Lost motion cam actuating device
AssigneeMagna Closures Inc.
InventorKris Tomaszewski
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.
Claims10
An actuating device for a vehicle lock, comprising:
- a lever, pivotally movable between two positions, the lever having an interaction surface;
- a motor;
- a gear, selectively rotatable about a gear axis by the motor;
- a cam that is rotatable about a cam axis by the gear through a lost motion connection and having a pair of cam arms, wherein rotation of the cam from a first position to a second position drives one of the cam arms to pivot the lever, and wherein when the cam is in the second position the other of the two cam arms engages the interaction surface to stop the rotation of the cam;
- and
- a resilient bumper, wherein the lost motion connection includes a sidewall on the cam, positioned so that rotating the cam causes the sidewall to engage the gear through the resilient bumper,
- wherein the resilient bumper urges the gear away from the cam sidewall after stoppage of the motor from driving the gear when the cam is in the second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.