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. 03, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 18, 2001
Michael Thomas Hancock, Coventry, GB;
Seiichi Moriyama, Warwickshire, GB;
Yuichiro Fukunaga, Warwickshire, JP;
Yasuhisa Yamada, West Midlands, GB;
NSK Steering Systems Europe Limited, Nottinghamshire, GB;
Abstract
Vehicle steering column ride down apparatus to guide the direction of steering column collapse in the event of vehicle crash includes a first part for fixedly mounting to a support such as a cross car beam and a second part for coupling to a steering column assembly. At least one of the parts has one or more tracks to act as guides and the other part has structure that runs in the one or more tracks. The apparatus also includes a tightener to tighten the two parts, one upon the other, to provide a predetermined frictional resistance at least to initial relative break-away movement of the two parts in the event of vehicle crash. Each track may be constituted by at least one slot. Coated plates can be clamped between flanges of the parts, which are each in the form of brackets to provide further initial frictional resistance to the initial relative break-away movement of the two parts.