Vehicle door lock with gear thrust retainer

Abstract

A vehicle lock for a door or a flap of a motor vehicle, the vehicle lock including a locking mechanism with a catch and a pawl for latching the catch as well as a gear mechanism with a spindle for moving a nut and for transferring a motion and/or force to the locking mechanism by the nut movement for locking or unlocking the vehicle lock, and a clip for holding the spindle in an axial position. A simple and easy to produce vehicle lock with reduced number of parts, in particular without thrust plates, can be obtained.

Claims

1. A vehicle lock for a door or a flap of a motor vehicle, the vehicle lock comprising: a locking mechanism with a catch and a pawl for latching the catch, a gear mechanism with a spindle for moving a nut, the gear mechanism being arranged to transfer a motion and/or force to the locking mechanism by movement of the nut for locking or unlocking the vehicle lock, wherein the pawl latches the catch during the locking of the vehicle lock, a housing, and a clip that is configured to absorb axial forces acting on the spindle during movement of the nut, thereby holding the spindle in an axial position relative to the housing, wherein at least part of the clip is elastically deformable to define an entrance opening for the spindle, the entrance opening being configured to elastically widen to temporarily increase the entrance opening and enable insertion of at least a portion of the spindle through the entrance opening so as to be received in the clip, the entrance opening being configured to elastically contract to an original shape of the clip after the at least a portion of the spindle has passed through the entrance opening thereby radially mounting the clip to the spindle, wherein the housing has a slit opening that is configured to enable the radially mounting of the clip to the spindle, wherein the slit opening is a through opening that passes through the housing, wherein the slit opening and the clip are configured to have a form-fit connection such that the spindle is held in the axial position relative to the housing when the clip is radially mounted to the spindle, and wherein the clip is a wire clip formed of a wire.

2. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein the clip is the only clip provided for absorbing axial forces acting on the spindle.

3. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein the spindle is allowed to pivot by exactly two through holes formed in the housing.

4. The vehicle lock of claim 3, wherein the housing is formed as a one piece support housing for housing the gear mechanism, wherein the one piece support housing includes both of the two through holes.

5. The vehicle lock of claim 3, wherein the two through holes form plain bearings.

6. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein the spindle is allowed to pivot by a hole and another hole of the housing, wherein the hole has a bigger diameter than the other hole.

7. The vehicle lock of claim 6, wherein the slit opening radially extends into the hole to allow radially mounting of the clip to the spindle while the spindle is pivotally mounted to the hole, such that the clip is mounted to absorb the axial forces acting on the spindle.

8. The vehicle lock of claim 7, wherein the spindle includes a circumferential slot formed therein that receives a first portion of the clip, and wherein a second portion of the clip protrudes from the slot into the slit opening, thereby holding the spindle in the axial position relative to the housing.

9. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein the spindle has a T-shape with a head portion with a bigger diameter than a longitudinal body portion.

10. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein a head portion of the spindle comprises a slot for a form-fit connection with the clip in an axial direction.

11. The vehicle lock of claim 1, including a gear wheel interface section of the spindle for a torque proof connection to a gear wheel of the gear mechanism.

12. The vehicle lock of claim 1, including a return spring for returning the nut to a parking position.

13. The vehicle lock of claim 12, wherein the return spring is preloaded between a bushing and a gear wheel of the gear mechanism in an axial direction.

14. The vehicle lock of claim 1, including a release lever for moving the pawl to unlatch the pawl from the catch.

15. The vehicle lock of claim 1, wherein the clip is an E-clip.

16. A vehicle lock for a door or a flap of a motor vehicle, the vehicle lock comprising: a locking mechanism with a catch and a pawl for latching the catch, a gear mechanism with a spindle for moving a nut, the gear mechanism being arranged to transfer a motion and/or force to the locking mechanism by movement of the nut for locking or unlocking the vehicle lock, wherein the pawl latches the catch during the locking of the vehicle lock, a housing, and a clip that is configured to absorb axial forces acting on the spindle during movement of the nut, thereby holding the spindle in an axial position relative to the housing, wherein the clip is a wire clip formed of a wire and at least part of the clip is elastically deformable, wherein the housing has a slit opening that is configured to enable radially mounting of the clip to the spindle, wherein the slit opening is a through opening that passes through the housing, and wherein the slit opening and the clip are configured to have a form-fit connection such that the spindle is held in the axial position relative to the housing when the clip is radially mounted to the spindle.

