Fuji Kiko Co., Ltd.

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Fujikiko Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshimi Yamamoto

Hideoki Matsuoka

Gunnar V Eriksson

Naoki Yuzuriha

Naoki Ogawa

Kazuo Ikawa

Yasushi Asano

Satoshi Kinoshita

Yoshiyuki Mizuno

Katsunori Shirahama

Masaharu Ishizuki

Haruhide Kurita

Motohiro Saito

Hiroshi Sakon

Keisuke Kino

Mitsuru Kato

Erik Preiholt

Takeshi Furusawa

Hiroshige Toyama

An interlocking device includes two opposed racks having intermeshable teeth, respectively, a guide surface disposed on one of the opposed racks, a guide, and a resilient retainer holding the guide against the guide surface for sliding movement of the guide relative to the guide surface. The guide and the guide surface cooperate with each other to provide an arrangement wherein when the one rack is pressed against the other rack, the guide comes into engagement with the other rack and the guide surface slides on the guide, causing meshing engagement of the teeth of the one rack with the teeth of the other rack.

Device for interlocking opposed racks

A coupling for a vehicle steering unit includes a first linking section including two leg portions extending from a hub portion and a second linking section including two wings extending from and integrated to the hub portion and protrusions on the wings pierced with holes for the passage of a tightening bolt for tightening the wings to bear radially on a shaft. The wings are terminated at a longitudinal slot extending substantially in parallel to an axis of rotation of the coupling. This longitudinal slot is wide enough to allow the passage of the shaft.

Coupling and method of manufacturing same

A tilting and/or telescopic steering column assembly includes a mounting bracket fixed to a vehicle body, a movable bracket supporting a steering column, a clamping bolt passing through bolt holes of the mounting bracket and movable bracket, and an operating lever for clamping the movable bracket immovable between the left and right side walls of the mounting bracket by turning a clamping nut on the clamping bolt. For tilting and/or telescopic adjustment, the bolt hole of at least one of the mounting and movable brackets is elongated, and fringed with a toothed portion. A lock member is mounted on the clamping bolt, and is formed with a toothed portion for engaging with the toothed portion of the elongate hole. In one practical example, the bolt holes are both elongated and fringed with a toothed portion, and the lock member comprises of a first member for engaging with the toothed portion of the mounting bracket and a second member for engaging with the toothed portion of the movable bracket.

Adjustable steering column assembly for a vehicle

A steering system for an automotive vehicle, arranged to effectively absorb an impact energy at a secondary collision in a head-on collision. The steering system comprises a steering column including an upper shaft and a lower shaft. The lower shaft is axially movably connected to the upper shaft and includes a first section connected to the upper shaft, and a second section. An upper bracket is connected to the steering column. An energy absorbing member is provided in a manner that the upper bracket is connected through the energy absorbing member to a vehicle body to be generally horizontally movable relative to the vehicle body. A first universal joint is disposed between the first and second sections of the lower shaft. A bearing bracket is rotatably supported to the vehicle body and rotatably supports the second section of the lower shaft. A second universal joint is disposed between a lower end section of the second section of the lower shaft and an upper end section of an intermediate shaft.

Adjustable energy absorbing steering column with adjustment disabled

A structure of a universal joint is disclosed in which an end surface of a spider is coated with a solid lubricant and a projection having an arc cross section formed on a center of a bearing cup into which the spider is fitted is brought into point contact with the solid lubricant coated end surface of the spider. When the spider is axially rotated, the friction generated on the bearing cup can be remarkably reduced.

Structure of universal joint

A shift-lock device has a locking member associated with a projection member to engage with the locking member for establishing locking engagement. One of the locking member and the projection member is rigidly connected to a selector of an automatic power transmission and the other is rigidly secured to a stationary member in the vehicular body. The locking member is normally and resiliently biased toward locking direction for establishing locking engagement with the projection member. The locking member is associated with a lock release actuator which is electrically operable and active for a predetermined period only when a predetermined safety condition is established.

Safety shift-lock device for selector of automatic power transmission

A first of two members which are joined in a manner to undergo synchronous rotation is formed with a aperture which has a flower-like shape and which has a periphery which is essentially free of sharply angled portions. A hollow projection formed on one end of a shaft is forced into the aperture and then punched to assume the shape of the aperture and to caulk the two members together.

Connection arrangement and method of forming the same

A column-shift type, shift lever arrangement for operating an automatic power transmission includes a shift locking mechanism which prevents a vehicle's driver from changing the position of a transmission shift lever. The shift locking mechanism engages an annular groove formed in a compression rod at a location neighboring one end thereof so as to mechanically lock the movement of the shift lever arrangement, until the vehicular driver depresses a brake pedal once, after engine starting is performed when the shift lever arrangement is positioned in a parking-range position.

Shift lever arrangement for operating automatic power transmission

A steering column assembly includes a steering column having an upper steering column tube and a lower steering column tube which are telescopically connected at their lower and upper portions respectively, a stationary bracket fixed to a vehicle body and an energy absorption bracket fixed to the stationary bracket. The energy absorption bracket fixedly receives the upper steering column tube which extends therethrough. The energy absorption bracket gets plastically deformed in response to an impact load exceeding a predetermined value to allow the upper steering column tube to displace downward with respect to the lower steering column tube. The impact load is applied to the energy absorption bracket through the upper steering column tube in the direction along the axis of the steering column. The applied impact load is absorbed through the plastic deformation of the energy absorption bracket.

