HANDLE DEVICE FOR VEHICLE

Abstract

A handle device for a vehicle includes a handle body, a latch release lever, a door latch device, an electric actuator and a lever push member. The handle body is driven from an initial position to a pop-up position by the electric actuator and is manually operated to a latch operation position. A latch of the door latch device is released by the latch release lever being driven to a latch release position. The lever push member rotates from an initial corresponding position and pushes the latch release lever toward the latch release position with an operation of the handle body. The lever push member is set with a moment of inertia to cancel an inertia force generated when a collision impact load is applied to the vehicle and to move the lever push member toward the latch release position.

Claims

1. A handle device for a vehicle, comprising: a handle body; a latch release lever; a door latch device configured to be provided in a door of the vehicle; an electric actuator; and a lever push member, wherein the handle body is configured to be driven from an initial position to a pop-up position by the electric actuator and is manually operated further to a latch operation position beyond the pop-up position, wherein the door latch device is configured such that a latch of the door latch device is released by the latch release lever rotating to a latch release position, wherein the lever push member is configured to rotate from an initial corresponding position and to push the latch release lever toward the latch release position in accordance with an operation of the handle body, the initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body, and wherein the lever push member is set with a moment of inertia to cancel an inertia force generated when a collision impact load is applied to the vehicle and to move the lever push member toward the latch release position.

2. The handle device according to claim 1, further comprising: a handle base; a drive arm; and an operation arm, wherein the drive arm is configured such that one end of the drive arm is rotatably connected to one end of the handle body, the other end of the drive arm is rotatably connected to the handle base, and the drive arm is driven by the electric actuator, wherein the operation arm forms a link mechanism together with the handle body and the drive arm, and wherein one end of the lever push member is connected to the other end of the handle body, and the other end of the lever push member is rotatably connected to the handle base, and the lever push member is integrally formed with the operation arm.

3. The handle device according to claim 2, wherein a connection portion between the operation arm and the handle body has a sliding pair, and wherein the handle body is configured to move from the pop-up position to the latch operation position by a rotation operation of the handle body about a rotation center of the handle body with respect to the drive arm.

4. The handle device according to claim 1, further comprising: an inertia stopper, wherein the inertia stopper is configured to, when the collision impact load is applied, rotate to a stop position and prevent the lever push member from pushing the latch release lever toward the latch release position.

5. The handle device according to claim 1, wherein the lever push member has a restriction wall, and wherein the restriction wall prevents the latch release lever from moving to the latch release position when the handle body is located at a position between the initial position and the pop-up position, and allows the latch release lever to move to the latch release position when the handle body is located at the latch operation position.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0029] FIG. 1 is a front view of a handle device:

[0030] FIG. 2 is a rear view of the handle device;

[0031] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 3A-3A of FIG. 1;

[0032] FIG. 4A shows power transmission of an electric actuator in a drive source of a drive arm, FIG. 4B shows a cam in the drive source of the drive arm, and FIG. 4C shows a diagram of the cam in the drive source of the drive arm:

[0033] FIG. 5A shows a state in which the drive arm is at an initial corresponding position in an operation of the cam. FIG. 5B shows a state between the initial corresponding position and a pop-up corresponding position in the operation of the cam, and FIG. 5C shows the pop-up corresponding position in the operation of the cam:

[0034] FIG. 6A shows a pop-up position of a handle body in an operation of a handle, and

[0035] FIG. 6B shows a latch operation position in the operation of the handle:

[0036] FIG. 7A is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 2 in a latch release lever, FIG. 7B is a view taken in a direction of an arrow 7B in FIG. 7A, and FIG. 7C is a view of the latch release lever as viewed from a direction of an arrow 7C in FIG. 7B;

[0037] FIG. 8A is a view taken in a direction of an arrow 8A in FIG. 8B, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view;

