The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a handle device for a vehicle.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a handle device having a flash surface specification, which is accommodated in a recess formed in a vehicle door or the like when not in use and is moved to a projecting position by an electric actuator when in use.
The handle device of Patent Literature 1 includes an outer handle (handle body) that is rotatable about a rotation axis, a handle lever that is rotatable about a predetermined rotation axis and includes a link hole into which a linking protrusion formed in the handle body is fitted, and a drive lever that is rotationally driven by an electric motor.
When the electric motor is driven when the handle body is held at an initial portion when not in use, the drive lever rotates, and an abutment pin is pushed against a pin provided on the drive lever to rotate the handle lever, whereby the handle body moves from the initial position to a pop-up position.
When the handle body is further rotated from the pop-up position, a release lever rotates in accordance with rotation of the drive lever, and a latch release operation of a latch mechanism connected to the release lever is performed.
An inertia lever is rotatably connected to a support case to which the handle body is attached. When an impact due to a collision is applied, the inertia lever rotates to a restriction position and restricts an operation of the handle body at the initial position to prevent an inadvertent release operation of a door lock and an accompanying opening operation of a door.
In the handle device for a vehicle in Patent Literature 1, the inertia lever can only restrict the operation of the handle body only when the handle body is at the initial position and cannot restrict movement of the handle body in a pop-up posture at the time of collision, and thus the inertia lever cannot prevent the opening operation of the door.
According to an embodiment of the presently disclosed subject matter, in a handle device for a vehicle, it is possible to reliably prevent a door from opening due to a collision impact regardless of whether a handle body is at an initial position or a pop-up position.
According to the embodiment of the presently disclosed subject matter, the handle device for a vehicle includes a handle body 2, a latch release lever 3, a door latch device 4 configured to be provided in a door of the vehicle, an electric actuator 1, and a lever push member 6. The handle body is configured to be driven from an initial position to a pop-up position by the electric actuator and is manually operated further to a latch operation position beyond the pop-up position, and the door latch device 4 is configured such that a latch of the door latch device 4 is released by the latch release lever rotating to a latch release position. The lever push member is configured to rotate from an initial corresponding position and to push the latch release lever toward the latch release position in accordance with an operation of the handle body, the initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body. The lever push member is set with a moment of inertia to cancel an inertia force generated when a collision impact load is applied to the vehicle and to move the lever push member toward the latch release position.
When the handle body 2 having been driven to the pop-up position by the electric actuator 1 is further operated to the latch operation position, the lever push member 6 rotates from the initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body 2 to a latch release operation position.
The latch release lever 3 moves to the latch release position in accordance with movement of the lever push member 6 to the latch release operation position, and operates the door latch device 4.
When an impact force due to a side collision or the like is applied when the handle body 2 is at the initial position or the pop-up position, an inertia force for moving the handle body 2 to the latch operation position is generated in the handle body 2, and accordingly, a rotational force in a direction toward a latch operation corresponding position is generated in the lever push member 6.
In the presently disclosed subject matter in which the moment of inertia for rotating the lever push member 6 in a direction opposite to a pushing direction of the latch release lever 3 is set to the lever push member 6, even when an impact due to a collision is applied, an inertia force generated by the impact on the lever push member 6 is canceled by the moment of inertia set to the lever push member 6 itself, so that the latch release lever 3 is not operated, and inadvertent opening of the door is prevented.
As long as the lever push member 6 can move from the initial corresponding position to the latch operation corresponding position in accordance with the operation of the handle body 2, the lever push member 6 can be formed integrally with the handle body 2 or can be formed into an appropriate configuration link within an appropriate link mechanism including the handle body 2.
The handle device for a vehicle may further include a handle base 7, a drive arm 8, and an operation arm 5. The drive arm 8 may be configured such that one end of the drive arm 8 is rotatably connected to one end of the handle body, the other end of the drive arm 8 is rotatably connected to the handle base 7, and the drive arm 8 is driven by the electric actuator. The operation arm 5 may form a link mechanism together with the handle body 2 and the drive arm 8. One end of the lever push member 6 may be connected to the other end of the handle body 2, and the other end of the lever push member 6 may be rotatably connected to the handle base 7, and the lever push member 6 may be integrally formed with the operation arm 5.
In this aspect, when the drive arm 8 is rotationally driven by the electric actuator 1 such as a motor, the handle body 2, which is connected to the operation arm 5 at one end and the drive arm 8 at the other end and forms the link mechanism as a whole, moves from the initial position to the pop-up position. Thereafter, when the handle body 2 is further operated and moved to the latch operation position, the lever push member 6 fixed to the operation arm 5 is moved to the latch operation corresponding position, the latch release lever 3 is driven, and the door latch device 4 is operated.
