JPS6042064B2 - vehicle steering device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a steering device for a vehicle such as an automobile.

As the above-mentioned steering device, for example,
As described in Publication No. 1, the steering shaft is divided into a rear steering shaft connected to the steering handle and a front steering shaft connected to the steering wheel, and these steering shafts are It is known that the steering shafts are connected through an annular elastic material that is press-fitted between the mating surfaces, and that a rotation angle regulating mechanism is provided between both steering axes to regulate the relative rotation angle of these axes. In this case, when the vehicle is running straight ahead with only a slight rotation of the steering wheel, the operating torque of the steering wheel is transmitted between the two steering axes via the annular elastic material, and the annular Due to the elastic deformation of the elastic material, the response of the steering wheel to the steering wheel operation can be slowed down to improve the straight-line performance of the vehicle, and when the vehicle is turning, where the steering wheel is rotated by a large amount, both steering wheels can be The above-mentioned responsiveness can be improved by directly connecting the steering wheel after a relative rotational displacement between the adaxial axes or a predetermined angle, and furthermore, when a forward impact force is applied to the steering wheel due to a head-on collision with another vehicle, etc. While alleviating the impact force by an axial frictional connection force between both steering shaft fitting surfaces sandwiching the annular elastic member,
Although the rear steering shaft can be moved forward with respect to the front steering shaft, that is, the rear steering shaft can be caused to collapse, there are the following drawbacks.

In other words, in the above conventional system, the axial connection force between both steering shafts is obtained by the contact friction between the annular elastic member and the steering shaft.
It is very difficult to accurately control the set load for collapsing, which corresponds to the connecting force, and the same load varies widely from product to product. In addition, in the conventional method mentioned above,
When the steering handle is in a neutral state where no operating torque is applied to the steering handle, the relative position of the rear steering shaft in the rotational direction with respect to the front steering shaft is maintained by the annular elastic member, but the positioning accuracy cannot be said to be sufficient because the annular elastic material is composed of a flexible elastic body such as rubber.The present invention has been proposed in view of the above, and is different from the conventional one. It is an object of the present invention to provide the above-mentioned steering device which can eliminate all the drawbacks of the conventional device while achieving the same effect.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automobile equipped with the device of the present invention.
A steering shaft 2 is rotatably supported on the vehicle body F, and the steering shaft 2 is connected to a steering handle H at the rear end and an input member of a known steering gear device 1 to the front end. A steering wheel W is connected to the steering wheel W. The steering shaft 2 is a second
As shown in the figure, the steering shaft 3 is connected to the steering wheel W, and the rear steering shaft 4 is connected to the steering wheel H. They are connected within the vibrator 5.

The connection structure will be explained below. As is clear from FIG.
The vibrator is constructed of a hollow vibrator having an oval cross section and an arcuate portion 3b, and is inserted into a column vibrator 5 from its lower part, and rotatably supported by the column vibrator 5 via a bearing member 6. The rear steering shaft 4 is constituted by a solid shaft, the front half of which is crushed from both sides as shown in FIG. 4, and has tapered surfaces 4a on both sides that gradually narrow outward from the center. It is formed. The rear steering shaft 4 is also inserted into the column vibe 5 from above, and is rotatably supported by the column vibe 5 via a bearing member 7. The front half of the rear steering shaft 4 having the tapered surface 4a is rotatably fitted into the rear part of the steering shaft 3, and the tapered surface 4a of the rear steering shaft 4 is connected to the front steering shaft 3. It is designed so that it can be relatively rotated left and right within a range of a predetermined angle α until it comes into contact with the inner surface of the flat portion 3a. The flat portion 3a of the steering shaft 3 and the tapered surface 4a of the rear steering shaft 4 have a rotation angle regulating mechanism of the present invention that regulates the relative rotation angle of these steering shafts 3 and 4. Configure. Furthermore, a torsion bar holder 8 is fitted into the inner periphery of the front steering shaft 3 so as to be non-rotatable but slidable in the axial direction. 18 is fixed to the steering shaft 3 via a plurality of shear pins 9 that break when a predetermined axial load is applied. Torsion bar holder 8
An annular small-diameter portion 10 is integrally protruded from the rear end, and this small-diameter portion 10 is slidably and rotatably fitted into a circular hole 11 formed at the front end of the rear steering shaft 4. There is. A through hole 12 is formed in the center of the torsion bar holder 8 and passes through it in the axial direction. A torsion bar 13 is inserted into the through hole 12, and one end of the torsion bar 13 is inserted. It is removably connected to the torsion bar holder 8 and the other end to the rear steering shaft 4 by connecting pins 14, respectively. Next, to explain the operation of this embodiment, when the vehicle is stopped, where no operating torque of the steering person acts on the steering handle H, the rear steering shaft 4 is connected to the steering wheel H and the front steering shaft, as shown in FIG. A torsion bar 13 connecting the steering shaft 3 holds the steering shaft 3 at a position where it can be displaced relative to the steering shaft 3 by the same angle α on both the left and right sides.

In addition, when the vehicle is running straight, where the operator only slightly rotates the steering wheel H, the steering torque of the steering wheel H is applied to the torsion bar 13 and the torsion bar from the rear steering shaft 4. The signal is transmitted to the front steering shaft 3 via the holder 8 to steer the steering wheel W.

