The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 16, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 04, 1996
Stefan Armbruster, Essen, DE;
Kiekert AG, Heiligenhaus, DE;
Abstract
A door latch has a latch mechanism including a drive element movable between a position corresponding to a closed condition of a vehicle door, a position corresponding to an open condition of the door, and an end reference end position offset from the closed and open positions and engaging a fixed abutment. An electric-motor drive connected to the mechanism can move the element between the closed and open positions and into the end reference position. A hall-effect sensor detects the current position of the element and a controller is connected to the sensor to operate the drive. After each displacement of the element from one of the open and closed positions to the other of the open and closed positions, the element is displaced into the end reference position and the controller is initialized while the element is in the end reference position. Thereafter the element is returned to the other of the open and closed positions. The sensor is made to pulse by a magnet carried on the shaft of a rotary electric motor connected via a stepdown transmission to the drive element.