Closure fasteners – Bolts – Swinging
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-26
2002-10-29
Luu, Teri Pham (Department: 3627)
Closure fasteners
Bolts
Swinging
C292S216000, C292SDIG002
Reexamination Certificate
active
06471259
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to locks in general, and more particularly to locks that are operated by motors, especially electric motors, and that are well suited for use in motor vehicles to secure such parts as doors, hatches and/or hoods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Motor vehicle locks of the type referred-to above have already been known and used for many years in a variety of constructions and employing a variety of structural and operational principles; a more recent trend is to install such locks in passenger cars not only at the high end of the price spectrum but even in the intermediate range. Electrically powered drives equipped with worm gear transmissions are especially popular choices for this application, the main reason for this preference being their particularly small dimensions. Typically, the output element of such a drive is so connected to the lock catch component that the latter is capable of conducting free movement in the closing sense. This feature is based on the consideration that even a powerful slamming of the car door should result in entrainment of the lock catch component ahead of the drive output element.
Typically, when an auxiliary closing drive that is powered by a motor, especially an electric motor, is employed, it is activated only after the lock catch component has already reached its preliminary closing position. This preliminary closing position is ordinarily that in which the catch component is situated at a preliminary abutment or slightly behind it in the closing direction (overstroke). From there, the catch component is moved by the motor-powered drive in the closing direction, ordinarily one in which the main abutment of the catch component is engaged. The displacement of the lock catch component into its main closing position by means of the corresponding output component of the auxiliary closing drive is, however, often plagued by the problem that, should the output element of the drive come to a stop before the corresponding force-transmitting surface of the lock catch component had been reached, the motor vehicle door may become blocked. Moreover, even during the closing operation itself, that is in the course of closing the vehicle door by means of the auxiliary closing drive, there may arise emergency situations; for instance, adornment chain links or garment pieces may become caught between the door and the door frame. To address this issue, it has already been proposed to employ, as revealed for instance in the European patent document EP-B-0 496 736, mechanical, keyactivated emergency release elements, or coupling linkages or levers that are liftable manually, for instance via the external door handle, as disclosed for example in the German patent document DE-A-38 36 771.
In a known lock for automobile doors or the like (that disclosed in the German patent document DE-A-197 14 992) of which the present invention is a further development, there is provided an uncoupling possibility for the auxiliary closing drive in emergency situations that operates without the need for applying mechanical action or influence from the outside on the lock mechanism. To this end, an electromagnetic coupling is integrated into the step-down transmission embodied in the vehicular door lock of this type, this coupling serving to couple the electrical driving motor with or uncouple it from the driving element. In this construction, the engaged electromagnetic coupling is disengageable even while the electric driving motor is running, in dependence on the satisfaction of an uncoupling criterion. A preferred criterion is the pulling on the external (or the internal) door handle; this starts an electrically executed or performed switching process that leads to or results in the disengagement of the electromagnetic coupling. This corresponds on purpose to the intuitive action taken by the affected person even in the context of a motor vehicle equipped with purely mechanical vehicle door locks when confronted with the need for quickly opening the car door again while the door closing process is already on its way or had even been completed, for instance to release a coat portion clamped between the door and the vehicle body.
In the just referred-to patent document, it is further explained that one could also use, as alternatives to the above solution, a switching off of the drive motor or reversal in the sense of rotation of the electric drive motor of the auxiliary closing drive, on the basis of the release triggering criterion or event.
With respect to further previously proposed technical solutions relevant to this theme, and also to examples of auxiliary closing drives corresponding thereto, attention may and hereby is directed to the aforementioned German patent document DE-A-197 14 992.
The lock for doors or vehicles or the like that had been previously explained in some detail and forms the basis of the present invention is in all other respects an electrically operated lock of a modern construction in which there is further provided an electrically powered auxiliary opening drive which is switched on or activated in order to lift the lock catch component out of its full closure or preliminary or partial closure engagement for the purpose of opening the door. Even here, the release triggering criterion may be and often is a pull on either the internal or the external release or opening handle or grip when the vehicular lock is unlocked. As a result of this action, the electrical auxiliary opening drive is set in operation and thereafter acts on a lock latch component in such a manner that the latter is lifted out of its engaged position with the lock catch component. Detailed solutions addressing this aspect have been known, in principle, for quite some time, as evidenced for instance by the German patent documents DE-A-29 49 319 and DE-A-32 42 527, but also from the German patent document DE-C-43 21 586 and the European patent document EP-A-0 589 158.
In the electric motor operated drives for such purely electrically powered motor vehicle door locks, the displacement times of and the maximum force that can be applied (disengagement force) to the lock catch component are given or predetermined by the dimensioning or selection of the available motor torque, step-down ratio of the step-down transmission and the geometry or configurations of the lock latch and lock latch components. In normal operation, when the vehicle is intact and the on-board electrical network of the vehicle delivers its full design voltage to the electrically powered parts of the lock, it is possible, by using a single-stage step-down transmission, to open the vehicle door lock within a predetermined time interval of 150 milliseconds so long as the force acting on the lock catch component that is to be overcome does not exceed approximately 1,000 Newtons. However, under certain, relatively infrequently encountered circumstances or conditions (icing, accident or the like), the forces acting on and/or to be overcome before being able to release the lock catch component may be substantially higher than that, so that then the lock catch component cannot be lifted out of its engaged state without resorting to extraordinary measures. Yet, it is desirable that, even under these conditions, the electric motor powered motor vehicle door lock be able to overcome comparable forces with approximately the same response characteristic as encountered in a purely mechanically operated vehicle door lock while still achieving acceptably low displacement times. This should be achievable even if the voltage supplied by the on-board electrical network and/or by a reserve battery is significantly reduced from its nominal or design level. However, one has to bear in mind that, in such emergency or extraordinary situations, forces of up to approximately 7,500 Newtons may be acting on the lock catch component. It can then be easily imagined how high the magnitude of the frictional forces to be overcome during the disengagement of the lo
Erices Bernardo
Weyerstall Bernd
Luu Teri Pham
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Safran David S.
LandOfFree
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