U.S. patent number 3,823,966 [Application Number 05/300,295] was granted by the patent office on 1974-07-16 for closure latch.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha. Invention is credited to Nozomu Torii.
United States Patent |
3,823,966 |
Torii |
July 16, 1974 |
CLOSURE LATCH
Abstract
A closure latch having a latch bolt movable between latched and
unlatched positions, a detent for holding the bolt against movement
to the unlatched position, inside release means, outside release
means, an intermittent member movable to any one of at least two
positions for selectively coupling both the inside and outside
release means to the detent in the first position of the
intermittent member and coupling only the outside release means to
the detent in the second position of the intermittent member. The
detent includes a member to shift the intermittent member upon
shifting of the bolt caused by movement of the bolt toward the
latched position whereby the intermittent member is automatically
shifted to its second position without requiring the operator to
exert any conscious effort when the door is closed.
Inventors: |
Torii; Nozomu (Hekinan,
JA) |
Assignee: |
Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
(Kariya City, JA)
|
Family
ID: |
23158509 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/300,295 |
Filed: |
October 24, 1972 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
292/216;
292/DIG.26 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E05B
85/243 (20130101); E05B 77/20 (20130101); Y10S
292/26 (20130101); Y10T 292/1047 (20150401) |
Current International
Class: |
E05B
65/32 (20060101); E05B 65/20 (20060101); E05c
003/26 () |
Field of
Search: |
;292/216,DIG.26,DIG.27,280,198 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Krizmanich; George H.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Waters; Eric H.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A closure latch for a vehicle door comprising, in combination, a
latch bolt movable between latched and unlatched positions, detent
means for holding the bolt against movement to the unlatched
position, inside release means, outside release means, an
intermittent member movable to one of at least two positions for
selectively coupling both the inside and outside release means to
the detent means in a first position of the intermittent member and
coupling only the outside release means to the detent means in a
second position of the intermittent member, said detent means
comprising a member to shift the intermittent member upon shifting
of the latch bolt caused by movement of the bolt toward latched
position whereby the intermittent member is automatically shifted
to its second position without requiring the operator to exert any
conscious effort when the vehicle door is closed.
2. A closure latch as set forth in claim 1 wherein the intermittent
member is movable to a third position for uncoupling both the
inside and outside release means from the detent means.
3. A closure latch as set forth in claim 2 wherein, the detent
means comprises a second member to shift the intermittent member
from its third position to the second position upon shifting of the
detent means caused by latching movement of the bolt thereby to
automatically shift the intermittent member from the third position
to the second position so that the outside release means is coupled
to the detent means to prevent the closure latch from keyless
locking.
4. A closure latch as set forth in claim 2 wherein, the outside
release means includes a first lever, the inside release means
includes a second lever, and the intermittent member includes a
third lever pivotably connected to said first lever and including a
foot and a tab, said foot being so secured on said third lever that
it may occupy three positions and may selectively be in
juxtaposition with both the detent means and said second lever,
with only said detent means, and out of juxtaposition with both
said second lever and the detent means, said tab being so secured
on the said third lever that the detent means abuts against the tab
upon its shifting to latched position.
5. A closure latch for a vehicle door comprising, in combination, a
latch bolt movable between latched and unlatched positions, detent
means for holding the bolt against movement to the unlatched
position, inside release means, outside release means, an
intermittent member, movable to one of two positions for
selectively coupling both the inside and outside release means to
the detent means in the first position of the intermittent member
and uncoupling both the inside and outside release means from the
detent means in the second position of the intermittent member,
said detent means comprising a member to shift the intermittent
member upon shifting of the latch bolt caused by movement of the
bolt toward latched position whereby the intermittent member is
automatically shifted to the second position without requiring the
operator to exert any conscious effort when the vehicle door is
closed.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to closure latches and more particularly to
vehicle body closure latches.
There is known in the art a closure latch having a bolt and bolt
operated means for automatically disconnecting inside release means
from the detent each time that the venicle door is closed without
requiring the operator to exert any conscious effort.
The conventional closure latches are generally complicated in
structure and none of them has proven to be satisfactory in
substantially reducing the manufacturing cost. Further, none of
them has proven to be able to automatically couple at least the
outside release means to the detent in the case where the vehicle
door is inadvertently closed with the individual parts thereof held
by error in their positions to provide the keyless locking.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a closure
latch having improved means for automatically disconnecting the
inside release means from the detent each time that the vehicle
door is closed without requiring that the operator exert any
conscious effort.
Such object and others are attained according to at least one
aspect of the present invention through the provision of
intermittent means to automatically disconnect the inside release
means from the detent without requiring the operator to exert any
conscious effort.
