Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Strattec Power Access LLC

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Other

Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Michael Antonio Ciavaglia

Lloyd Walker Rogers, Jr

Joseph M Johnson

John R Rice

Brian Norman Orr

Eluid David Carter

Frank Joseph Arabia, Jr

Lloyd W Rogers

Theodore J Lindsay

Howard Kuhlman

Eric Ransford Hansen

Ian Martin

Ronald James Wilde

Michael Todd Moury

David Joseph Chapman

David A Sedlak

Xinhua He

Rita M Paulik

Mark Duane Nicholas

Douglas Dombrowski

Robert W Baughman

Thomas Ralph Osborn

Jiri Paulik

Todd A Suddon

Emily Mascarenas

Ann P McCarthy-Garland

Philip Bigos

David Johnston

Ann P Mccathy-Garland

Lloyd W Rogers Jr

A wheelchair lift includes a base, and an arm slideably supported by the base. A chair support is rotatably supported by the arm. A linkage is supported by the arm and is extendable relative to the chair support from a coiled position to a straightened position. A motor is supported by the arm and is connected to the linkage. The linkage is coiled about the motor in the coiled position.

Vehicle wheelchair lift

A drive unit comprising a guide channel that has a first pulley at one end that rotates about a fixed pulley axis. The drive unit also includes a flexible drive member having a plurality of spaced windows, an attachment assembly moveably attached to the guide channel, and an adjustable pulley assembly coupled to the guide channel that has a second pulley that rotates around a moveable pulley axis that can be adjusted to change the distance between the fixed pulley axis and the moveable pulley axis to take up slack in the flexible drive member.

Attachment assembly and drive unit having same

A drive unit includes a gear set driving a drive pulley that in turn drives a flexible drive member which is attached to a driven member by an attachment assembly that travels in a channel. The attachment assembly is attached to the flexible drive member by a coupler that has teeth that extend through respective windows of the flexible drive member. The coupler is disposed between side walls of a yoke and attached to a bridge wall of the yoke. An outer shoe engages each side wall of the yoke. The attachment assembly includes an optional spring to tension the flexible drive member and the shoes have optional flexible tapered fingers to stabilize the drive pulley. The flexible drive member and the spring are trapped between the coupler and the bridge wall of the yoke. In an alternate arrangement, the flexible drive member is trapped between the coupler and fingers of the shoes that extend behind the flexible drive member and through spaces between adjacent teeth of the coupler and into sockets of the other shoe. The flexible drive member may be a drive chain or a drive belt having spaced windows.

An automotive vehicle has a power operated lift-gate that is opened and closed by two drive units. The typical drive unit has a guide channel, an attachment assembly that is disposed in the guide channel, a flexible drive member that is attached to the attachment assembly and formed in a loop for moving the attachment assembly in the guide channel. The flexible drive member is trained solely around two pulleys at the respective opposite ends of the guide channel to form the flexible drive member in a narrow loop. One of the pulleys is an idler pulley that is part of an adjustable pulley assembly and the other pulley is driven by a power unit that is attached to the guide channel. The adjustable pulley assembly adjusts the distance between the pulleys to take up slack in the flexible drive member.

Adjustable pulley assembly and drive unit having an adjustable pulley assembly for an endless flexible drive member of the drive unit

A cinching latch assembly is disclosed herein. The cinching latch assembly having: a housing; a unidirectional motor mounted to the housing; at least one gear operatively connected to the unidirectional motor; at least one cam member operatively connected to the at least one gear; and a latch lever pivotally mounted relative to the housing, the latch lever being operatively connected to the at least one cam member wherein, operation of the unidirectional motor in a first direction rotates the gear causing the cam member to urge the latch lever between a first position and a second position wherein the latch lever rotates a fork bolt into a primary latched configuration.

Uni-directional cinching latch assembly and method of operating a cinching latch assembly

A flexible drive member attachment is connected to a flexible drive member by a yoke having side walls connected by a bridge wall that has a stud connecting the attachment to a driven member. A coupler is disposed between the side walls and attached to the bridge wall. The coupler has teeth that extend through respective windows of the flexible drive member. An outer shoe engages each side wall of the yoke. Each outer shoe has a forward flange engaging the bridge wall and a rearward flange that extends through a rearward slot of the associated side wall. Each rearward flange has fingers that extend behind the flexible drive member and through spaces between adjacent teeth of the coupler and into sockets of the other shoe. The flexible drive member may be a drive chain or a drive belt having spaced windows.

Flexible drive member attachment

A hinge assembly for coupling a sliding door of a vehicle to a drive unit for sliding the sliding door from an open position to a closed position, the drive unit causing the hinge assembly to slide within a guide track as the door moves between the open position and the closed position, the hinge assembly comprising: a first hinge portion; a second hinge portion, the first hinge portion being pivotally secured to the second hinge portion; a cable attachment being secured to the second hinge portion; and a guide surface disposed on a surface of the first hinge portion, the guide surface being configured to make contact with a portion of a cable having an end secured to the cable attachment when the second hinge portion is in a first orientation with respect to the position of the first hinge portion and the cable no longer makes contact with the guide surface as the second hinge portion moves from the first orientation to a second orientation with respect to the first hinge portion.

