Title: Wear experiment of ball joints under multi-axis loads using special developed fixtures

Authors: Guosheng Han; Wen-Bin Shangguan; Guo-Feng Zheng; Zhi Hong Yin

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China ' School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China ' School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China ' School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

Abstract: A method for measuring wear performance of a ball joint is proposed, and a method for designing a special fixture for ball joint wear measurement with four-axis is presented. Based on the proposed methods, a test rig for measuring wear performance of a ball joint is developed and manufactured. The offline control strategy to the special fixture is used to reproduce the load spectrum of the ball joint acquired in the real load conditions. One ball joint taken from an automotive suspension is used to measure the wear characteristics using the developed test fixture and hydraulic actuators. The wear properties of the ball joint before and after experiment are compared and analysed. It is shown that the developed fixture and the proposed test procedures can be used for the wear measurement of a ball joint with standard force or torque actuators at lab.

Keywords: ball joint; wear measurement; four-axis wear test fixture; load spectrum; motion decoupling; offline control; remote parameter control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVP.2020.104499

International Journal of Vehicle Performance, 2020 Vol.6 No.1, pp.85 - 97

Received: 19 Apr 2019
Accepted: 06 Aug 2019

Published online: 15 Jan 2020 *

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