The link mechanism can be configured as a four-joint link mechanism by the handle base 7, the drive arm 8, the operation arm 5, and the handle body 2, and in this case, a latch release operation of the door latch device 4 can be performed by manually pulling out the handle body 2, which has been driven to the pop-up position by the electric actuator 1, to the latch operation position.
When the four-joint link mechanism is configured as a parallel link mechanism, the handle body 2 moves in parallel from the initial position, and thus usability is improved.
In the handle device for a vehicle, a connection portion between the operation arm 5 and the handle body 2 may have a sliding pair. The handle body 2 may be configured to move from the pop-up position to the latch operation position by a rotation operation of the handle body 2 about a rotation center of the handle body 2 with respect to the drive arm 8.
The handle device for a vehicle may further include an inertia stopper 9. The inertia stopper 9 may be configured to, when a collision impact load is applied, rotate to a stop position and prevent the lever push member 6 from pushing the latch release lever toward the latch release position.
In this aspect, the inertia stopper 9 is formed so as to have a moment of inertia for rotating the inertia stopper 9 to the stop position by an inertia force when a collision impact is applied, and at the stop position, the inertia stopper 9 blocks a movement path of the lever push member 6 to the latch operation corresponding position and restricts movement of the lever push member in the direction.
Therefore, when the collision impact load is applied, the movement of the lever push member 6 in the direction toward the latch operation corresponding position is restricted, and thus the latch release lever 3 does not operate.
The inertia stopper 9 can be disposed at either of positions at which the movement of the handle body 2 from the initial position to the pop-up position is restricted or at which the movement of the handle body 2 from the pop-up position to the latch operation position is restricted. However, in consideration of the likelihood of collision, it is desirable to dispose the inertia stopper 9 at the position at which the movement of the handle body 2 from the initial position to the pop-up position is restricted.
The lever push member 6 may have a restriction wall 10. The restriction wall 10 may prevent the latch release lever 3 from moving to the latch release position when the handle body 2 is located at a position between the initial position and the pop-up position, and allows the latch release lever to move to the latch release position when the handle body is located at the latch operation position.
In this aspect, even when an impact force due to a collision is applied and an operation force in a direction toward the latch release position is generated due to inertia in the latch release lever 3, the movement of the latch release lever 3 in the direction is restricted by the restriction wall 10 provided in the lever push member 6, and thus the door latch device 4 is not operated inadvertently.
According to the embodiment of the presently disclosed subject matter, it is possible to reliably prevent a door from opening due to a collision impact regardless of whether the handle body is at the initial position or the pop-up position.
A door handle device includes a handle base 7, a handle body 2, a drive arm 8 connecting the handle body 2 to the handle base 7, and an operation arm 5, and is to be fixed to a door of a vehicle at the handle base 7.
With the handle base 7 fixed to the door, the handle body 2 can be moved from an initial position shown in
The door handle device has a flush surface specification in which the handle body 2 is accommodated in the door and a surface of the handle body 2 is substantially in the same plane as a door surface when not in use. The initial position of the handle body 2 corresponds to a non-use posture. The handle base 7 is formed with a handle accommodating recess 7a to accommodate the handle body 2 when the handle body 2 is at the initial position (see
As shown in
In this description, a left side of
An electric actuator 1 such as a motor is to be fixed to the handle base 7, and as shown in
A pressed portion 8a is formed on the drive arm 8 so as to correspond to the cam 11 to be rotationally driven around a rotation center C11 and is pushed by the cam 11, and thus the drive arm 8 rotates from an initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body 2 to a pop-up corresponding position corresponding to the pop-up position of the handle body 2 in accordance with rotation of the cam 11.
In order to ensure the contact of the pressed portion 8a with the cam 11, a torsion spring 8b is mounted around the rotation center C87 between the handle base 7 and the drive arm 8 to bias the drive arm 8 counterclockwise in
As shown in
As shown in
As a result, a driving force is maximized at an initial stage of driving where the ascending speed is low, that is, when the handle body 2 starts to move from the initial position. By virtue of this configuration, for example, even when thin ice is formed around the handle body 2, it is possible to expect a sufficient driving force for crushing the ice and prevent an operation failure due to freezing.
When the handle body returns from the pop-up position to the initial position, since a descending speed decreases in a vicinity of the initial position, it is possible to prevent a collision with the handle base 7, packing, or the like, and it is possible to prevent an occurrence of collision noise, rebound, or the like.
Further, as shown in
Therefore, even if a load toward the initial position, that is, a force for pushing the handle body 2 is applied to the handle body 2 when the handle body 2 is at the pop-up corresponding position, only a force directed toward the rotation center C11 is generally applied to the cam 11, and a force in a direction perpendicular to the force is small. Therefore, a rotational operation force applied to the cam 11 is small, and a force applied to a worm from a worm wheel can be small.
