Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Richard Thomas Stuedemann

Ray Garnet Armstrong

Xiaoyu Li

Richard Kremer Riefe

Steven Mark Thomas

Kevin Carlton Ross

Floyd E Eschenbacher, Jr

Russell L Herlache

Kevin Lawrence Roe

Michael Francis Slasinski

Indulis H Piziks

Leroy L Gatz

A steering column for a motor vehicle having a gear box of an electric power assist apparatus in front of the steering column. The steering column includes a rigid mast jacket consisting of a short tubular sleeve and a bracket attached to the tubular sleeve having a pair of laterally separated guides straddling the gear box. A pair of lugs on the gear box cooperate with a pair of elongated slots in the guides in connecting the mast jacket to the gear box for vertical pivotal movement and for linear translation. A longitudinally collapsible steering shaft is rotatably supported on the tubular sleeve with a steering hand wheel at one end and a flexible coupling at the other end connecting the steering shaft to an input shaft on the gear box. The tubular sleeve is connected to the vehicle body by a clamp which releases the tubular sleeve for a collapse stroke of the mast jacket. The mast jacket protects the steering shaft against beam bending during the collapse stroke. The unobstructed span in front of the tubular sleeve between the guides yields a collapse stroke of the mast jacket consistent with acceptable performance of an energy absorber.

Steering column for motor vehicle

A connection between a collapsible mast jacket of an energy absorbing steering column and a body of a motor vehicle including a mounting bracket on the mast jacket having an attachment flange perpendicular to a longitudinal centerline of the steering column, an aperture in the attachment flange, a plastic bushing captured in the aperture, and a fastener operative to rigidly clamp the plastic bushing to the body of the motor vehicle. The plastic bushing fractures in response to an impact on the steering column to release the mounting bracket. In a preferred embodiment, retention between the attachment flange and the plastic bushing is effected by an edge of the aperture in the attachment flange seated in an annular outside groove in the plastic bushing. A plurality of linear slots in the plastic bushing divide the plastic bushing into a plurality of cantilever spring segments which flex inward when the bushing is pushed into the aperture in the attachment flange and which snap out when the annular slot in the bushing registers with the peripheral edge of the aperture in the attachment flange.

Connection between steering column and motor vehicle body

An energy-absorbing motor vehicle steering column including a housing supported on a body structure of the vehicle for linear translation in a collapse direction and an energy absorber which converts into work a fraction of the kinetic energy of an impact on the steering column. The energy absorber includes a bare flat metal ribbon, i.e., without friction-reducing coating or lubrication, preformed to define a pair of parallel straight sections and a lateral web between the straight sections. The ribbon is seated edge-wise on a horizontal wall of the steering column housing with the straight sections in a pair of longitudinal guide channels and the lateral web looped over a pair of laterally spaced bare anvils on the housing and wedged between the bare anvils and an abutment on the body structure on the other side of the lateral web from the anvils. During linear translation of the housing in the collapse direction, the abutment anchors the center of the web on the vehicle body structure so that each of the straight sections of the flat ribbon is plastically deformed around and pulled across a corresponding one of the anvils to effect energy absorption by plastic deformation and by friction.

Energy-absorbing steering column for motor vehicle

A position control apparatus for a raked steering column including a stationary bracket having a pair of vertical legs on opposite sides of the steering column, a spacer on the steering column between the legs of the stationary bracket, and a clamp on the steering column for squeezing the legs of the stationary bracket against the spacer. The clamp includes a long bolt spanning the legs of the stationary bracket, a nut on the bolt, a one-way clutch between a head of the bolt and the stationary bracket permitting rotation of the bolt in only a tension-increasing direction, and a snap-on operating lever rotatable as a unit with the nut. After assembly on a vehicle, the clamp afforded by the bolt can be adjusted without changing the terminal positions of the lever by rotating the head of the bolt in a tension increasing direction while the operating lever is maintained in a clamped terminal position corresponding to maximum bolt tension between the vertical legs of the stationary bracket.

Position control apparatus for steering column

A steering column position control apparatus including a stationary bracket having vertical legs on opposite sides of the steering column, a spacer on the steering column between the legs of the bracket, a non-rotatable thrust plate outside of the stationary bracket bearing on one side thereof, a long bolt mounted on the spacer and projecting through the thrust plate, the spacer and a substantially vertical slot in each leg of the bracket, a non-ratable nut outboard of the opposite side of the bracket threaded on the bolt, and a lever outboard of the thrust plate rotatable as a unit with the bolt. A flex plate is attached to the thrust plate between the latter and the lever and includes a flex arm having a detent feature at a distal end thereof. In a closed position of the lever, the detent feature overlaps an edge of the lever for retention thereof in the closed position. In positions of the lever other than the closed position, the detent feature is biased against a flat side of the lever by the flex arm for moderately tensioning the bolt.

An anti-theft steering shaft lock includes a longitudinally split elastomeric clutch sleeve, a non-cylindrical cam section on the steering shaft, and a transverse lock bolt bodily shiftable between extended and retracted positions. The sleeve has a right cylindrical outside surface and a non-cylindrical inside surface matching the cam section on the steering shaft. The sleeve fits on the cam section and within a cylindrical bore in a stationary housing on which the shaft is rotatably supported, the bore having a greater diameter than the sleeve so that the steering shaft and sleeve are normally freely rotatable relative to the housing. In its extended position, the lock bolt projects into the slot in the split sleeve to prevent rotation of the sleeve with the steering shaft. The cam section expands and wedges the sleeve against the bore in the housing when the steering shaft is rotated relative to the sleeve. The annular gap between the sleeve and the cylindrical bore accommodates a few degrees of rotation of the shaft relative to the sleeve before the sleeve is wedged. The few degrees of steering shaft rotation dissipates residual restoring torque in the steering system.

Growing community of inventors

Hemlock, MI, United States of America

Richard Thomas Stuedemann