JPH0225830B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Object of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) This invention relates to a steering wheel with a heater having a heater in its ring portion.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, the ring portion of a steering wheel of an automobile, a motor boat, etc. has been provided with means to provide elasticity or to be covered with leather to improve the touch sensation of the driver's hand. In addition, in the winter when the temperature is low, in order to eliminate the discomfort that occurs when holding the ring part because it is cold,
A steering wheel in which a heating element is provided in the ring portion has also been proposed. However, in conventional steering wheel heating devices, the heating element, that is, the heater wire, and the temperature sensing element, such as a thermistor or thermostat, are not integrally formed, so there is a large variation in temperature during temperature control, and the grip part There was an inconvenience that it was difficult to control the temperature of the vehicle to a temperature that the driver considered optimal.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The present invention solves the problem that the control of the heater temperature in the conventional apparatus is unreliable.

Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the first invention provides a steering wheel with a heater, in which a heater is attached to at least a grip portion of a ring portion of the steering wheel. The heater is formed by holding a heater wire between two sheets each having a substantially rectangular portion in plan view and a bulging portion extending from the rectangular portion to one side;
The heater wire is arranged in a meandering manner in the rectangular portion and has an end extending to the bulge portion;
In the second invention, a configuration is adopted in which a connection part is formed by being connected to a lead wire within the bulge part, and a temperature sensing element is disposed in contact with the heater wire of the rectangular part, and in the second invention, the steering wheel In a steering wheel with a heater, in which a heater is attached to at least a grip part of a ring part, the heater is arranged in two sheets each having a substantially rectangular part in plan view and a bulging part bulging out from the rectangular part to one side. Accordingly, a heater wire is clamped and formed, and the heater wire is arranged in a meandering manner in the rectangular region, and the end thereof extends to the bulge region and is connected to a lead wire within the bulge. a connecting portion is formed, and an equivalent circuit whose temperature changes in synchronization with the heater circuit disposed in the grip portion is connected in series to the heater circuit near the connecting portion;
A configuration was adopted in which a temperature sensing element was provided near the equivalent circuit.

(Function) In the first invention, the heater is mounted on the steering wheel so that its rectangular portion corresponds to the grip portion and the bulging portion corresponds to the back surface of the spoke portion. By arranging the temperature sensing element in contact with the heater wire in the rectangular portion, the temperature of the heater wire can be directly detected, resulting in high reliability and less variation in temperature during temperature control. Further, in the rectangular portion, since the heater wire is arranged in a meandering manner between the two sheets, the entire sheet can be heated to achieve a uniform temperature distribution state. Furthermore, since the connection part between the heater wire and the lead wire, which has large irregularities, can be placed on the back side of the spoke part, which is normally difficult to reach, the driver does not touch the connection part when operating the steering wheel, causing discomfort. Not only will you feel less of a burnout, but you will also be less likely to experience disconnection at the connection between the heater wire and the lead wire. In addition, in the second invention, in addition to the above-mentioned effects of eliminating the discomfort during steering operation, preventing disconnection at the connection part, and making the entire seat uniform in temperature distribution, An equivalent circuit that changes temperature in synchronization with the heater circuit installed in the grip is connected in series with the heater circuit near the connection between the heater wire and the lead wire, and an equivalent circuit is connected in series with the heater circuit. Because the temperature sensing element is placed in the grip, the temperature sensing element is able to detect the temperature corresponding to the grip part temperature even though the temperature sensing element is placed outside the grip, ensuring accurate temperature control. can be done. Furthermore, since the temperature sensing element is disposed in a place other than the grip, even if the driver grips the grip, the grip pressure is not applied to the temperature sensing element, making it difficult for the temperature sensing element to malfunction.

Example 1 A first example embodying this invention will be described below as a first example.
This will be explained according to Figures 4 to 4. Heaters 3 are attached to grip portions 2 provided on both left and right sides of a ring portion 1 of the steering wheel. A pair of left and right heaters 3 attached to the grip part 2 are connected in series, and the heater 3 attached to one side (the left side in FIG. 1) has a thermistor as a temperature sensing element 4 approximately in the center thereof. It is arranged in contact with the heater wire 5, which will be described later, and the other (right side in Fig. 1)
A temperature fuse 6 is connected to the heater 3 installed in the heater wire 5 in series to prevent overcurrent and overheating.
is connected.

