Chemistry: electrical and wave energy – Processes and products – Electrophoresis or electro-osmosis processes and electrolyte...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-02
2001-08-28
Estremsky, Gary W. (Department: 1741)
Chemistry: electrical and wave energy
Processes and products
Electrophoresis or electro-osmosis processes and electrolyte...
C204S486000, C204S487000, C292SDIG005, C292SDIG006
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280592
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the technology of coating locking elements to enhance ease of use, and more particularly, to an economical technique for modifying the surfaces of locking elements in an automotive hood latch mechanism to facilitate long-term repeatability of hood pop-up without corrosion interference.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Early hood latch mechanisms did not employ springs and automatic, or staged, pop-up of the hood. Such mechanisms consisted of a hasp attached to the underside of the hood which was caught by pivotal catch that could be released by turning or pulling a rod or cable, or by pushing a lever (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,832,621, 4,054,309, 4,441,345, and 4,456,289). Little attention was paid to how environmental corrosion or rubbing friction affected the effort needed to release the catch. More recent mechanisms employ pop-up springs that assist in raising the hood when the latch is released. The pop-up feature may be designed to lift the hood only a short distance equivalent to an ajar condition allowing an operator to fully grasp the edge of the hood for movement. In such designs, movements of levers and pawls are calibrated closely to allow for the selection of the smallest spring forces while still allowing for ease of hood pop-up. Interengaging surfaces that pivot or rub together usually experience aggravated corrosion over time and modification of the surfaces to the point that the spring forces become insufficient to provide adequate pop-up. It is desirable to keep the coefficient of friction of the interengaging surfaces as constant throughout the life of the time mechanism; this requires attention to protection from corrosion, as well as to decrease the initial rubbing coefficient between such interengaging surfaces.
Efforts to paint or grease the entire latch mechanism assembly to guard against corrosion have been only successful in part because the readily exposed surfaces have some degree of oxidation protection. However, interengaging bearing surfaces at the axes of the levers or pawls do not get painted because the paint liquid cannot penetrate and reach such hidden surfaces in the assembly or the paint is inhibited from reaching such surfaces due to the Farraday cage effects when electrocoating such assemblies for high volume production. Thus such hidden interengaging surfaces are affected by the migration and penetration of oxygen to corrode such surfaces in service.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide an automotive hood latch mechanism that has both enhanced anti-friction pivoting surfaces and anti-corrosion characteristics for the entire assembly so that a manual low force operation can actuate the pop-up mechanism to function properly throughout the life of the latch mechanism.
In a first aspect, the method particularly is a more economical method of making an automotive hood latch mechanism which has a frame and a plurality of interengaging elements, as well as springs for biasing the pivotal elements to certain positions which bias must be overcome to assume a catching position, the method comprising: (a) cleansing the parts in an individual unassembled condition, and phosphating other of said parts than the pivotal elements; (b) coating the pivotal elements with a mixture of non-conductive resin and lubricious solid film material; (c) after removing excess mixture from the coated pivotal elements, curing the resin and lubricious solid film coating in a heated oven; (d) assembling the coated cured pivotal elements with the remainder of the hood latch mechanism; and (e) electrically charging the assembly and subjecting such assembly to a cathodic electrocoating process for applying paint thereto, the electrocoated paint adhering to only the parts which have not been coated with said mixture.
The invention in a second aspect is a hood latching mechanism for catching, in one position, a hasp attached to a hood, the mechanism comprising: (a) interengaging pivotal elements including pins for pivotally carrying the elements, (b) a frame having first and second parts on opposite sides of the pivotal elements, the parts being held tightly together by pins pivotally carrying the pivot elements, (c) springs biasing the pivotal elements to predetermined positions away from the one hasp catching position, and (d) a coating on the pivotal elements including the pins, the coating consisting of non-conductive resin and lubricious solid film, and the frame and springs having a cathodic electrodeposited paint thereon, the coatings facilitating ease of manually overriding the springs to promote controlled release of the catching position throughout the life of the mechanism.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3630557 (1971-12-01), Pierce
patent: 3787294 (1974-01-01), Kurosaki
patent: 5223104 (1993-06-01), Grassi
patent: 5236565 (1993-08-01), Muller
patent: 5348634 (1994-09-01), Matsuo
patent: 5618069 (1997-04-01), Konchan
patent: 5624978 (1997-04-01), Soltwedel
patent: 5958847 (1999-09-01), Novak
patent: 6114040 (2000-09-01), Gebregiorgis
LaDuke Jeff
Lebeck Ronald V.
Mastrofrancesco Luigi
Estremsky Gary W.
Ford Global Technologies Inc.
Malleck Joseph W.
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