Hinge mechanism for a sliding door

A vehicle door cinching apparatus for assisting the final closing motion of a sliding vehicle door includes an electromagnet, a ferrous metal plate, a cinch drive and a controller. The electromagnet mounts on either an outer periphery of a vehicle sliding door or an inner periphery of a vehicle sliding door frame that's shaped to receive the sliding door as the door moves along a final inward cinching portion of a door path to a final closed position within the door frame. The plate is supported on the other of the outer periphery of the door and the inner periphery of the door frame in a position where the plate can magnetically engage the electromagnet when the door is disposed along the final cinching portion of the door path. Whichever of the plate and electromagnet is supported on the inner periphery of the door frame is also supported for lateral movement in a direction generally parallel to the cinching portion of the door path. According to the method, the cinch drive moves whichever of the electromagnet and plate is supported on the inner periphery of the door frame to drive the door along the final cinching portion of the door path and into the final closed position. The controller de-energizes the electromagnet and releases the door from the cinching apparatus once the door has reached its final closed position.

Vehicle door cinching method

A vehicle compartment latch has a support that is fastened to a deck lid. A fork bolt is pivotally attached to the support and moved from an unlatched position to a latched position by a striker when the deck lid is closed. The fork bolt is held in the latched position by a moveable detent lever that is moved to a release position to release the fork bolt so that the deck lid can be opened. The closure latch includes a detent lock-out that holds the detent lever in the release position until the deck lid is opened once the fork bolt is released. The detent lock out includes a striker position lever that is moved to an engaged position by the striker being retained by the fork bolt and a detent pawl that holds the detent lever in the released position once the detent lever is released.

Vehicle compartment latch

Vehicle door cinching method and apparatus

A vehicle pivoting closure assembly has a concealed power actuator remotely operated by a controller to open and close a closure or liftgate. A hinge member of the power actuator is engaged pivotally to a vehicle structure about a hinge axis, and rigidly to the closure. An armature extends pivotally from an elongated linear moving rack about a rack pivot axis and to the hinge member. The armature also pivotally engages the hinge member about a secondary pivot axis disposed parallel to the hinge axis and rack pivot axis. The rack is driven by a pinion gear train powered by a motor through a clutch. The hinge, the rack, the gear train and the motor are all supported by a reinforcement tray forming a modular engaged to the vehicle structure. The tray isolates the extreme dynamic loads placed upon the hinge by the motor, thereby eliminating the need to further reinforce the vehicle structure.

Vehicle pivoting closure power operating assembly

A vehicle has a power operated liftgate and at least one power unit comprising a fixed linear guide channel and a follower that moves in the guide channel. The follower is universally connected to a rod having at one end and the opposite end of the rod is universally connected to the vehicle lift gate. A flexible drive loop which is attached to the follower wraps part way around two pulleys at opposite ends of the guide channel. The flexible drive loop is driven by a bi-directional drive unit that includes a reversible electric motor, an electromagnetic clutch and a drive wheel that engages the flexible drive loop. The flexible drive loop may be a drive cable, a drive tape, or a drive chain or a combination of cable, tape and/or chain.

Vehicle having power operated liftgate

A power operating system for opening and closing a vehicle liftgate has a pair of drive units supported on the vehicle frame and connected to the liftgate for opening and closing the liftgate. Each drive unit includes a bracket that is secured to the vehicle body for supporting several parts including a reversible electric motor, a gear train, a rack and a cradle that are mounted on the bracket. The electric motor drives the rack via an the output gear of the gear train that has an axis. The rack slides in the cradle which is pivotally mounted on bracket so that cradle pivots about the axis of the output gear to hold the teeth of the rack in engagement with the teeth of the output gear to accommodate rocking movement of rack as it moves from a retracted position to an extended position. An arcuate track that is fixed to the vehicle body, and an arcuate link slides in the arcuate track. The arcuate link has an inboard end that is pivotally connected to an end of the rack and an outboard end that is pivotally connected to the liftgate.

Vehicle liftgate power operating system

A power operating system for opening and closing a vehicle liftgate has a pair of drive units supported on the vehicle roof and connected to the liftgate for opening and closing the liftgate. Each drive unit includes a planetary gear set that has a sun gear, at least one planet gear and a partial ring gear. The sun gear which is located on the pivot axis is driven by a reversible electric motor. The planet gears are rotatably mounted on a carrier that is attached to the hinge portion that moves with the lift gate and the partial ring gear is attached to the hinge portion that is fixed on the vehicle body.

The counter balance system for a vehicle liftgate includes a pair of gas cylinders in combination with a torsion rod. The gas cylinders urge the liftgate toward an open position but due to a short moment arm do not exert sufficient force to open the liftgate until the liftgate has pivoted about one third of the distance from the closed position toward the open position. The torsion rod also urges the liftgate toward an open position. Maximum force is exerted by the torsion rod when the liftgate is closed. As the liftgate moves toward an open position, the force exerted by the torsion rod decreases until the liftgate is midway between closed and open. The torque rod does not exert any force on the liftgate during the last portion of its movement to an open position.

Growing community of inventors

Dearborn, MI, United States of America

Michael Antonio Ciavaglia