Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Matsuo Industries, Inc.

Koji Sakurai

Norio Umemura

Hitoshi Iida

Osamu Hirose

Kenji Sasaki

Hisatoshi Ota

Norio Suzuki

Naoki Tsukamoto

Hiroki Sakamoto

Katsunobu Sakane

Yuji Kuriyama

Akihiro Misawa

Yoshiyuki Fujita

Koji Okumura

Hideto Maeda

Hiroaki Ando

Tadaoki Ichikawa

Yuki Nonoyama

Motoi Isomura

Ichizo Shiga

Matsuo Nagata

Shintaro Okawa

Kazuhisa Takahashi

Yoshinori Yoshizawa

Tsuneichi Furuie

Hiroaki Kuno

Hirotoshi Kanzaki

Yasuhito Takeuchi

Akira Urayama

Kenichi Matsui

Kenji Onda

Kenji Sumita

A vehicle sensor unit includes a millimeter wave radar device, an infrared sensor that is arranged at a position adjacent to the millimeter wave radar device, and a cover having a first cover portion and a second cover portion. The first cover portion is located in front of the millimeter wave radar device in a transmission direction of the millimeter waves to conceal the millimeter wave radar device and has millimeter wave transparency. The second cover portion is located in front of the infrared sensor in a transmission direction of the infrared light to conceal the infrared sensor and has infrared light transparency. The millimeter wave radar device and the infrared sensor are attached to the cover so that the whole vehicle sensor unit is configured as a single unit.

Vehicle sensor unit

An airbag device with a horn switch body, configured so as to be installed in an upper surface side in a boss portion near a center of a steering wheel, includes: an airbag which inflates by receiving inflation gas; an inflator for supplying inflation gas to the airbag; a pad covering the folded airbag; a mounting base made of sheet metal which holds the airbag, the inflator, and the pad; a horn switch body having an assembling pin to be assembled to a main body side of the steering wheel; and a support plate made of a sheet metal which supports the horn switch body as a configuration attached to a lower surface side of the mounting base. A case around the assembling pin, the mounting base, or the support plate is provided with a spacer capable of preventing rattling of the switch disposition portion in the case.

Airbag device with horn switch body

A steering wheel provided with a vibration device. The vibration device includes a vibration motor with an eccentric weight attached to a rotational axis protruding out of a motor body and a mounting bracket which mounts the motor on a mounting section located at a region continuous with a ring section on a steering wheel core. The mounting section includes a vibration receiving section and a mounting base. The mounting bracket includes a pressing section which presses the motor body against the vibration receiving section and a mounting tongue which is secured to the mounting base. The mounting bracket is mounted on the mounting base with the motor body disposed on the pressing section in such a manner as to press a region of the motor body facing the vibration receiving section against the vibration receiving section and transmit a vibration of the motor body to the vibration receiving section.

Steering wheel

A steering wheel provided with a vibration device. The vibration device includes a vibration motor with a weight attached to a rotational axis protruding out of a motor body, a mounting bracket which mounts the motor on the steering wheel body, a circuit substrate which includes a connector for feeding the vibration motor with electricity and a terminal which is plugged in a terminal hole of a mounting base of the motor body such that the circuit substrate is connected to the motor body, and a clip which is assembled with the motor body and mounted on the mounting bracket together with the motor body. The clip includes a pressing section which presses the circuit substrate against the motor body and a retaining element that is engaged with and holds the mounting bracket so as to help the pressing section to keep pressing the circuit substrate toward the motor body.

A horn switch mechanismhas a securing pinserving as a support member, a movable memberserving as an insulating portion, a compression coil springserving as an urging member, and a contact terminalserving as a movable contact. The securing pinis fixed to a metal coreof a steering wheel bodyand supports a bag holderin such a manner that the bag holderselectively proceeds toward and retreats from the metal core. The movable memberis arranged between the securing pinand the bag holderand electrically insulates the securing pinand the bag holderfrom each other. The coil springurges the bag holderaway from the metal core. The contact terminalmoves together with the bag holder. When the bag holdermoves toward the metal coreagainst the urging force of the compression coil spring, the contact terminalcontacts the securing pinand permits conduction between the contact terminaland the securing pin. This activates a horn deviceof the vehicle.

