Closure fasteners – Bolts – Swinging
Reexamination Certificate
1998-02-06
2001-10-23
Boucher, Darnell (Department: 3627)
Closure fasteners
Bolts
Swinging
C292SDIG002, C070S264000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305727
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to latch assemblies for passenger vehicle doors.
More specifically it relates to rotating claw latch assemblies in which the assembly includes a pivoted claw having a mouth for receiving a coacting striker as the latter enters a recess of the assembly body on closing the associated door. The claw is releasibly retained against rotation which would allow the door to open by a resiliently loaded pawl engaging notches or ratchet teeth of the claw. The claw is so retained at two angular positions or stages, a first safety position at which the door is not fully closed, and a fully latched position at which the door is completely shut against its weather seals. The mechanism so defined is hereinafter referred to as “rotating claw mechanism”.
For most applications the assembly will also incorporate a locking mechanism for the security of the vehicle with a view to preventing unauthorised access by in some way blocking or disabling the action of the door handles in releasing the pawl from engagement with the claw for opening the door.
Various forms or modes of operation of the locking mechanism are required to suit differing accepted practices in vehicle markets throughout the world, different customer requirements, and also different kinds of operation of the doors on an individual vehicle. For example there may be three different types of operation of the doors of a four door passenger car, the two rear doors are not usually provided with exterior key operated locks while the drivers and passenger front doors may have such locks but may each operate rather differently. One important consideration is prevention, so far as possible, of the keys being accidentally locked inside the car as would be the case if all four doors had simple slam locking, ie all of them could be set to a locked condition while open which condition would remain undisturbed as the doors were closed.
To avoid the latter problem at least one of the doors is usually provided with a latch assembly incorporating locking mechanism having some kind of self-cancelling action whereby even if it is set to locked condition before closing the door it will be unlocked as the door closes or some kind of blocking action preventing the latch being set to locked condition while the door is open. These arrangements ensure that the key must be used, or some conscious overriding operation effected, from the exterior to secure at least that door.
Various locking logic sequences are built into known locking mechanisms to meet different customer and market demands, for example:
a) Constant self-cancel i.e. the latch cannot be slam locked, closing the door will always result in return to the unlocked condition necessitating use of the key or equivalent to secure the door.
b) Self cancel with keyless override i.e. simply swinging the door shut will self-cancel any locking as above but with provision for overriding that arrangement so that the door can be locked without use of the key or like by a sequence of operations which is unlikely to be carried out inadvertently or by accident. This usually involves locking the latch mechanism prior to closing the door and then effecting closing while holding the exterior door handle up or otherwise out of its position of rest. This logic sequence is generally preferred in the Japanese market.
(c) Interacting i.e. instead of self-cancelling as (a) or (b) above it is impossible to set the locking mechanism into the locked condition while the door is open, that is with the claw not in the first safety or fully latched positions.
(d) Interacting with keyless override i.e. the prevention of locking in the open condition can be overridden by some conscious operation similar to (b) above, typically by holding the exterior handle up or otherwise away from its position of rest which bypasses the blocking of the locking mechanism enabling the latter to be set to the locked condition with the door open. The handle can then be released enabling slam locking with no self-cancelling and without need to use the key or the like. This logic sequence is generally preferred in the European market.
(e) Various “hybrid” logic sequences, e.g. providing differences in operation as between door fully open and door on first safety conditions.
Each of these logic sequences has advantages and disadvantages. Thus with keyless system (b) some users object to having to hold the door handle while pushing the door shut, it may require a two-hand operation and may involve contact with a wet or dirty vehicle exterior.
Some of these sequences, as provided in known vehicles, also have security disadvantages. If the door is inadvertently left closed only to the first safety position a self-cancelling or interacting sequence may either leave the latch mechanism unlocked without the user realising this, or may enable the mechanism to be shifted to the unlocked condition due to the self-cancelling provision as by pushing the door further closed to or towards the fully latched position so that it can then be opened by an intruder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,404 discloses a latch assembly having locking logic sequence of type (b) above i.e. self-cancel with keyless override. It is known from this disclosure to provide said assembly with a pivoted cancellation member operating as a sensing formation adjacent to the claw. A formation on the claw periphery engages said member if the latter and associated locking mechanism has been set to locked condition while the door is open to return it to unlocked condition as the claw rotates to angular positions corresponding to a safety and a fully latched position of the door. The self-cancelling action of the sensing formation can be overridden by holding a manually operable element of the door in a shifted position while closing the door.
The object of the present invention is to provide improvements in latch assemblies having rotating claw mechanism, and more specifically in the locking mechanisms thereof so as to provide economies of manufacture and assembly, and ease of adaptation of a standard assembly to a wide variety of locking logic sequences and forms of manual and/or power operation and control in a particularly simple manner and with minimum inventory of components. Further objects are improvements in vehicle security and in durability and reliable operation of latch assemblies.
According to the invention there is provided a vehicle door latch assembly as distinguished in the claims.
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Boucher Darnell
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Meritor Light Vehicle Systems (UK) Limited
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