Autoliv Development Ab

Etienne Chapelain

Laurent Groleau

Laurent Hellot

Thierry Matrat

Koichi Minagawa

Robert Pillgruber

Keiichiro Fu-Jita

Holger Drees

Americo Maia

Satoshi Yagami

A steering-wheel arrangement is disclosed which comprises a steering-wheel having a first gear element. A second gear element is provided which is mounted on a steering column. The first and second gear elements inter-engage one another and the arrangement is further provided with an anti-backlash gear which is mounted on one of the gear elements. The anti-backlash gear has teeth configures to as to align substantially with the teeth of the gear element upon which it is mounted, and the anti-backlash gear is biased relative to the gear element upon which it is mounted towards a position in which the teeth of the anti-backlash gear become displaced from the corresponding teeth of the gear element. This gear arrangement has been found to provide improved 'feel' for a person driving a motor vehicle.

Gear arrangement

A steering wheel is disclosed, the steering wheel comprising a frame as radially outwardly-extending spokes () and a rim (). The frame defines a recess to receive an air-bag unit. The steering wheel is provided with a number of mounting elements () associated with a respective spoke (). Each mounting element () is connected to the steering wheel and has a portion () overlying part of the steering wheel. The air-bag unit () is connected to each mounting element () by means of a resiliently-biased connection to permit relative movement of the air-bag unit () with respect to the steering wheel, such that the peripheral part of the air-bag unit () defines a pre-determined gap between itself and the overlying portion () of the mounting element ().

Steering wheel

Growing community of inventors

Migne-Auxances, France

Etienne Chapelain