Steering axle for an industrial truck, and industrial truck having the steering axle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11511793-B2
Application number	US-202016908791-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2020
Priority date	Jun 27, 2019
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

A steering axle for steering the wheels on the axle of a four-wheel forklift truck by a hydraulic or electric steering device. The steering axle has an axle beam with first and second wheel carriers. The wheel carriers are arranged pivotably on the axle beam. A steering rod is connected, in articulated fashion, to the two wheel carriers in order to transmit steering movements. A steering actuator produces the steering movement and has an actuator housing. The actuator housing has at least one guide section for the passage of the steering rod through the actuator housing. The steering actuator has at least one sliding bearing device for the radial support of the steering rod on the at least one guide section.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A steering axle for an industrial truck, the steering axle comprising:
an axle beam defining a main axis,
first and second wheel carriers being pivotably mounted on the axle beam,
a steering rod being connected, in articulated fashion, to the first and the second wheel carriers to transmit a steering movement thereto, the steering rod being coaxially aligned with the axle beam along the main axis,
a steering actuator for producing the steering movement,
the steering actuator having an actuator housing, and the actuator housing having at least one guide section for passage of the steering rod through the actuator housing, and
the steering actuator having at least a first sliding bearing device for radially supporting the steering rod on the at least one guide section.

2. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the first sliding bearing device is designed as a slide bush, and the slide bush is arranged coaxially in the guide section in relation to the main axis.

3. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the first sliding bearing device is arranged in the guide section ( 14 ) in a manner secure against loss by at least one of a positive and a non-positive joint.

4. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the steering rod has an axial overall length (L 2 ), and at least 10% of the axial overall length of the steering rod is supported by the first sliding bearing device.

5. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the steering rod is accommodated in the first sliding bearing device with a radial clearance such that the steering rod is spaced from the first sliding bearing device by an annular gap.

6. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the actuator housing has first and second housing sections, and the steering rod is supported on at least one of the first and the second housing sections via the first sliding bearing device.

7. The steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the steering actuator has an electric motor and a transmission device, at least the transmission device is arranged in the actuator housing, and the electric motor is connected in terms of transmission to the steering rod by the transmission device to transmit the steering movement.

8. The steering axle according to claim 7 , wherein the steering rod is designed as a threaded spindle, and the transmission device has a spindle nut which is in engagement with the steering rod designed as the threaded spindle.

9. The steering axle according to claim 8 , wherein a first steering rod section of the steering rod is supported on one of two housing sections of the actuator housing in a radial direction via the first sliding bearing device, and a second steering rod section is supported on the other housing section of the two housing sections in the radial direction via at least one of the spindle nut and via a further sliding bearing device.

10. An industrial truck having the steering axle according to claim 1 , wherein the industrial truck is designed as a four-wheel forklift truck.

11. A steering axle for an industrial truck, the steering axle comprising:
an axle beam defining a main axis,
first and second wheel carriers, the first wheel carrier being pivotably fixed to one axial end of the axle beam and the second wheel carrier being pivotably fixed to an opposite axial end of the axle beam,
a steering rod being articulatably connected to the first and the second wheel carriers to transmit steering movement to the first and the second wheel carriers, the steering rod being coaxially aligned with the axle beam along the main axis, and
a steering actuator for producing the steering movement, the steering actuator having an actuator housing, and the actuator housing having first and second guide sections that guide the steering rod through respective axially opposite sides of the actuator housing, the steering actuator having at least one sliding bearing device that is received within the first guide section and radially supporting the steering rod in the first guide section such that the steering rod is axially slidable relative to the actuator housing.

Assignees

• Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen

Inventors

• Anetzberger Michael

Classifications

• B62D5/0421 Primary

  Electric motor acting on or near steering gear · CPC title

• B60B35/122

  using gearings · CPC title

• B62D5/0448

  Ball nuts · CPC title

• B62D5/0424 Primary

  the axes of motor and final driven element of steering gear, e.g. rack, being parallel · CPC title

• F16H25/20

  Screw mechanisms (with automatic reversal F16H25/12) · CPC title