Hydraulic damper of adjustable damping force type

Claim 1

A hydraulic damper of the adjustable damping force type and which has a plurality of different damping force modes, said damper comprising: a cylinder containing hydraulic liquid therein; a piston rod having a first end portion thereof inserted into said cylinder and a second end portion thereof extending to the outside of said cylinder, said piston rod having a bore formed therein and extending axially thereof; a piston secured to said first end portion of said piston rod and partitioning the interior of said cylinder into two liquid chambers; a liquid passage for communicating said two liquid chambers, said liquid passage including a portion of said bore formed in said piston rod; at least one pair of orifices disposed midway along said liquid passage, such that selective opening and closing of said orifices changes the damping force mode of said damper; an adjusting rod rotatably inserted into said bore and adapted to be operated rotatably from said second end portion of said piston rod; a shutter secured to said adjusting rod and having a pair of radially formed openings for, upon rotation of said adjusting rod and said shutter, opening both of the two orifices of said pair of orifices in one of said different damping force modes and not opening either of said two orifices of said pair in other modes of said different damping force modes; and at least one of said pair of orifices and said pair of openings being arranged such that either one of said two orifices of said pair starts to open subsequent to the other said orifice when said shutter is rotated to change the damping force mode from one of said other modes to said one mode, and either one of said two orifices of said pair starts to close subsequent to the other said orifice when said shutter is rotated to change the damping force mode from said one mode to one of said other modes.