Denso Corporation

Kazuhiro Ando

Takeshi Araki

Tsutomu Shiga

Masahiro Katoh

Kiyokazu Haruno

Mikio Saito

Yasuyuki Wakahara

Yoshito Takagi

Masahiro Kato

A starter for engines uses a leaf spring as a shaft lever for advancing a pinion gear for engagement with a ring gear. The shift lever may be constructed with a plurality of layered leaf springs having respective front ends spaced apart one another to contact a one-way clutch at different positions. The shift lever may include a lever holder which has a low heat conductive member to minimize fatigue of the leaf spring. The leaf spring is initially loaded with a spring force.

Starter having resilient shift lever for driving pinion gear

A starter for engines uses a leaf spring as a shift lever for advancing a pinion gear for engagement with a ring gear. The shift lever may be constructed with a plurality of layered leaf springs having respective front ends spaced apart one another to contact a one-way clutch at different positions. The shift lever may include a lever holder which has a low heat conductive member to minimize fatigue of the leaf spring. The leaf spring is initially loaded with a spring force.

A magnet switch includes a resinous switch cover and an external terminal. The switch cover has a cylindrical metal member insert-molded into a fixing portion, and the external terminal is disposed inside the metal member. The external terminal has an anchoring head having a first sealing surface at one end and a screw portion extending to the other end that protrudes from the switch cover. A nut is screwed to the screw portion at the other end so as to generate an axial force between the nut and the anchoring head, thereby fixing the external terminal. The switch cover has a second sealing surface opposite the first sealing portion, and a seal member is disposed in a gap between the first and second sealing surfaces to seal the gap.

Magnet switch having metal-molded resinous switch cover

In a starter for an engine, a magnet switch attracts a plunger by a magnetic force generated by a solenoid coil wound around a sleeve, so that a pinion fitted on an output shaft of a starter motor is driven by movement of the plunger to engage with an engine ring gear. The the plunger is pressed to contact tightly with the sleeve, whereby the relative movement between the plunger and the sleeve is restricted as long as the coil is held deenergized. The pressing may be attained by an inclined surface provided on the plunger or a flexture of a transmitting member which connects the plunger and a pinion.

Starter having a vibration resisting magnet switch

A resilient restricting member of a rotation restricting member which restricts a pinion moving body from rotating is accommodated in a frame of a restricting member holder under a flexed and loaded state so that the rotation restricting member has a sufficient rotation-restricting function as long as the rotary force of the pinion moving body does not exceed the load acting thereon at the time of engagement and restriction of rotation. When a pinion gear abuts the end face of a ring gear and the pinion moving body is restricted from moving forward, the entire rotary force of an output shaft acts on the pinion moving body. The resilient restricting member flexes further in the restricting member holder to allow rotation of the pinion moving body, thus enabling the pinion gear to mesh the ring gear. Thus, the rotary force of the output shaft is converted to the advancing force of the pinion moving body surely even when the spiraling of the helical spline is not so large.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Kazuhiro Ando