| 摘要 |
A protective bellows (5) for protecting the steering mechanism of a motor vehicle body is shown. The bellows has a fixing collar (12) for gripping the outside of the casing (18) of the steering mechanism, and a fixing collar (14) for gripping a mounting region (20) of the steering rod (16). In order to be fitted into position, however, the fixing collar (14) has to be stretched to pass over a boss (22) of diameter A. The bellows is produced by blow-moulding from EPDM-polypropylene or similar thermoplastic material. Because of the lesser resilience of this material, compared with previously used materials such as thermoplastic polyurethane, the initial diameter of the fixing collar (14) has to be selected in dependence on the relative values for the diameters of the boss (22) and the mounting region (20) in order to ensure that the pressure with which the fixing collar (14) grips the mounting region (20) provides adequate sealing not only initially but throughout the expected life of the bellows. <IMAGE> |