As shown in FIG. 3, the heater 3 has a substantially rectangular planar shape and has bulging portions 7a and 8a formed on one side thereof.The heater wire 5 is arranged in a meandering manner between two sheets 7 and 8, and the heater wire 5 is arranged in a meandering manner. It is formed by clamping a thermistor as the sensing element 4. A connecting portion 10 between the heater wire 5 and the lead wire 9 is arranged between the bulges 7a and 8a of the sheets 7 and 8. Of the two sheets 7 and 8, one of the sheets 7, which is the inner side when attached to the steering wheel, is made of 100% polyester fiber in a twill or knit weave, and is made of stretchable material that has been treated with flame retardant treatment. The other sheet 8, which is made of a large cloth and serves as the outer side, is made of a non-woven fabric made of 100% polyester and subjected to flame retardant treatment so that it has less elasticity than the one sheet 7. Therefore,
When the heater wire 5, etc. is held between both sheets 7 and 8, as shown in Fig. 4, one of the highly elastic sheets 7 absorbs the unevenness of the heater wire 5, etc., and the other sheet 8 absorbs the unevenness. It is held in a flat state without any cracks.

When the heater 3 formed as described above is mounted on a steering wheel, the rectangular portion of the heater 3 is attached to the ring portion 1 as shown in FIG.
Corresponding to the grip part 2 of the heater wire 5 and lead wire 9
The bulging portions 7a and 8a, to which the connecting portions 10 are clamped, are attached to the spoke portions 11 in such a manner that they correspond to the back surfaces of the spoke portions 11. In order to prevent the heat from escaping to the center of the ring part 1, the heater 3 has a polyurethane layer 13 that covers the core metal 12 of the ring part 1, and covers approximately half its outer circumference with a heat insulating material 14 such as chloroprene rubber interposed therebetween. At the same time, the outside thereof is covered with an outer skin 15 such as real leather or synthetic leather.

Next, the operation of the heated steering wheel configured as described above will be explained. When the ring part 1 is cold in the winter when the temperature is low, when the driver turns on the heater 3, the heater wire 5
is heated to about 40℃, and the outer circumference of grip part 2 is heated to about 20℃.
It reaches about 30℃ in 30 seconds. The temperature of the heater wire 5 is sensed by the temperature sensing element 4, and the temperature is controlled based on the sensed temperature. Further, if an abnormality occurs in the heater 3 and overheating occurs in the heater wire 5, the temperature fuse 6 (which blows out at about 110° C.) blows out to prevent the abnormal condition from continuing.

In the steering wheel with a heater configured as described above, the thermistor as the temperature sensing element 4 is disposed in the portion attached to the grip part 2 in contact with the heater wire, so that the temperature in the grip part 2 is Changes can be directly detected, making it easy to control the temperature so that the temperature of the grip part 2 is in the optimum state, and reliability is increased because the temperature of the heater 3 is directly detected.

In addition, this steering wheel with a heater has large irregularities by mounting the heater 3 so that its rectangular portion corresponds to the grip portion 2 and the bulging portions 7a and 7b correspond to the back surface of the spoke portion 11. Connection part 1 between heater wire 5 and lead wire 9
0 can be placed on the back side of the spoke portion 11, which is normally difficult to reach, so the driver does not touch the connecting portion 10 when operating the steering wheel, thereby reducing discomfort and also making it easier for the driver to connect the heater wire 5. Disconnection at the connection portion with the lead wire 9 can also be made less likely to occur.

Further, in the rectangular portion, since the heater wire 5 is arranged in a meandering manner between the two sheets 7 and 8, the entire sheets 7 and 8 can be heated to have a uniform temperature distribution state.

Embodiment 2 Next, an embodiment embodying the second invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, the configuration of the heater 3 mounted on the steering wheel is different from that of the first embodiment. That is, when attached to the steering wheel, the heater wire 5 is placed in a small pitch near the connecting portion 10 between the heater wire 5 and the lead wire 9 disposed on the bulges 7a and 8a disposed on the back surface of the spoke portion 11. An equivalent circuit 16 that changes temperature in synchronization with the heater circuit of the portion attached to the grip portion 2 by bending is provided. A thermistor as the temperature sensing element 4 is disposed near the equivalent circuit 16. The heater 3 configured as described above is installed in the same place in place of the heater 3 installed on the left side of FIG. Therefore, in the heated steering wheel of this embodiment, since the thermistor as the temperature sensing element 4 senses the temperature change in the equivalent circuit 16, the temperature of the grip portion 2 is adjusted to a predetermined temperature as in the previous embodiment. Reliability when controlling temperature is increased. Further, in the steering wheel of the present invention, since the temperature sensing element 4 is arranged in a part other than the grip part, the driver does not grip the part corresponding to the temperature sensing element 4 when operating the steering wheel. Since no pressing force is applied to the temperature sensing element, failure of the temperature sensing element 4 is less likely to occur. In addition, since the heater 3 in the portion where the temperature sensing element 4 is generally disposed is a protrusion, touching the protrusion when operating the steering wheel may cause discomfort; however, in this invention, the grip portion 2
Since the temperature sensing element 4 is disposed in other parts, there is no such possibility.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments; for example, the heater 3 may be attached to the ring part 1 other than the grip part 2, or a thermostat may be used instead of a thermistor as the temperature sensing element. , providing one of the pair of heaters attached to the grip part 2 with a temperature sensing element and an overheat prevention or overcurrent prevention element, changing the shape of the heater 3, etc. without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is also possible to arbitrarily change the shape, configuration, etc. of each part.

