Heater-containing grip for vehicles

Details Heater-containing grip for vehicles Heater-containing grip for vehicles

1998-04-20

2000-09-05

Paschall, Mark

Electric heating

Heating devices

With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...

219548, 219544, 219202, 219204, 745518, H05B 102

Patent

active

061146684

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a heater-installed grip for a vehicle such as a motorcycle, a snowmobile, a buggy vehicle and the like, a control device for a heater installed in the vehicle grip, and an electrical connection structure for a heater unit for the grip.


BACKGROUND ART

Such grips are conventionally known, for example, from Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-48463 and the like. As shown in FIGS. 37 and 38, the grip is of a structure in which a flexible printed wiring heater circuit 190 (which will be referred to as an FPC heater hereinafter) is integrally embedded, in a mode in which it has been wound around a semi-cylindrical inner piece 33' made of a synthetic resin, in a cylindrical grip body 35' made of a rubber and capable of being fitted into a pipe-shaped steering handlebar 26. A feeder cord (not shown) is soldered to a lead portion 190a of the FPC heater 190 led out of the grip body 35'.
In producing the grip body 35', the following steps are sequentially conducted as shown in FIG. 39: a step of assembling the inner piece 33' having the FPC heater 190 wound therearound to a core 191; a step of winding a sheet 192 of a raw rubber around the FPC heater 190; a step of bringing dies 193 and 194 in a state in which the resulting sheet has been accommodated therein, into close contact with each other to clamp them; a step of pouring a molten rubber into the dies 193 and 194 at a point when the temperature has reached a level at which the raw rubber sheet 192 within the dies 193 and 194 is molten, thereby forming the grip body 35'; and a step of removing the formed grip body 35' out of the dies 193 and 194 at a point when the rubber within the dies 193 and 194 has been vulcanized, and then cooling the removed grip body 35' by leaving it to stand for a predetermined time.
In the above heater-installed grip, however, the inner piece 33' made of the synthetic resin is formed at a circumferentially constant and relatively large wall thickness. For this reason, the flexibility of the grip body 35' is small, and in press-fitting the steering handlebar 26 into the grip body 35', the grip body 35' cannot follow the movement of the steering handlebar 26 which is press-fitted and hence, it is difficult to press-fit the steering handlebar 26 into the grip body 35'. If the steering handlebar 26 is forcibly press-fitted into the grip body 35', there is a possibility that the inner piece 33' may be cracked, resulting in a very poor assemblability of the grip body 35' to the steering handlebar 26.
Therefore, if the inner piece 33' is formed at a relatively small wall thickness, the flexibility of the grip body 35' is increased, whereby the assemblability of the grip body 35' to the steering handlebar 26 is enhanced and the possibility of cracking of the inner piece 33' is eliminated. However, during clamping of the dies in forming the grip body 35', the inner piece 33' may be cracked in some cases, because it cannot withstand the clamping.
The conventional inner piece 33' suffers from the following problem: Since the conventional inner piece 33' is semi-cylindrical, the rubber layer is cooled and shrunk in the course of cooling of the grip body 35' after being removed from the dies 193 and 194, especially, a rubber layer region a opposed to the inner piece 33' is shrunk, and the circumferentially opposite ends b, b of the inner piece 33' are deformed in a direction to approach each other by such shrinking force and as a result, the grip body 36' is warped.
An electric power for heating a heater in such a heater-installed grip by a heater is supplied from a battery mounted on a vehicle. The capacitor of the battery is limited and hence, it is desirable that the grip is effectively warmed by an electric power as small as possible. In the conventional heater-installed grip, however, the FPC heater is disposed in a uniformly dispersed manner in the grip body and is of a construction to uniformly warm the entire grip. Therefore, to warm the grip up to a comfort temperature, there is a p

REFERENCES:
patent: 3633094 (1972-01-01), Clements
patent: 3733463 (1973-05-01), Low et al.
patent: 4420113 (1983-12-01), Lacroix
patent: 4631976 (1986-12-01), Noda et al.
patent: 5613407 (1997-03-01), Ogata

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