CN110594275A

CN110594275A - Boot assembly for wheel fastener

Info

Publication number: CN110594275A
Application number: CN201810796366.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孙勇; 李前进; 王冬梅
Original assignee: Shanghai Carxpert Automobile Engineering Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Carxpert Automobile Engineering Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-07-19
Filing date: 2018-07-19
Publication date: 2019-12-20

Abstract

The invention provides a sheath assembly for a wheel fastener, wherein the sheath assembly is sleeved on the wheel fastener and comprises: a threaded connector connected to the wheel fastener; the head of the threaded connector comprises a counter bore; a locking member disposed in the counterbore of the threaded connection; the locking piece comprises a through hole, and the edge of the through hole has irregular tooth shape; a movable pin passing through the through hole, and a size of at least a portion of the movable pin passing through the through hole is larger than a size of the through hole; the outer sheath is arranged outside the threaded connector in a matched mode.

Description

Boot assembly for wheel fastener

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of vehicle wheel theft prevention, in particular to a sheath assembly for a wheel fastener.

Background

In the prior art, the wheel hub is typically secured to a mounting plate on the end face of the axle by a number of nuts and bolts.

In order to facilitate disassembly and assembly, the nut and bolt used for connection are usually of a common hexagonal shape and can be easily unscrewed by a common hexagonal wrench or pipe wrench tool. But brings convenience, and because the fastener can be easily unscrewed by using a wrench or a sleeve tool at will, the theft prevention performance of the tire or the wheel hub is greatly threatened. In order to improve the theft-proof performance, the adopted improvement method comprises changing the hexagonal shape into the irregular tooth shape, but only the tool needs to be deformed to unscrew the bolt and the nut; another improvement is to key the bolt and nut faces but the fastener can also be unscrewed using a round wrench or welding tool.

Therefore, the conventional wheel hub or tire is not satisfactory in terms of anti-theft performance, and it is necessary to improve the anti-theft performance of the wheel by allowing the wheel fastener to be opened only by a specific tool.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve the technical problem of how to enable a wheel fastener to be opened only by a specific tool, thereby improving the anti-theft performance of a wheel.

In order to solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a sheath assembly for a wheel fastener, the sheath assembly being fitted over the wheel fastener, the sheath assembly comprising:

a threaded connector connected to the wheel fastener; the top of the threaded connector comprises a counter bore;

a locking member disposed in a counterbore of the threaded connector; the locking piece comprises a through hole, and the through hole has irregular tooth shape;

a movable pin passing through the through hole, and a size of at least a portion of the movable pin passing through the through hole is larger than a size of the through hole;

the outer sheath is arranged outside the threaded connector in a matched mode.

In an embodiment of the invention, the contour of the locking element is adapted to the shape of the counter bore.

In an embodiment of the invention, the contour of the locking element and the shape of the counter bore are regular hexagons.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the locking element and the counterbore of the threaded connector are in an interference fit.

In one embodiment of the invention, the movable pin is rotatable.

In an embodiment of the invention, the outer sheath is arranged outside the threaded connection with a clearance fit.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the connector further includes a limiting member, and the limiting member is disposed between the threaded connector and the outer sheath and is used for limiting axial movement of the threaded connector.

In an embodiment of the invention, the limiting member is a snap spring, the threaded connector includes a step, and the snap spring is disposed in cooperation with the step.

In an embodiment of the invention, the material of the outer sheath is high strength alloy steel.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the head of the outer sheath is spherical.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

(1) has good applicability. By varying the size of the outer diameter of the outer sheath, different sized wheel fasteners can be accommodated. Compared with the conventional wheel fastener in the market, the sheath assembly is only used as an external decorative pendant, and the strength problem caused by replacement of the wheel fastener does not exist.

