Protecting device in particular for a rod of a telescopic shockabsorber

Claim 1

In a unit comprising a structure and a slidable member which is coaxial with said structure and has a first portion axially slidably mounted in said structure and a second portion extending axially out of a first end of said structure, the slidable member and said structure normally undergoing relative axial reciprocating motion, such as a rod and a body of a shockabsorber, and means for shielding said second portion of the slidable member from projections of undesirable foreign bodies; the improvement wherein said shielding means comprise a flexible substantially elastomeric tube substantially coaxial with and fixed to the slidable member adjacent a first end of the tube, the tube axially extending from said first end of the tube alongside said second portion of the slidable member and beyond said first end of said structure and alongside at least a portion of said structure in all relative axial positions of the slidable member and said structure, and terminating in a free end edge which is capable of encountering a part of said structure axially remote from said first end of said structure and causing an axial crushing of the tube when the slidable member penetrates said structure in excess of a given extent, the tube comprising in a region of the length of the tube adjacent said free end edge at least one series of throughway slits which are spaced apart around the periphery of the tube and extend in a direction substantially parallel to the generatrices of the tube, the axial distance between said first end of said structure and said part of said structure being such that when said free end edge of the tube encounters said part of said structure said slits do not surround said second portion of the slidable member but surround said structure.