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:
Feb. 19, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 23, 2000
Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A safety device for accurately preventing the catching of a hand or neck of a passenger of a vehicle between a windowpane and a window sash uses a potentiosensor for detecting the rotational angular position of an output shaft adapted to rotate at a slower speed by reducing the speed of a rotating shaft of a driving motor for opening and closing a windowpane of a vehicle with a speed reducing mechanism . This potentiosensor comprises a resistance track plate on which circular resistance track and conductor tracks are formed, and a rotating plate having conductive brushes adapted to slide over the resistance track plate . The windowpane position is detected based on a resistance value outputted when the conductive brushes are rotationally moved on the resistance track in response to the rotating position of the rotating plate . The resistance track is supplied with a higher voltage and a lower voltage at diametrically opposite positions, respectively, and the conductive brushes are constructed so as to output voltages which are divided at a rotating angle of 180 degrees. This enables not only the detection of the windowpane with high accuracy but also the miniaturization of a power window apparatus and simplification of the construction of a circuit thereof.