Method for determining a force transmission contact point of an electric clutch actuator

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method for determining a force transmission contact point of an actuating element (6) of an electric clutch actuator which comprises a linear drive assembly configured to linearly move the actuating element (6) towards a preload plunger (10) which is linked by a pushrod (12) to a clutch lever (14) and to move the pushrod (12) to turn the clutch lever, characterized by including the steps: monitoring an oscillation of the pushrod (12) by monitoring the position of the pushrod (12) and determining in consecutive time periods at least one of a maximum, minimum and centre value of the pushrod position, deriving a measure of non-oscillatory movement of the pushrod (12) based on a difference between at least one of the respective maximum, minimum and centre values of the pushrod position in a current and at least one of the preceding time periods or based on a difference between a combination of the respective positions in the current and at least one of the preceding time periods; and determining that the actuating element (6) has reached the force transmission contact point if the measure of non-oscillatory movement of the pushrod exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.