Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-24
2004-09-07
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
active
06786540
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a drive device for motor vehicle sliding sunroofs, having two flexible drive transmission elements which are in driving connection, one on one side and the other on an opposite side of a displaceable element that is displaceable in one direction or another direction of movement, in the form of a cover of the sliding sunroof construction, with guide components for the displaceable element, and which may be synchronously displaced in the one or the other direction of movement by engagement with a rotatable toothed pinion, which may be selectively driven in one or another direction of rotation.
The term “motor vehicle sliding sunroof” or “sliding sunroof”, used alone or in phrases, is intended, for the purposes of the present invention, to cover all designs in which at least one cover is associated displaceably with a roof opening of a motor vehicle and is movable by means of the drive device. These include designs in which the cover may be slid under the fixed rear roof surface to uncover the roof opening after lowering of its rear edge and also slide and lift sunroofs, in which the cover may additionally be tilted from its position closing the roof opening about a tilt axis provided in the vicinity of its front edge so as to project above the fixed roof surface. Finally, this definition is also intended to cover those designs in which the cover may be displaced more or less to the rear over the fixed rear roof surface after lifting of its rear edge (“spoiler roofs”). Roof designs are also included in which at least one cover is made not of sheet metal or glass but as a folding roof of flexible surface material.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Common to all the known drive devices of the above-mentioned type (e.g. DE 38 03 816 A1, DE 38 09 949 A1, DE 195 31 514 C1, DE 32 21 487 A1) is that the two flexible drive transmission elements are drive cables consisting of a stranded flexible core of steel wires, onto which a “working winding” of a steel wire of circular cross section is firmly wound in the manner of a helix. The pinion located stationarily on the sliding sunroof construction and driven via a crank handle transmission or an electric gear motor engages with its toothing directly in the working windings of both drive cables in the manner of a rack drive. The drive cables are guided displaceably in tensile stress- and compression-resistant manner in guide channels and/or guide tubes and transmit the adjusting and actuating movements to the guide components of the cover, with which they are in driving connection.
These drive devices with drive cables as drive transmission elements, which have been known for a long time and used on a large scale, have been constantly further developed and have definite advantages but also design-dependent disadvantages. For instance, an ideal tooth shape on the pinion, which would correspond to a normal optimised toothed gear, cannot be achieved because of the circular cross-sectional circumference of the wire working winding and the unavoidable dimensional tolerances with regard to the drive cable, the pinion itself and the guide elements for the drive cables. Moreover, it cannot be ensured that there is always at least one tooth of the pinion engaged with each of the two drive cables, resulting in jerky, uneven advance of the drive cables. At the same time, the active circle of the pinion changes due to play in the tooth engagement movement, and also due to resilient deflection movements of the drive cables. As a consequence, when the known drive devices are actuated, vibrations may be excited which are transmittable to the frame structure of the sliding sunroof and thus to the vehicle roof itself, whereby disturbing noise may develop during adjusting and driving movements of the sliding sunroof, especially when the pinion is driven by an electric motor. Due to the inevitable contact between the working winding and the walls of the guide elements for the drive cables, disturbing scraping noises and increased material abrasion at the corner radii of the cable guides may arise during adjusting and driving movements. Finally, it should also be mentioned that the manufacturing method for the drive cables is relatively complex, such that the drive cables have a considerable effect on the cost of the known drive devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide a drive device of the above-mentioned type, which allows even, low-noise adjusting and driving movements of the drive transmission elements to be achieved without vibration excitation while keeping the design of the drive device simple and economic.
According to the present invention, there is provided a drive device for motor vehicle sliding sunroofs, having two flexible drive transmission elements which are in driving connection, one on one side and the other on an opposite side of a displaceable element that is displaceable in one direction or another direction of movement, in the form of a cover of the sliding sunroof construction, with guide components for the displaceable element, and which may be synchronously displaced in the one or the other direction of movement by engagement with a rotatable toothed pinion, which may be selectively driven in one or another direction of rotation; wherein the two flexible drive transmission elements take the form of endless, tensile stress-resistant toothed belts, which are provided on an inside thereof with internal toothing complementary to the toothing of the pinion, wherein deflection of the two toothed belts takes place at one end in each case with partial wrap of the pinion and at the other end in each case by means of a deflection element.
The use according to the invention of endless toothed belts as drive transmission elements allows the avoidance of all the cited disadvantages of drive cables. The endless toothed belts transmit only tensile forces to the guiding and adjusting components located on each side of the cover. The toothed belts have a continuous force profile, such that driving engagement may be achieved at any point apart from the deflection points of the toothed belts, wherein driving engagement for the guiding and adjusting components each side of the cover is intended to be effected at toothed belt portions moving in the same direction. Due to the partial angle of wrap of the toothed belt, which amounts preferably to 180° of the pinion circumference, a plurality of pinion teeth are always engaged with toothed belt teeth, such that no noise-generating influences may result from the tooth engagement situation.
Where “endless” toothed belts are mentioned herein, the term naturally includes those toothed belts which are produced to start with as toothed belt pieces of the desired total length or are cut to length, their two ends optionally being joined together in a suitable manner to form an endless toothed belt after installation on the drive device.
The internal toothing of the toothed belts and the pinion is advantageously spur toothing, so optimising tooth engagement. If the tooth flanks on both sides are constructed appropriately, virtually play-free tooth engagement may be achieved.
To reduce friction in the drive system, the deflection elements are advantageously constructed as deflection rollers mounted rotatably on the sliding sunroof construction, which deflection rollers may, in the event of corresponding guidance of the toothed belts, correspond in thickness approximately to the toothed belt width, i.e. they may be simply disk-shaped in the interests of keeping the structural height of the drive device low. Like the driven pinion, the deflection rollers are preferably provided with toothing in which the internal toothing of the toothed belt engages.
In a further development of the drive device, the tension of the toothed belts may be adjusted in each case by means of a tensioning device. These tensioning devices are preferably in active connection with the deflection rollers. It is expedient for the deflection rollers to be mounted rotata
Friedrich Norbert
Hattass Rainer
ArvinMeritor GmbH
Carlson & Gaskey & Olds
Pedder Dennis H.
LandOfFree
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