[0038] FIG. 9A is a view taken in a direction of an arrow 9A in FIG. 9D showing a lever push member, FIG. 9B is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 9B-9B of FIG. 9A, FIG. 9C is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 9C-9C of FIG. 9A, and FIG. 9D is a perspective view of the lever push member;

[0039] FIG. 10A is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 10A-10A of FIG. 7B, FIG. 10B is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 10B-10B of FIG. 7B, FIG. 10C is a view corresponding to FIG. 10A when an operation arm is at an intermediate position between the initial corresponding position and the pop-up corresponding position, FIG. 10D is a view corresponding to FIG. 10A when the operation arm is at the pop-up correspondence position, and FIG. 10E is a view corresponding to FIG. 10B when the operation arm is at the pop-up correspondence position; and

[0040] FIG. 11A shows a non-operating state in an operation of an inertia stopper, and FIG. 11B shows a state in which the inertia stopper is rotated to a stopper rotated position by an impact load in the operation of the inertia stopper.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0041] A door handle device includes a handle base 7, a handle body 2, a drive arm 8 connecting the handle body 2 to the handle base 7, and an operation arm 5, and is to be fixed to a door of a vehicle at the handle base 7.

[0042] With the handle base 7 fixed to the door, the handle body 2 can be moved from an initial position shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to a pop-up position shown in FIG. 6A and further to a latch operation position at which one end of the handle body 2 is pulled up from the pop-up position as shown in FIG. 6B.

[0043] The door handle device has a flush surface specification in which the handle body 2 is accommodated in the door and a surface of the handle body 2 is substantially in the same plane as a door surface when not in use. The initial position of the handle body 2 corresponds to a non-use posture. The handle base 7 is formed with a handle accommodating recess 7a to accommodate the handle body 2 when the handle body 2 is at the initial position (see FIG. 3).

[0044] As shown in FIG. 3, the drive arm 8 and the operation arm 5 are connected to the handle base 7 so as to be rotatable about rotation centers. Rotation centers C87 and C57 of the drive arm 8 and the operation arm 5 with respect to the handle base 7 are appropriately spaced apart from each other in a front-rear direction, that is, in a longitudinal direction of the handle base 7, and the rotation center C87 of the drive arm 8 is disposed in front of the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5.

[0045] In this description, a left side of FIG. 1 is referred to as “front”, a right side is referred to as “rear”, a direction directed out of the page of FIG. 1 is referred to as a “front surface” direction, and an opposite direction thereof is referred to a “back surface” direction.

[0046] An electric actuator 1 such as a motor is to be fixed to the handle base 7, and as shown in FIG. 4A, power of the motor 1 is transmitted to a cam 11 rotatably connected to the handle base via a worm 1a, a worm wheel 1b, and a reduction gear 1c.

[0047] A pressed portion 8a is formed on the drive arm 8 so as to correspond to the cam 11 to be rotationally driven around a rotation center C11 and is pushed by the cam 11, and thus the drive arm 8 rotates from an initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body 2 to a pop-up corresponding position corresponding to the pop-up position of the handle body 2 in accordance with rotation of the cam 11.

[0048] In order to ensure the contact of the pressed portion 8a with the cam 11, a torsion spring 8b is mounted around the rotation center C87 between the handle base 7 and the drive arm 8 to bias the drive arm 8 counterclockwise in FIG. 3.

[0049] As shown in FIG. 4B, the cam 11 comes into contact with the pressed portion 8a at a start point P1 when the handle body 2 is at the initial position, and rotates counterclockwise by an angle θ about the rotation center C11 in FIG. 4B while maintaining the contact with the pressed portion 8a. When the cam 11 comes into contact with the pressed portion 8a at an end point P2, the handle body 2 moves to the pop-up position.

