Steering Column Bearing Mount

Bearing Mount for Automotive Steering Column

Use RENCOL® Tolerance Rings to mount a bearing to the column while adjusting the NVH properties of the column.

Traditionally rubber "O" rings or rubber "boots" are used to prevent high frequency vibrations from being transmitted between components.  However for many applications, rubber components have some undesirable characteristics that the designer has to overcome.  RENCOL® custom-designed tolerance rings provide the same benefits as rubber components, but without their undesirable properties.

Bearing Mount Application Example

In this example, the RENCOL® Tolerance Ring is used to mount the upper bearing of a steering column.  The bearing is mounted in the bulkhead of the vehicle and is subject to high temperatures from the engine compartment.

A RENCOL® Tolerance Ring is used for this application as it allowed the designer to prevent noise and vibration from being transmitted to the vehicle interior while using a low cost bearing.

The RENCOL® Tolerance Ring provides very similar spring characteristics to that of a rubber boot, but additionally, the ring is designed to "tune" the "stiffness" of the bearing assembly so that its resonance frequency is above 50 Hz -- i.e. above the typical frequencies of road induced vibrations.

The spring characteristics of the RENCOL® Tolerance Ring remains fairly consistent between -20 and 100°C -- temperatures that the bearing is exposed to in operation -- so avoiding problems with temperature changing the "stiffness" of the joint.