Abstract: A deflatable sealing member forms a weatherstrip to seal a closure opening for a vehicle. The sealing member includes a sealed tubular section to provide tight interference engagement between the closure and the vehicle body. A rolling diaphragm pump deflates the sealing member during closing of the closure. Upon deflation, the sealing member collapses to a reduced cross section. This permits easier closing of the closure and avoids compression shock, common on vehicles having tight fitting weatherstriping. An atmospheric vent valve vents the sealing member to the atmosphere upon closing. As a result, the inherent resiliency of the sealing member returns it to full cross section, restoring the desired tight interference engagement. A vacuum limiter valve is provided to limit the level of vacuum within the pump in order to maintain the closing force below a desired maximum.

Abstract: The joint between the tank and header of a heat exchanger comprises a channel formed in the header having an inner wall and a bottom, and a rim or foot on the mating edge of the tank. The space between the foot and the channel bottom and inner wall contains an elastomer gasket which is shaped to allow low assembly forces to deform the gasket and fill the space between the tank foot and header pocket, even when high hardness gasket material is used. The gasket includes an enlarged rib, like an O-ring, between the tank foot and header and an integral web portion extending from the rib into the space between the inner wall and the foot to fill and seal that area as well as the area at the bottom of the foot.

Abstract: A tube and center heat exchanger has headers formed of three flat plates stacked and bonded together. One plate has apertures for receiving the tube ends, the second plate is a spacer and has partitions defining passages for fluid flow from one tube to another, and the third plate is an end cap to enclose the passages and may include inlet and/or outlet ports. The flat plates are stamped from flat sheet stock of braze clad aluminum, the necessary perforations are stamped out and the plates are stacked and riveted into header subassemblies. The tube and center elements are assembled and the tube ends are inserted into the header subassemblies. The whole condenser is brazed to form the bonding between the plates as well as the other elements.

Abstract: A refrigeration condenser has at least two serpentine paths of unequal lengths (effected by unequal numbers of loops in the paths) extending between common inlet and outlet ports. By adding this design capability to the conventional equal path length condensers greater design flexibility is provided to permit smaller incremental size changes from conventional equal path length condensers, and allows inlet and outlet ports to be on the same side or on opposite sides without any change in condenser size or performance.

Abstract: A method for assembling heat exchanger plate pairs by snap fitting with counter-rotating rotors move heat exchanger plates two at a time through paths which converge in a vertical mating plane. Arcuate guides engage the plate ends to control the plate path. The rotors are servomotor controlled to synchronously index the rotor in increments separated by dwell periods. After assembly the merged pairs drop between spaced guides into an assembly fixture. At a subsequent brazing operation each plate pair becomes a tube for carrying refrigerant.

Abstract: A motor vehicle engine mount has two inner bodies which are directed toward each other and form a gap therebetween. Each of these bodies is connected to the interior of a frame via rubber webs and a connecting piece rigidly attached to one of the inner bodies is held in a sliding manner on the other inner body via a slot and a locking screw in the position which becomes established in the loaded resting state. And a release member is added between the screw and such other inner body that is able to freely move at small vibration amplitudes.

Abstract: An oil cooler and a radiator hose are combined in an all polymer structure. Generally concentric hoses provide two coolant paths with the wall of the inner hose providing heat transfer from one fluid to the other. The hoses are flexible or can be formed to conform to desired radiator hose routing. The hoses have deflectable vanes extending from their walls into the fluids to flex according to flow rate. The vanes induce turbulence to improve the thermal transfer especially at low flow rates but deflect at high flow rates to minimize pressure drop due to the vanes.

Abstract: A horn operating means has two contact plates separated from each other by a resilient foam sheet. For contacting, one of the contact plates is deformed by the operating force so much that it will touch the other contact plate. In one embodiment, grooves in the central region of one of the contact plates provide for the necessary operating forces not being greater in the central region than in the edge region.

Abstract: An elastic mounting for engines, machine assemblies and the like, constructed as a housing formed by a rigid mounting lower portion and a vulcanized buffer portion wherein the bearing load can be introduced into the mounting lower portion and into the buffer portion and compressed gas with controllable pressure can be admitted into the inner space of the housing, which acts as an air cushion, as well as a damper portion mounted in the housing with at least one throttle bore communicating with the inner space of the housing.

Abstract: A hydraulic engine mounting system for a vehicle engine includes a pair of engine mount assemblies having elastomeric bodies including two longitudinally aligned integral engine mounts. The mounts are in fluid communication with one another via an integral orifice track molded as a groove at the interface between the elastomeric body and a mating base plate. The engine mount assembly is mounted on a vehicle frame such that the common axis of the hydraulic chambers is situated transversely to the torque axis of the engine. During operation, the engine pitches about this torque axis. The pitching action of the engine causes one end mount to compress forcing hydraulic fluid along the orifice track into the other mount. The other mount simultaneously expands and receives this excess fluid. Advantageously, the flow of fluid along the orifice track produces a damping effect of the motion and vibration to provide isolation from the vehicle frame.