Steering wheel with airbag device

A folded airbag is accommodated between a bag holder, to which horn switch mechanisms are secured, and a pad secured to the bag holder. The horn switch mechanisms are installed by being inserted in attachment holes formed in the bag holder. The pad has switch support portions for supporting the horn switch mechanisms.

Steering wheel with airbag device and method for assembling the same

Upon self-alignment of a steering wheel, a steering wheel body has its ring plane displaced toward the vertical plane by plastic deformation of the steering wheel core. There is located a switch operation portion in at least one of the two front spokes neighboring a front space inside the ring portion and generally symmetrically arranged relative to the boss portion. The cores of the front spokes are further provided at positions generally symmetric relative to the boss portion and to the boss portion relative to the switch operation portion with deformable portions, respectively, to be twist-deformable upon self-alignment.

A steering wheel includes a ring, a plurality of spokes extending from the ring toward the middle of the steering wheel, and a pad encompassed by the ring. An accessory panel having a switch is secured to the spokes. A support member supports the accessory panel with respect to the spokes. A fastening member fastens the accessory panel to the spokes. The support member is located separately from the fastening member.

Accessory panel mounting structure for a steering wheel

An air bag assembly mountable in an automobile vehicle, which assembly includes an air bag, a pad, and a bag holder. The air bag is expandable between a folded state and a deployed state. The pad has a ceiling wall structure and a side wall structure. The ceiling wall structure is configured to cover the air bag when in the folded state and constructed and arranged to rupture when the air bag expands from the folded state to the deployed state to create a passageway which permits the air bag to deploy into an interior compartment of the vehicle. The side wall structure of the pad extends from the ceiling wall structure to define a substantially annular cross section and includes a plurality of spaced lock holes formed therein. The bag holder, which holds the air bag and the pad, includes first and second plates which are substantially horizontally and vertically oriented, respectively, when the air bag assembly is mounted in the vehicle. The horizontal plate has a plurality of spaced insertion holes formed therein, which are arranged to receive portions of the side wall structure of the pad. The vertical plate includes a plurality of locking claws, which are disposed to extend radially inward and engage the lock holes of the pad to thereby secure the pad to the bag holder.

Air bag assembly

A pad module is attached to a steering wheel according to the attaching method of the invention in the following manner. First, a lower cover is formed to have a bolt hole and a temporary bolt holder. The bolt holder is integral with the lower cover via a hinge portion and an arm portion. The arm portion is turned around the hinge portion to position the bolt holder in registration with the bolt hole, and is fixedly held. Then, the lower cover is secured to the steering wheel main body, and a bolt is inserted through the temporary bolt holder from the bolt hole and temporarily held by the holder. Thereafter, the pad module is set in place, and a nut is engaged with the bolt. By fastening the bolt with a fastening jig, the pad module is attached to the steering wheel main body. Because the temporary bolt holder is provided integrally with the lower cover, separate parts for temporarily holding a bolt is unnecessary and accordingly, it is not required to fix such parts by screw fasteners or the like. The number of parts and time required for attachment of the pad module decreases to attain cost reduction and improvement of work efficiency.

Method of attaching pad module on steering wheel

A steering wheel is provided having a vibration prevention mechanism and a horn switch mechanism, the horn switch mechanism includes: first and second contact plates each having two contacts for operating a horn; coil springs provided between the first and second contact plates to space them away from each other; and guide pins for guiding the movement of the contact plates towards each other. The vibration prevention mechanism includes a mounting plate; two vibration proofing rubber members provided between the mounting plate and the second contact plate to couple the mounting place to the second contact plate. The two contacts of the first contact plates, the two contacts of the second contact plates, and the two vibration proofing members are located in one and the same plane. This arrangement allows the operator to operate the horn smoothly.

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Aichi-ken, Japan

Koji Sakurai