(2) The anti-theft performance is improved. The outer sheath is made of high-strength alloy, the head of the outer sheath is a smooth spherical surface, and an external force tool cannot be used due to slipping, so that illegal external force damage can be resisted; the edge of the through hole of the locking piece is provided with an irregular tooth shape, so that various different shapes can be developed, and only the unlocking piece matched with the edge of the through hole in shape can open the sheath assembly; the first dimension d1 of the movable pin is not significantly smaller than the dimension of the through hole, so that the clearance between the movable pin and the through hole is small, and the space for illegal tool movement is further reduced; the movable pin can rotate around the axis, and an external tool cannot act on the movable pin to unscrew the threaded connection.

(3) Double protection is realized. The outer sleeve part is made of high-strength alloy steel and high-corrosion-resistant electroplating, so that the anti-theft performance of the wheel fastener is improved, the wheel fastener can bear the influence of severe environment, and the service life of the wheel fastener is prolonged in actual use.

Drawings

FIGS. 1A-1B are schematic views of a prior art wheel fastener.

Fig. 2A-2B are schematic views of another prior art wheel fastener.

FIG. 3 is an elevation view of a sheath assembly for a wheel fastener according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a sheath assembly for a wheel fastener according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural view of a locking member according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of the reference symbols

300 jacket assembly

301 threaded connection

302 locking piece

303 movable pin

304 outer sheath

305 limiting element

3021 Lock Profile

3022 through hole of locking piece

400 unlocking piece

Detailed Description

In order to make the aforementioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, but the present invention may be practiced in other ways than those specifically described herein, and thus the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

As used in this application and the appended claims, the terms "a," "an," "the," and/or "the" are not intended to be inclusive in the singular, but rather are intended to be inclusive in the plural unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In general, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" merely indicate that steps and elements are included which are explicitly identified, that the steps and elements do not form an exclusive list, and that a method or apparatus may include other steps or elements.

In describing the embodiments of the present invention in detail, the cross-sectional views illustrating the structure of the device are not enlarged partially in a general scale for convenience of illustration, and the schematic drawings are only examples, which should not limit the scope of the present invention. In addition, the three-dimensional dimensions of length, width and depth should be included in the actual fabrication.

For convenience in description, spatial relational terms such as "below," "beneath," "below," "under," "over," "upper," and the like may be used herein to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element or feature as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that these terms of spatial relationship are intended to encompass other orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as "below" or "beneath" other elements or features would then be oriented "above" the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary words "below" and "beneath" can encompass both an orientation of up and down. The device may have other orientations (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatial relationship descriptors used herein should be interpreted accordingly. Further, it will also be understood that when a layer is referred to as being "between" two layers, it can be the only layer between the two layers, or one or more intervening layers may also be present.

In the context of this application, a structure described as having a first feature "on" a second feature may include embodiments in which the first and second features are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional features are formed in between the first and second features, such that the first and second features may not be in direct contact.

As described in the background of the invention, wheel hubs are typically secured to a mounting plate on the end face of an axle by a number of nuts and bolts.

In order to facilitate disassembly and assembly, the nut and bolt used for connection are usually of a common hexagonal shape and can be easily unscrewed by a common hexagonal wrench or pipe wrench tool. But brings convenience, and because the fastener can be easily unscrewed by using a wrench or a sleeve tool at will, the theft prevention performance of the tire or the wheel hub is greatly threatened. The prior art has made some improvements to wheel fasteners to improve theft protection,

fig. 1A-1B are schematic views of a prior art wheel fastener 100. Wherein fig. 1A is a top view of the wheel fastener 100 and fig. 1B is a front view of the wheel fastener 100. As shown in fig. 1A-1B, the modification is to change the original hexagonal shape to an irregular tooth shape 101. For the wheel fastener with irregular tooth shape, the original tool, such as a pipe wrench or a sleeve, can be clamped to the irregular tooth shape 101 only through simple deformation, so that the wheel fastener is unscrewed, and the anti-theft performance is still not high.

Fig. 2A-2B are schematic views of another prior art wheel fastener 200. Fig. 2A is a top view of wheel fastener 200, and fig. 2B is a front view of wheel fastener 200. As shown in fig. 2A-2B, the improved method is to provide a keyway 201 in the end face of the fastener. For the wheel fastener with the key groove arranged on the end face, the key groove 201 can be clamped by using a conventional circular pipe clamp or a simple welding tool (for example, two key grooves 201 are fixed), so that the wheel fastener is unscrewed, and the anti-theft performance is not high.

