Textiles: spinning – twisting – and twining – Strand structure – Covered or wrapped
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-22
2002-04-02
Worrell, Danny (Department: 3765)
Textiles: spinning, twisting, and twining
Strand structure
Covered or wrapped
C057S211000, C057S220000, C057S222000, C057S237000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06363704
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a wire cable for window regulators of automobiles and, more particularly, to a wire cable for such window regulators, using a highly flexible, high-strength synthetic resin filament as the core element wire of its core strand; the core strand being also compressed to deform the cross-section of its element wires and bring the element wires into surface contact with each other in place of point contact, thus improving the flexibility of the wire cable, in addition to the fatigue resistance of the wire cable necessarily enduring a repeated bending action during an operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, wire cables, used for controlling the operation of a variety of machines or implements, necessarily endure a repeated bending action since they continuously pass over power transmitting rotors, such as sheaves, drums or pulleys, while being tensioned during the operation of said machines or implements. Therefore, the wire cables for such machines or implements must have somewhat high resistance to wear and tear, breakage and frictional abrasion.
In the prior art, the strand structures of the wire cables for such machines or implements have been typically classified into three types: a parallel twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of element wires together into a wire cable, a single-layer twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of external element wires around a core element wire, and a multi-layer twisted structure formed by twisting a plurality of internal and/or external strands around a core strand. A single-layer annular strand cable is included in the multi-layer twisted cables, and has been preferably and widely used for controlling the operation of small-sized machines, such as window regulators of automobiles.
The single-layer annular strand cable is produced by twisting a plurality of external strands around one core strand such that the external strands form an annular single layer around the core strand. In the single-layer annular strand cable, each of the external and core strands consists of a plurality of element wires having circular cross-sections with similar diameters. The core element wire of each strand of such a single-layer annular strand cable may comprise one or three filaments. Of the two types of strands having one or three filaments as the core element wire, the strand having one filament as the core element wire has been more preferably used. In addition, one hemp filament in place of the three filaments has been preferably used as the core element wire of each strand of the single-layer annular strand cable.
The wire cable for window regulators of automobiles is a representative example of wire cables, consisting of a plurality of strands each having one steel core element wire. The conventional wire cable for window regulators of automobiles has the following structure.
FIGS. 1
a
and
1
b
are sectional views of conventional wire cables for window regulators of automobiles. As shown in the drawings, the representative examples of conventional wire cables for window regulators of automobiles typically have two element wire structures: an 8×7+1×19 element wire structure and a 7×7 element wire structure. In the element wire structure of the wire cable
11
of
FIG. 1
a
, the numeral “8” denotes the number of external strands
11
B, “7” denotes the number of element wires in each external strand
11
B, “1” denotes the number of core strand
11
A, and “19” denotes the number of element wires of the core strand
11
A. In the wire cable of
FIG. 1
b
, the numeral “7” positioned at the front denotes the number of strands, while the numeral “7” positioned at the back denotes the number of element wires in each strand.
That is, in order to produce the double-layer twisted core strand
11
A of the wire cable
11
having the 8×7+1×19 element wire structure, six internal element wires are primarily twisted around one core element wire to form an internal layer around the core element wire. Thereafter, twelve external element wires are secondarily twisted around the internal layer to form the double-layer twisted strand structure of the core strand
11
A. On the other hand, each single-layer twisted external strand
11
B of the wire cable
11
is produced by twisting eight internal element wires around one core element wire to form the single-layer twisted strand structure of the external strand
11
B. Eight external strands
11
B are, thereafter, twisted around the core strand
11
A to form a desired wire cable
11
having the 8×7+1×19 element wire structure. In order to produce the wire cable
12
having the 7×7 element wire structure, six internal element wires are twisted around one core element wire to form a single-layer twisted strand. After a plurality of single-layer twisted strands, six strands used as external strands
12
B are twisted around one strand used as a core strand
12
A, thus forming a desired wire cable
12
having the 7×7 element wire structure.
Of the two types of wires cables
11
and
12
, the wire cable
11
of
FIG. 1
a
has been typically used for controlling the operation of window regulators of small-sized automobiles. The wire cable
12
of
FIG. 1
b
has been typically used for controlling the operation of window regulators of large-sized automobiles.
Since the wire cable
12
, having the 7×7 element wire structure, is made by twisting six single-layer twisted strands
12
B as external strands around one single-layer twisted strand
12
A, it has a high abrasion resistance. The wire cable
12
is thus preferably used for controlling a machine, in which the cable
12
is operated while being brought into severe frictional contact with other parts. In addition, the wire cable
12
has a simple strand structure, and so it is not likely to be broken or deformed in its structure.
When such a conventional wire cable
12
is used for transmitting power in a window regulator of an automobile while being wrapped around and passing over power transmitting rotors, such as sheaves, drums or pulleys, the wire cable
12
may be easily, undesirably removed from the rotors during an operation due to low flexibility of the wire cable. The wire cable
12
also has a low fatigue resistance due to its low flexibility, and so the cable
12
may be easily cut or broken during an operation.
The wire cable
11
, having the 8×7+1×19 element wire structure and designed to have improved fatigue resistance, has a double-layer twisted core strand
11
A with a 1+6+12 element wire structure, in place of the single-layer twisted core strand
12
A with a 1+6 element wire structure of the wire cable
12
having the 7×7 element wire structure. In the wire cable
11
, the element wires of the core strand
11
A each have a diameter smaller than that of each element wire of the external strands
11
B. The wire cable
11
having the 8×7+1×19 element wire structure thus has a high flexibility and a high fatigue resistance, different from the wire cable
12
having the 7×7 element wire structure.
However, the conventional wire cable
11
having the 8×7+1×19 element wire structure undesirably has an excessive number of element wires of the core strand, in addition to a complex double-layer twisted strand structure complicating the process of producing the wire cables. Another problem experienced in the wire cable
11
resides in that its core element wires may be more easily cut or broken during a strand twisting process, in comparison with the wire cable
12
having the 7×7 element wire structure. Such wire cables
11
are thus increased in proportion of defectives produced during a wire cable manufacturing process, and so productivity of the wire cables
11
is reduced, with a concurrent increase in the production cost of the cables
11
.
It is ne
DeLio & Peterson LLC
Worrell Danny
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