17. The vehicle lock according to claim 16, wherein the wire clip wraps around at least most of a circumference of the spindle.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Details and further advantages are provided in the following description of the figures which depicts a preferred execution example with the necessary details and individual components.

(2) FIG. 1: Explosion view of the nut, the gear wheel, the spindle and the clip realized as a wire clip

(3) FIG. 2: Top-down cross section view an exemplary embodiment of the vehicle lock having the clip realized as an E-clip

(4) FIG. 3: Isometric view without support housing of the exemplary embodiment of the vehicle lock having the clip realized as an E-clip

(5) FIG. 4: Support housing of the vehicle lock of FIG. 3 with a partial section to show the other hole for pivoting the end of the spindle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(6) The shown vehicle lock for a door or flap comprise a catch 8 and a pawl 9 being rotatable mounted on the frame plate 6 made of metal and covered by the cover plate 7 (see FIG. 3). A lower housing 5 may extend from below the support housing 4 for the gear mechanism to the area of the locking mechanism between the frame plate 6 and the cover plate 7.

(7) When the door is closed, the locking bolt (not shown) of the door is entering the vehicle lock though the entry slot 25 and is received by the catch 8 being in a opening position. The locking bolt then turns the catch 8 against the force or torque of a catch spring (not shown) until the catch 8 reaches the latching position, where the pawl 9 turns to latch the catch 8 in said latching position.

(8) Preferably, there is also provided an ancillary latching position of the catch 8 and the pawl 9 such that if the catch 8 has passed said ancillary latching position in the course of closing the door, but failed to reach the latching position for some reasons, the door is still blocked from opening by means of the ancillary latching position, which prevent the catch 8 to return to its opening position, once the catch 8 has passed the ancillary latching position.

(9) A release lever 23 serves to move the pawl 9 to release the catch 8 from the latching position and/or ancillary latching position.

(10) In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, said release lever 23 is coupled or connected to the nut 2 of the gear mechanism such that the gear mechanism can be activated to unlock the lock.

(11) In particular, the gear mechanism comprise an electrical motor 26, which upon activation generates and induces a drive force and motion on a drive shaft having a drive shaft axis 32 and a third gear wheel 27 mounted on the drive shaft. The third gear wheel 27 transfers the force and motion to a second gear wheel 29 though an intermediate gear wheel 28 being mounted on the same shaft like the second gear wheel 29 having the shaft axis 31 (see FIG. 3).

(12) The cross section view of FIG. 2 runs though the shaft axis 31 and the spindle axis 30 of the spindle 1.

(13) The spindle 1 has a T-shape with a head portion 12 and a longitudinal body portion 13. Preferably, the diameter of the head portion 12 is at least 15% and/or at most 50% larger than the diameter of the body portion 13.

(14) The head portion 12 has a smooth surface and particularly in a middle area a surrounding slot 19 for receiving the clip 3. Immediately adjacent to the head portion is arranged a gear wheel interface section 15 with star-like circumference shape having protrusions extending linear in axial direction for connecting to the gear wheel 21 in a torque proof manner.

(15) Immediately adjacent to the gear wheel interface section 15 is arranged a smooth surface section 16.

(16) Immediately adjacent to the smooth surface section 16 is arranged a thread section 17, which is the longest of all other sections in axial direction of the spindle 1.

(17) The smooth surface section 16 preferably has a diameter that corresponds to the outer diameter of the spindle thread of the thread section 17 to enable a stop function for the nut 2.

(18) Immediately adjacent to the thread section 17 is arranged the end of the spindle 18, preferably also having a smooth surface and cylindrical shape to be pivoted in the other hole 11.