At this time, the torsion bar 13 is elastically deformed by receiving torsional torque between the front and back, and a relative angular displacement occurs between the front and rear steering shafts 3 and 4, so that the steering wheel H of the steered vehicle W is operated. It is possible to improve the straight-line performance of the vehicle by slowing the response to
During the rotation operation, the tapered surface 4 of the rear steering shaft 4
a comes into abutting engagement with the inner surface of the flat portion 3a of the front steering shaft 3.

From then on, the operating torque of the steering wheel H is directly transmitted from the rear steering shaft 4 to the front steering shaft 3 without passing through the torsion bar 13. As a result, the vehicle can quickly and reliably turn. By the way, when a forward impact force acts on the steering wheel H due to a head-on collision of a vehicle, the impact force is applied to the rear steering shaft and the torsion bar holder 8.
acts as a shearing force on the shear pin 9 through
can be immediately sheared to temporarily absorb the impact force. Next, the rear steering shaft 4 and the torsion bar holder 8 move forward within the front steering shaft 3, but at this time, the rear steering shaft 4 and the torsion bar holder 8 and the front steering shaft 3 move forward. The impact force can be secondarily absorbed by each sliding resistance, and as a result, the impact received by the operator who collides with the steering handle H is alleviated as much as possible, thereby preventing the occurrence of personal accidents. It can be prevented. Incidentally, between the torsion bar holder 8 and the rear steering shaft 4, there is an annular small diameter portion 10 and a circular hole 1 formed at the rear end and the front end, respectively.
1 are fitted to form a bearing structure that allows relative rotation, so that the fitting bearings can control the bending displacement of the front and rear steering shafts 3 and 4 both during normal driving of the vehicle and in the event of the above-mentioned collision. It can be reliably suppressed at all times.

As described above, according to the present invention, the steering shaft 2 is divided into the front steering shaft 3 connected to the rear steering wheel W connected to the steering handle H, and one of the steering shafts 3 is made hollow. A torsion bar holder 8 is inserted into the torsion bar holder 8, and a shear pin 9 is connected between the torsion bar holder 8 and the one steering shaft 3 through a shear pin 9 that breaks when an axial load of more than a Y constant value is applied. The torsion bar holder 8 and the other steering shaft 4 are connected together via a torsion bar 13, and between the front and rear steering shafts 3, 4, the steering shafts 3, Since a rotation angle regulating mechanism is provided to regulate the relative rotation angle of both steering axes 3 and 4, when the vehicle is traveling straight, both steering axes 3,
During this period, the operating torque of the steering wheel H is reached through the torsion bar 13, and the torsional deformation of the torsion bar 13 at this time slows down the response of the steering wheel W to the operation of the steering wheel H, causing the vehicle to It is possible to improve straight-line performance, and when the vehicle is turning, the steering shafts 3 and 4 are directly connected after a relative rotational displacement by a predetermined angle, and the front-loading response can be improved. Turning operations can be performed quickly and reliably.

Furthermore, if a strong impact force of more than a certain value is applied to the front of the steering wheel H due to a head-on collision with another vehicle, the shear pin 9 will break and the torsion bar holder 8 will move toward the steering wheel H. 3 sliding in the axial direction on the inner surface, both steering shafts 3,
4 is so-called collapsed, it is possible to absorb and alleviate the impact received by the operator who collides with the steering handle H. In particular, in the present invention, a torsion bar 13 is employed as a spring connection means for the front and rear steering shafts 3 and 4, and a torsion bar holder 8 connected to the torsion bar 33 is attached to one of the steering shafts 3 via a shear pin 9. Since they are connected in the same direction, it is easy to accurately control the set load for collapsing both steering axes 3 and 4, which matches the axial connection force, and it is possible to reduce variations in the same load from product to product. .

Moreover, the torsion bar 13 has good stability in the torsional direction, and when the steering wheel H is in a neutral state in which no operating torque is applied, the rear steering shaft 4 is relative to the front steering shaft 3.
Since the relative position in the rotational direction can be held constant and firm, the positioning accuracy can be improved and the desired effect can be achieved more reliably.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automobile equipped with the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of essential parts of the device of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in Fig. FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 1-1 in FIG. 2; H... Steering handle, W... Steering wheel, 2... Steering shaft, 3... Front steering shaft, 4...
...Rear steering shaft, 3a, 4a...Flat portion constituting the rotation angle regulating mechanism, tapered surface, 8...Torsion bar holder, 9...・Sea pin, 1
3... Torsion bar.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Steering shaft 2 and rear steering shaft 4 connected to steering handle H
and a front steering shaft 3 connected to the steering wheel W, and one of the steering shafts 3 is formed hollow and a torsion bar holder 8 is fitted into its inner surface. and the one steering shaft 3 are integrally connected via a shear pin 9 that breaks when an axial load of a certain value or more is applied, and the torsion bar holder 8 and the other steering shaft 4 are connected together. The front and rear steering shafts 3 and 4 are connected via a torsion bar 13, and a steering shaft 3 is connected between the front and rear steering shafts 3 and 4.
, 4. A steering device for a vehicle, comprising a rotation angle regulating mechanism for regulating the relative rotation angles of the wheels.