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US 5,311,368 AGranted
Mirror drive unit
AssigneeIchikoh Industries, Ltd.
InventorOsamu Tsuyama
Life of this patent
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AssigneeIchikoh Industries, Ltd.
InventorOsamu Tsuyama
Estimating the term…
Lead terminals of a plurality of motors disposed inside a drive unit casing are lead out through a plurality of elongated through-holes formed in the casing and connected to a plurality of power-supply sheathed wires by connecting terminals. A plurality of elongated concavities is formed adjoining to the corresponding through-holes on the outer surface of the casing. With the connecting terminals connected to the plurality of sheathed wires, the plurality of lead terminals extended from the motor are bent through a nearly right angle at the open ends of the through-holes along the outer surface of the casing and the connecting terminals are forcibly fitted on the side walls of the elongated concavities. Therefore, the electrical connection between the lead terminals extended from the plurality of motors and the plurality of power-supply sheathed wires needs no soldering. The sheathed wires can be very easily connected to the lead terminals of the motors and they can not be easily disconnected from the lead terminals.
A mirror drive unit, comprising:
A mirror drive unit, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
Auxiliary parts of casings not covered by groups H02K5/06-H02K5/20, e.g. shaped to form connection boxes or terminal boxes: terminal boxes or…
By electrically powered actuators: for adjusting the mirror relative to its housing
Resilient sockets: u-shaped sockets having inwardly bent legs, e.g. spade type
And hand operator: for moving a mirror
Term ended 30 Nov 2012 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mirror drive unit for tilting a mirror pivotably supported in a mirror housing. In particular, it relates to an improved structure for an electrical connection from a battery to a plurality of mirror-tilting motors housed in a power unit fixed in the mirror housing.
b) Statement of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a side mirror as a whole including the mirror drive unit according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the mirror drive unit shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a partially fragmentary bottom view of the mirror drive unit in FIG. 2, showing two motors disposed in the power unit;
The present invention will be better understood from the ensuing description made, by way of example, of an embodiment of the mirror drive unit according to the present invention with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the mirror drive unit according to the present invention applied to a side mirror. The mirror drive unit has a mirror housing 10 mounted on a mirror base (not shown) fixed to the door of a car. A mirror 12 is fixed to a mirror holder 14 and covers an opening 16 of the mirror housing 10. The reference numeral 20 denotes a mirror drive unit, that is, a power unit, disposed within the mirror housing 10 and adopted to tilt the mirror holder 14 about the horizontal and vertical axes thereof under the remote control from the driver's seat.
The mirror holder 14 is supported pivotably by the power unit 20. The power unit 20 comprises two synthetic resin-made casings, upper and lower, 26 and 28, formed so as to be hermetically fitted to each other and house two motors 22 and 24. The mirror holder 14 is supported by a ball-and-socket joint 30 comprising a hollow hemispheric portion 32 formed nearly in the middle of the rear side of the mirror holder 14 and a hemispheric seat 34 formed on the upper casing 26 opposite to the hemispheric portion 32. Such a ball-and-socket joint per se is well known.