Thus, in a disclosed embodiment, ratchet teeth are provided in
cooperation with a door latch in engagement with the door strike
plate on the door jamb to lock or unlock the vehicle door. The
closure latch of the invention includes the conventional outside
key cylinder and conventional inside garnish button or the like
which permits the operator to manually select any one of its three
positions. Further, the latch is still provided on the detent with
means to shift the intermittent member to such second position upon
shifting of the ratchet teeth when the vehicle door is closed with
the individual parts of the latch held by error in their posions to
provide the keyless locking.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a latch according to the
invention;
FIG. 2 is a side view of the latch of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 with the intermittent member in
the third position, said member being in the first position in FIG.
1; and
FIG. 4 is an elevational view of another embodiment of the present
invention.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 3, a latch frame 1a is adapted to be
fastened to the door of the vehicle by means of bolts screwed
through holes 1c. A ratchet wheel 3 is mounted on shaft 5 on which
is coaxially secured door latch or bolt 6 in engagement with the
door strike plate (not shown) on the door jamb to lock or unlock
the vehicle door. Pawl or detent 2 is of bell crank form and is
pivotally mounted on plate 1a by pin 11 so as to engage its tooth 9
with the teeth 7 and 8 of the ratchet wheel 3 under the bias action
of coiled torsion spring 10 encircling the pin 11 and having one
end anchored on pin 11 and its other end anchored on a tab 34
formed at the end of the pawl 2 as best shown in FIG. 1. The
ratchet wheel 3 is also normally biased in the clockwise direction
tending to engage the teeth 7 and 8 by the bias of coiled torsion
spring 4 encircling the shaft 5 and having one end anchored on the
shaft and the other end anchored on a tab 38 formed on the base
plate 1a.
When the door is closed, the latch 6 engages the strike plate on
the door jamb so that the latch is rotated through an angle and
therefore the ratchet wheel 3 is rotated together with the latch,
in the counter-clockwise direction in FIG. 1 of the drawing. This
closing movement cams the tooth 9 of the pawl 2 out of engagement
with the back faces of the teeth 7 and 8 of the ratchet wheel 3. It
will be understood that the pawl permits the ratchet wheel to
rotate each time that the door is moved from the open to closed
position. Further it should be noted that the pawl should be moved
so as to have its tooth 9 positioned out of engagement with the
front faces of the teeth 7 and 8, when the door is moved from the
closed position to its open position, as hereinbelow described
further in detail. In other words, in order to hold the pawl or
detent 2 in the disconnected position from the outside of the
vehicle, the pawl should be disengaged from the outside release
means while the connected position of the outside release means to
the pawl 2 is attained by engaging the pawl with the outside
release means as will be described later.
An open lever 12 is pivotable at pin 13 fast on the base plate 1a
and is spring biased in the counter-clockwise direction by coiled
torsion spring 14 encircling the pin 13 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.
The lever provides outside release means as will be further
described hereinafter. Pivotally connected at 40 is a link or
connecting rod 15 a tab 32 of which is engageable with tab 33 of
the ratchet wheel each time that the ratchet wheel is rotated
through an angle in the closure movement of the door. The link 15
further includes a foot 17 as best shown in FIG. 3 and a closed end
slot 16 within which a pin 19 of a locking lever 18 is free to
slide. The rod 15 is moved between an unlocked position shown in
full lines in FIG. 1 and a locked position shown in FIG. 3, being
held in either position by the locking lever 18 in cooperation with
a spring 26 having both its ends anchored by means of two pins 41
and 42 fast on the base plate 1a. The locking lever 18 is connected
to the conventional outside key cylinder (not shown) through the
hole 21 and further connected to the conventional inside garnish
button (not shown) through the hole 22. A series of two shoulders
23 and 24 is provided at the upper end of the locking lever 18 as
seen in FIG. 1. Three positions of the lever are selectively
ensured by the spring 26, in cooperation with two stopper tabs 36
and 37 formed in the base plate 1a. Another bell crank lever 27 is
pivotable at pin 28 fast on flange 1b of the base plate 1a. One
foot 29 of the lever 27 is adapted to engage the foot 17 of the
link 15 when the link is in its unlocked position as shown in FIG.
1, the foot 29 being unable to engage the foot 17 when the link is
in locked position as shown in FIG. 3. The lever 27 is connected to
the conventional inside release means through hole 30. The link 15
has another foot 35 arranged in a manner such that the tab 34 of
the detent or pawl 2 faces the foot 35 so that clockwise rotation
of the pawl will push the foot 35 and cause rotation of the link 15
in the same direction.
In FIG. 1, the individual parts of the closure latch are shown in
their position immediately before opening or closing of the door.
