Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1996-04-01
1997-12-16
Culbreth, Eric D.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
2807282, 2807283, B60R 2122
Patent
active
056976380
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a vehicle steering wheel arrangement of the type adapted to accommodate an inflatable bag, commonly referred to as an air bag, as a safety provision.
With the safety of drivers of motor vehicles being put at increasing risk due to greater traffic density, a tendency for higher speed motoring and the attendant rise in motoring accidents, considerable attention has been paid by the motor industry to the development of improved steering wheel arrangements of the above-mentioned type.
While the development of air-bags which operate efficiently in accident emergency situations, has been all important, the development of the steering wheel arrangements which accommodate them and which can be economically produced and installed in motor vehicles on an assembly line, has also been important with a view to making this safety provision more generally available to the motoring public.
In general, proposals for steering wheel arrangements of the above-mentioned type have been such that the so-called airbags, in their inflatable condition, are required to be installed in the vehicle steering wheels prior to, or after, the steering wheels being fixed to their spindles comprising shafts of the steering columns.
According to the present invention there is provided a vehicle steering wheel arrangement comprising a steering column having therein a steering spindle, a mounting hub fixed to the upper end of the spindle, a steering wheel fastened to the mounting hub, wherein the mounting hub has an air bag module attached to a free face and wherein the steering wheel has an integral cover for the air-bag module and has a cavity beneath the cover such as to permit the steering wheel to be mounted over the air-bag module and to be fastened to the mounting hub to thereby house the air bag module in the cavity after the attachment of the air bag module to the mounting hub fixed to the spindle.
This invention provides a means whereby the cost of installation of air bags in motor vehicles on a production line may be substantially reduced. In this connection, the invention permits the air bag module to be attached, albeit indirectly, to the steering spindle before the steering column is installed in a motor vehicle. Further, this invention permits the steering column to be installed before installation of the steering wheel. Because of the limited space available within the driver compartment of a motor vehicle, the associated difficulties in installing an air-bag module in an already installed steering wheel are clearly obviated by this invention. Further, the absence of any need to pre-assemble air bag modules in steering wheels prior to installation leads to greater economy of operation because of the wide variety of steering wheel designs and the absence of the possibility of redundant units. Still further, the integral cover incorporated in the steering wheel employed in this invention reduces the number of manufacturing operations and obviates any need for matching. Finally, this invention provides for steering wheels to be rapidly changed after installation to suit a particular aesthetic or practical need of a customer, without any need to disturb the air bag module.
The vehicle to which the steering wheel arrangement of this invention relates is any steerable vehicle but it is preferably a motor vehicle, particularly a commercial road vehicle or motor car.
The steering column employed in this invention may be any tubular or other shaped support within which is housed the steering spindle. The upper end of the steering spindle may be provided with, for example, splines, grooves, key-ways, screw threads or other means whereby the mounting hub may be fixed thereto. Alternatively the mounting hub may be more permanently fixed to the spindle as by welding, or may be integrally formed with the spindle, for example. The steering column may be provided with a locking device to interact with the steering wheel in known manner as a vehicle security measure.
The mounting hub may be
REFERENCES:
patent: 3910597 (1975-10-01), Seko
patent: 4715617 (1987-12-01), Breed
patent: 5211421 (1993-05-01), Catron et al.
patent: 5351977 (1994-10-01), Grace
Culbreth Eric D.
Ford Global Technologies Inc.
Stock Daniel M.
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