Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.

Valeo Schalter Und Sensoren Gmbh

Itt Automotive Europe Gmbh

Rudolf Klein

Walter Hecht

Walter Neubauer

Reiner Mozer

Christian Ruetz

Reinhard Stumpe

Josef-Elmar Prang

J&uuml;rgen Papenfuss

Hubert Neft

Martin Engelhardt

Karl Simonis

Salvador Cristofaro

Bertram Gotzinger

Gregor Vogl

This invention relates to an integrated sub-assembly for installation of a steering column and/or steering wheel of an automatic vehicle. A plurality of building units arranged in the area of the steering column and/or steering wheel are integrated with each other in terms of space for purpose of simplified manufacture and assembly so that, in this way, it is possible to economize on housing walls as well as on mechanical and electrical interfaces. Advantageous further developments deal with the drive of components within the building units by the steering wheel.

Integrated subassembly mountable on the steering column or on the steering wheel of a motor vehicle

The invention concerns a modular steering column mounted switch system for motor vehicles which is organized according to the internal functions of the switch. The steering column mounted switch system contains a plurality of functional modules which correspond to the internal functions. Should the demands for operation and/or design of a particular module change, the associated module can be easily replaced. All other functional modules remain unchanged, to thereby permit simple adaptation of the steering column mounted switch to the given operation and design demands. When there is a defect, the modular steering column mounted switch can also be easily repaired and in an economical fashion by simple replacing the defective functional module.

Modular steering column mounted switch system

Compact steering column module

A compact snap switch that can be assembled mechanically and is equipped as a microswitch. The switch includes a housing for the microswitch and consists of two asymmetrically divided halves whose cut site runs along the edge of one of the large side surfaces. Thus a comparatively large assembly window and a favorable assembly direction are obtained due to the few undercuts of the components. In addition, due to the minor modifications of the machine-instrumented components, the switch can be easily modified for the different application formats. A movable contact lever with a moving contact is mounted so as to pivot in a knife-edge bearing. The free end of the contact lever has a wedge profile which with one of its two sides is exposed to a switching roller reloaded by a switching spring. Switching roller and switching spring are seated in a switching member which is movable along a straight path and abutted by a restoring towards an idle position. Upon forcing the switching member to move against the restoring spring, the switching roller passes the apex point of the wedge profile and acts on the other side of the wedge profile. Thus, the switching lever makes a pivoting movement, whereby the moving contact comes to rest with a fixed contact. Upon release of the moving force, the switching member is urged back to its idle position by the restoring spring. Thus, the switching lever returns to its original position.

Snap switch

A steering column switch for motor vehicles comprises a base plate and first, second, and third identical microswitches placed onto the plate that are indirectly actuated by an operating lever through terminal links. The operating lever has a neutral position and two operating positions. The third microswitch that is assigned to the neutral position is arranged in a flat position. The terminal link actuating the third microswitch is arranged in a plane parallel to the base plate. A sampling roller prevents frictional losses during the actuation of the third microswitch via a control contour on the control lever.

Steering column switch with microswitches that has two operating positions and one neutral position system for cleaning windscreens

Growing community of inventors

Lauffen, Germany

Rudolf Klein