(19) One separate aspect of the invention concerns a method for assembly a vehicle lock for a door or a flap of a motor vehicle, the vehicle lock comprises a locking mechanism with a catch 8 and a pawl 9 for latching the catch 8 as well as a gear mechanism with a spindle 1 for moving a nut 2 and for transferring a motion and/or force to the locking mechanism by the nut movement for locking or unlocking the vehicle lock, wherein the vehicle lock comprises a clip 3 that is composed to hold the spindle 1 in an axial position, the method comprises the steps, preferably in the exact following order, of:

(20) the spindle 1 is inserted from one end of a support housing 4 for housing the gear mechanism though a hole 10 of the support housing 4, preferably as plain bearing, with a bigger diameter than a coaxially arranged other hole 11, preferably as plain bearing, at another end of the particularly same and/or one piece support housing 4;

(21) after the spindle 1 has passed through the hole 10, preferably first with an end section 18 of the spindle 1, the spindle 1 is further inserted though a gear wheel 21, a return spring 22, a bushing 24 for mounting the return spring 22 between the bushing 24 and the gear wheel 21, the nut 2, and into the coaxial other hole 11 at the other end of the support housing 4;

(22) the clip 3 is mounted to the spindle, preferably though a slit opening 20, preferably from the bottom side radially towards the spindle axis 30, such that the clip 3 forms a form fit connection with the spindle 1, preferably by means of a slot 19, and also with the support housing 4, preferably by means of the slit opening 20.

(23) Very simple assembly in short time can be achieved.

(24) The bushing 24 is preferably limited in its axial motion away from the gear wheel 21 by a parking stop (not shown) formed by the support housing 4. Preferably, the return spring 22 is always under tension in assembled condition.

(25) When the bushing 24 is pressed against the parking stop, the nut 2, which is arranged adjacent to the bushing 24, and/or the bushing 24 are in a parking position.

(26) When the car driver or user press a button to unlock the vehicle lock for the door or flap, the electrical motor 26 is activated and generates the force and motion, which is transferred by the gear wheel 21 to the spindle 1 and results in a rotation of the spindle 1. Because the nut 2 is guided in the support housing 4 such that the nut 2 can axially translate but not rotate about the spindle axis 30, the rotation of the spindle leads to the nut 2 movement.

(27) The nut 2 has an internal thread that is mating the external thread of the spindle 1. The nut 2 has one or two radially extending arms 14, preferably in the shape of a hollow and/or longitudinal profile, preferably with a closed outer wall seen in a cross sectional view e.g like a O-shape.

(28) The nut movement is directed towards the gear wheel 21, thus against the return spring force. The nut 2 pushes the bushing 24 towards the gear wheel 24 until the end of the electrical motor activation, until the bushing 24 hit against the gear wheel 21 and/or until the nut 2 reaches the end of the threaded section 17 and/or the smooth surface section 16.

(29) The nut 2 thereby moves the release lever 23 in a direction to unlatch the pawl 9 from the catch 8 such that the door or flap can be opened.

(30) Once the electrical motor 26 is deactivated, the return spring pushes the bushing 24 and the busing 24 the nut 2 back to the parking position. The return spring is typically dimensioned to overcome the counteracting friction forces such that the return movement does not need electrical power.

(31) In particular, by driving the spindle 1 though the gear mechanism, also cinching the catch 8 is enabled, which is not described in further detail herein.

(32) The clip 3 retains, i.e. absorbs, the axial forces of the spindle 1 during operations.

(33) The axial forces are transferred to the clip 3 by means of the slot 19 of the spindle 1, where the clip 3 is mounted to. In particular, the clip hatches the spindle 1 at the circumference at the bottom of the slot 19. On the other hand, the clip 3 protrudes the slot 19 and is extending into the slit opening 20 of the support housing 4. By this way, the axial forces of the spindle 1 are absorbed by the clip 3, which hold the spindle 1 in its axial position by leaning against the support housing 4.

(34) Multiple variations and modifications are possible in the embodiments and between the aspects of the invention and the embodiments of the invention described herein and thereby covered by the scope of the invention. In some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of the other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the foregoing description be constructed broadly and understood as being given by way of illustration and example only.