[0050] FIGS. 5A to 5C are explanatory views showing a state in which the drive arm 8 is operated by the cam 11. FIG. 5A shows a state in which the drive arm 8 is at the initial corresponding position, FIG. 5C shows a state in which the drive arm 8 is at the pop-up corresponding position, and FIG. 5B shows a state in which the drive arm 8 is on the way from the initial corresponding position to the pop-up corresponding position. A reference numeral H shown in FIGS. 5B and 5C denotes a movement amount of a connection point C28 of the drive arm 8 with the handle body 2. FIG. 4C is a cam diagram of the cam 11 for obtaining the movement amount. A horizontal axis represents a rotation angle θ of the cam 11, and a vertical axis represents the movement amount H in a height direction of the connection point with the handle body 2.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 4C, the cam 11 is configured such that an increment in a movement distance of the connection point of the drive arm 8 with the handle body 2 in a height direction per unit angle is small in an initial stage of rotation and gradually increases as the cam 11 approaches the end point. Immediately after starting to be driven by the motor, the cam 11 slowly ascends in a vertical direction, and is driven so as to gradually increase an ascending speed as the handle body 2 approaches the pop-up position.

[0052] As a result, a driving force is maximized at an initial stage of driving where the ascending speed is low, that is, when the handle body 2 starts to move from the initial position. By virtue of this configuration, for example, even when thin ice is formed around the handle body 2, it is possible to expect a sufficient driving force for crushing the ice and prevent an operation failure due to freezing.

[0053] When the handle body returns from the pop-up position to the initial position, since a descending speed decreases in a vicinity of the initial position, it is possible to prevent a collision with the handle base 7, packing, or the like, and it is possible to prevent an occurrence of collision noise, rebound, or the like.

[0054] Further, as shown in FIG. 5C, when the drive arm 8 is at the pop-up corresponding position, the rotation center of the cam 11 is disposed in a vicinity of a normal line N drawn down from a contact point P2 with the pressed portion 8a. Therefore, a horizontal component when a force from the pressed portion 8a is applied to the contact point P2 of the cam 11, that is, a force to rotate the cam 11, is small.

[0055] Therefore, even if a load toward the initial position, that is, a force for pushing the handle body 2 is applied to the handle body 2 when the handle body 2 is at the pop-up corresponding position, only a force directed toward the rotation center C11 is generally applied to the cam 11, and a force in a direction perpendicular to the force is small. Therefore, a rotational operation force applied to the cam 11 is small, and a force applied to a worm from a worm wheel can be small.

[0056] As shown in FIGS. 3, 6A, and 6B, the handle body 2 is provided with link connection portions 2a protruding toward a back-surface side and provided at both front and rear end portions of the handle body, and a handhold recess 2b serving as a handhold when the handle body 2 is operated is formed between the front and rear link connection portions 2a.

[0057] The other end of the drive arm 8, which is connected to the handle base 7 at one end, is rotatably connected to the front link connection portion 2a of the handle body 2, and the other end of the operation arm 5 is connected to the rear link connection portion 2a.

[0058] The connection between the operation arm 5 and the handle body 2 is rotatable and slidable. In this example, a connection pin 12 that is fixed to the rear link connection portion 2a and provides a rotation center C27 is inserted into a long hole 5a formed in an end portion of the operation arm 5, and thus the rotation center C27, that is, the connection pin 12 is slidable. The connection pin 12 is inserted into the long hole 5a and then retained by a retaining member as appropriate.

[0059] As shown in FIG. 3, the rotation center C87 of the drive arm 8 with the handle base 7, the rotation center C28 of the drive arm 8 and the handle body 2, the connection pin 12 of the handle body 2, and the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5 with respect to the handle base 7 are disposed at vertex positions of a parallelogram. The long hole 5a has one end position (initial end position) that is a position of the connection pin 12 at the vertex position of the parallelogram, and extends in a rearward and slightly back surface direction, that is, in a direction in which a link length of the operation arm 5 is extended by sliding of the connection pin 12.

