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:
May. 06, 2003
Filed:
Jan. 23, 2001
James Nelsen, Summit Howell, MI (US);
Ramene Kongara, Nevi, MI (US);
Veytek Marcola, Walled Lake, MI (US);
Kiekert AG, Heiligenhaus, DE;
Abstract
A motor-vehicle door latch has a housing, a fork pivotal on the housing between a bolt-retaining latched position and a bolt-releasing unlatched position, and a pawl pivotal on the housing between a holding position engaging the fork and retaining it in the latched position and a freeing position allowing the fork to move into the unlatched position. A wheel rotatable about an axis has a radially directed cam surface on which rides a projection on the pawl. A drive motor can rotate the wheel and thereby engage the surface with the projection to displace the pawl into its freeing position. A spring is braced between the pawl and the housing and urges the pawl into the holding position and the projection into engagement with the surface. Furthermore the wheel has a groove having a pair of ends, one radially directed flank formed by the cam surface, and an opposite radially directed flank forming another surface. The cam surface is formed as a spiral generally centered on the wheel axis and the other surface is generally centered on the wheel axis. The groove has a wide end and a narrow end.