Relative displacement mechanism for active pedestrian safety latch

Abstract

A latch assembly for providing travel of a closure panel of a vehicle away from a latch during a collision event, the latch assembly compromising: a mounting plate of the latch for mounting a set of latch components thereon including a ratchet coupled to a pawl for retaining and releasing a mating latch component with respect to a slot of the latch, the mating latch component mounted to the closure panel, the latch components further including a secondary catch, the mounting plate connected to a body of the vehicle; a support plate coupled to the mounting plate by a support connector, the support connector providing a sliding connection between the support plate and the mounting plate along an axis; a blocking member mounted to one of the support plate and the mounting plate, such that engagement of the blocking member limits relative displacement between the support plate and the mounting plate along the axis; an actuation system mounted on the support plate, the actuation system for moving by the travel the closure panel between a primary latched position and a secondary latched position during actuation of the actuation system; wherein disengagement of the blocking member subsequent to the actuation of the actuation system provides for the relative displacement between the support plate and the mounting plate along the axis opposite to the direction of the travel of the closure panel.