[0060] As shown in FIG. 3, the operation arm 5 is biased toward the initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body 2 by a torsion spring 5b wound around the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5 with the handle base 7, the torsion spring 8b that biases the drive arm 8 toward the initial corresponding position corresponding to the initial position of the handle body 2 is wound around the rotation center C87 of the drive arm 8 with respect to the handle base 7 as described above, and the torsion spring 5b biases the connection pin 12 toward the initial end position in the long hole 5a, that is, toward the vertex position of the parallelogram and holds the connection pin 12 at the position.

[0061] Therefore, in this example, when the electric actuator 1 is driven to rotate the cam 11 counterclockwise in FIG. 3 when the handle body 2 is at the initial position shown in FIG. 3, the drive arm 8 rotates clockwise about the rotation center C87.

[0062] As described above, since the operation arm 5 and the handle body 2 are held, by actions of the torsion springs 5b and 8b, at the initial corresponding position where the connection pin 12 minimizes the link length of the operation arm 5, the drive arm 8, the operation arm 5, the handle body 2, and the handle base 7 form a parallel crank mechanism having the handle base 7 as a fixed link, and the handle body 2 moves from the initial position to the pop-up position shown in FIG. 6A by the rotation of the drive arm 8 while holding a parallel posture.

[0063] When the handle body 2 reaches the pop-up position, the drive of the electric actuator 1 is stopped by a switch (not shown), and the handle body 2 is held at the pop-up position. When the electric actuator 1 is reversely driven from this state, the drive arm 8 returns to the initial corresponding position by the torsion spring 8b wound around the rotation center C87 and the handle body 2 returns to the initial position.

[0064] At the pop-up position, the handle body 2 is held in a posture parallel to the door surface. Thereafter, by pulling out a rear end side of the handle body 2 to an outside of the door, the handle body 2 is rotated about the rotation center C28 with the drive arm 8 until the handle body 2 comes into contact with a stopper (not shown), and as shown in FIG. 6B, the handle body 2 can be moved to a latch release position inclined from the front-end portion toward the rear end portion.

[0065] The rotation of the handle body 2 from the pop-up position to the latch release position is performed by a manual rotation operation, and in accordance with the rotation operation of the handle body 2 to the latch release position, the operation arm 5 further rotates beyond the pop-up corresponding position corresponding to the pop-up position of the handle body 2 and rotates to a latch operation corresponding position.

[0066] In this example, an operation of the door latch device 4 is performed by operating the latch release lever 3 by the lever push member 6 fixed to the operation arm 5.

[0067] As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the lever push member 6 is fixed on the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5 with the handle base 7, and rotates around the rotation center C57 in accordance with the rotation of the operation arm 5.

[0068] The latch release lever 3 is rotatably connected to the handle base 7 around a rotation center C37 perpendicular to the rotation center C57 of the operation arm 5 with respect to the handle base 7. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the latch release lever 3 includes a plate-like body portion 3a, a cylindrical portion 3b through which a rotation shaft is inserted, the cylindrical portion 3b protruding from a plate-like body portion 3a, and a cable connecting portion 3c for holding a tip of an inner cable (not shown) of a cable device 13, the cable connecting portion 3c being formed in a vicinity of the cylindrical portion 3b.

[0069] The latch release lever 3 is biased clockwise in FIG. 7C by a torsion spring (not shown) wound around the rotation center C37, and is held at an initial position shown in FIG. 7C.

[0070] Further, the latch release lever 3 includes a pushed portion 3d. As will be described later, the pushed portion 3d is pushed by a lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6, whereby the latch release lever 3 rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 7C to apply a pulling operation force to the cable device 13 and operate the door latch device 4 (see FIG. 2).

[0071] As shown in FIGS. 9A to 9D, the lever push member 6 includes a stopper piece 6b at one end portion and a recess 6c configured to receive the plate-like body portion 3a of the latch release lever 3 at the other end portion, and the lever push portion 6a is formed on a peripheral wall portion of the recess 6c.

