Cylinder device and method of manufacturing piston rod

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12576468-B2
Application number	US-202117909505-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 11, 2021
Priority date	Mar 27, 2020
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

This cylinder device of the present aspect includes: a cylinder having a bottomed tubular shape; a seal member provided at an opening of the cylinder; and a piston rod that is provided to protrude from the opening of the cylinder and slides with respect to the seal member. A sliding surface of the piston rod has a chrome-plated layer. In the sliding surface, as characteristic evaluation parameters of a plateau structure surface described in JIS B 0671-2 and ISO 13565-2, a reduced valley depth Rvk is 0.06 μm or more and less than a plating thickness, a reduced peak height Rpk is 0 μm or more and 0.04 μm or less, and a core roughness depth Rk is 0.08 μm or more and 0.16 μm or less.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . An automobile suspension device comprising:
a cylinder having a bottomed tubular shape in which a working fluid is sealed; an oil seal provided at an opening of the cylinder; and a piston rod that is provided to protrude from the opening of the cylinder, configured to slide in an axial direction while contacting with the oil seal, and formed with a sliding surface configured to repeatedly move in and out between an inside and an outside of the cylinder; wherein the sliding surface of the piston rod includes a chrome-plated layer, wherein, the sliding surface is formed with grooves including, as characteristic evaluation parameters of a plateau structure surface described in JIS B 0671-2 (2002) and ISO 13565-2 (1996) in effect on the filing date of this application, a reduced valley depth Rvk is 0.06 μm or more and less than a plating thickness, a reduced peak height Rpk is 0 μm or more and 0.04 μm or less, and a core roughness depth Rk is 0.08 μm or more and 0.16 μm or less, and wherein the grooves are configured to be filled with and hold the working fluid by the moving in and out of the piston rod between the inside and the outside of the cylinder.

2 . The automobile suspension device according to claim 1 , wherein
the reduced valley depth Rvk is 0.06 μm or more and 0.15 μm or less, the reduced peak height Rpk is 0.02 μm or more and 0.04 μm or less, and the core roughness depth Rk is 0.08 μm or more and 0.13 μm or less.

3 . The automobile suspension device according to claim 1 , wherein
the core roughness depth Rk is larger than the reduced peak height Rpk.

4 . The automobile suspension device according to claim 2 , wherein
a film thickness of the chrome-plated layer is 20 μm, and the reduced valley depth Rvk is large than an upper value of the reduced peak height Rpk.

5 . The automobile suspension device according to claim 1 , wherein
the reduced valley depth Rvk is obtained by polishing processes with two different types of a first polishing film and a second polishing film, and the reduced peak height Rpk and the core roughness depth Rk are obtained by polishing process with a third polishing film having a finer mesh than the first polishing film and the second polishing film.

6 . The automobile suspension device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an outer cylinder provided on an outer side of the cylinder so as to be coaxially with the cylinder; a piston which is provided on a tip end side of the piston rod to slide along the inside of the cylinder, divides the inside of the cylinder into a first chamber and a second chamber, and includes a disk valve formed with a passage allowing a flow of the working fluid between the first chamber and the second chamber; and the disk valve formed with a passage allowing the working fluid flowing between one end portion of the cylinder positioned on a tip end side of the piston rod and one end side of the outer cylinder arranged on an outer side of the cylinder, wherein another end of the cylinder and another end of the outer cylinder are closed by a tubular rod guide provided with the tubular oil seal at an inside of the rod guide, and wherein a damping force to the piston rod is generated by a movement of the working fluid caused by the piston sliding in the cylinder.

7 . A method of manufacturing a piston rod of an automobile suspension device, in which
a chrome-plated layer is formed on a sliding surface which slides in an axial direction while contacting with an oil seal, the sliding surface is configured to repeatedly move in and out between an inside and an outside of the cylinder, and the piston rod is configured to move in and out the cylinder accommodating a working fluid therein, the method comprising a polishing step performed after the chrome-plated layer is formed, wherein the polishing step includes: an initial polishing step of polishing with a first polishing film and polishing with a second polishing film having coarser mesh than the first film, to obtain an initial polished surface in which, as a characteristic evaluation parameter of a plateau structure surface described in JIS B 0671-2 (2002) and ISO 13565-2 (1996), a reduced valley depth Rvk is 0.06 μm or more and less than a plating thickness of the chrome plating; and a finish polishing step of polishing the initial polished surface with a third polishing film having a finer mesh than the first polishing film and the second polishing film to form a plateau surface in which, as lubricity parameters of the plateau structure surface, a reduced peak height Rpk is 0 μm or more and 0.04 μm or less, and a core roughness depth Rk is 0.08 μm or more and 0.16 μm or less.

8 . The method of manufacturing a piston rod of an automobile suspension device according to claim 7 , wherein
the reduced valley depth Rvk is 0.06 μm or more and 0.15 μm or less, the reduced peak height Rpk is 0.02 μm or more and 0.04 μm or less, and the core roughness depth Rk is 0.08 μm or more and 0.13 μm or less.

9 . The method of manufacturing a piston rod of an automobile suspension device according to claim 7 ,
wherein, in the initial polishing step, the initial polished surface is formed with a polishing material having a coarse particle size of #600 or less as the first polishing film, and wherein, in the finish polishing step, the plateau surface is formed with a polishing material having a fine particle size of #800 or more as the third polishing film.

Assignees

• Hitachi Astemo Ltd

Inventors

• Omata Yasuhisa
• Nagayama Hideo
• Tokunaga Kosuke
• Shinata Ryo
• Nakagawa Reiji
• SOETA Shoichiro

Classifications

• F16F2226/02

  Surface treatments · CPC title

• F16F9/3221

  of piston rods · CPC title

• F16F9/32

  Details · CPC title

• B24B21/12

  involving a contact wheel or roller pressing the belt against the work · CPC title

• B24B21/006

  for special purposes, e.g. for television tubes, car bumpers · CPC title