Effects of the Invention As detailed above, according to the first invention, the heater attached to the steering wheel has a rectangular portion corresponding to the grip portion and a bulging portion corresponding to the back surface of the spoke portion. It is installed like this. By arranging the temperature sensing element in contact with the heater wire in the rectangular portion, the temperature of the heater wire can be directly detected.
It is highly reliable and can reduce temperature variations during temperature control. Further, in the rectangular portion, since the heater wire is arranged in a meandering manner between the two sheets, the entire sheet can be heated to achieve a uniform temperature distribution state. Furthermore, since the connection part between the heater wire and the lead wire, which has large irregularities, can be placed on the back side of the spoke part, which is normally difficult to reach, the driver does not touch the connection part when operating the steering wheel, causing discomfort. In addition to reducing the feeling of disconnection, disconnection at the connection between the heater wire and the lead wire can be made less likely to occur. Furthermore, in the second invention, in addition to the above-mentioned effects of eliminating the discomfort during steering operation, preventing disconnection at the connection part, and making the entire seat uniform in temperature distribution, the second invention further provides a heater circuit disposed in the grip part. An equivalent circuit whose temperature changes in sync with the grip is disposed outside the grip, and the temperature change of the equivalent circuit is detected by a temperature sensing element, so that the temperature of the grip can be controlled with high reliability in the same way as in the first invention. In addition, since the driver does not press the part corresponding to the temperature sensing element, failures due to pressure on the temperature sensing element are less likely to occur. Since the user does not touch the formed protrusions, there is little risk of feeling uncomfortable, which is an excellent effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a steering wheel embodying the first invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway plan view of a heater.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of the heater, and FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway plan view showing the heater of the second invention. Grip part...2, Heater...3, Temperature sensing element...4, Heater wire...5, Seat...7,8,
Swelling parts...7a, 7b, spoke parts...11, equivalent circuit...16.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a steering wheel with a heater in which a heater 3 is attached to at least a grip portion 2 of a ring portion 1 of the steering wheel, the heater 3 has a rectangular portion that is substantially rectangular in plan view, and a rectangular portion that is substantially rectangular in plan view, and a portion that extends from the rectangular portion to one side. A heater wire 5 is formed by being held between two sheets 7 and 8 having bulged portions 7a and 8a, and the heater wire 5 is arranged in a meandering manner in the rectangular portion. The end portions are extended to the bulging portions 7a and 8a, and connected to the lead wires 9 within the bulging portions 7a and 8a to form a connecting portion 10, and are brought into contact with the heater wires 5 of the rectangular portions. A steering wheel with a heater, characterized in that a temperature sensing element 4 is disposed at the top of the steering wheel. 2. In a steering wheel equipped with a heater, in which a heater 3 is attached to at least the grip part 2 of the ring part 1 of the steering wheel, the heater 3 has a rectangular part that is substantially rectangular in plan, and a bulge that bulges out from the rectangular part to one side. The heater wire 5 is formed by being held between two sheets 7 and 8 having portions 7a and 8a, and the heater wire 5 is arranged in a meandering manner in the rectangular portion and has an end portion formed in the expanded portion. It extends to the protruding parts 7a, 8a and is connected to the lead wire 9 within the protruding parts 7a, 8a to form a connecting part 10, and is disposed on the grip part 2 near the connecting part 10. A steering wheel with a heater, characterized in that an equivalent circuit 16 whose temperature changes in synchronization with the heater circuit is connected in series with the heater circuit, and a temperature sensing element 4 is provided near the equivalent circuit 16. 3. The steering wheel with a heater according to claim 2, wherein the equivalent circuit 16 is formed by wiring the heater wires 5 in a meandering manner with small pitches. 4. The steering wheel with a heater according to claim 2, wherein the temperature sensing element 4 is arranged on the heater wire 5 constituting the equivalent circuit.