Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroshi Tabata

Yasuo Shimizu

Kazuo Higuchi

Hisakazu Okuhara

Shigeki Ehara

Kiichi Sasaki

Akihiko Akiyama

Koichi Suyama

Hidetoshi Saruwatari

Yoshihiko Kinoshita

Tomoya Toyohira

Norifumi Tamura

Kazuhiro Kishimoto

Yoshinobu Tada

Takayuki Sugama

Tadanori Honda

Yoshiko Kinoshita

Shizuyo Nakao

Atsushi Katsuki

A cable steering device in which the steering torque of a steering wheel is transmitted to wheels by a driven pulley provided in a driven pulley housing, cables, a follower pulley provided in a follower pulley housing and a gear box, and a power steering motor for assisting in the generation of the steering torque is provided in the follower pulley housing and not in the gear box.

Cable steering device

In a wire-type steering device in which a steering wheel and a gear box are connected to each other by wires, one end of each inner cable of two Bowden wires are wound around a driving pulley which is mounted on a rotary shaft of a steering wheel. The inner cables are inserted through the inside of outer tubes fixed at their corresponding ends to a driving pulley housing. The direction of drawing of the Bowden wires from the driving pulley housing is offset at an angle .alpha. in a forward direction of a vehicle body relative to a plane perpendicular to the rotary shaft 12, thereby preventing the Bowden wires from being exposed inside of a vehicle compartment, and/or from interfering with an instrument panel and the like.

Cable-type steering device

A cable steering device is provided such that it can be easily and reliably confirmed whether an inner cable of a Bowden cable is precisely wound around a pulley housed in a housing. Two inner cables are wound around a helical groove defined in an outer peripheral surface of a driven pulley connected to a steering wheel through a driven shaft. An opening is defined in a driven pulley housing enclosing the driven pulley, so that when the steering wheel is assembled to the driven shaft by a spline, it can be confirmed from the outside that the two inner cables have been wound precisely in two turns around the driven pulley.

A steering system for a vehicle is provided in which each of the inner cables of two Bowden wires has one end thereof wound around and fixed to a driving pulley provided on a rotary shaft of a steering wheel, and the other end thereof is connected to a follower pulley. Spring sheets provided at end of outer tubes of the Bowden wires, are biased by springs and are connected to differential transformers. When a difference in tension corresponding to steering torque is generated between the two inner cables, the spring sheets are moved relative to each other, and a steering torque is determined based upon the amount of relative movement detected by the differential transformers. Thus, the steering torque inputted to the steering wheel can be correctly detected, while eliminating the influence of friction of the Bowden wires.

Steering system for vehicle

A cable-type steering device is provided in which a sterring wheel and a gear box are connected to each other by wires, wherein a pulley to which wires are connected can be easily assembled to housings, while maintaining the enire length of the wire at a necessary minimum. A housing is divided into a first housing half and a second housing half. In assembling a pully having inner cables of Bowden wires previously wound therearound into the housing, collars mounted at ends of outer tubes of the Bowden wires are fixed in such a manner that they are sandwiched between a wire supporting groove in the first housing half and a lid portion of the second housing half.

To facilitate the assembly of wires for connecting a steering wheel and a gear box to each other, and to facilitate the regulation of neutral positions of the steering wheel and the gear box, first Bowden wires connected at one end to a steering wheel and second Bowden wires connected at one end to a gear box are connected at their other ends to each other in an intermediate interlocking device mounted between the steering wheel and the gear box. The intermediate interlocking device includes a first housing in which an intermediate follower pulley with the first Bowden wires wound therearound is accommodated, and a second housing in which an intermediate driving pulley with the second Bowden wires wound therearound is accommodated. If the housings are coupled to each other with a partition wall interposed therebetween, the pulleys are spline-coupled to each other at a predetermined phase.

A cable-type steering device having a steering wheel 1, a gear box and Bowden wires connecting the steering wheel 1 and the gear box. Pins fixed to a tip end of inner cables of the Bowden wires are fixed to pin holes formed on end surfaces of a drive pulley. The inner cables connected to the pins are inserted and fitted into wire fixing grooves having a spiral or wavy pattern shape formed on the end surfaces of the drive pulley. The inner cables are then wound around a pulley groove formed on a peripheral surface of the drive pulley. A tensional force of the inner cables is supported by the friction force generated between the inner cables and the wire fixing grooves and the load force applied to the portion fixing the pins to the inner cables is substantially reduced.

A steering-wheel lock mechanism is provided at a position in which a driver can easily operate the lock mechanism in a cable-type steering device, and prevents a large load from being applied to Bowden wires. Bowden wires, wound around and fixed to a driving pulley mounted in a rotary shaft of a steering wheel, are connected to a steering gear box. A cylinder lock operated by an ignition key is mounted on a driving-pulley housing having the driving pulley accommodated therein. By bringing a lock pin protruding from the cylinder lock, operated to a lock position, into engagement into a lock bore in the driving pulley, the rotation of the driving pulley is inhibited to lock the steering wheel.

