Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Insulated
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-26
2001-11-27
Nguyen, Chau N. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Insulated
C248S051000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323428
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protection structure for a flexible flat cable which is arranged in a single layer or laminated in multiple layers between a fixed member and a movable member which is movable relatively to the fixed member.
2. Description of the Related Art
The flexible flat cable (hereinafter referred to as “FFC”), which has an excellent property for bending or sliding, has been used for the purpose of power supply from the fixed member to the movable member.
However, the FFC itself has no lap. Therefore, if the movable member is repeatedly moved in a two-dimensional arrangement, the FFC may buckle, easily deform owing to any external force and wear. This reduces the life of the FFC greatly. In order to overcome such an inconvenience, several proposals have been made.
For example, in JP-A-10-936, a structure for protection of a harness for power supply (signal line and driving line) is proposed which is arranged in a slide door adopted in a side door of a box type vehicle called “one box car”.
This structure intends to overcome difficulty for a long time due to several causes such as swing, twisting, buckling, etc. Referring to
FIGS. 6-11
, an explanation will be given of the proposed structure.
FIG. 6
shows an entire configuration of the structure for harness protection in a sectional view of a vehicle.
In
FIG. 6
, reference numeral
130
denotes a car body which is a fixed member; and
102
denotes a slide door which is a movable member. The slide door
102
is provided with a lower arm
121
which extends toward the side of the car body
130
. The lower arm
121
is provided with a side roll
122
and a guide roll
123
at its end.
On the side of the car body
130
, a lower rail
125
is formed. On the ceiling
126
of the lower rail
125
, a guide groove
127
is formed. The guide groove
127
, in which the guide roll
123
on the side of the slide door
102
is fit, limits the movement of the slide door
102
in a horizontal direction in FIG.
6
. The side roll
122
, which is placed on the floor
128
of the lower rail
125
, can support the weight of the slide door
102
on the side of the car body
130
.
The one end of the flexible conductor
140
is attached to the lower arm
121
on the side of the slide door
102
whereas the other end of the flexible conductor
140
is attached to a back wall
129
of the lower rail
125
on the side of the car body
130
.
As shown in
FIG. 7
which is a perspective view of the lower arm
121
and flexible conductor
140
, the above one end of the flexible conductor
140
is coupled with an L metal fitting
141
through an end plate
152
. The L metal fitting
141
is tightened onto the above end of the lower arm
121
. The other end of the flexible conductor
140
is tightened to the back wall
129
(
FIG. 6
) through an end plate
148
.
As seen from the front view of
FIG. 8
, the flexible conductor
140
includes a wiring portion
145
on the car body side, a narrow flexible conductor
146
, an end plate
148
which bends an internal wiring at 90° and makes holes
147
, a wide flexible conductor
149
, an end plate
152
which makes bolt holes
151
on the door side. The section of the main part is structured as shown in FIG.
9
.
The narrow flexible conductor
153
, as shown in
FIG. 9
, includes six signal lines
155
and two driving lines
156
which are fixed by resin laminate
157
in a state where they are arranged in parallel. The wide flexible conductor
149
, as shown in
FIG. 10
, includes six signal lines
155
and two driving lines
156
which are fixed by a flexible resin belt
158
in a state where they are arranged in parallel. It should be noted that the flexible resin belt
158
is approximately twice as high as the resin laminate
157
.
FIG. 11
shows another example
150
of the wide flexible conductor. The wide flexible conductor
150
includes the narrow flexible conductor
153
and two thin resin plates
150
a
bonded on both sides thereof.
An explanation will be given of the effects of the flexible conductor when the slide door
102
is opened or closed.
The flexible conductor
140
shown in
FIG. 8
is bent in a U-shape when viewed in plan (FIG.
7
). The one end thereof follows the movement of the slide door
102
while its bending position varies.
In this case, since the flexible belt
158
(
FIG. 10
) is about twice as high as the resin laminate
157
, it has an extremely large sectional coefficient and sectional secondary moment. Therefore, the flexible belt
158
is difficult to warp and loose shape.
The flexible belt
158
overlaps the vertical wall of the guide groove
127
in contact with each other (FIG.
6
). Therefore, even if the flexible conductor
140
is horizontally inclined slightly when the slide door
102
is opened or closed, it does not come off the guide groove
127
.
Further, even if the bottom of the flexible belt
158
wears owing to its sliding friction with the floor
128
(FIG.
6
), the signal line
155
and driving line
156
(
FIG. 10
) are not naked.
In order to protect the signal line
155
and driving line
156
when the slide door
102
is opened or closed, the prior art shown in
FIGS. 6
to
11
adopts the structure of fixing these lines by the resin laminate
157
and the flexible belt
158
.
However, in such a structure, it is necessary to assure a sufficient space for arranging the flexible belt
158
in a vertical direction of a car. Such a space can be assured in the lower rail
125
(
FIG. 6
) on which the side roll
122
moves. The structure according to the prior art cannot be applied to all mechanical components.
In addition, it is guessed that the flexible conductor
140
as shown in
FIG. 8
is manufactured by individually resin-molding the respective components, i.e. narrow flexible conductors
153
,
146
, wide flexible conductor
149
, and end plates
148
,
152
. This technique requires a large number of man-hours, thus leading to increase in cost.
Further, the wide flexible conductor
149
is difficult to warp as described above and the rigidity thereof is also unbalanced in its width direction. Therefore, when the opening/closing operation is repeated, the flexible conductor
149
becomes deformed gradually. This may interfere with power supply to and the opening/closing operation of the slide door
102
. Furthermore, the flexible conductor
149
does not have the excellent bending or sliding characteristic like a flexible flat cable which have been widely used.
In the future, it is expected that the number of the signal lines is increased owing to necessity of various kinds of signals to be transmitted to the slide door
102
. This requires the design to be changed for assuring the arranging space in a vertical direction of the car.
Thus, the above prior art, which intends to protect the signal line
155
and driving line
156
in a manner of fixing them using the flexible belt
158
or the like, encounters the various problems described above.
Accordingly, it is demanded to provide a new protection structure for lengthening the life of the flexible flat cable using its advantage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a protection structure for a flexible flat cable which can lengthen its life in a simple structure.
In order to attain the above object, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a protection structure of a flexible flat cable which is arranged in a single or multiple layers between a fixed member and a movable member which can move relatively to the fixed member, comprising: a plate member having flexibility which can follow the operation of the FFC, the plate member being arranged along the FFC, and a heat-shrinkable tube covering both FFC and plate member.
In this configuration, the plate member has flexibility enough to follow the movement of the FFC, the FFC can maintain the excellent property such as bending.
The plate member prevents the FFC from buckling or deforming when the slide door which is mova
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Nguyen Chau N.
Yazaki -Corporation
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