Impact absorptive steering shaft

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To reduce the manufacturing cost of an impact absorptive steering shaft by using a system in which binder is provided in the coupling part between an upper shaft and a lower shaft, having a non-circular cross section to be connected mutually, and energy is absorbed by the frictional resistance of the couplling part and the shearing strength of the binder. CONSTITUTION:A steering shaft 10 is formed by mutually combining a hollow upper shaft 11 and a hollow lower shaft 12, each being made of a composite material and having a hexagonal section. A binder 16 is provided in the coupling part between the shafts 11 and 12, and the inside dimension of the upper shaft 11 is made slightly smaller than that of the lower shaft 12. When impactive and compressive loads act on the shaft 10, the binder in the coupling part between the shafts 11 and 12 undergoes a shearing rupture to absorb the first impaction energy. The lower shaft 12 then goes into the upper shaft 11 while receiving a fixed frictional resistance, whereby smoothly absorbing the energy.

Inventors

• 👤 Ryoji Fujita
• 👤 藤田　良二
• 👤 Yoshikazu Higuchi
• 👤 樋口　嘉一

Bibliographic Details