Closure fasteners – Keepers – With movable dog – catch or striker
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-23
2001-01-23
Estremsky, Gary W. (Department: 3627)
Closure fasteners
Keepers
With movable dog, catch or striker
C292SDIG004, C292S340000, C049S280000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176528
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electric lid closures which close and open a lid by force of an electric power, and more particularly to electric closures of a type which is applied to a trunk lid of a motor vehicle to draw down the lid to its fully close position by force of the electric power once the lid comes to a predetermined almost close position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, various lid closures of the above-mentioned type have been proposed and put into practical use particularly in the field of motor vehicles. Some are of a type which comprises a lock unit mounted on a lid and an electric closing unit mounted on a trunk mouth of the vehicle. The lock unit includes a latch plate for latching a striker possessed by the electric closing unit. That is, when the lid is pivoted to an almost close position where the latch plate engages with the striker, the electric closing unit starts to operate and causes a drawing section thereof to draw down the lid, via the latched striker, to a fully close position by force of an electric power. In this fully close position of the lid, the drawing section assumes its lower work position.
When, under this fully close position of the lid, a trunk open lever installed in the vehicle cabin is manipulated, the latch plate disengages the striker to release the lid. Upon this, the electric closing unit operates to move the drawing section upward to its upper stand-by position. Once the drawing section reaches the upper stand-by position, operation of the electric closing unit is stopped.
However, due to the inherent construction, some of the above-mentioned electric lid closures have failed to provide users with satisfied performance. That is, when, for instance, in winter, manipulation of the trunk open lever fails to have the lid sufficiently open due to freezing of some parts of the mechanism irrespective of disengagement of the latch plate from the striker, the following drawback tends to occur. That is, when, under this half-finished condition, the lid is accidentally or carelessly pushed down to a position to bring about an engagement between the latch plate and the striker, the drawing section is forced to move down to the lower work position from the upper stand-by position, which inevitably induces unexpected full closing of the lid. This unexpected action is very inconvenient because an operator has to manipulate the trunk open lever again for opening the lid.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electric lid closure which is free of the above-mentioned drawback.
That is, according to the present invention, there is provided an electric lid closure wherein even when the drawing section is ready to start its drawing action, the drawing action is not permitted if a lid condition detecting means does not sense passing of the trunk lid by a predetermined critical position.
According to the present invention, there is provided an electric lid closure for use with an automotive trunk lid which is able to close a trunk room of the vehicle. The electric lid closure comprises a lock unit mounted to the trunk lid, the lock unit including a latch plate and a locking plate, the locking plate being able to lock the latch plate at a latch position; an electric closing unit mounted to a mouth portion of the trunk room, the electric closing unit including a movable striker engageable with the latch plate, and an electric power mechanism for moving the movable striker between an uppermost position and a lowermost position with an electric power; a first position sensor which senses whether the movable striker assumes the uppermost position or the lowermost position; a second position sensor which senses whether the trunk lid passes by a critical position or not, the critical position corresponding to a position of the movable striker which is above the uppermost position; a third position sensor which senses whether the locking plate locks the latch plate or not; and a control unit which energizes the electric closing unit to pull down the trunk lid to a full close position only when the first position sensor senses the movable striker assuming the uppermost position, the second position sensor senses the trunk lid passing by the critical position and the third position sensor senses the latch plate being locked by the locking plate.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 33758 (1991-12-01), Compeau
patent: 3056619 (1962-10-01), Fox
patent: 4707007 (1987-11-01), Inoh
patent: 5004280 (1991-04-01), Schap
patent: 5066056 (1991-11-01), Schap
patent: 5273325 (1993-12-01), Zimmerman
patent: 5443292 (1995-08-01), Shimada et al.
patent: 5765884 (1998-06-01), Armbruster
patent: 5785364 (1998-07-01), Kleefeldt
patent: 5938253 (1999-08-01), Szablewski
Estremsky Gary W.
Foley & Lardner
Ohi Seisakusho Co. Ltd.
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