Abstract: A positive displacement rotary mechanism has four identical rotary helical intermeshing lobes that cooperate with a stationary cylindrical member extending centrally thereof to define repetitive working space internal of the lobes having boundaries along and between the lobes and along and between the lobes and the cylindrical member which boundaries move on rotation of the lobes to effect expansion and contraction of the working space while repetitively moving same from one of the ends of the lobes toward their other end.

Abstract: A passive destroker mechanism operated by centrifugal force is added to a variable stroke axial piston wobble plate refrigerant compressor. The destroker operates at a predetermined compressor speed to communicate the discharge side of the compressor with its sealed crankcase to thereby provide a controlled discharge gas bleed thereto to destroke the compressor to a desired displacement. Then after the speed is reduced below such trigger speed, the destroker mechanism operates to return the compressor to its normal stroke control condition.

Abstract: A device for taking samples from a catalyst block of a catalytic converter has a cutting tool rotatably mounted in a base plate that is surrounded by a collecting dish.

Abstract: A sample cell connected through valving to a refrigeration system allows a prescribed mass of refrigerant with entrained oil to be collected and the refrigerant to be vaporized and returned to the system while leaving the oil in a graduated measuring tube. The sample cell has transparent upper and lower portions with graduated bores for measurement of the original sample and the oil residue, and an aluminum middle portion also containing a bore for conducting heat from the ambient air to the refrigerant to assist in the vaporization as well as for normalizing the temperature of the sample during filling.

Abstract: An adaptive vehicle suspension assembly includes a transverse leaf spring mounted in series with pneumatic springs at the front and rear wheels of a motor vehicle. A control circuit includes inlet and exhaust solenoid valves to control the flow of pressurized air into or out of the pneumatic springs, providing variable spring rate and vehicle height. Vehicle sensor switch provides control of the operation of the solenoid valves in response to sensed vehicle height increasing or decreasing the spring rate and providing optimum vehicle ride, load and cornering control.

Abstract: A vacuum operated actuator has a spring biased diaphragm that is exposed on one side to atmosphere and on the other side to a vacuum chamber. An output means is connected to move with the diaphragm and carries a valve means which together with a tube a manually controlled tube operates to connect the vacuum chamber with either atmosphere or with a vacuum source so that the diaphragm and thereby the output moves with the movement and in the direction of the tube so as to provide an output force so as to move the output with a force substantially greater than the input force applied to the tube.

Abstract: A positive displacement rotary mechanism has three and alternatively four identical rotary helical intermeshing lobes of continuously varying pitch that cooperate with a stationary cylindrical member extending centrally thereof to define a repetitive working space internal of the lobes having boundaries along and between the lobes and along and between the lobes and the cylindrical member which boundaries move on rotation of the lobes to effect expansion and contraction of the working space while repetitively moving same from one of the ends of the lobes toward their other end.

Abstract: A mounting for resilient, vibration-damping mounting of components, in particular vehicle components, is constructed as an inner portion, an outer portion surrounding the inner portion at a distance and an elastomeric body disposed between the inner portion and the outer portion. The elastic body has recesses forming fluid chambers which communicate with each other via a throttle pipe and an additional fluid chamber is provided as a pressure chamber for receiving a compressible fluid, wherein the pressure chamber communicates with the fluid chambers connected via the throttle pipe so as to make the manufacture of the mounting simpler and less expensive and to make the setting of the predetermined damping characteristics highly reliable on a broad range.

Abstract: A wobble plate of the type for operating in a variable displacement compressor including a plurality of pistons operatively connected to the wobble plate by a plurality of dumb-bell like piston rods having spherical end portions and a connecting rod extending therebetween. The wobble plate includes a plurality of sockets including an integral lip for retaining the spherical portion of the piston rods contained within each of the sockets against axial displacement and a passageway extending radially outwardly from each of the sockets and opening to a peripheral edge of the wobble plate for allowing insertion of the piston rods from a direction substantially perpendicular relative to the central axis of the wobble plate. Plugs disposed within the passageway prevent inadvertent radial displacement of the spherical ends of the rod members from the sockets.

Abstract: A hydraulic mount has a pair of mounting members, an elastomeric body that connects the mounting members, an elastomeric diaphragm that is connected to one of the members and cooperates with the body to define a closed cavity, and a partition that divides the cavity into a chamber enclosed on one side by the partition and the elastomeric body and another chamber that is enclosed on one side by the partition and the diaphragm. A liquid fills the chambers and a damping orifice connects the chamber to provide damping by throttling liquid flow therethrough. The partition comprises a rigid singular imperforate body that is mounted at a cylindrical surface thereof for unrestrained reciprocal movement within prescribed limits in an interior cylindrical wall of one of the mounting members thereby to effect limited cyclic volume change in the chambers so that the liquid is not then forced through the damping orifice.