Webasto Ag

Mazda Motor Corporation

Nishikawa Rubber Co., Ltd.

Tomoaki Matsunobu

Kozo Odoi

Shinji Nishikawa

Shigeki Hiyama

Frank Hinrichs

Minoru Okamura

Tanoue Hiroki

Hiroshi Takeshita

Akio Yamada

Naotoshi Kinoshita

Nobuyoshi Nishiyama

A link mechanism capable of setting any desirable speed of opening/closing a lid during a series of the opening/closing operation and capable of exerting a strong driving force is provided. A lid () is attached to a lid bracket (). The lid bracket () is pivotally connected to a driving lever () and a coupled-driving lever () with which the lid () is opened or closed. The driving lever () is provided with a cam having an elongated hole (), into which a driving pin () provided to a sector gear () is fitted. The sector gear () is driven by a motor through a pinion (). According to rotation of the sector gear (), the driving pin () moves in the elongated hole () and drives the driving lever (). Since the distance between the center of the sector gear () and the driving pin () is larger than the radius of the pinion (), such mechanism exerts a strong driving force.

Link mechanism

To get out a roof () retracted in a storage space () therefrom, a link mechanism carries out pushing-out operation of push-pull cable () so that a grip member with the roof () gripped thereby is moved by an elastic force of a main spring () along a rail () from a retracted position to a gripping position, where the roof () is then released from gripped condition by the grip member.

Roof locking apparatus for a vehicle

A retractable roof includes a roof memberincluding a front roof panel, a back roof panel, and a linkage mechanismfor alternately chaining the position of the roof memberbetween an in-use position and a storage position. The back roof panelis pivotally connected to the front roof paneland a car body side memberto function as a first link of a four-bar link constituted by the first link and a second link.

Retractable roof and vehicle including the same

A retractable roof includes a front roof panel, a back roof panel formed by joining outer and inner panel layers to each other, a lower link pivotally connected to a vehicle body member, an upper link pivotally connected to the front roof panel, and an intermediate link rigidly connected to each of the lower link and the upper link. The intermediate link is placed in between the outer and inner panel layers of the back roof panel.

Retractable roof and vehicle therewith

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Tomoaki Matsunobu