Roll bar equipment with inner guide and outer guide

Details Roll bar equipment with inner guide and outer guide Roll bar equipment with inner guide and outer guide

1996-05-15

1997-08-12

Ellis, Christopher P.

Land vehicles

Wheeled

Attachment

297410, B60R 2113

Patent

active

056557914

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to vehicle roll bars and particularly relates to non-stationary, vehicle roll bars.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Roll bar equipment is often provided for the protection of the vehicle passengers in vehicles without a protective roof. In normal state, the roll bar should be reeled in order to minimize the wind resistance and the driving noise. On the other hand, in case of danger, the roll bar must be reeled out quickly in order to prevent the driver from being crushed by the rolling vehicle.
A number of solutions exist for this. For instance, it is known to reel out one bar each behind the front seats of the vehicle in order to provide protection for the vehicle passengers in case the vehicle rolls. This previously available bar is meant particularly for the protection in relatively heavy vehicles. Therefore, a reeled out bar is partially or completely reeled back into its original position by engine power after the danger condition is over. Such a construction is comparatively complicated and expensive.
Therefore, there have been considerations, particularly for the use of a roll bar in smaller vehicles, to design the former to be relatively light, so that it may be reeled out sufficiently quickly with comparatively low elastic force due to its low inertia. This low resilience of the spring, on the other hand, makes it possible to push the bar manually back into its original position once the danger is parted, thereby preventing an expensive conveyance by motor. It has been suggested to keep the side legs of a roll bar in standpipes which are attached to a housing and whose diameters are significantly smaller than those of the bar legs, and which align with the bar legs. In order to have an improved inner guide when the bar is reeled out, a cylinder shaped support is provided on the upper end of a stationary housing which is attached to the housing by a narrow support shoulder. Because the attachment of the support cylinder is located on the outside of the bar leg, but the support itself engages on the inner surface of the bar leg, the bar leg itself is equipped with slits so that it may glide over the bar support. Such slits are not only expensive to produce, but they also reduce the rigidity of the bar leg, particularly as it relates to lateral shear forces.
The present invention, however, is based on a roll bar equipment with the underlying task to further simplify the suggested system in order to make such roll bar equipment applicable for smaller vehicles as well.
The objects of the present invention are accomplished by using pipes with a closed surface area exclusively for the inner guide of the bar legs, whose end which faces away from the bar is attached on the housing. This makes it possible to do without the above described slits in the bar legs. At the same time, the comparatively long standpipes provide a good strengthening in the guide area of the bar legs. Practical applications have shown that it is possible to operate with such an inner guide which, according to its type, is supported by an outer guide, particularly on the bar-side end of the housing, in previously known fashion.
In addition to cylindrical cross sections for the bar legs and the standpipes oval or square cross sections may be selected for stability reasons.
In order to prevent that in the case of a crash the latch element which is movable in connection with the bar may yield in relation to the handle, and in order to strengthen the support effect of the bar in the case of a crash, a detent pawl engages the latch element. The profile of the latch opening is selected such that while the detent pawl may perform the required swivel motion, a swivel motion of the latch element will definitely be prevented by the abutment on the inner surface of the latch opening.
Because the turning position of the latch element is unimportant for its ability to be operated, such a latch element is very easily mounted.
The production of the latch element is achieved particularly cost-efficiently by usin

REFERENCES:
patent: 5110185 (1992-05-01), Schwartz et al.
patent: 5205585 (1993-04-01), Reuber et al.

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