[0072] The lever push member 6 moves from a state shown in FIG. 10B to a state shown in FIG. 10E in accordance with the rotation of the operation arm 5 to the pop-up corresponding position, and the lever push portion 6a comes into contact with the pushed portion 3d of the latch release lever 3. Thereafter, when the handle body 2 is operated to the latch operation position and the operation arm 5 is rotated to an operation corresponding position, the lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6 pushes the pushed portion 3d of the latch release lever 3, and the latch release lever 3 rotates around the rotation center C37 to operate the door latch device 4.

[0073] Further, a weight portion 6d is formed in a vicinity of the lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6 to adjust the moment of inertia of the lever push member 6. A value of the moment of inertia is set to such a magnitude that, when an impact force due to a collision is applied to the vehicle, an operation force generated in the lever push member 6 by inertia and directed toward a direction to operate the latch release lever 3 will be canceled by inertia and the rotation in the direction will not be generated. A weight of the weight portion 6d, an arm length from the rotation center C57, and the like are determined based on the moment of inertia required for the lever push member 6.

[0074] Therefore, in this example, even when a collision impact force is applied, the operation force generated in the lever push member 6 is canceled by the moment of inertia of the lever push member 6, and thus, the latch release lever 3 is not pushed and inadvertent door opening is prevented.

[0075] Further, the lever push member 6 is provided with a restriction wall 10, and the latch release lever 3 is provided with a restriction protrusion 3e. As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the restriction protrusion 3e is erected from the plate-like body portion 3a, and the restriction wall 10 is formed as a wall surface of the recess 6c as shown in FIG. 9C.

[0076] As shown in FIG. 10A, when the lever push member 6 is at the initial corresponding position, the rotation of the latch release lever 3 in the direction toward the latch release position, that is, counterclockwise rotation in FIG. 10A is impossible because the restriction wall 10 blocks a movement path of the restriction protrusion 3e, and it is possible to prevent the latch release lever 3 from moving independently to the latch release position due to an impact force such as a collision and from operating the door latch device 4.

[0077] The restriction of the rotation of the latch release lever 3 by the restriction wall 10 continues even at an intermediate position between the initial corresponding position and the pop-up corresponding position of the lever push member 6 as shown in FIG. 10C, and is eliminated when the lever push member 6 reaches the pop-up corresponding position as shown in FIG. 10D. Thereafter, the latch release lever 3 can be rotated by pushing the pushed portion 3d by the lever push portion 6a of the lever push member 6.

[0078] Further, an inertia stopper 9 for restricting the movement of the lever push member 6 when a collision load is applied to the vehicle is incorporated in the handle device. The inertia stopper 9 is rotatably connected to the handle base 7, rotates between a standby rotation position shown in FIG. 11A and a stop position shown in FIG. 11B, and is biased toward the standby rotation position by a torsion spring (not shown) wound around the rotation center C9.

[0079] The inertia stopper 9 is formed as a cylindrical body whose gravity center position is set so as to move from the standby rotation position to the stop position by inertia when a collision force due to a collision is applied. As shown in FIG. 11A, since a movement path (clockwise rotation around the rotation center C57 in FIG. 11A) of the stopper piece 6b of the lever push member 6 is opened at the standby rotation position, the rotation following an rotation operation of the operation arm 5 to the latch operation corresponding position is allowed.

[0080] On the other hand, when a collision force from a side of the vehicle is applied to the vehicle, the inertia stopper 9 rotates from the standby rotation position to the stop position. As shown in FIG. 11B, when the inertia stopper 9 is at the stop position, the inertia stopper 9 blocks the movement path of the stopper piece 6b of the lever push member 6, and thus the lever push member 6 stays at an interference position with the inertia stopper 9 without following the rotation of the operating arm 5. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the latch release lever 3 from operating and the door from being opened unnecessarily.