JPH0244985B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for automatically and reliably closing a door of an automobile or other vehicle.

The present applicant proposed an automatic door closing device for such automobiles, etc., when the door is closed to a so-called ajar state and the door lock latch is fixed to the vehicle body and is in a half-latched position where it barely engages with the striker. The latch is forcibly rotated from the half-latched position to the full-latched position in which the door is fully engaged with the striker and the door is held in the fully closed position by means of a suitable drive means provided within the door. A patent application has already been filed. (Patent Application No. 56-178953 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 58-83777)).

The device of this earlier application uses light force to open the door from the free end of the door where the door lock is located, from the half-latched position to the full-latched position, where the door is most difficult to close due to weather strip reaction force, lock resistance, etc. Moreover, while it has the effect of being able to close reliably, in order to ensure that the speed reducer driven by the motor and the rotating lever provided on the shaft of the latch are linked, the mounting positions must be finely adjusted. The disadvantage is that it does not.

In other words, variations in the mounting positions of the decelerator and the rotary lever and play in connecting parts such as links occur, so that it is necessary to finally adjust their relative positions, which requires time for the mounting work. Furthermore, there are problems in mounting the decelerator near the door lock device due to the mounting space.

The present invention has been devised to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks and provides a device that is easy to install and does not require any stroke adjustment for the linkage between the drive means and the pivot lever that pivots the latch. The present invention aims to provide an automatic closing device for doors of automobiles, etc.

That is, the device of the present invention includes a door lock that has a latch that can be engaged with a striker fixed to either the vehicle body side or the door side, and a swing lever that is linked to the latch, and a door lock that is rotated by a drive source. and a traction means having a pinion that is arranged on the other side, and the swing lever and the traction means are linked via a cable that can engage with the pinion, and the rotation of the pinion of the traction means By pulling the cable, the swing lever is rotated in a desired direction, and the latch is moved from a half-latched position where it barely engages the striker to a fully engaged position where it fully engages the striker and moves the door into the fully closed position. It is designed to be forcibly rotated to the full latch position where it is held.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on an illustrated embodiment.

In Figure 1, 1 is the rear door of the car;
Its front end has a pair of upper and lower door hinges 2,
It is pivotally attached to the vehicle body (not shown).

A room 3 is formed within the door by an outer panel 1a, an inner panel 1b, and a rear end plate 1c that constitute the door 1. An automatic door closing mechanism A is provided below the room 3, and a door lock device B linked to the automatic closing mechanism A is attached to the rear end plate 1c of the room 3.

Further, an automatic opening/closing device (not shown) is provided in front of the room 3, but since this is not directly related to the present invention, a description of its structure and operation will be omitted.

First, a description will be given of a door lock device B equipped with a latch rotation mechanism which is a part of an automatic door closing mechanism.

Reference numeral 4 in FIG. 2 denotes a door lock body, which has a rectangular frame 5 made of hard synthetic resin and has a mounting plate 6 and a base plate 7 fixed to both sides, and this mounting plate 6 is attached to the rear end plate 1c. installed on.

Inside the frame 5, as shown in FIG.
A shaft 8 is provided which faces in the front-rear direction and is pivotally supported by the shaft 8, and a bifurcated latch 9 is integrally provided with this shaft 8.

In the open state shown in FIG. 4, the opening 9a of the latch 9 overlaps the U-shaped guide groove 6a formed in the mounting plate 6, and the opening 9a of the latch 9 overlaps the U-shaped guide groove 6a formed in the mounting plate 6, and is connected to a columnar striker 10 protruding forward toward the vehicle body. They are facing each other.

The latch 9 is operated by an appropriate spring (not shown).
It is constantly biased clockwise in Figure 4, and
As shown in the figure, the door 1 can be rotated into a half-latched position, which barely engages the striker 10, and a full-latched position, which fully engages the striker 10 and holds the door 1 in a fully closed state, as shown in FIG. It's getting old.

11 is a pole pivotally supported by a shaft 12;
This pawl 11 is biased counterclockwise by a suitable spring (not shown) and prevents the latch 9 from rotating back in the clockwise direction.

