unsprung mass, which is a factor indicating vehicle behavior, and the input load from the piston rod 2 detected by this load sensor 21 Based on this, the controller 5 calculates the relative displacement between the sprung mass and the unsprung mass, and further calculates the relative speed between the sprung mass and the sprung mass based on this.

The connector pattern 21b is provided along the connector protrusion 22d.
A sensor side connector (convex side) 23 for connection is formed at the tip of d.

As shown in FIG. 4, the actuator 4 is provided with a casing 4a on its outer periphery, and has an output shaft 4b connected to damping force changing means in the shock absorber A via a control rod 15, and an output shaft 4b. A movable piece 4 provided on the outer periphery of
C and a bobbin 4d provided opposite to the upper end surface of the movable piece 4C, and has a structure in which the movable piece 4c and the output shaft 4b rotate when the bobbin 4d is energized.

For the detailed structure and operation of this actuator 4, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 135625/1983.

Furthermore, an actuator-side connector section 4e (concave side) into which the sensor-side connector section 23 is inserted and coupled is formed at the bottom of the casing 4a. A sensor harness 51a constituting a part of the harness 51 is connected to the actuator side connector part 4e, and a bobbin harness 51 is connected to the bobbin 4d.
b, 51c are connected, and each of the harnesses 51a to 51C are bent together at the grommet 4f and routed toward the controller 5 as a harness 51.

Note that when the actuator mounting bolt 16 is inserted into the mounting hole 22b of the mounting bracket 22 and the actuator 4 is placed in a predetermined mounting position (Fig. 1), both the connector parts 23.4e are connected to each other. They are arranged and formed in a positional relationship that allows them to be coupled.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be explained.

(a) Assembling In this embodiment, the actuator 4 and load sensor 21 are installed as follows.

First, the load sensor 21 is positioned with respect to the mounting bracket 22 and fixed by adhesive. That is, the base portion 21a of the load sensor 21 is placed on the support portion 22a of the mounting bracket 22, and the connector pattern 2 of the load sensor 21 is placed on the support portion 22a of the mounting bracket 22.
1b is placed along the connector protrusion 22d and bonded.

Next, after the piston rod 2 is mounted on the inner bracket 6c, the mounting bracket 22 and the collar 11 are sequentially inserted into the upper end of the piston rod 2, and further fastened with a nut 9.

Next, the actuator 4 is attached to the mounting bracket 22. In this case, the upper end of the control rod 15 and the output shaft 4b of the actuator 4 are first aligned. In this state, further connect the mounting hole 22b of the mounting bracket 22 and the bolt 1 of the actuator 4.
When the actuator 4 is moved downward while aligning the position with the control rod 15 and the output shaft 4b, the control rod 15 and the output shaft 4b
At the same time, the actuator side connector part 4e and the sensor side connector part 23 are connected, and the load sensor 21 is connected to the controller 5 via the sensor harness 51a.

This completes the assembly to vehicle body B.

(b) Load detection Next, the operation when detecting a load will be explained.

In the suspension unit S of this embodiment, when the nut 9 is fastened, an initial load is applied to the load sensor 21, thereby applying an initial strain to the base portion 1a. In this base 21a, when an upward input is applied to the piston rod 2, the fastening force by the nut 9 is weakened and the amount of distortion is reduced, whereas when a downward input load is applied to the piston rod 2, the amount of distortion is reduced. , the nut 9 presses the load sensor collar 21 downward and the amount of deflection increases.

Therefore, the resistance value when the base portion 21a is subjected to initial strain is taken as a reference value, and the input load is quantitatively detected by the change in the resistance value based on the change in the amount of deflection.

Based on the detection of the load as described above, the controller 5 drives the actuator 4 to control the damping force of the shock absorber A. This control is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 163011/1983. Since the electronically controlled shock absorber device described above is well known, detailed explanation will be omitted.

Suspension unit S of the embodiment of the present invention described above
Now, the actuator side connector part 4e is formed on the casing 4a of the actuator 4, and the mounting bracket 22 is attached.
A sensor side connector part 23 is formed on the actuator 4.
When positioned and attached to the mounting bracket 22,
Since both connectors 40 and 23 are connected, it has a feature of very good workability.

In addition, since the actuator 4 and the load sensor 21 are both mounted on the upper end of the piston rod 2, the installation space for both can be secured in one place, resulting in high space efficiency. Both 4 and 21 are arranged closer to the vehicle body B than the mount insulator 6, and there is no need to bypass the mount insulator 6 when wiring the harness 51, making the wiring easier and improving the degree of freedom in design. It also has the characteristic of

Furthermore, both the controller 5 and the bobbin 4 of the actuator 4 are disposed at the same position in this way.
The bobbin harnesses 51a and 51b that connect the controller 5 and the load sensor 21, and the sensor harness 51a that connects the controller 5 and the load sensor 21 are wired as a harness 51 that is tied together. It has the characteristics that it is easy to secure space, and that the work only needs to be done once, making it easy to work.

In addition, in the embodiment, since the sensor-side connector part 23 is formed using a part of the mounting bracket 22, it is easy to ensure the rigidity of the sensor-side connector part 23.

Also, the position where the load sensor 21 is provided is on the piston rod 2.
Since it is at the upper end position, input data that is not attenuated by the mount insulation 6 can be obtained, and the optimum data can be obtained as input data.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment. For example, in the embodiments, a load sensor was provided as a sensor, but an acceleration sensor It may also be another sensor such as
Also, multiple sensors may be provided together.

In addition, in the embodiment, a protrusion for the connector was provided on the mounting bracket and used to form the sensor side connector part, but an independent strength member was provided on the sensor itself to form the sensor side connector part. may be formed.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, with the variable damping force suspension unit of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained at the same time.

- Since the sensor and actuator are mounted on the same bracket and are arranged in the same space, the mounting space can be reduced and the degree of freedom in setting the mounting space can be improved.

■ When the actuator is installed, the sensor-side connector and the actuator-side connector are connected, simplifying the wiring work and improving work efficiency.

■ As shown in ■, the wiring that sends detection information from the sensor is connected to the actuator casing, so the wiring that connects the sensor and the control means and the wiring that connects the actuator and the control means are connected together from the actuator casing. It is possible to route them all together. Therefore, there is no need to secure this wiring space separately,
The wiring space can be reduced and the wiring work can be completed only once, improving the efficiency of the wiring work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the main parts of a variable damping force type suspension unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an overall view showing the embodiment unit, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the main parts of the embodiment unit. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the actuator of the embodiment unit. S...Suspension unit A...Buffer 4...Actuator a...Casing e...Actuator side connector part l...Load sensor 22...Mounting bracket 23...Sensor side connector Department

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A shock absorber interposed between a vehicle body and an axle and having a damping force changing means; an actuator attached to the shock absorber via a bracket and actuating the damping force changing means; A sensor that is positioned and fixed to the bracket and detects physical factors related to vehicle behavior with respect to means for controlling drive of the actuator, and a sensor that is formed on the sensor and provided at the tip of a wiring that sends detected information as an electric signal. A variable damping force type, comprising: a sensor-side connector portion formed on the casing of the actuator and coupled to the sensor-side connector portion in a positioning state with respect to the bracket. suspension unit.