Lever shifter with auto return to park and lock function
AssigneeKuster North America, Inc.
InventorsChristopher Soave, Calogero Alu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle transmission shifter assembly including a housing pivotally supporting a shifter lever between Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Manual shifter positions. A plurality of gate locations configured upon an underside of the housing and corresponding to each of Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive gear positions. A gate lock incorporated into the lever and biased against a selected one of the gate locations. A PCB board with processor and sensor integrated into the housing communicating with a motor connected to the shifter lever. Upon the processor determining existence of a return to park condition, a return to park mechanism actuates the motor for returning the shifter lever to the Park position.
Claims17
A straight gate vehicle transmission shifter assembly, comprising:
- a housing pivotally supporting an elongated shifter lever;
- a plurality of gate locations configured upon an underside of said housing and corresponding to at least each of Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Manual gear positions;
- a gate lock incorporated into said lever and biased against a selected one of said gate locations;
- a pawl secured to a lower end of said lever and biased against a detent plate having a plurality of detent positions which correspond to each of said gate locations;
- a PCB board with processor and sensor integrated into said housing communicating with a motor connected to said shifter lever;
- upon said processor determining existence of a return to park condition, a return to park mechanism actuating said motor for returning said shifter lever to the Park position;
- said mechanism further including a rotating cam component having an exterior toothed profile operable by an output gear of said motor in a given rotational direction in order to successively retract said shifter lever from any shifter position outside of Park, and then to pivotally rotate said shifter lever in a return direction toward the Park position;
- and
- coil springs for biasing each of said gate lock and pawl against sloped surfaces of said rotating cam component.
A straight gate vehicle transmission shifter assembly, comprising:
- a housing pivotally supporting an elongated shifter lever;
- a plurality of gate locations configured upon an underside of said housing and corresponding to at least each of Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Manual gear positions;
- a gate lock incorporated into said lever and biased against a selected one of said gate locations;
- a pawl secured to a lower end of said lever and biased against a detent plate having a plurality of detent positions which correspond to each of said gate locations;
- a PCB board with processor and sensor integrated into said housing communicating with a motor connected to said shifter lever;
- an operator lock function in each of the Park and Neutral shifter positions, said operator lock function further including a park lock sensor lever, a secondary motor incorporated into said housing and having a powered worm gear for actuating a rotary gear of said park lock sensor lever, a park lock magnet supported on said park lock sensor lever for providing feedback to a further sensor on said PCB board for indicating whether said park lock sensor lever has achieved a desired position;
- and
- upon said processor determining existence of a return to park condition, a return to park mechanism actuating said motor for returning said shifter lever to the Park position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.