Kiekert Ag

Thomas Schonenberg

Stefan Armbruster

Frank Kleefeldt

Johannes-Theodor Menke

Damien Labonde

Fred Welskopf

Wilfried Ostermann

Achim Jahrsetz

Bettina Gottwald Nee Heinze

A motor vehicle has a body provided with at least one generally horizontal rail having a bent end portion and along which a sliding door is displaceable between a closed position in against the body and an open position out from the body. A sliding-door assembly has a door drive on the body including a flexible toothed belt extending along the rail and having an end and a link assembly fixed to the door, riding along the rail, connected to the belt end, and engaged in the bent end portion of the rail in the closed position of the door. A guide extends along the rail and laterally confines the belt so an actuator on the body can displacing the belt in one sense and thereby tension the belt and move the door in one direction and displace the belt in the opposite sense and thereby longitudinally compress the belt and move the door in the opposite direction. A door latch on the door and a keeper on the body communicating therewith secure the door tightly to the body in the closed position of the door and a closed position of the latch and release the door to ride along the rail in an open position of the latch. A controller connected between the door latch and the door actuator operates the actuator to move the door into the respective open position on displacement of the latch into the respective open position.

Motor-vehicle sliding-door system

A motor vehicle has a body, a door movable on the body between a closed position and an open position, an electric power source mounted in the body, and a latch having interengageable parts on the vehicle body and on the door engageable in a latched position to retain the door in the closed position, and an electrical actuator energizable to put the latch in an unlatched position. A drive on the body connected to the door is energizable from the source for moving the door between the open and closed positions and a battery is provided in the door separate from the body-mounted power source. An electronic controller in the door powered by the battery is connected to the latch actuator for operating same to unlatch the door and to a transmitter for transmitting a signal indicating the position of the door and of the latch. Another electronic controller in the body includes a receiver for receiving the signal from the transmitter in the door is connected to the drive and to the body power source for operating the drive in accordance with the signal received by the body receiver.

Motor-vehicle sliding-door system with electronic controller

An electrical control system for an automotive vehicle can be switched to a service facility operating mode in which locks for the glove compartment, a storage console and the trunk can be inactivated in their closed position while other electrically-operated vehicle locks remain operable by actuators of the control system to prevent access to personal belongings by service personnel. Restoration to the normal operating mode can be effected automatically upon lapse of a time period programmed into the central unit.

Method of operating an electrical control system for an automotive

A motor-vehicle door latch has a door-mounted fork displaceable between an open and a fully latched position and through an intermediate semilatched position and a body-mounted door bolt engageable with the fork and retainable thereby only in the semilatched and fully latched positions. A door-mounted pawl can pivot about a pawl axis between a holding position engaging and retaining the fork in the fully latched and semilatched positions and a freeing position permitting the fork to move freely between its positions. A controller is connected to a servomotor in turn coupled to the door bolt for displacing same between an outer and an inner position so that, when the bolt is engaged with the fork in the fully latched position, movement of the bolt into the inner position pulls a door carrying the latch tightly closed. A switch lever can pivot about the pawl axis. Interengaging formations on the switch lever, on the pawl, and on the fork displace the switch lever into a first position with the fork in the semilatched and open positions and with the pawl in the open position and displace the switch into a second position with the fork in the fully latched position. A switch between the control means and the switch lever prevents operation of the servomotor except in the second position of the switch lever.

Growing community of inventors

Leverkusen, Germany

Thomas Schonenberg