In the closing movement of the door, from such opened position, the
latch or fork 6 engages the strike plate on the door jamb to lock
the vehicle door. The ratchet wheel 3 is therefore shifted
counter-clockwise about the shaft 5. When the tooth 7 engages the
tooth 9 of the detent or pawl 2, the door is held in its
intermediate latched position, and the door is held in its fully
latched position with the tooth 8 engaged with the tooth 9 of the
detent 2. In such movement, the tab 33 abuts the tab 32 of the link
15 to pivot the link clockwise as viewed in FIG. 1 and in turn to
pivot the locking lever 18 counter-clockwise so that the foot 17 of
the link 15 moves to its dash line position out of juxtaposition
with the foot 29 of the bell crank lever 27, but still remaining in
juxtaposition to the tab 31 of the detent 2 as shown in dot and
dash line in FIG. 1. This position of the link 15 is ensured by the
locking lever 18 and its leaf spring 26 as shown in dot and dash
line in FIG. 1. It will be noted that the bell crank lever 27
therefore cannot move the link 15 upwardly to release the detent 2
from the ratchet wheel 3. In other words, the inside release means
is disconnected from the detent each time that the door is closed,
without any troublesome manual operation thereby eliminating the
danger of accidental opening of the door during the vehicle travel.
Although the inside release means is in such disconnected position,
the outside release means is still connected to the detent as will
be seen, since the foot 17 is still in its dash line position in
FIG. 1 and remains in juxtaposition with the tab 31 of the pawl so
that clockwise movement of the lever 12 will cause the link 15 to
move the pawl 2 upwardly to disengage the pawl from the ratchet
wheel 3. The outside release means therefore still remains in the
connected position to the detent.
When the locking lever 18 is manually operated through a
conventional key cylinder (not shown) from the outside of the
vehicle, the lever 18 is shifted conunter-clockwise as viewed in
FIG. 3. This in turn shifts the lever 15 clockwise about the shaft
40 so that the foot 17 of the link 15 is out of juxtaposition with
the tab 31. Thus, clockwise shifting of the lever 12 has no effect
on clockwise shifting of the detent to disengage the detent from
the ratchet wheel 3. Accordingly, the outside release means is now
disconnected from the detent.
In the case where the vehicle door is closed with the individual
parts of the closure latch inadvertently held in their position as
viewed in FIG. 3, the ratchet wheel rotation causes the detent to
shift counter-clockwise. This in turn causes its tab 34 to abut the
foot 35 of the link 15 so that the link is shifted
counter-clockwise about the pin 40 to locate the foot 17 in the
dash line position shown in FIG. 1. In such position, the open
lever 12 still has the capability to clockwise shift the pawl 2 to
release the pawl from the ratchet wheel 3. Thus, the outside
release means is connected to the detent and the vehicle door is
ready for opening from the outside of the vehicle even though the
key may have been inadvertently left within the vehicle when the
driver leaves the vehicle. None of the conventional closure latches
has proven to be satisfactory to overcome such difficiency.
The latch according to the invention includes the feature of
keyless locking as hereinbelow described. For the keyless locking,
the individual parts of the closure latch should be positioned, at
the start of the door closure movement, as shown in FIG. 3 and the
lever 12 is held in clockwise shifted position at an angle
sufficient to have the foot 35 shifted upwardly out of
juxtaposition with the tab 34 of the detent. This causes the link
15 to remain in its full line position in FIG. 1 even though the
detent 2 is shifted clockwise about the pin 11 by the ratchet wheel
3 during the closing movement of the vehicle door. In such locked
position of the closure latch, both the outside and inside release
means are disconnected from the detent and the vehicle door can not
be opened unless the lever 18 shifts clockwise about the pin 20 to
move the foot 17 of the link 15 into the left in FIG. 3 with
juxtaposition to the foot 29 of the bell crank lever 27. The lever
27 has the effect of shifting the detent clockwise only in the case
when the foot 17 is interposed between the foot 29 and the tab 31
of the detent in a manner such that the foot 29 underlies the foot
17 and in turn the foot 17 underlies the tab 31 of the detent.
In FIG. 4, there is shown another embodiment of the present
invention. The embodiment is almost identical in construction to
the first embodiment in FIGS. 1 to 3 except that the intermittent
member 15, which is referred to as a link or lever in the foregoing
may selectively occupy any one of two positions other than the
three positions in the first embodiment. It will be noted that the
outside release means in this embodiment is always coupled to or
uncoupled from the detent together with the inside release means.
Such difference may be apparent from the locking lever 18' which is
different in shape from that of the first embodiment.
Since the construction and operation of the similar parts of the
second embodiment are readily understood by those skilled in the
art, no detailed description of the construction and operation is
necessary.
* * * * *