Locks – Special application – For control and machine elements
Patent
1990-06-04
1992-06-16
Luebke, Renee S.
Locks
Special application
For control and machine elements
70248, B60R 2502
Patent
active
051216167
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a steering lock for motor vehicles with a locking element for preventing rotation of the vehicle steering shaft, the element being spring-urged into the locking position and being capable of being shifted into the unlocking position against the action of the spring-loading by means of a lock cylinder acting through a rotary eccentric.
Such motor vehicle steering locks are known in a range of different forms, including those in which the locking element can only move into the locking position under the action of its spring loading when the key has been partially or completely withdrawn from the lock cylinder or its core. As a rule the locking element is in the form of an axially movable locking bolt which engages in a notch in the steering shaft or in a locking sleeve secured to it. However other locking elements are also known.
The invention is based on solving the problem of providing a steering lock for motor vehicles of the kind stated in the introduction, which is of simple and light construction yet achieves effective and secure locking of the vehicle steering shaft and, in doing this, can withstand high torques.
This problem is solved by the features stated in the characterising part of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the motor vehicle steering lock according to the invention are given in the remaining claims.
In a motor vehicle steering lock according to the invention the locking element is formed by a locking sleeve which is displaceable along the steering shaft and co-operates with a locking ring on the steering shaft so as to couple it mechanically to the steering each housing so that the steering shaft can no longer be turned. A two-armed actuating lever is provided for the locking sleeve and is pivotally mounted in the steering lock housing and by means of which the locking sleeve is spring-urged into the locking position and is also movable into the unlocking position by means of the eccentric actuated by the lock cylinder. The spring loading is produced by a hairpin spring which engages on the one hand against the steering lock housing and on the other hand against the actuating lever.
If the lock cylinder is arranged in the steering lock housing in such a way that its longitudinal axis and the longitudinal axis of the steering shaft extend in mutually parallel planes and in fact at different inclinations to a common reference plane perpendicular to these planes, then the pivotal axis of the actuating lever can extend in a third parallel plane and in fact perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the lock cylinder, and the two arms of the actuating lever can be arranged spaced apart and substantially perpendicular to one another so that they can pivot in two mutually parallel planes which are perpendicular to the third plane. As the longitudinal axis of the steering shaft makes, with the pivotal plane of the arm which co-operates with the locking sleeve, the acute included angle by which the lock cylinder, of which the longitudinal axis extends in the plane of pivoting of the arm that cooperates with the eccentric, is inclined with respect to the steering shaft, every pivotal movement of the arm that co-operates with the locking sleeve causes a correspondingly reduced displacement of it along the axis of the steering shaft, which, for a given pivotal movement of the arm, is all the shorter, the greater is the acute angle.
In order to eliminate this reduction in view of the fact that already the range is limited within which the actuating lever can be pivoted by means of the eccentric and the arm that co-operates with the locking sleeve can move back and forth, it is of advantage to arrange the pivotal axis of the actuating lever both perpendicular to the axis of the lock cylinder and also perpendicular to the axis of the steering shaft so that the arm of the actuating lever that co-operates with the eccentric is able to pivot in the plane containing the axis of the lock cylinder and parallel to the axis of the steering shaft and the arm of the actuating lever tha
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Dino Suzanne L.
Luebke Renee S.
Tibbe KG
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