Patent Application
20220025687
The present patent application claims the priority of Japanese patent application No. 2020/125548 filed on Jul. 22, 2020, and the entire contents of Japanese patent application No. 2020/125548 are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a window regulator.
A wire-type window regulator is known which is provided with a carrier plate to raised/lowered by wire-driving to raise/lower a window glass (see Patent Literature 1). The window regulator includes a carrier plate that moves with a window glass, wires that pull the carrier plate, wire ends fixed to carrier plate-side ends of the wires, slide bushes engaging and holding the wire ends, and coil springs for applying a tensile force to the wires. The carrier plate also has housing portions (wire end housing portions) for housing the slide bushes and the coil springs, and lead-out grooves for leading out the wires from bottom surfaces of the housing portions toward the outside of the carrier plate. In this window regulator, each slide bush is arranged in the corresponding housing portion so that the slide bush can advance and retreat and its end face faces the bottom surface of the housing portion, and the coil spring is arranged in a compressed state between a flange of the slide bush and the bottom surface of the housing portion. Thus, the flange of the slide bush receives a force applied in a direction separating away from the bottom surface and slack of the wire is suppressed.
The known window regulator described above may cause a problem that when the window regulator is used for a long period of time, grease (lubricant oil) for suppressing abnormal noise flows out from the lead-out grooves and is depleted and generation of abnormal noise thus cannot be suppressed.
In detail, the slide bush is arranged in the housing portion so that the slide bush can advance and retreat and its end face faces the bottom surface of the housing portion, as described above. Therefore, during the raising/lowering operation of the wind regulator, the end face of the slide bush comes into contact with the bottom surface of the housing portion against the force applied by the coil spring, and abnormal noise may be generated due to the contact. To address this problem, grease can be injected in the housing portion so that abnormal noise can be suppressed by the grease supplied around the end face of the slide bush. However, in the known window regulator, the end face of the slide bush actively pushes the grease therearound into the lead-out groove in the similar manner to a syringe when the end face of the slide bush comes into contact with the bottom surface of the housing portion, and most of the grease around the end face of the slide bush flows out from the lead-out groove to the outside. By repeating the contact, the grease supplied around the end face of the slide bush may be depleted and generation of abnormal noise thus may not be suppressed. As a result, generation of abnormal noise may not be suppressed when the wind regulator is used for a long period of time.
It is an object of the invention to provide a window regulator that is capable of suppressing the generation of abnormal noise even if the wind regulator has been used for a long period of time.
According to an embodiment of the invention mentioned above, a window regulator comprises:
According to an embodiment of the invention, a window regulator can be provided that is capable of suppressing the generation of abnormal noise even if the wind regulator has been used for a long period of time.
A window regulator in an embodiment of the invention will be described below in reference to the appended drawings. This window regulator is a raising/lowering device that is installed in a door panel of an automobile (a vehicle) and raises/lowers a window glass of a door provided on the automobile. In this window regulator, particularly a grease supply structure inside the carrier plate is improved so that generation of abnormal noise can be suppressed even when the wind regulator is used for a long period of time. Hereinafter, an ascending/descending direction, an ascending direction and a descending direction of the window glass are simply referred to as the ascending/descending direction, the ascending direction and the descending direction. In addition, left, right, front, rear, up and down used in the following description are as defined in each drawing.
As shown in
As shown in
The ascending-side wire 4 is attached to the carrier plate 3 at one end, passes through the pulley 6, and is coupled to a drum 72 of the drive unit 7 (described later) at the other end. Meanwhile, the descending-side wire 5 is attached to the carrier plate 3 at one end and is coupled to the drum 72 at the other end.
The drive unit 7 has a motor 71 with reducer, the cylindrical drum. 72 that is rotationally driven by the motor 71 and rotates to take up and feed out the ascending-side wire 4 and the descending-side wire 5, and a housing 73 that is provided at a lower end of the guide rail 2, holds the motor 71 and also covers the drum 72.
