Hydraulic telescopic shock absorber

Claim 1

A hydraulic shock absorber comprising a cylindrical barrel containing a damping liquid; a reciprocally movable piston telescopically receivable in said barrel and comprising a cylindrical tube closed at at least one end, the telescopic engagement between said barrel and tube being such that the barrel inner cylindrical surface and the tube outer cylindrical surface are in slidable engagement where telescopically associated, whereby said barrel guides said piston in the course of its reciprocal movement; said piston outer surface having longitudinal slots on at least that part which enters said barrel, the sectional area of the slots decreasing with increasing distance from the barrel-entering end of the piston; resilient bellows secured at opposite end portions to spacedapart portions of said barrel and piston, the inner surface portions of said bellows and outer surface portions of said barrel and piston defining a variable volume bellows chamber between the points of bellows attachment to said piston and barrel; said bellows preventing leakage of the damping fluid from said piston and barrel and accommodating damping liquid displaced during a compression stroke in which said piston is telescopically moved into said barrel by bulging outwardly during said stroke; said longitudinal slots effecting liquid communication between the variable volume chamber defined by the telescoping members and said variable volume bellows chamber and controlling the rate of displaced damping fluid passage into said bellows chamber as said pIston telescopically moves into said barrel during a compression stroke; said bellows having a resiliency adequate to return the displaced liquid to said telescoping members following the compression stroke.