JPH05263859A - Gas spring - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To be able to adjust the expansion and contraction stroke of the gas spring. [Structure] A piston 3 in which a piston rod 4 is connected is fitted into a cylinder 2 in which gas is sealed, and the pressure of the gas in the cylinder 2 is applied in the extension direction of the piston rod 4.
The bottom side of the cylinder 2 is inserted into the outer cylinder 10. The guide member 9 is attached to the cylinder 2, and the spring 11 is interposed between the outer cylinder 10 and the guide member 9. The pin 13 is attached to the guide member 9, and the pin 13 is inserted into the cutout portion 14 of the outer cylinder 10. While the outer cylinder 10 is shortened with respect to the cylinder 2, the pin 13 is attached to the cutout portion 14 of the outer cylinder 10.
When the outer cylinder 10 is fixed by being engaged with the stepped portion provided in, the expansion and contraction stroke of the piston rod 4 becomes the expansion and contraction stroke of the gas spring 1. When the engagement between the pin 13 and the stepped portion of the notch 14 is released, the expansion and contraction of the outer cylinder 10 by the spring 11 adds to the expansion and contraction of the piston rod 4, and the expansion and contraction stroke of the gas spring 1 increases.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a gas spring mounted on a flip-up door of an automobile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a spring-type door having a large weight, such as a rear door of an automobile, is equipped with a gas spring in order to reduce an operation force when opening and closing.

The gas spring has a structure in which a piston is slidably fitted in a cylinder filled with gas, one end of a piston rod is connected to the piston, and the other end is extended to the outside of the cylinder. Then, the cylinder side is connected to the vehicle body side, and the piston rod side is connected to the door side to be mounted on the vehicle.

With this structure, the pressure of the gas in the cylinder acts on the extension direction of the piston rod when the piston rod expands and contracts when the door opens and closes, and balances with the dead weight of the door to operate force when opening and closing the door. Reduce. Also, an appropriate damping force is applied to the opening and closing of the door.

[0005]

By the way, in the conventional gas spring, since the expansion and contraction stroke of the piston rod is constant, the height when the door is opened is also constant. Therefore, depending on the height of the person who performs the opening / closing operation, the door may be too high or too low, which makes it difficult to operate.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a gas spring capable of adjusting the expansion / contraction stroke of a piston rod.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a cylinder in which a gas is enclosed, and a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder. A gas spring having a piston rod having one end connected to the piston and the other end extended to the outside of the cylinder, and a bottomed cylindrical outer cylinder that is extendably fitted to the cylinder; A spring interposed between a cylinder and the cylinder for urging the outer cylinder in the extension direction, an engaging portion provided on an outer peripheral portion of the cylinder, and the engaging portion provided on a side wall of the outer cylinder. Is provided, and at least one stepped portion which is provided in the notch and which is selectively engaged with the engaging portion to restrict the expansion and contraction stroke of the outer cylinder. ..

A second aspect of the invention is a cylinder in which gas is enclosed, a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder, one end of which is connected to the piston and the other end of which extends to the outside of the cylinder. In a gas spring having a flared piston rod, an outer cylinder externally fitted to the cylinder and connected to the piston rod to expand and contract with the piston rod; an engaging portion provided on an outer peripheral portion of the cylinder; A cutout portion provided on a side wall of the outer cylinder, into which the engaging portion is inserted, and at least one step provided in the cutout portion and selectively engaged with the engaging portion to restrict an expansion / contraction stroke of the outer cylinder. And a section.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the expansion / contraction stroke of the outer cylinder with respect to the cylinder is determined within a range in which the engaging portion can move within the notch. Therefore, it depends on whether or not the engaging portion and the step portion are engaged. The expansion / contraction stroke of the gas spring can be adjusted by changing the expansion / contraction stroke of the outer cylinder.

Further, according to the second aspect of the invention, since the expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod is determined within a range in which the engaging portion can move within the cutout portion, it depends on whether or not the engaging portion and the step portion are engaged. The expansion / contraction stroke of the gas spring can be adjusted by changing the expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9. As shown in FIG. 1, in a gas spring 1, a piston 3 having an orifice passage 3a is slidably fitted in a cylinder 2 having a bottomed cylindrical shape, and the piston 3 has one end side of a piston rod 4 attached thereto. It is connected. The other end of the piston rod 4 is inserted into a rod guide 5 and a seal member 6 provided in the opening of the cylinder 2 and extends to the outside of the cylinder 2. Further, in the middle portion on the bottom side with respect to the piston 3 in the cylinder 2,
The free piston 7 is slidably fitted. An appropriate amount of gas and oil liquid are filled in the cylinder 2, and high pressure gas is filled in a gas chamber 8 formed on the bottom side of the free piston 7.

An annular guide member 9 is fitted onto the outer peripheral portion of the cylinder 2 and fixed by spot welding. The bottom side of the cylinder 2 is inserted into the outer cylinder 10 having a bottomed cylindrical shape, and the large diameter portion of the guide member 9 is slidably fitted into the outer cylinder 10. A spring 11 is interposed between the outer cylinder 10 and the guide member 9 for urging the outer cylinder 10 in the direction of extending the cylinder 2. The elastic force of the spring 11 is set to be smaller than the repulsive force when the piston rod 4 is maximally extended.