Fig. 3 illustrates a front view of a sheathing assembly 300 for a wheel fastener according to an embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 4 is a top view of the sheathing assembly 300 for a wheel fastener according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sheathing assembly 300 for a wheel fastener of the present embodiment will now be described with reference to fig. 3 and 4.

As shown in fig. 3, the sheath assembly 300 includes a threaded connector 301, a locking member 302, a movable pin 303, an outer sheath 304, and a retaining member 305.

The threaded connector 301 is connected to a wheel fastener for mounting or dismounting the wheel fastener. The threaded connector 301 may be a connection screw. The threaded connection 301 includes a top portion and a body portion. The top of the threaded connector 301 is provided with a counter bore, the depth of which is less than the thickness of the top. The shape of the counter bores may be regular or irregular. Preferably, the shape of the counterbores is regular for ease of manufacture. The regular shape may be a quadrilateral, a hexagon, etc. The counter bore can be a step-shaped counter bore, and the steps of the step-shaped counter bore can be two layers of steps or more layers of steps. Taking a two-layer step as an example, the two-layer step comprises a bottom surface, a first step surface and a second step surface. The bottom surface may be adapted to the movable pin 303, the first stepped surface may be adapted to the locking member 302, and the second stepped surface may be adapted to the outer sheath. The top can be arranged to be step-shaped, so that the top can be conveniently matched with the outer sheath for use, and the step at the top can correspond to the step of the counter bore. The body portion of the threaded connector 301 is provided with threads that mate with the threads of the wheel fastener to transmit torque to the wheel fastener through the threads to effect installation and removal of the wheel fastener.

Retaining member 302 is disposed in a counterbore in the top of threaded connector 301. The outer profile of the retaining member 302 may be adapted to the shape of the counterbore. For example, as shown in fig. 4 and 5, the outer profile 3021 of the retaining member 302 and the shape of the counter bore are both hexagonal. The retaining member 302 and the counterbore of the threaded connector 301 may be an interference fit, such as a press fit or a shrink fit. The retaining member 302 and the counter bore of the threaded connector 301 may be secured together by other means, such as a keyway arrangement that secures the retaining member 302 and the counter bore of the threaded connector 301 together.

The middle of the retaining member 302 is also provided with a through hole. The edge of the through hole has irregular tooth shape. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the edge 3022 of the through-hole can include a plurality of non-uniformly spaced recesses. In fig. 5, the edge 3022 of the via includes 4 non-uniformly spaced grooves, 3 of which are more concentrated and another of which is spaced further from the 3 concentrated grooves. It will be appreciated that the edge of the through hole may comprise more recesses, e.g. 5, 6, etc. The plurality of grooves at the edge of the through hole may be non-uniformly spaced in other forms, for example, a plurality of grooves may be distributed using random numbers. The shape of the grooves is not limited to the smooth grooves shown in fig. 5, and may be rough grooves. The unlocking member 400 must have a shape that matches the shape of the edge of the through hole to transmit torque to the locking member and unlock the locking member.

The movable pin 303 passes through the through-hole of the locker 302, and at least a portion of the movable pin 303 passing through the through-hole has a size greater than that of the through-hole. The movable pin 303 has different radial dimensions, including, for example, a first dimension d1 and a second dimension d2, the first dimension d1 being smaller than the dimension of the through hole of the lock 302 such that the movable pin 303 can pass through the through hole of the lock 302, and the second dimension d2 being larger than the dimension of the through hole of the lock 302 such that the movable pin can be axially fixed into the counterbore. Wherein the first dimension d1 of the movable pin is not significantly smaller than the dimension of the through-hole, so that the gap between the movable pin and the through-hole is small. The size of the gap may be around 1 cm. The cross section of the movable pin is circular, so that the movable pin can rotate in the counter bore.