Cable steering device with steering lock

A cable-type steering device with electric power-steering assist in which the structure of the steering torque transmitting system is simplified and the loss in transmission of the steering torque is decreased. An output shaft of a motor in an electric power-steering device is rotatably carried around an outer periphery of a steering rod and connected to the steering rod through a ball screw mechanism. A follower pulley, to which a steering torque from a steering wheel is transmitted through Bowden wires, is spline-coupled to an outer periphery of the output shaft of the motor. When the output shaft of the motor is rotated by the steering torque of the steering wheel transmitted to the follower pulley or by the output torque from the motor, the steering rod is moved laterally by the ball screw mechanism to turn the steerable wheels of a vehicle.

A cable-type steering device in which a steering wheel and a gear box are connected to each other by wires includes a relatively simple structure to effectively buffer road surface reaction torques which may be inputted from the vehicle wheels. An outer tube of a Bowden wire is slidably supported at its end in a wire penetration bore defined in a housing. The end of the outer tube is biased outwardly from the housing by a coil spring. An inner cable slidably accommodated in the outer tube is connected at its end to a pulley rotatably accommodated in the housing. If a large road surface reaction load is applied from wheels via gear box to the pulley, the outer tube is moved in unison with the inner cable, while compressing the coil spring, thereby preventing the road surface reaction load from being transmitted to a steering wheel.

In a cable-type steering device (in which a steering torque of a steering wheel is transmitted to wheels through a driven pulley, cables, and a follower pulley, and is assisted by a motor for a power-steering operation), a rotational angle of the driven pulley and a rotational angle of the follower pulley upon operation of the steering wheel are detected by potentiometers. A deviation between both of the rotational angles is proportional to an amount of elongation of the cables, i.e., the steering torque. Hence, an electronic control unit U controls the driving of the motor for the power-steering operation based on the deviation.

A cable-type steering device for controlling operation of a power-steering motor in accordance with the tension on stranded metal wire cables which connect a vehicle steering wheel to a steering gearbox. Tensions of the cables are detected by contact with an arm of a potentiometer. The surfaces of the cables are smoothed by a swaging treatment or resin coating treatment to prevent undesirable vibrations of the arm of the potentiometer and improve the detection accuracy of the potentiometer. The smoothing treatment eliminates undesirable vibration which might otherwise occur due to irregularity of the surface of untreated stranded metal wire cable.

An actuator for a seat belt tightening device for a vehicle using a piston received in a cylinder so as to be actuated by an explosive expansion of a propellant in a chamber defined in the cylinder behind the piston. To ensure a required strength of the coupling between the piston and a cable for transmitting the actuating force and to simplify the process of attaching the cable to the piston, the piston is cast by metal or alloy with an end of the cable embedded therein. Thus, the piston may be used as cast and no extra work is required to tie the cable to the piston. To improve the sealing capability of the piston, a skirt having a flared edge made of synthetic resin may be attached to the rear end of the piston.

Actuator for tightening a seat belt

A vehicle seat belt tightening system for taking up slack from a seat belt in high acceleration or deceleration condition to positively restrain a vehicle occupant but otherwise permitting the seat belt to be paid out to accommodate a movement of the vehicle occupant, comprising: a retractor unit comprising a winding spool, a seat belt tightening unit arranged at a seat belt outlet end of the retractor unit, a drive unit for selectively activating the seat belt tightening unit, and a deceleration detection unit for acting upon the seat belt tightening unit, which are integrally mounted on a common frame. Thus, the reliability of the system is improved and the installing and the servicing of the system is simplified. In particular, the operation reliability may be improved if the reverse rotation of the seat belt tightening unit is prevented by a ratchet mechanism in which a ratchet wheel received in a mutually spaced relationship in an opening provided with inner ratchet teeth and the ratchet wheel is adapted to be displaced into meshing engagement with the inner ratchet teeth of the opening when the ratchet wheel is pulled by tension from the seat belt.

Vehicle seat belt tightening system

A deceleration sensor, comprising a pair of U-shaped pendulums pivotally suspended from upper parts of a casing at their upper ends by way of pivot shafts extending in parallel with each other, one of the pendulums being received by the other in such a manner that they are permitted to pivot around their respective pivot shafts without interfering with each other, a pair of biasing springs for opposing movement of the pendulums against their inertia forces, a firing pin slidably received in the guide bore, a drive spring urging the firing pin toward a fuse which is intended to be activated by the deceleration sensor, a swing arm which is pivotally attached to the sensor casing at its one end and engaged by one of the pendulums at its other end; and a trigger arm which is pivotally attached to a middle part of the swing arm so as to be able to swing in a same plane as the swing arm, and is engaged by the other of the pendulumns at its one end and engages the firing pin against the spring force of the drive spring at its other end. Thus, the firing pin can be activated when at least one of the pendulums is activated by its inertia so as to disengage the swing arm or the trigger arm therefrom, and a high reliability can be achieved with a simple and compact structure.

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Wako, Japan

Hiroshi Tabata