When this pawl 11 is rotated clockwise in FIG. 6 by operating the inside handle or outside handle of the door (not shown), the engagement between the pawl 11 and the latch 9 is released, and the striker 10 is released into the open position of the latch shown in FIG. 4 to release the door lock.

At the lower part of the base plate 7 of the door lock body 4 shown in FIG. It is pivotally mounted with a shaft 13.

A connecting rod 15 is attached to the upper end of the swing lever 14.
The lower end 15a of the connecting rod 15 is pivotally connected to the connecting rod 15.
The upper end 15b of is associated with the latch 9. This will be explained based on FIG. 3.

A substantially disc-shaped cam 16 is fitted on the outer periphery of the front end of the shaft 8, which cannot rotate relative to the latch 9, and is fitted onto the free end 8a of the shaft 8, so that it can rotate relative to the latch 9. A rotary lever 17 in the form of an inertia disk is pivotally mounted.

A step portion 16a that protrudes in the radial direction is formed on the periphery of the cam 16, and a cam surface 16b that bulges slightly outward is formed continuously from the step portion 16a. The detection switch 18 in the half-latched position can be contacted.

The rotary lever 17 is provided with a projecting piece 17a that can engage with the stepped portion 16a when rotated counterclockwise in FIG. Upper end 15b of connecting rod 15
is pivotally mounted with a shaft 19.

Therefore, when the connecting rod 15 is pulled downward as will be described later, the rotating lever 17
The protrusion 17a engages with the stepped portion 16a to rotate the shaft 8, forcing the latch 9 to rotate from the half-latched position to the full-latched position.

Next, the traction means of the automatic door closing mechanism A will be explained.

20 shown in FIG. 1 is a motor serving as a driving source,
A speed reducer 21 having a built-in clutch is connected to the motor 20.

The decelerator 21 includes a worm 22 and an annular worm wheel 23 that meshes with the worm 22 at the lower part of a case 21a that has a hollow and low cylindrical shape.
The rotation of the motor 20 can be reduced.

A boss portion 21b that protrudes into the case is provided at the center of the bottom wall of the case 21a.
An output shaft 24 is supported horizontally passing through b.

A pinion 25 is fitted to the outer periphery of the free end of the output shaft 24 outside the case, and a disc-shaped armature 26 is fitted to the end inside the case.

An annular excitation coil 27 is fixed to the inner side of the bottom wall of the case 21a concentrically with the boss portion 21b, and the excitation coil 27 and the armature 26
An annular rotor 28 is interposed with a slight gap between the two.

The inner peripheral surface of the rotor 28 is supported by the boss portion 21b, and the outer peripheral surface of the rotor 28 is supported by the worm wheel 23.
is integrally fixed to.

Therefore, when power is supplied to the excitation coil 27 and the field is excited, the rotor 28 attracts the armature 26, and due to this electromagnetic friction force, the rotational force of the motor 20 is transferred to the pinion via the output shaft 24. 25.

Reference numeral 29 denotes a cable, which is provided with a spiral protrusion 29b around a flexible core material 29a.

Such a cable 29 is known as a geared cable, and is formed by winding another hard steel wire helically around a core material made of, for example, a hard steel wire.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a cable conduit made of a steel pipe or a flexible circular pipe made of synthetic resin, and the cable 29 is inserted through the cable conduit 30 so as to be freely movable in the longitudinal direction.

31 is a plate-shaped cover plate that covers the pinion 25, and a tunnel-shaped arc portion 31 is provided at one end of the cover plate.
A is formed, and the outer periphery of the base of the cable conduit 30 is pressed and held by the arc portion 31a against the case 21a.

Inside the cover plate 31, a part of the cable conduit 30 is cut out to expose the cable 29, and the pinion 25 is engaged with the spiral protrusion 29b of the exposed cable 29, so that the pinion 25 is rotated. Therefore, the cable 29 is towed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the distal end of the cable conduit 30 is
It extends to the vicinity of the door lock device B and is attached to the inner panel 1b by a bracket 32.

Cable 29 pulled out from the opening of this cable conduit 30
The tip 29c of the swing lever 14 is attached to the lower end of the swing lever 14.
They are connected with pins 34.

