Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Klaus Schnell

Gerd Rudolph

Peter Leng

Markus Leuschner

Erik Reischl

Joachim Koehler

A steering column switch, especially for a motor vehicle, contains a switch lever, which is activated transversely and which has a magnetic signal transmitter, to which several stationary magnetic-field sensors coupled to an evaluation unit are allocated for determining the switch positions of the switch lever. The switch lever supports a rotary switch and the signal transmitter and also the magnetic-field sensors are used for determining the switch positions of the rotary switch.

Steering column switch

A device for the determination of the degree of relative rotation between two parts or members with respect to each other about a main axis, the device comprising a first detector arrangement, which includes a rotation-imparting element and produces precise information indicating a relative angular position of the two members within the range of 0&deg; and 360&deg;, and comprising a second detector arrangement, which produces approximate information in order to be able to distinguish between full rotations. The second detector arrangement comprises a gear drive ( ) driven by the relative rotary motion of the two members and an absolute position sensor ( ) for the determination of the position of a measuring element ( ) moved by the gear drive ( ). The dimensions of the gear drive ( ) are such that the maximum possible range of relative rotation between the two members parts corresponds to a range of motion of the measuring element ( ), within which range all positions can be distinguished from each other in a geometric manner and which range can be resolved by the position sensor ( ) at a resolution corresponding at least to the full rotations between the two members.

Growing community of inventors

Appenheim, Germany

Klaus Schnell