Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Door or window with specified vehicle feature
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2001-03-13
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Door or window with specified vehicle feature
C296S155000, C296S097220, C292SDIG004
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199938
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding door locking device for a vehicle such as a van, which locks a sliding door provided at a side of a body of the vehicle when a fuel filler lid is opened, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a sliding door locking device for a vehicle, in which a striker for locking and unlocking a sliding door and a latch lock are designed in a manner such that a mechanical interaction therebetween is optimized, thereby reducing manufacturing cost and rendering a simple structure of the entire sliding door locking device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the leisure-seeking segment of the population has experienced growing numbers, a van type vehicle has made gains public favor. The van type vehicle adopts a sliding door at a side of its body, from the standpoint of passengers' convenience. The sliding door is provided at one side, that is, a left side or a right side of the body of the vehicle, and a fuel filler lid of the vehicle is arranged on the other side which is opposite to the one side having the sliding door.
In the meanwhile, these days, another van type vehicle which adopts a pair of sliding doors arranged at both sides, respectively of a body of the vehicle, in view of passengers convenience, is gaining in popularity. If the pair of sliding doors are arranged at both sides of the body as described above, as shown in
FIG. 1
, a fuel filler lid
1
is arranged along with the sliding door
12
at one side of the body.
However, in the vehicle in which the sliding door is arranged along with the fuel filler door at one side of the body of the vehicle, when the sliding door is opened, at the one side having the fuel filler lid within the limits of movement of the sliding door, while the fuel filler lid is opened and fuel is being filled into a fuel tank, there has a problem the sliding door can be collide with the fuel filler lid.
To cope with this problem, a sliding door locking device for a vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,744. The sliding door locking device serves to prevent a sliding door which is provided at the same side of a body of the vehicle, with a fuel filler lid, from being opened when the fuel filler lid is opened. In the sliding door locking device, as shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, an operating part
103
of an actuating lever
102
is located inward of a fuel filler lid
101
which is hingedly opened and closed. The actuating lever
102
is connected via a link member
104
having a rod-shaped configuration to a stopper lever
107
which acts on a stop member
106
. Therefore, if the operating part
103
of the actuating lever
102
is pulled after the fuel filler lid
101
is opened, as the actuating lever
102
is hingedly rotated, the actuating lever
102
pulls the link member
104
. According to this, the link member
104
rotates the stopper lever
107
, and as a free end
107
a
of the stopper lever
107
is engaged with the stop member
106
of a sliding door
105
, the sliding door
105
is prevented from being moved.
However, the sliding door locking device constructed as mentioned above still encounters a problem in that its operation involves annoying features. Also, in addition to the above described device, arrangements as stated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,520,431 and 5,676,416, yet still suffer from defects in that since they have complicated structures, they require a significant number of parts which increase both manufacturing cost and assembly time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sliding door locking device for a vehicle, in which a striker for controlling opening and closing of a sliding door and a mechanism for limiting the movement of the striker are designed to render a simple stricture of the sliding door locking device, thereby reducing manufacturing cost.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a sliding door locking device for a vehicle, comprising: a striker secured to a sliding door to be integrally reciprocated along with the sliding door; a housing fastened to a body of the vehicle and having a slot into which the striker is inserted when the sliding door is closed; and a latch lock pivotally fixed to and inside the housing and having an engaging piece which is connected with a fuel filler lid through a cable, the latch lock being formed with a latch groove which functions to prevent the striker inserted into the slot of the housing from being moved out of the slot when the fuel filler lid is opened, thereby locking the striker inside the slot.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4620744 (1986-11-01), Tui et al.
patent: 5454618 (1995-10-01), Sullivan
patent: 5520431 (1996-05-01), Kapes et al.
patent: 5538312 (1996-07-01), Lehmkuhl
patent: 5676416 (1997-10-01), Cooper
patent: 5769481 (1998-06-01), Cooper
patent: 5906405 (1999-05-01), Cooper
patent: 6007141 (1999-12-01), Thomas et al.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Kia Motors Corporation
Pape Joseph D.
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