As shown in FIG. 2, a guide hole 12 extending in the circumferential direction is provided on the side wall of the large diameter portion of the guide member 9. A pin 13 as an engaging portion is inserted into the guide hole 12, and the pin 13 is attached so as to be movable along the guide hole 12.

The side wall of the outer cylinder 10 is provided with a notch portion 14, and the notch portion 14 has a pin attached to the guide member 9.
13 has been inserted. The notch 14 is, as shown in FIG.
A step portion 14a is formed in the sliding direction of the outer cylinder 10 (direction of expansion and contraction with respect to the cylinder 2). Further, when the outer cylinder 10 is attached to the cylinder 2, the pin 13 is inserted into the cutout portion 14,
The notch 14 is provided with a guide portion 14b opening to the end of the outer cylinder 10.

Mounting members 15 and 16 for mounting the gas spring 1 on the door device are provided at the tip of the piston rod 4 and the bottom of the outer cylinder 10.

The operation of this embodiment having the above-mentioned structure will be described below.

When the piston rod 4 is shortened, the gas in the cylinder 2 is compressed by the amount of the piston rod 4 entering the cylinder 2, and the repulsive force in the extension direction acts on the piston rod 4 by the pressure of this gas. Further, as the piston rod 4 expands and contracts, the piston 3 slides in the cylinder 2 and gas and oil flow through the orifice passage 4a, so that a damping force acts on the expansion and contraction of the piston rod 4.

The outer cylinder 10 is urged in the extending direction with respect to the cylinder 2 by the elastic force of the spring 11, and the expansion and contraction stroke of the outer cylinder 10 is within a range in which the pin 13 can move within the notch 14 of the outer cylinder 10. Depends on

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, when the pin 13 is moved along the guide hole 12 to a position where it is engaged with the stepped portion 14a, the movement range of the pin 13 in the expansion and contraction direction of the outer cylinder 10 is stepped. Department
The cylinder 2 of the outer cylinder 10 is regulated by 14a and becomes S _1.
The expansion and contraction stroke with respect to is S ₁ , and the outer cylinder 10 is shown in FIG.
At the minimum shortened position with respect to the cylinder 2 shown in FIG. Therefore, since the expansion and contraction of the gas spring 1 is performed only by the expansion and contraction of the piston rod 4, the length at the maximum expansion becomes short as shown in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG.
When it is set to a position where it does not engage with a, the range of movement of the pin 13 in the expansion / contraction direction of the outer cylinder 10 is S ₂ , so the cylinder 2 of the outer cylinder 10
The expansion / contraction stroke for is S ₂ . Therefore, since the expansion and contraction of the gas spring 1 is performed by the expansion and contraction of the outer cylinder 10 in addition to the expansion and contraction of the piston rod 4, the length at the maximum expansion becomes long as shown in FIG.

As described above, by moving the position of the pin 13 along the guide hole 12, the length of the gas spring 1 at the maximum extension can be adjusted in two steps. as a result,
The height of the door when the flip-up door is opened can be adjusted in two steps according to the height of the operator.

Further, since the elastic force of the spring 11 is set to be smaller than the repulsive force when the piston rod 4 is maximally extended, when the piston rod 4 is contracted, the cylinder 2 is shortened and the cylinder 2 is located at the outer cylinder 10 position. First, by applying a force in the shortening direction to the gas spring 1, the gas spring 1 enters the outer cylinder 10,
The pin 13 strokes along the notch 14. The pin 13 is always positioned in the guide hole 12 at the minimum shortened position. By moving the pin 13 along the guide hole 12 in this state, the expansion / contraction stroke of the gas spring 1 can be adjusted.

In the above embodiment, the expansion / contraction stroke is adjusted by moving the pin 13 along the guide hole 12 of the guide member 9. However, as shown in FIGS. It is also possible to fix it to the guide member 9 and move it by rotating it together with the cylinder 2. Further, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the bottom portion of the outer cylinder 10 contacts the bottom portion of the cylinder 2 in the minimum shortened state (see FIG. 7) of the outer cylinder 10 with respect to the cylinder 2. 7 to 9, the same members as those in FIGS. 1 to 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The same members as those in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and only different portions will be described in detail below.

As shown in FIGS. 10 to 14, the cylinder 2
An annular guide member 17 is externally fitted to the outer peripheral portion of and is fixed by spot welding. The opening side of the cylinder 2 is
When the guide member 17 is inserted into the outer cylinder 18 having a bottomed cylindrical shape,
The piston rod 4 is slidably fitted inside, and the tip end portion of the piston rod 4 is connected to the bottom portion of the outer cylinder 18. The outer cylinder 18 is rotatably attached to the piston rod 4 via a friction member 20 and a washer 21 by screwing a bolt 19 having a mounting member 15 attached to the head thereof to the tip of the piston rod 4. There is.

