The present disclosure relates to handle devices for door leafs, in particular of motor vehicles, and more specifically flush type handle devices.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
A “flush” type handle device is characterized in that the movable handle, in particular translational and/or pivoting handle, is flush with the door leaf in a rest position. Such a handle device allows in particular improving the external aesthetic appearance, and where appropriate the aerodynamics, of a motor vehicle.
By way of example, the document WO 2014/049026 A1 is known in particular, which describes a handle flush with the bodywork, which includes a window forming a frame fastened to the door and provided to receive a lever for gripping by a user. The lever pivots relative to the frame between a rest position, in which the lever is flush with the frame, and an active position in which a portion of the lever protrudes from the frame. A handle device generally includes an electric motor controlling the displacement of the lever in its rest position or in its active position.
Such a device typically requires a complex arrangement of mechanical and electric elements in order to allow for guiding the lever in its rest position or in its active position.
In addition, the handle device of WO 2014/049026 A1 has the drawback of prematurely degrading these mechanical elements due to the exposure to weathering of the handle.
Moreover, according to the configuration of the handle device, the mounting of such a device is made difficult by the two-part assembly on the door leaf of the vehicle, namely a first part including the handle assembled from the outside of the door leaf and a second part including a handle support assembled from inside the door leaf.
This section provides a general summary of the disclosure and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
The present disclosure aims at overcoming at least one of the aforementioned drawbacks of typical flush type handle devices by providing a simplified handle device allowing for protecting the handle from weathering.
To this end, the present disclosure relates to a door leaf handle device, in particular for a motor vehicle, including:
According to one form, the handle support includes the handle, and the window extends through a guide inwardly of the door leaf which includes an opening to allow access by one hand to the handle.
The window and the handle support are advantageously secured to each other, such that there is no relative movement to each other. Unlike the window, the handle is movable relative to the handle support. The window forms a cover which is fixedly mounted on the door leaf to allow for visually hiding the handle. The window then allows for protecting the handle while ensuring its access. In order to access the handle, the user inserts a hand into the window. The guide of the window, which is bowl-shaped, allows guiding the user's hand through the opening of the window for access to the handle. When the handle device is actuated, the handle is engaged inside the door leaf. Thus, the handle can be actuated by the user in a natural opening movement without being visible to the user. Unlike typical flush type handle devices, the handle is included inside the door leaf.
Moreover, such a device advantageously allows simplifying the assembly and the mechanical and electric elements which are generally provided for “flush” handles.
According to one form, the opening is formed on an upper wall of the guide of the window.
Such an arrangement of the opening allows, on the one hand, accompanying the hand of the user in a rocking movement from bottom to top to allow the grip of the handle in order to allow for the opening of the door leaf and, on the other hand, protecting the handle and the different constituent elements of the handle device from weathering.
The handle device, in accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, may advantageously include at least one of the improvements below, the technical features forming these improvements can be taken alone or in combination:
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
In order that the disclosure may be well understood, there will now be described various forms thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.
The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features.
In
The window 11 includes a front face 11d, which may be flat, from which a guide 12 extends inwardly of the door leaf 3. The guide 12 advantageously takes the shape of a bowl and includes an opening 13 formed on an upper wall 11a of the guide 12. The opening 13 is sized to allow the passage of a hand.
In a first assembly step, the support 10 of handle 2 carrying the handle 2 is fastened on the door leaf 3 using a series of fastening screws 17 (
With reference to
With reference to
In
In
In order to facilitate the understanding of the examples provided, the terms “horizontal,” “vertical,” and “transverse,” as used herein, are to be interpreted as relating respectively to the references “100,” “200,” and “400” as represented in
With reference to
The rod 103 carries a helical spring 105 with angular action allowing the return of the movable flap 20 towards its rest position. For this, the spring 105 bears by one end on the support 10 and by another end on the movable flap 20.