As shown in FIG. 2, in order to pull back the swinging lever 14, which is pulled clockwise by the cable 29, counterclockwise, one end is locked to the lower end of the swinging lever 14, and the other A tension coil spring 33 is tensioned with its end locked to a protrusion 7b protruding from the base plate 7.

Next, the operation of the automatic door closing device will be explained.

When the door 1 is opened and a switch for closing the door provided at the driver's seat is turned on, the electric circuit of an automatic door opening/closing device (not shown) is energized and the door 1 is automatically closed.

When the door 1 approaches the fully closed state and reaches the half-latched position shown in FIG. 5, as shown in FIG.
The cam surface 16b of the cam 16 contacts the detection switch 18, closing its contacts and energizing the motor 20 and the clutch of the reducer 21 through an electric circuit (not shown).

When the motor 20 rotates, the clutch is engaged and the pinion 25 rotates, the cable 29 is pulled in the direction shown by arrow a.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the cable 29 is pulled in the direction of arrow a, the swing lever 14 rotates clockwise in FIG. 2 against the tension coil spring 33, and the connecting rod 15 push downward. Therefore, the projecting piece 17a of the rotating lever 17 shown in FIG. 3 engages with the stepped portion 16a of the cam 16 to rotate the shaft 8.

That is, as the shaft 8 rotates from the half-latched position shown in FIG. 5 to the full-latched position shown in FIG. Hold closed.

When the door 1 reaches the fully closed state, a detection switch (not shown) detects this and stops power supply to the motor 20 and the clutch.

As a result, the traction force and load on the cable 29 are eliminated, and due to the restoring force of the tension coil spring 33, the swing lever 14 is rotated counterclockwise in FIG. rotate clockwise,
The engagement between the protruding piece 17a and the stepped portion 16a of the cam 16 is released.

Therefore, when opening the door 1 next time, even if the pawl 11 is rotated by an inside handle or the like or by automatic operation and the latch 9 is released,
The latch 9 can be pivoted back to the released position shown in FIG.

Further, although the embodiment has been described in which the automatic opening/closing mechanism A and the door lock device B are disposed on the door side, they may be disposed on the vehicle body side and the striker 10 may be disposed on the door side.

As described above in detail, according to the device of the present invention, the latch rotation mechanism provided on the door lock and the traction means are connected by a cable to rotate the latch from the half-latched position to the full-latched position. By connecting and pulling the cable to one side,
The latch rotation mechanism is configured to actuate the latch rotation mechanism.

Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the relative mounting positions of the traction means and the door lock device, and it is sufficient to simply connect the cable meshing with the traction means to the latch rotation mechanism.

Further, unlike conventional devices, it does not take time to assemble the device.

Furthermore, the mounting location of the traction means etc. can be freely set by changing the length of the cable, which is advantageous as a closing device in places where space is limited, such as in automobiles.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a partially cutaway front view showing an embodiment of an automobile door equipped with the device of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway front view showing only the door lock device of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale; FIG. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the latch rotation mechanism, FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line X-X in FIG. 2, and FIGS. 5 and 6 show the latch operation as in FIG. 7th longitudinal cross-sectional view for explaining
The figure is a partially cutaway front view showing only the decelerator shown in FIG. 1 in an enlarged manner, and FIG. 8 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of FIG. 7. 1...Door, 4...Door lock body, 8...
Shaft, 9... Latch, 10... Striker, 15...
... Connection rod, 14 ... Swing lever, 17 ... Rotating lever, 20 ... Motor, 21 ... Decelerator, 2
4...Output shaft, 25...Pinion, 30...Cable conduit, 29...Cable, B...Door lock device, 29
b...Spiral protrusion, A...Automatic closing mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A door lock having a latch that can be engaged with a striker fixed to either the vehicle body side or the door side, and a swing lever linked to the latch;
a traction means having a pinion rotated by a drive source is disposed on the other side, and the swing lever and the traction means are linked via a cable that can mesh with the pinion, By pulling the cable by rotation of the pinion of the traction means, the rocking lever is rotated in the desired direction, and the latch is moved from a half-latched position where it barely engages the striker to a fully engaged position with the striker. An automatic closing device for a door of an automobile, etc., characterized in that the door is forcibly rotated to a full latch position where the door is held in a fully closed position.