Lost motion cam actuating device
OwnerKris Tomaszewskiinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lost motion cam assembly for a vehicle lock. The assembly includes a lever, pivotally mounted to the housing and movable between locked and unlocked positions. A motor drives a gear mounted to a shaft in the housing. A cam is also rotatably mounted to the shaft, and includes a pair of opposing cam arms. When a cam arm engages a first interaction surface on the lever, the lever actuates. A second interaction surface on the lever stops the cam. The cam is operably connected to the gear by a lost motion connection that defines a range of free travel of the cam relative to the gear. Manually pivoting the lever while one of the pair of cam arms is in contact with the first interaction surface on the lever causes the cam to rotate within the range of free travel.
Claims2
An actuating device, particularly for a vehicle lock, comprising:
- a lever, pivotally movable between two positions, the lever having a first interaction surface and a second interaction surface;
- a gear, selectively rotatable about a gear axis;
- a cam, rotatable about a cam axis, having a pair of cam arms for actuating the lever so that one of the cam arms engages the first interaction surface to pivot the lever, and the other of the two cam arms engages the second interaction surface to stop the rotation of the cam;
- and
- a lost motion connection between the gear and the cam, thereby reducing the counter-rotation of the cam caused by engagement of the other of the two cam arms with the second interaction surface,
- wherein counter rotation of the cam is further reduced due to frictional resistance being applied to an exterior perimeter of the cam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.