As shown in
The other end of the drive arm 8, which is connected to the handle base 7 at one end, is rotatably connected to the front link connection portion 2a of the handle body 2, and the other end of the operation arm 5 is connected to the rear link connection portion 2a.
The connection between the operation arm 5 and the handle body 2 is rotatable and slidable. In this example, a connection pin 12 that is fixed to the rear link connection portion 2a and provides a rotation center C27 is inserted into a long hole 5a formed in an end portion of the operation arm 5, and thus the rotation center C27, that is, the connection pin 12 is slidable. The connection pin 12 is inserted into the long hole 5a and then retained by a retaining member as appropriate.
As shown in
As shown in
Therefore, in this example, when the electric actuator 1 is driven to rotate the cam 11 counterclockwise in
As described above, since the operation arm 5 and the handle body 2 are held, by actions of the torsion springs 5b and 8b, at the initial corresponding position where the connection pin 12 minimizes the link length of the operation arm 5, the drive arm 8, the operation arm 5, the handle body 2, and the handle base 7 form a parallel crank mechanism having the handle base 7 as a fixed link, and the handle body 2 moves from the initial position to the pop-up position shown in
When the handle body 2 reaches the pop-up position, the drive of the electric actuator 1 is stopped by a switch (not shown), and the handle body 2 is held at the pop-up position. When the electric actuator 1 is reversely driven from this state, the drive arm 8 returns to the initial corresponding position by the torsion spring 8b wound around the rotation center C87 and the handle body 2 returns to the initial position.
At the pop-up position, the handle body 2 is held in a posture parallel to the door surface. Thereafter, by pulling out a rear end side of the handle body 2 to an outside of the door, the handle body 2 is rotated about the rotation center C28 with the drive arm 8 until the handle body 2 comes into contact with a stopper (not shown), and as shown in
The rotation of the handle body 2 from the pop-up position to the latch release position is performed by a manual rotation operation, and in accordance with the rotation operation of the handle body 2 to the latch release position, the operation arm 5 further rotates beyond the pop-up corresponding position corresponding to the pop-up position of the handle body 2 and rotates to a latch operation corresponding position.
In this example, an operation of the door latch device 4 is performed by operating the latch release lever 3 by the lever push member 6 fixed to the operation arm 5.
As shown in
The latch release lever 3 is rotatably connected to the handle base 7 around a rotation center C37 perpendicular to the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5 with respect to the handle base 7. As shown in
The latch release lever 3 is biased clockwise in
Further, the latch release lever 3 includes a pushed portion 3d. As will be described later, the pushed portion 3d is pushed by a lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6, whereby the latch release lever 3 rotates counterclockwise in
As shown in
The lever push member 6 moves from a state shown in
Further, a weight portion 6d is formed in a vicinity of the lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6 to adjust the moment of inertia of the lever push member 6. A value of the moment of inertia is set to such a magnitude that, when an impact force due to a collision is applied to the vehicle, an operation force generated in the lever push member 6 by inertia and directed toward a direction to operate the latch release lever 3 will be canceled by inertia and the rotation in the direction will not be generated. A weight of the weight portion 6d, an arm length from the rotation center C57, and the like are determined based on the moment of inertia required for the lever push member 6.
Therefore, in this example, even when a collision impact force is applied, the operation force generated in the lever push member 6 is canceled by the moment of inertia of the lever push member 6, and thus, the latch release lever 3 is not pushed and inadvertent door opening is prevented.
Further, the lever push member 6 is provided with a restriction wall 10, and the latch release lever 3 is provided with a restriction protrusion 3e. As shown in
As shown in
The restriction of the rotation of the latch release lever 3 by the restriction wall 10 continues even at an intermediate position between the initial corresponding position and the pop-up corresponding position of the lever push member 6 as shown in
Further, an inertia stopper 9 for restricting the movement of the lever push member 6 when a collision load is applied to the vehicle is incorporated in the handle device. The inertia stopper 9 is rotatably connected to the handle base 7, rotates between a standby rotation position shown in
The inertia stopper 9 is formed as a cylindrical body whose gravity center position is set so as to move from the standby rotation position to the stop position by inertia when a collision force due to a collision is applied. As shown in
On the other hand, when a collision force from a side of the vehicle is applied to the vehicle, the inertia stopper 9 rotates from the standby rotation position to the stop position. As shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2019-165088 | Sep 2019 | JP | national |
The present application is a continuation application of PCT/JP2020/030013 that claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-165088 filed on Sep. 11, 2019, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/JP2020/030013 | Aug 2020 | US |
Child | 17654207 | US |