Machine element or mechanism – Control lever and linkage systems – Elements
Patent
1997-03-27
1998-10-13
Marmor, Charles A.
Machine element or mechanism
Control lever and linkage systems
Elements
74537, G60T 708, G05G 508
Patent
active
058195955
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is a safety brake mechanism applicable to automobile vehicles; more specifically the invention relates to a safety brake mechanism, also termed emergency brake, usually employed when the vehicle is parked, in order to ensure immobilization of the vehicle. The brake mechanism of the invention has built into its very structure a self-adjusting device and a device for self-regulation of the control cable, consisting in essence of a sheathed steel cable which links the safety brake mechanism with the mechanism which moves the brake shoes or pads of the wheels linked to the safety brake mechanism. The self-adjusting device has the purpose, during mounting of the safety brake mechanism of the invention on the vehicle, of initially adjusting the length of the sheathed portion of said control cable; the purpose of this initial adjustment is to adapt the control cable to the service conditions envisaged by taking up the length tolerances presented by each particular vehicle. The self-regulating device has the purpose of permanently and automatically adjusting the length of said sheathed portion of the control cable to adapt it to the service conditions for which it is designed ex-works, thereby compensating for wear of the braking parts, such as the brake shoes and/or pads.
Known in the art are many embodiments of safety brake mechanisms, generally made up of the following parts: a brake lever mounted inside the driving compartment, which can be operated by the user which is coupled by means of a pivot pin to a support fixed to the structure of the vehicle, the brake lever being attached to the corresponding end of the control cable which links the brake mechanism with the mechanism which moves the brake shoes or pads; a ratchet mechanism made up of a lever coupled to the brake lever by means of a pivot pin and so adapted that one of its arms, the power arm, is linked with a control device which can be operated by the user, and its other arm, the resisting arm, has a retaining extension which meshes into a toothed mechanism mounted on the support, with both arms, the power arm and the resisting arm, being submitted to the action of a spring which tends permanently to mesh the retaining extension of the resisting arm into the toothed mechanism of the support; a stop fixed onto the brake lever which stops in the corresponding direction the rotation of the power arm of the ratchet mechanism lever; and some stops attached to the support which fix the end positions of the brake lever. The parts described above make up many known embodiments of safety brake mechanisms, this independently of the mode of operation of the brake lever and of the ratchet lever control device; that is, said parts make up both those known embodiments of safety brake mechanisms operated by hand in which the ratchet control device is set into the handle of the brake lever and those embodiments of safety brake mechanisms in which the brake lever is operated by a pedal provided for the purpose, and the ratchet control device is mounted at any suitable point of the driving compartment, usually near the dashboard.
In general, the known embodiments of safety brake mechanisms use for the initial adjustment of said sheathed portion of the control cable a self-adjusting device fitted ex-works onto the control cable itself and external to the safety brake mechanism, so that, once said safety brake mechanism and control cable have been fitted on the vehicle, operation of the self-adjusting device permits initial adjustment of the length of said sheathed portion of the control cable. As an example of embodiment of a self-adjusting device for the length of the sheathed portion of control cables we might cite that published by European patent application 9392194.1; this self-adjusting device includes an adjustment stem fixed by one of its ends to the corresponding end of the control cable sheath, and a base body secured to a fixed point of the vehicle structure, with both parts, stem and base body, bein
REFERENCES:
patent: 4512210 (1985-04-01), Gurney
patent: 4819501 (1989-04-01), Kraus et al.
patent: 4841798 (1989-06-01), Porter et al.
patent: 5001942 (1991-03-01), Boyer
patent: 5272935 (1993-12-01), Heinemann et al.
Battista MaryAnn
Fico Cables S.A.
Marmor Charles A.
Striker Michael J.
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