An outer jacket 304 is cooperatively disposed on the exterior of the threaded connector 301. As shown in fig. 3, the outer sheath 304 fits over the head of the threaded connector 301. The outer sheath 304 is made of high-strength alloy steel, so that the outer sheath 301 has high strength. The outer sheath 304 may be highly corrosion resistant plated to adapt the hub fastener to various harsh driving environments. The head of the outer sheath 304 is a smooth spherical surface so that the outer sheath 304 cannot be damaged by slipping of an external force tool. The outer sheath 304 is clearance fit with the threaded connector 301 such that the threaded connector 301 is able to rotate within the outer sheath 304. The size of the outer sheath 304 may be adjusted according to the size of the target wheel fastener. A stop 305 is further included between the outer sheath 304 and the threaded connector 301 for limiting axial movement of the threaded connector 301 within the outer sheath 304. The stop 305 may be a snap spring that may be attached to the side wall of the outer sheath 304 in a variety of ways.

Schematic diagrams are used herein to illustrate structures according to embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that not all components are necessary. Rather, certain structures may be omitted. For example, the limiter 350 is not required for the present application and may be omitted or replaced with another structure.

The sheath assembly 300 of this embodiment of the present application can achieve the following technical effects:

(1) has good applicability. By varying the size of the outer diameter of the outer sheath 304, different sizes of wheel fasteners can be accommodated. Compared with the conventional wheel fastener in the market, the sheath assembly 300 only serves as an exterior ornament hanging piece, and the strength problem caused by replacement of the wheel fastener does not exist.

(2) The anti-theft performance is improved. The outer sheath 304 is made of high-strength alloy, the head of the outer sheath 304 is a smooth spherical surface, and an external force tool cannot be used due to slipping, so that illegal external force damage can be resisted; the edge of the through hole of the locking piece 302 has irregular tooth shape, and can be changed into various shapes, and only the unlocking piece 400 matched with the shape of the edge of the through hole can open the sheath assembly; the first dimension d1 of the movable pin 303 is not significantly smaller than the dimension of the through hole, so that the clearance between the movable pin 303 and the through hole is small, and the space for illegal tool activities is further reduced; the activating pin 303 can rotate around an axis and an external tool cannot act on the activating pin to unscrew the threaded connection.

(3) Double protection is realized. The outer sleeve member 304 is made of high-strength alloy steel and high-corrosion-resistant plating, so that in actual use, the anti-theft performance of the wheel fastener is improved, the wheel fastener can bear the influence of severe environment, and the service life of the wheel fastener is prolonged.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the present specific embodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention, and various equivalent changes and substitutions may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore, it is intended that all changes and modifications to the above embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present invention be covered by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A sheath assembly for a wheel fastener, the sheath assembly fitting over a wheel fastener, the sheath assembly comprising:

a threaded connector connected to the wheel fastener; the head of the threaded connector comprises a counter bore;

a locking member disposed in the counterbore of the threaded connection; the locking piece comprises a through hole, and the edge of the through hole has irregular tooth shape;

the outer sheath is arranged outside the threaded connector in a matched mode.

2. The housing assembly of claim 1 wherein the outer profile of the locking member is adapted to the shape of the counterbore.

3. The housing assembly of claim 2 wherein the contour of the locking element and the shape of the counterbore are regular hexagons.

4. The jacket assembly of claim 1, wherein said locking member is an interference fit with said counterbore.

5. The jacket assembly of claim 1, wherein the movable pin is rotatable.

6. The outer jacket assembly of claim 1, wherein the outer jacket is disposed outside of the threaded connection in a clearance fit.

7. The outer jacket assembly of claim 1, further comprising a stop disposed between the threaded connector and the outer jacket for limiting axial movement of the threaded connector.

8. The jacket assembly of claim 7, wherein the retaining member is a snap spring, and the threaded connector comprises a step, and the snap spring is engaged with the step.

9. The outer jacket assembly of claim 1, wherein the material of the outer jacket is a high strength alloy steel.

10. The jacket assembly of claim 1, wherein the head portion of the outer jacket is spherical.