One of the tubular protrusions 20a of the movable flap 20 includes a blocking arm 20c. The blocking arm 20c extends perpendicularly to a longitudinal direction of the tubular protrusion 20a to which it is associated. The blocking arm 20c allows the abutment of the movable flap 20 in an end-of-travel position of the movable flap 20. Thus, in this end-of-travel position, the blocking arm 20c abuts against the support 10 and blocks in rotation the movable flap 20.
The other tubular protrusion 20b of the movable flap 20 includes a control arm 20d. The control arm 20d also extends perpendicularly to a longitudinal direction of the tubular protrusion 20b to which it is associated. The control arm 20d allows the actuation of a lever 4 via an actuating element 40, called first actuating element 40. The actuating element 40 is preferably oriented along a vertical axis 200. This actuating element 40 is herein formed by a longitudinal bar carrying, at each of the ends thereof, a ball joint.
The lever 4 includes an annular connecting element 41 provided to be mounted on a lug 106 for fastening the support 10 of the handle 2 as represented in
The annular connection 41 of the lever 4 carries a helical spring 107 with angular action allowing guiding the lever 4 towards a position corresponding to the rest position of the movable flap 20.
The lever 4 is guided by the annular connecting element 41 about a transverse axis 400. The transverse axis 400 is perpendicular to each of the horizontal 100 and vertical 200 axes.
One end of the actuating element 40 is inserted into the angular portion 42 of the lever 4 to emerge from the linear perforation 43. The inserted end of the actuating element 40 then fits into a slot 20d′ formed at the end of the control arm 20d, such that the emerging end allows its retention in at least one direction. The opposite end of the actuating element 40 is fitted into the angular portion 42 with a portion complementary to the ball joint associated to this end to form a ball-joint connection.
The actuating element 40 can thus be maneuvered without mechanically stressing the movable flap 20 and the lever 4.
Moreover, an electric control element 9 and a light emitting element 8 carried by the movable flap 20 are represented, which will be described in more detail later.
In
In
The blocking arm 20c and the control arm 20d are advantageously radially offset from each other. This radial offset of the arms 20c, 20d allows monitoring the angular movement of the lever 4 such that the stroke of the control cable 108 is advantageously monitored to allow a maximum displacement of the flexible control cable of 29 mm.
This first mechanical opening mode advantageously allows not biasing the electric actuator 109. It can therefore be a fallback solution, in the case where the actuator is defective.
In
In
In
A second mode of opening of the door leaf 3 will be described below. This second opening mode is carried out electrically using the electric control element 9.
The electric opening of the door leaf 3 is carried out as follows. When a user inserts his hand into the window 11 and accesses, through the opening 13 of the window 11 provided for this purpose, the movable flap 20, the user first presses the electric control element 9, with the fingers of his hand, by bringing his hand towards himself, thus controlling the unlocking of the trigger of the door leaf 3. Then, once the electric control element 9 has been pressed, the user's fingers come to press the curved portion in order to pull the handle 2 towards the user and open the door leaf 3.
The control of the actuator 109 by the electric control element 9 is carried out via the monitoring unit 5 which will be described in more detail later.
In
When the electric control element 9 is actuated by the hand of a user, this particular mode of the electric control element 9 allows the micro-switch 96 to be triggered by the push rod 97 thereof regardless of the pressure of the user's hand on the central portion 91a of the hand lever 91 or else on the ends 91b of the hand lever 91.
In
The monitoring unit 5 takes the form of a printed circuit board, and, in one example, is rectangular in shape. The monitoring unit 5 is also electrically connected to an element 6 for detecting the presence of a hand in the window 11. A case 14 is provided to receive the monitoring unit 5. By way of example, the detection element 6 can be a capacitive sensor and it can have a flat shape. This case 14 is advantageously formed of a rectangular envelope provided to be carried by the rear portion 11b of the window 11. The case 14 is then disposed on a contour of the rear portion 11b of the window 11 of a matching shape. The monitoring unit 5 is then taken between the case 14 and the rear portion 11b of the window 11. In the assembled state of the monitoring unit 5, the detection element 6 extends over a lower wall 11c of the guide 12 and is advantageously housed between the second retaining elements 15b of the window 11 to ensure the holding thereof. The detection element 6 is then facing the opening 13 of the window 11.