When the motor 71 is driven in forward, the drum 72 rotates in the forward direction and takes up the ascending-side wire 4 while feeding out the descending-side wire 5. Thus, the carrier plate 3 is pulled by the ascending-side wire 4 and moves in the ascending direction. As a result, the window glass G attached to the carrier plate 3 ascends. On the other hand, when the motor 71 is driven in reverse, the drum 72 rotates in the reverse direction and takes up the descending-side wire 5 while feeding out the ascending-side wire 4. Thus, the carrier plate 3 is pulled by the descending-side wire 5 and moves in the descending direction. As a result, the window glass G attached to the carrier plate 3 descends.
As shown in
The ascending-side spring 10 is composed of a coil spring (a helical spring). The ascending-side spring 10 is arranged such that the main body 81 of the ascending-side slide bush 8 is inserted thereinto and a lower end thereof is in contact with the flange 82 of the ascending-side slide bush 8.
The descending-side slide bush 9 is formed of a resin and has a cylindrical main body 91, and a flange 92 radially protruding from a base end (an upper end in
The descending-side spring 11 is composed of a coil spring. The descending-side spring 11 is arranged such that the main body 91 of the descending-side slide bush 9 is inserted thereinto and an upper end thereof is in contact with the flange 92 of the descending-side slide bush 9.
Next, the carrier plate 3 will be described in reference to
The attachment holes 31, 31 are for bolting glass holders (not shown) that are fixed to the window glass G. The window glass G is attached to the carrier plate 3 via the glass holders by fastening the glass holders with bolts inserted into the attachment holes 31, 31.
The rail attachment portion 32 is slidably attached to the guide rail 2. That is, the carrier plate 3 is supported on the guide rail 2 by the rail attachment portion 32 so as to be ascendable/descendible.
As shown in
As shown in
Inside the descending-side housing portion 34, the descending-side slide bush 9 is located close to the bottom surface 34b against a force applied by the descending-side spring 11 as shown in
Meanwhile, in the descending-side housing portion 34, a grease storage portion 34d storing grease B for suppressing abnormal noise is formed between the flange 92 of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b, as shown in
On the bottom surface 34b of the descending-side housing portion 34, a restriction protrusion 101 (the protruding portion) protruding from the bottom surface 34b is formed adjacent to the grease storage portion 34d, as shown in
As shown in
The restriction protrusion 101 is compressively deformed by the contact with the descending-side slide bush 9 such that the protruding length (the height) with respect to bottom surface 34b is reduced. That is, due to repeated contact with the descending-side slide bush 9 (precisely, repeat of contact associated with the approach and the recession), the restriction protrusion 101 is gradually compressively deformed such that the protruding length with respect to bottom surface 34b is reduced. As described above, by the protruding length of the descending-side slide bush 9, the distance between the flange 92 of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b and the capacity of the grease storage portion 34d at the time that the descending-side slide bush 9 comes close to the bottom surface 34b are controlled. Therefore, since the protruding length is gradually reduced due to the repeated contact, the distance between the flange 92 of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b is gradually reduced and the capacity of the grease storage portion 34d is gradually reduced. As a result, during the repeated contact, the grease B in the grease storage portion 34d is gradually supplied between the end face 91a of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b of the descending-side housing portion 34 and between the end face 91a and the restriction protrusion 101 by the reduce amount of the capacity of the grease storage portion 34d. It can be said that the restriction protrusion 101 is compressively deformed with an increase in the number of contacts such that the protruding length is reduced.
The amount of deformation of the restriction protrusion 101 (reduction in the protruding length) per contact is set considering the amount of grease that is supplied between the end face 91a of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b of the descending-side housing portion 34 in association with reduction in the capacity of the grease storage portion 34d. That is, the amount of deformation of the restriction protrusion 101 per contact is set so that the amount of grease supplied between the end face 91a and the bottom surface 34b is an amount sufficient to suppress abnormal noise at the time of the contact. The restriction protrusion 101 is formed with dimensions (width, length, etc. j so that this set amount of deformation per contact is satisfied. As a result, the restriction protrusion 101 is deformed by the repeated contact so that the capacity of the grease storage portion 34d is gradually reduced and the grease B in an amount sufficient to suppress abnormal noise at the time of the contact continues to be supplied from the grease storage portion 34d.
