Nsk Steering Systems Europe Limited

Yasuhisa Yamada

Michael T Hancock

Laurence George Herbert Barton

James Peter Bentley

Seiichi Moriyama

Yuichiro Fukunaga

Vehicle steering column ride down apparatus to guide the direction of steering column collapse in the event of vehicle crash includes a first part for fixedly mounting to a support such as a cross car beam and a second part for coupling to a steering column assembly. At least one of the parts has one or more tracks to act as guides and the other part has structure that runs in the one or more tracks. The apparatus also includes a tightener to tighten the two parts, one upon the other, to provide a predetermined frictional resistance at least to initial relative break-away movement of the two parts in the event of vehicle crash. Each track may be constituted by at least one slot. Coated plates can be clamped between flanges of the parts, which are each in the form of brackets to provide further initial frictional resistance to the initial relative break-away movement of the two parts.

Vehicle steering column ride down apparatus

A collapsible steering column assembly has an arrangement to absorb energy upon steering column collapse. In a preferred form, the arrangement includes a skid member acting to deform a length of wire having arms to embrace at least one retaining pin. The or each pin is selectively extendable and retractable in order to vary the energy absorption capability.

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West Midlands, United Kingdom

Yasuhisa Yamada