Steering column assembly with energy absorption mechanism

A pair of stoppers are formed in side wall sections of an upper clamp for preventing a tilt bracket from rotating about a tilt adjusting bolt relative to the upper clamp in secondary collision. The tilt bracket has an inclined upstanding wall section secured to a column jacket and a pair of side walls formed with cuts for encouraging shearing thereof. The tilt bracket further has rounded corners or rounded wall sections for encouraging the side wall sections to bend and flow toward the inclined upstanding wall section in collision. A pair of rollers may be fitted in the rounded wall sections of the tilt bracket.

Tilting collapsible steering column

An attachment structure of a steering column comprises a bracket fixed to a steering jacket for receiving a steering shaft and attaching the steering jacket to a chassis, the bracket being attached to the chassis through metallic contact faces; and a capsule disposed in an attaching portion of the bracket attached to the chassis and having metallic and resin sliders which overlap each other through the bracket and attaches the bracket to the chassis such that the bracket is detachable from the metallic and resin sliders through metallic and resin contact faces. An attachment structure of a steering column may comprise a bracket for attaching the steering column to a base; metallic and resin sliders fitted to each other to support the bracket therebetween; a device for preventing the relative movement between the resin slider and the bracket; and a fastener for attaching the bracket to the base through the metallic and resin sliders in a state in which the relative movement between the resin slider and the bracket is prevented.

Attachment structure of a steering column

A powered tilt steering arrangement for a vehicle using a motor which rotates unidirectionally. The powered tilt steering arrangement basically comprises: a steering column having an upper shaft and a steering wheel assembly; a tilt bracket pivotally mounted on a mounting bracket fixed to a vehicle body and on which the steering wheel assembly is mounted; a drive source such as the motor; an actuator in response to a rotational force of the motor for actuating the tilt bracket to pivot through a predetermined angular width with respect to the mounting bracket in a reciprocatory motion; and a lock mechanism for locking the steering assembly when the actuator is stopped so that the steering wheel assembly is placed and held at a desired optimum driving position within the predetermined angular width. In addition, the powered tilt steering arrangement is preferably provided with a jump up mechanism which automatically tilts the steering wheel assembly toward a predetermined upper limit angular position by means of a spring force when the vehicle driver leaves the vehicle through a door so as not to obstruct the driver. Furthermore, the jumped up steering wheel assembly is returned to the originally set optimum driving position when the steering wheel assembly is depressed with the door being closed and the driver restarting the vehicle.

Powered tilt steering arrangement

A pivotable steering column is adjustable to any of a number of angular positions defined by the teeth of two elements of a first locking device. A manual lever can be raised to disable the first lock and allow selection of a different steering wheel inclination. The steering wheel can be moved to its uppermost position by lowering the manual lever once. In this case, the first lock maintains engagement of the teeth of the aforementioned two element, and a powerful spring pulls the steering column upward to the uppermost position irrespective of the first lock. A second lock then becomes wedged between the pivotable and stationary parts of the steering column, thus holding the former in the uppermost position. Lowering the manual lever a second time disengages the second lock, allowing the steering column tilt cown from the uppermost position. Thus, the steering column returns to an originally set driving position defined by locking engagement of the first lock.

Adjustable automotive steering column with adjustable tilt and

An emergency lock safety belt retractor is designed to facilitate release from an inadvertent lock-up which may occur after full-speed retraction of the seat belt. This undesired lock-up is due to a latch mechanism which locks a belt spool in response to either excessively abrupt onset of extraction, such as may occur in front-end automotive accidents, or excessively abrupt cessation of retraction. This latch mechanism has two separate latches: a simple latch pawl biased away from its latched position and a more complicated lock wheel. The latch pawl is mounted on a rotary drum and in its latched position engages teeth on a stationary drum. The lock wheel is coupled for rotation with the belt spool but is free to move axially through three regimes. The lock wheel is biased toward a first axial regime in which it couples the rotary drum to the belt spool. In the second regime, it couples the belt spool to both the rotary drum and a set of stationary latch teeth, thus locking the belt spool and the rotary drum against rotation in the direction of extraction of the belt. In the third regime, the belt spool and latch teeth remain coupled while the rotary drum is released. The coupling between the lock wheel and the belt spool causes the lock wheel to move from the first to the second to the third regime as the belt is extracted slightly after the latch pawl is engaged.

Emergency lock safety belt retractor with lock-up release mechanism

In a passive restraint seat belt structure wherein a seat belt end is fixed to a slider which is movable along a mounting rail, and which is to be fixed to the rear end of the rail when the door of the vehicle is closed, a locking device for fixing the slider is disclosed. The slider is driven by a driver member which is loosely connected to the slider with a certain amount of free play therebetween. When the slider is driven backwards, the driver member is in a first position relative to the slider which allows engagement between an engagement assembly on the slider and an engagement assembly fixed on the body of the vehicle. When the slider is to be moved forward, driver member is first moved forward, and it assumes a second position relative to the slider, wherein a catch-releasing portion on the driver member breaks the engagement of the two engagement assemblies, thus releasing the slider member from its locked engagement in its rearmost position on the rail, and allowing the slider member to be driven forward.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Yoshimi Yamamoto