Closure fasteners – Bolts – Swinging
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-02
2004-03-02
Miller, William (Department: 3677)
Closure fasteners
Bolts
Swinging
C292S201000, C292SDIG002
Reexamination Certificate
active
06698805
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor vehicle door lock, more particularly to an electric side door lock of a motor vehicle body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A motor vehicle door lock in the form of an electric lock has long been known as disclosed in DE 195 45 722 A1.
In accordance with the present invention it should be considered that in the terminology a “motor vehicle door lock” is defined particularly as side door locks of motor vehicle bodies, but may also include door locks for rear doors or rear hatches, for sliding doors and hoods, to the extent they are provided with an electric motorized opening aid. The expression motor vehicle door lock or the expression electric lock is used below representatively for the different types of door locks.
Further, in accordance with the present invention the key collar is defined as a wedge-shaped clamp in a narrow sense, but may also include locking clips, locking clips with a transversely lying locking pin and free-standing locking pin, as well as all other types of counterpieces to the door lock on the opposing body component.
An inlet channel for the key collar is made in the housing of the motor vehicle door lock, often also in an additional mounting part which is located in the housing and which is generally called a catch bearing. The inlet channel is completed by the corresponding inlet slots in metal reinforcing plates on the front and/or back of the outside housing; they are often also called the first and the second rear sheet.
Rotary latches and detent pawls are typical lock elements of one such motor vehicle door lock, the rotary latch currently being made mostly as a fork latch with a preliminary catch and a main catch. The rotary latch and the detent pawl include ordinary additional parts such as the detent pawl spring and the rotary latch springs, as are of course known from the prior art. Motor vehicle door locks are also known with simply one locking catch, which replaces the rotary latch and the detent pawl, and these motor vehicle door locks also lie within the framework of this invention.
The blocking elements, bearing bolts for the blocking elements and the rear sheets generally consist of metal in order to be able to accommodate and deflect the tearing forces which occur in practice, especially in an accident. The outside housing, other mounting components and the catch bearing of a motor vehicle door lock currently consist mostly of plastic, often fiber-reinforced plastic. To some extent also metal inserts and metal parts are additionally used.
An electric lock is characterized by a minimum number of installation parts because the sole control function is lifting the detent pawl off the rotary latch. All other functions which are accomplished in mechanical door locks by lever arrangements are replaced in an electric lock by switching functions of the electronic circuit or the software by which the drive motor is triggered or not triggered.
The known electric lock disclosed in DE 195 45 722 A1 shows an outside housing which is essentially closed on all sides and which is made as a plastic molding. It is disclosed there that the outside housing according to one preferred development is made essentially symmetrical to its center plane which lies in or parallel to the plane of the rotary latch and detent pawl and consists of two half shells which are made of plastic, are provided on the outside with metallic reinforcing plates, and are connected to one another. This outside housing is made elongated and plate-like and on the two flat sides parallel to the center plane is provided in the half facing the lengthwise end with an inlet slot, the two inlet slots jointly forming the through inlet channel. The inlet channel with the inlet slots on the two flat sides of the outside housing is the catch bearing of the key collar.
The above explained construction of the known electric lock allows easy installation for both left-hand entry and right-hand entry of the key collar or also for middle entry of the key collar for example on a rear door or rear hatch. The flat and slender contour of the outside housing is also suited for limited installation space.
The above noted electric lock is disclosed on the one hand as a pure electric lock, in which redundancy is achieved by electrical means, for example by an extra battery or other additional power supply as disclosed in EP 0 589 158 A1, but can also be additionally equipped with auxiliary mechanical actuation of the detent pawl via Bowden cables. Reference should be made to these publications for the various possibilities of the configuration of auxiliary mechanical actuation.
In accordance with the present invention, there is no auxiliary mechanical actuation; it is intended to be primarily a pure electric lock with optionally electrically implemented redundancy. In any case auxiliary mechanical actuation accomplished as in the prior art is not entirely precluded, in particular does not contradict the implementation of the present invention.
In the above explained prior art, it has already been recognized that the concept of an electric lock offers a high level of antitheft protection, because even after forcible entry into the motor vehicle the door locks cannot be unlocked since the microswitches on the inside door handles have been deactivated via the control electronics. Due to the extensive encapsulation of the rotary latch and the detent pawl which is implemented in this motor vehicle door lock with the electric drive unit in the closed outside housing, it is not possible to act mechanically on the detent pawl either. It has, however, been recognized that the inlet slot theoretically offers a point of potential penetration. To this extent a special antitheft measure has been proposed such that in the outside housing there is an antitheft lever which blocks the detent pawl in the engaged position in a down position and which is pretensioned in the direction of the lifting position. This antitheft lever is activated by the electrical drive unit in the “antitheft” operating position of the electric lock.
In the above explained prior art, the electric drive unit has a drive motor, step-down gearing and a driven element. In this embodiment there is an electric drive motor which interacts via toothed gearing with a threaded spindle and a threaded rod in order to actuate the detent pawl. In another embodiment, the electric drive motor interacts with a worm gear pair with a worm gear as the driven element which has an eccentrically arranged arc-shaped crank of a certain contour which, upon actuation of the electric drive motor is caused to rotate and strikes the driver arm of the detent pawl lever which for its part lifts the detent pawl. The driver arm of the detent pawl lever is made so long that the crank can start in both directions of rotation. In one direction of rotation it acts with a low step-down ratio on the detent pawl so that the detent pawl is quickly lifted, in the opposite direction of rotation it acts with a much greater step-down ratio on the detent pawl lever and thus on the detent pawl so that an increased breakaway moment is available and opens the electric lock even with a high door counterpressure.
A corresponding drive unit of a motor vehicle door lock which operates likewise in two directions of rotation is disclosed in DE 197 10 531 A1, on the cam wheel which is used as the driven element there are two individual cams or journals which are offset by 180° against one another in order to keep the starting times of the drive as short as possible.
Electric drive units are also known which work in only one direction of rotation, even if optionally reset by reversing under spring force, however, such devices have a degressive starting characteristic, therefore when starting they would first apply a high moment which as the lifting motion of the detent pawl continues is reduced incrementally or continuously as set forth in DE 41 19 703 C1.
In the above explained known electric lock,
Brose Simon
Erices Bernardo
Ho Thomas
Miller William
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Safran David S.
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