In the embodiment described above, during the repeated contact between the descending-side slide bush 9 and the restriction protrusion 101, the restriction protrusion 101 is gradually compressively deformed and consequently the grease B in the grease storage portion 34d is gradually supplied between the end face 91a of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b. As a result, when the window regulator 1 is used for a long period of time, it is possible to continuously supply the grease B between the end face 91a of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b and possible to suppress depletion of the grease B between the end face 91a and the bottom surface 34b. Therefore, even when the window regulator 1 is used for a long period of time, it is possible to suppress generation of abnormal noise due to contact between the descending-side slide bush 9 and the restriction protrusion 101.
In addition, since surface-to-surface contact between the end face 91a of the descending-side slide bush 9 and the bottom surface 34b can be avoided by the restriction protrusion 101, the phenomenon in which the grease B is actively pushed out through the lead-out groove 33c as in a syringe can be suppressed when the descending-side slide bush 9 comes close to the bottom surface 34b. As a result, it is possible to suppress outflow of the grease B through the lead-out groove 34c.
Further, since the restriction protrusion 101 extends so as to surround the bottom portion 34e of the lead-out groove 34c, it is possible to suppress the phenomenon that the grease B reaches the lead-out groove 34c by bypassing the restriction protrusion 101 and flows to the outside.
Furthermore, since the lateral surface 101b of the restriction protrusion 101 is an inclined surface, the grease B can be guided to the apex 101a (the contact surface) of the restriction protrusion 101.
Although the restriction protrusion 101 in the embodiment described above has a semicircular cross-sectional shape, the restriction protrusion 101 may have, e.g., a semicircular cross-sectional shape without the apex 101a, as shown in
In addition, although the restriction protrusion 101 in the embodiment described above extends in an annular shape having a cut-out portion at the intersection with the lead-out groove 34c, the restriction protrusion 101 may be configured to, e.g., extend in an annular shape having a cut-out portion at the intersection with the lead-out groove 34c and then extend from the intersection along the lead-out groove 34c, as shown in
Although the restriction protrusion 101 in the embodiment described above is compressively deformed by the repeated contact with the descending-side slide bush 9, it is not limited to compressive deformation as long as it is deformed so that the protruding length is reduced. For example, the restriction protrusion 101 may be curved and deformed or bent and deformed by the repeated contact so that the protruding length is reduced, or the restriction protrusion 101 may be abraded (worn away) by the repeated contact so that the protruding length is reduced.
In addition, although the restriction protrusion 101 in the embodiment described above is formed on the bottom surface 34b of the descending-side housing portion 34, the restriction protrusion 101 may be formed on the end face 91a (of the main body 91) of the descending-side slide bush 9. In this case, the restriction protrusion 101 protrudes from the end face 91a, comes into contact with the bottom surface 34b of the descending-side housing portion 34, and restricts the advancing position of the descending-side slide bush 9.
Furthermore, the restriction protrusion 101 is formed on a portion around the descending-side housing portion 34 in the embodiment described above, the restriction protrusion 101 may be also formed on a portion around the ascending-side housing portion 33. That is, the restriction protrusion 101 for restricting the advancing position of the ascending-side slide bush 8 may be formed on the bottom surface 33b of the ascending-side housing portion 33 or on the end face 81a (of the main body 81) of the ascending-side slide bush 8. In this case, the grease storage portion 34d in the ascending-side housing portion 33 is formed between the flange 82 of the ascending-side slide bush 8 and the bottom surface 33b of the ascending-side housing portion 33.
In addition, the amount of deformation of the restriction protrusion 101 per contact and the dimensions of the restriction protrusion 101 based on it are preferably changed according to the grease storage amount per unit height in the grease storage portion 34d. For example, since the grease storage amount per unit height in the grease storage portion 34d changes depending on, e.g., a thickness of a wire of the descending-side spring 11 arranged in the grease storage portion 34d, the amount of deformation of the restriction protrusion 101 per contact and the dimensions of the restriction protrusion 101 based on it are changed according to such a grease storage amount.
Although the invention is applied to the single-rail window regulator 1 in the embodiment described above, the invention may be applied to a double-rail window regulator or a rail-less window regulator as long as it is a wire-type window regulator.
Although the embodiment of the invention has been described, the invention according to claims is not to be limited to the embodiment. Further, please note that all combinations of the features described in the embodiment are not necessary to solve the problem of the invention. The invention can be appropriately modified and implemented without departing from the gist thereof.
