Electricity: circuit makers and breakers – Special application – Steering wheel – shaft or column mounted
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-29
2003-07-01
Friedhofer, Michael (Department: 2832)
Electricity: circuit makers and breakers
Special application
Steering wheel, shaft or column mounted
Reexamination Certificate
active
06586692
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounting steering switch which is attached to a steering wheel of an automobile and is served for manipulating various equipment such as an automatic transmission.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, there has been known a technique in which a plurality of steering switches are mounted at an arbitrary position of a steering wheel and when a driver selectively manipulates these steering switches, the transmission gears are shifted up or down manually in the midst of travelling within a drive range, for example.
As a conventional example of such a vehicle-mounting steering switch, there has been proposed a vehicle-mounting steering switch in which a plurality of manipulating knobs are arranged at a front surface or both front and back surfaces of a pad extending toward the inside of a ring of the steering wheel and press switches are respectively housed in the inside of respective manipulating knobs. These press switches incorporate movable contacts and fixed contacts therein. When the manipulating knob is in the unpushed state, the movable contacts in the press switches are separated from the fixed contacts so that the press switch becomes the OFF state. On the other hand, when the push manipulation of an arbitrary manipulating knob is performed, the movable contact in the corresponding press switch is brought into contact with the fixed contact so that the press switch performs the ON operation.
In the vehicle-mounting steering switch having such a constitution, when the driver selectively performs the push manipulation of an arbitrary manipulating knob while gripping the ring of the steering wheel, the press switch housed in the inside of the manipulating knob performs the ON operation so that the transmission gears can be shifted up in response to an ON signal, for example, while when the driver performs the push manipulation of the separate manipulating knob, the separate press switch which is housed in the inside of the manipulating knob performs the ON operation so that the transmission gears can be shifted down in response to the ON signal.
As mentioned previously, the conventional vehicle-mounting steering switch is constituted such that a plurality of manipulating knobs are arranged at the arbitrary position of the steering wheel and by selectively performing the push manipulation of these manipulating knobs using a finger of the driver, the ON/OFF operations of the respective press switches housed in the inside of respective manipulating knobs are performed. Accordingly, when two different controls consisting of “shift-up” and “shift-down”, for example, are performed in response to the ON/OFF changeover signals of respective press switches, it is necessary for the driver to perform the selective push manipulation of at least two manipulating knobs. Particularly, when the driver continuously performs the changeover of two controls, the driver has to largely move his finger from one manipulating knob to the other manipulating knob so that there still exists room for improvement in terms of the operability.
Further, as mentioned above, in the conventional vehicle-mounting steering switch, at least two manipulating knobs are necessary for performing two different controls and these manipulating knobs are arranged at a pad of the steering wheel. However, it is usually necessary to ensure a space for installing a horn switch, an airbag and the like in the pad of the steering wheel so that there arises a problem that the space for installing the manipulating knobs is largely restricted. Particularly, when the same control function is given to the left and right manipulating knobs to enhance the operability, it is necessary to arrange four manipulating knobs in total at the pad of the steering wheel, that is, two steering wheels at the left side and another two steering wheels at the right side of the pad. Such an arrangement which arranges a large number of manipulating knobs in the limited space of the steering wheel also gives rise to a problem that the degree of freedom of design is significantly restricted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances of the prior art and it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle-mounting steering switch which exhibits excellent operability and also can minimize the space for installation.
To achieve the abovementioned objects, a vehicle-mounting steering switch according to the present invention includes a support member which is mounted on a steering wheel having spokes thereof extended in the inside of an annular ring thereof, a manipulating knob which is rotatably and pivotally supported on the support member, and output changeover means which is capable of outputting two different kinds of electric signals in response to a rotating direction of the manipulating knob, wherein the manipulating knob is protruded into a space defined between the spokes and the ring, and wherein the manipulating knob is rotatably manipulated in directions opposite to each other with respect to a rotationally neutral position of the manipulating knob, whereby the output changeover means selectively outputs one of the electric signals.
In the vehicle-mounting steering switch having such a constitution, when a driver pushes one manipulating knob which is protruded into the space defined between the spokes and the ring of the steering wheel toward the depth side or pulls such a manipulating knob in the front direction with his finger, two different kinds of electric signals are selectively outputted from the output changeover means in response to the rotating direction of the manipulating knob. Accordingly, two different controls can be performed with the push/pull manipulation of one manipulating knob so that the operability can be enhanced and the installation space can be reduced.
In the abovementioned constitution, it is preferable that the output changeover means is constituted of a first contact member which is mounted on the supporting member and a second contact member which is mounted on the manipulating knob and relative positions of these first and second contact members are changed in response to the rotating direction of the manipulating knob. By distributing the constituent members of the output changeover means to the support member and the manipulating knob in this manner, the vehicle-mounting steering switch can be miniaturized. In this case, a circuit board on which a conductive pattern such as a resistance pattern and a contact pattern is formed is preferably used as the first contact member and a sliding element which is brought into slide contact with the conductive pattern is preferably used as the second contact member. Due to such a constitution, two kinds of electric signals can be outputted from the circuit board which is mounted on the fixed-side supporting member so that the pulling-around of the signals is facilitated.
To achieve the abovementioned objects, a vehicle-mounting steering switch according to the present invention includes a support member which is mounted on a steering wheel having spokes thereof extended in the inside of an annular ring thereof, a manipulating knob which is rotatably and pivotally supported on the support member and is protruded into a space defined between the spokes and the ring, and a push element which is inserted between the support member and the manipulating knob and is brought into pressure contact with a cam face upon receiving a biasing force of a resilient member, and output changeover means which is capable of outputting two different kinds of electric signals in response to a rotating direction of the manipulating knob, wherein the manipulating knob is held at a rotationally neutral position when the push element is disposed at a valley of the cam face, and wherein when the manipulating knob is rotatably operated in directions opposite to each other with respect to a rotationally neutral position, the push element
Alps Electric Co. ,Ltd.
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Friedhofer Michael
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