The detection element 6 allows a third mode of opening of the leaf 3. In this case, when the user's hand is inserted into the window 11 and arrives facing the opening 13 thereof, the detection element 6 identifies the presence of the hand, for example in the case of a capacitive sensor by a disturbance of the magnetic field emitted by the sensor due to the presence of the hand.
A radiofrequency antenna 7 is also represented in
In
The light emitting element 8 is electrically connected to the monitoring unit 5. In practice, the light emitting element 8 emits light rays towards the opening 13 of the window 11. These light rays are advantageously reflected by the bowl shape of the guide 12 of the window 11 and emitted to the outside of the door leaf 3. Such a light emitting element 8 can provide the user with an indication on the open or closed state of the door leaf 3. For example, when the user carries out one of the preceding opening modes, the light emitting element 8 emits a green light. On the contrary, when a closing command is received, the light emitting element 8 emits a red light.
The teachings of the present disclosure are not limited to the examples which have just been described and numerous adjustments can be made to these examples without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In particular, the different features, forms, examples, and variants of the disclosure can be associated with each other according to various combinations as long as they are not incompatible or exclusive of each other. In particular, all previously described variants, examples, and forms can be combined with each other.
Unless otherwise expressly indicated herein, all numerical values indicating mechanical/thermal properties, compositional percentages, dimensions and/or tolerances, or other characteristics are to be understood as modified by the word “about” or “approximately” in describing the scope of the present disclosure. This modification is desired for various reasons including industrial practice, material, manufacturing, and assembly tolerances, and testing capability.
As used herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be construed to mean a logical (A OR B OR C), using a non-exclusive logical OR, and should not be construed to mean “at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C.”
The description of the disclosure is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the substance of the disclosure are intended to be within the scope of the disclosure. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
18/54459 | May 2018 | FR | national |
This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/EP2019/063513, filed on May 24, 2019, which claims priority to and the benefit of FR 18/54459, filed on May 25, 2018. The disclosures of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4653143 | Ketelhut | Mar 1987 | A |
5706554 | Ruckert | Jan 1998 | A |
6406075 | Rice | Jun 2002 | B1 |
6666496 | Rettig | Dec 2003 | B2 |
6698262 | Wittwer | Mar 2004 | B2 |
7283034 | Nakamura | Oct 2007 | B2 |
8282142 | Fannon | Oct 2012 | B2 |
9458649 | Fujiwara | Oct 2016 | B2 |
11203887 | Wilke | Dec 2021 | B2 |
11286695 | Moriwaki | Mar 2022 | B2 |
11396764 | Blount et al. | Jul 2022 | B2 |
20050057050 | Saitoh et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
20120119524 | Bingle | May 2012 | A1 |
20190106912 | Lennhoff | Apr 2019 | A1 |
20210062558 | Beck | Mar 2021 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
10020172 | Jan 2001 | DE |
102005049884 | Apr 2007 | DE |
102013102106 | Sep 2014 | DE |
102006029570 | Nov 2015 | DE |
0417565 | Mar 1991 | EP |
999323 | May 2000 | EP |
1235190 | Aug 2002 | EP |
1932984 | Jun 2008 | EP |
2826998 | Jan 2003 | FR |
3034802 | Oct 2016 | FR |
H01182478 | Jul 1989 | JP |
2015231770 | Dec 2015 | JP |
100931160 | Dec 2009 | KR |
WO-2013111615 | Aug 2013 | WO |
2014049026 | Apr 2014 | WO |
2015148788 | Oct 2015 | WO |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report for International Application PCT/EP2019/063513, mailed Aug. 16, 2019. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20210071449 A1 | Mar 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | PCT/EP2019/063513 | May 2019 | WO |
Child | 16951588 | US |