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AssigneeNSK Steering Systems Europe Limited
InventorsMichael Thomas Hancock, Seiichi Moriyama, Yuichiro Fukunaga, Yasuhisa Yamada
Estimating the term…
Vehicle steering column ride down apparatus to guide the direction of steering column collapse in the event of vehicle crash includes a first part for fixedly mounting to a support such as a cross car beam and a second part for coupling to a steering column assembly. At least one of the parts has one or more tracks to act as guides and the other part has structure that runs in the one or more tracks. The apparatus also includes a tightener to tighten the two parts, one upon the other, to provide a predetermined frictional resistance at least to initial relative break-away movement of the two parts in the event of vehicle crash. Each track may be constituted by at least one slot. Coated plates can be clamped between flanges of the parts, which are each in the form of brackets to provide further initial frictional resistance to the initial relative break-away movement of the two parts.
A vehicle steering column ride down apparatus, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Incorporating energy-absorbing arrangements, e.g. by being yieldable or collapsible: yieldable supports for the steering column
Motor vehicles
Term ended 19 Sep 2021 (estimated)
This invention relates to a vehicle steering column ride down apparatus that aims to simplify known forms of such apparatus. Such ride down apparatus is incorporated in vehicle steering column assemblies in order to guide the direction of steering column collapse in the event of vehicle crash.
According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle steering column ride down apparatus, comprising a first part for fixedly mounting to a support in the vehicle and a second part for coupling to a steering column assembly, at least one of the parts being tracked to act as a guidance and the other part having first means to run in the or each track and there being second means to tighten the two parts to provide a predetermined resistance at least to initial relative movement of the two parts in the event of vehicle crash.
The first part may be a fixed mounting bracket and may be provided with two parallel flanges, each with a longitudinal slot forming tracks in which said first means can run.
For a better understanding of the invention and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic exploded perspective view of part of a vehicle steering column ride down apparatus;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, shown in an installed condition on a vehicle steering column assembly;
The Figures show a first part in the form of a fixed mounting bracket 1 for fixedly mounting to a support bracket such as a car cross beam (not shown) and a second part in the form of a steering column bracket 2 for coupling to a steering column assembly 3. A steering wheel 4 is also diagrammatically illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4.
The mounting bracket 1 has two depending parallel flanges 5 and the steering column bracket 2 is of basic channel section with two resulting parallel side flanges 6, that are designed to fit within the two flanges 5 of the bracket 1 (see arrow A in FIG. 1).
Both the bracket 1 and the bracket 2 are provided with closed guide slots 7 in their side flanges 5, 6 respectively. Bolt or screw connections 8, 9 are provided that are screwed into screw apertures 8′, 9′ in the brackets 1, 2 respectively and are fitted so that they pass into the slots 7 of the adjacent brackets, fitting in the locations 8A, 9A respectively as shown in FIG. 1. Each screw is tightened to a predetermined torque to hold the brackets relatively fixed during normal vehicle use.