Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Yamada Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Joshua D Pritchard

Eric M Heitkamp

Toshihito Osawa

Minoru Takakusaki

Toshihiro Nakamura

Cameron R Titus

Robert A Salemme

A tunable, thermally actuate, self-sealing grommet for sealing a hole in a vehicle panel through which a steering gearbox protrudes from an engine room to a passenger compartment. The grommet includes a shape memory alloy component embedded in a resin matrix. The shape memory alloy is selectively moveable from a deformed configuration toward a pre-deformed configuration upon being heated to a critical temperature from heat from an initial operation of an engine of the vehicle, which causes a sealing portion of the grommet to move from a non-engagement position to an engagement position such that the sealing portion contacts the panel to form a water-tight seal around the hole.

Thermally actuated grommet

A steering device includes an inner column and an outer column which has a guide cylinder portion supporting the inner column to be movable in an axial direction and a holding cylinder portion located at a rear side in the axial direction in relation to the guide cylinder portion and having a slit extending in the axial direction. The guide cylinder portion has a support face which slidably supports an outer circumferential face of the inner column and a regulation face which is located at a front side in the axial direction in relation to the support face and regulates a movement of the inner column in a radial direction. The guide cylinder portion is formed so that a distance from an axis to the regulation face in the radial direction is longer than a distance from the axis to the support face.

Steering device

Growing community of inventors

Columbus, OH, United States of America

Joshua D Pritchard