A notch 22 is provided on the side wall of the outer cylinder 18, and a convex portion 17a is formed on the guide member 17 as an engaging portion projecting in the radial direction thereof. 17a is inserted. The notch 22 extends in the direction of expansion and contraction of the piston rod 4, and a step 22a is provided in this direction.

A mounting portion 16 is mounted on the bottom of the cylinder 2.

The operation of the second embodiment constructed as above will be described below. The expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod 4 is determined by the movable range of the convex portion 17a of the guide member 17 within the notch 22 of the outer cylinder 18.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11, the outer cylinder 18 is rotated against the frictional force of the friction member 20 so that the step portion 22a (notch upper portion) of the notch portion 22 and the convex portion 17a of the guide member 17 are formed. When the position is engaged, the expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod 4 becomes S ₃ , so that the maximum length of the gas spring 1 becomes longer as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.

Further, as shown in FIG. 14, when the outer cylinder 18 is rotated to a position where the step portion 22a of the cutout portion 22 and the convex portion 17a of the guide member 17 are not engaged (lower cutout portion), the piston Since the expansion / contraction stroke of the rod 4 is S ₄ , the length of the gas spring 1 at the maximum extension becomes short.

In this way, the outer cylinder 18 is rotated to turn the notch 22.
By moving the positions of the stepped portion 22a and the convex portion 17a of the guide member 17, the length of the gas spring at maximum extension can be adjusted in two steps. As a result, the height of the door when the flip-up door is opened can be adjusted in two steps according to the height of the operator.

In the first and second embodiments described above, only one step portion 14a, 22a of the outer cylinder 10, 18 is provided, but a plurality of step portions are provided in a staircase shape, and one of them is provided. By selectively engaging the pin 13 or the convex portion 17a with the stepped portion, the expansion / contraction stroke of the gas spring can be adjusted in a plurality of steps.

[0034]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the expansion / contraction stroke of the outer cylinder with respect to the cylinder is determined within the range in which the engaging portion can move within the notch. The expansion / contraction stroke can be adjusted by adjusting the expansion / contraction stroke of the outer cylinder depending on whether or not the engaging portion and the step portion are engaged. Further, according to the second aspect of the invention, since the expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod is determined within the range in which the engaging portion can move within the cutout portion,
The expansion / contraction stroke can be adjusted by adjusting the expansion / contraction stroke of the piston rod depending on whether or not the engaging portion and the step portion are engaged. As a result, when mounted on a flip-up type door, there is an excellent effect that the height of the door when opened can be adjusted according to the height of the operator.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a minimum shortened state when a telescopic stroke according to a first embodiment of the present invention is set to a minimum.

2 is a plan view of a guide member of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an outer cylinder of the device of FIG. 1, showing the positions of a cutout portion and a pin.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the maximum extension state of the device of FIG.

5 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the maximum extension state of the apparatus of FIG. 1 when the expansion / contraction stroke is set to the maximum.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of an outer cylinder of the device of FIG. 5, showing the positions of the notch and the pin.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a minimum shortened state in a case where the expansion / contraction stroke is set to the minimum according to another embodiment of the first embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a plan view of a guide member of the apparatus of FIG.

9 is a plan view of the outer cylinder of the device of FIG. 7, showing the positions of the notch and the pin.

FIG. 10 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a minimum shortened state when the expansion / contraction stroke of the second embodiment of the present invention is set to the maximum.

11 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the maximum extension state when the expansion / contraction stroke of the apparatus of FIG. 10 is set to the maximum.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 14 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the maximum extension state of the apparatus of FIG. 10 when the extension / contraction stroke is set to the minimum.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 gas spring 2 cylinder 3 piston 4 the piston rod 10 the outer cylinder 11 spring 13 pin (engaging portion) 14 cutout portion 14a stepped portion 17a projecting portion (engaging portion) 18 outer tube 22 notch 22a stepped portion S _1, S ₂ , S ₃ , S ₄ telescopic stroke

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cylinder in which gas is enclosed, a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder, a piston rod having one end connected to the piston and the other end extending to the outside of the cylinder. A gas spring having a bottomed cylindrical outer cylinder fitted to the cylinder so as to extend and contract, and a spring interposed between the outer cylinder and the cylinder for urging the outer cylinder in the extension direction. An engaging portion provided on an outer peripheral portion of the cylinder, a notch portion provided on a side wall of the outer cylinder and into which the engaging portion is inserted, and an engaging portion provided on the notch portion and selectively engaged with the engaging portion. A gas spring, comprising: at least one step portion that is combined to regulate the expansion and contraction stroke of the outer cylinder. 2. A cylinder filled with gas, a piston slidably fitted in the cylinder, a piston rod having one end connected to the piston and the other end extended to the outside of the cylinder. A gas spring having an outer cylinder that is fitted onto the cylinder, is connected to the piston rod, and expands and contracts together with the piston rod, an engaging portion provided on the outer peripheral portion of the cylinder, and a side wall of the outer cylinder. A notch part through which the engaging part is inserted, and at least one step part provided in the notch part and selectively engaged with the engaging part to restrict the expansion and contraction stroke of the outer cylinder. A gas spring characterized in that.