Telescope force offsetting mechanism for a steering column assembly

Abstract

A steering column assembly comprising an upper jacket, a lower jacket, a hand wheel actuator disposed between an end of the upper jacket and a steering input device, and an offsetting mechanism. The upper jacket is telescopingly adjustable within the lower jacket between a retracted column position and an extended column position. The offsetting mechanism comprises a spring extending from a first end to a second end and a compensation component. The spring is configured to provide a biasing force at the second end of the spring that reduces gravitational effects on the steering column assembly during the telescopic adjustment. The compensation component comprises a sloped surface disposed within an interior of the upper jacket. The sloped surface is non-parallel with a longitudinal axis of the upper jacket and the second end of the spring operably slides on the sloped surface of the compensation component during the telescopic adjustment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.