Pedal Device for Automobile and damper for use in the same
AssigneeOiles Corporation
InventorsTadashi Goto, Masamitsu Kojima, Yoshiteru Igarashi, Katsutoshi Kumazawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pedal device (1) for an automobile includes a supporting frame (2); an accelerator pedal arm (3) made of a rigid metal and supported by the supporting frame (2) in such a manner as to be rotatable about an axis A in directions R; a spring means (4) for rotatively urging the accelerator pedal arm (3) toward an initial position of its rotation; a damper (5) for imparting a resistance force to the rotation in the directions R of the accelerator pedal arm (3); and a stopper for stopping the rotation of the accelerator pedal arm (3) at the initial position of its rotation.
Claims20
A pedal device for an automobile comprising a damper for imparting a resistance force to the rotation of a pedal arm, said damper including a movable member which is disposed movably in an axial direction but immovable in a direction about the axis, a rotating member disposed rotatably about the axis and facing said movable member, spring means for resiliently urging said movable member toward said rotating member, and frictional-resistance-force generating means for producing a frictional resistance force as the resistance force in the rotation of said rotating member, and for increasing the frictional resistance force by increasing the spring force of said spring means by causing said movable member to move away from said rotating member in the axial direction against the resiliency of said spring means,
- wherein a torque which gradually increases from an initial position of rotation of said pedal arm to any angle of 0.5 to 20% of a full angle of rotation thereof is imparted to said rotating member to permit the rotation of said pedal arm, and said rotating member is subsequently rotated in conjunction with the rotation of said pedal arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.