369results about "Power-actuated vehicle locks" patented technology

A door lock for locking a sliding door on a transit vehicle. The lock has a base for attachment to the transit vehicle and a lock cam having a slot for engaging a door lock element attached to the door. A pivot is connected to the base and to the lock cam to provide a rotary connection of the lock cam to the base. A lock actuator is attached to the base. The lock actuator includes a moveable actuator portion for engaging the lock cam to prevent rotation of the lock cam to lock the door. The actuator also has an energized actuator portion for withdrawing the moveable actuator portion from engagement with the lock cam to release the lock cam and unlock the door. The energized actuator portion is connectable with a control system for the transit vehicle door. The lock also has a manual release mounted to engage the moveable actuator portion to move it from engagement with the lock cam to release the lock cam and hence unlock the door. A sprag engaged with the manual release prevents locking of the door after the manual release has been used.

A servo that is attachabley secured to the rail car frame at each door lock that is connected to the latch via a draw bar with sufficient modulus to withstand the repeated force required to move the latch thus opening the door. The servo provides a pulling action with the motive force being pneumatic pressure but not limited to pneumatic whereas hydraulic or electric energy can be supplied to the servo providing the motive force to pull the draw bar attached to the latch, that when said servo provides a pulling force sufficient to over come the friction ot the latch to the striker plate the latch moves in a upward direction thus releasing the door to open. A second element of the servo is to provide a pushing action via the draw bar to the door latch to drive it all the way into the closed position.

Motor vehicle door lock comprising: a latch (1); a pawl (3) which can adopt an "escapement" position; an operating member which, on the one hand, can adopt either an active position in which it acts, during its actuating movement, on the pawl to place it in the "escapement" position, or an inhibited position in which it has no effect on the pawl and, on the other hand, may experience an actuating movement in response to actuation of the door handle; and an electric device (15-24) which responds at least to an unlock signal by moving the operating member from its inhibited position as far as its active position, characterized in that the operating member consists of a set of two links (7, 11) articulated together by a hinge joint (10), of which one (11) of the links comprises a thrust surface (11a) which is positioned in such a way that, in the active position, the thrust surface comes up against and carries along a peg (25) on the pawl (3), during the actuating movement, until the said pawl has been placed in the "escapement" position, and that in the inhibited position, the thrust surface at most comes into contact with the said peg, during the actuating movement so that the operating member has no action on the pawl, and of which the other link (7) is articulated to an opening lever (5), the electric device comprising a lock/unlock lever (15) co-operating with the hinge joint (10) to make it pivot about the articulation (8).

Active seal assemblies employing active materials that can be controlled and remotely changed to alter the seal effectiveness, wherein the active seal assemblies actively change modulus properties such as stiffness, shape orientation, and the like. In this manner, in seal applications such as a vehicle window application, the seal force can be selectively reduced during movement of the window and increased when the window is stationary, thereby selectively changing seal effectiveness. Active materials refers to several different classes of materials all of which exhibit a change in at least one attribute such as dimension, shape, and/or flexural modulus when subjected to at least one of many different types of applied activation signals, examples of such signals being thermal, electrical, magnetic, stress, and the like.

A contractible shape memory alloy (SMA) wire is used to throw a lever in a latch. The SMA actuator provides weight and space savings. In one embodiment, the SMA actuator is incorporated in the handle of the latch in order to provide a child lock or double lock function. The handle has a lever which includes a relatively short slot leg and a relatively long slot leg. A toggle sits in the slot. At least one SMA wire is connected to the toggle to move it between the relatively short slot leg, wherein the lever is prevented from pivoting, and the relatively long slot leg, where the lever is enabled to pivot. In another embodiment, the SMA actuator is embedded in the latch itself, and used to throw a lever that controls the child lock function.

A vehicle door latch assembly is disclosed herein, the vehicle door latch assembly having: a fork bolt movably secured to the latch assembly, the fork bolt being capable of movement between a latched position and an unlatched position; a detent lever movably secured to the latch assembly, the detent lever being capable of movement between an engaged position and a disengaged position, the detent lever retains the fork bolt in the latched position when the detent lever is in the engaged position and a engagement surface of the detent lever contacts an engagement surface of the fork bolt; and an actuator for moving the detent lever into the disengaged position from the engaged position, the actuator being configured to prevent the detent lever from moving back to the engaged position until the fork bolt has been moved to the unlatched position.

Aspects of the disclosure provide for controlling a hood latch using an electrically actuated primary hood latch and an electrically actuated secondary hood latch. To open the hood of the vehicle, a person presses a hood release button. Before attempting to release either the primary hood latch or secondary hood latch, a determination is made whether a vehicle speed of the vehicle is below a minimum vehicle speed threshold. If the vehicle speed is below this threshold, both the primary electrical actuator for the primary hood latch and the secondary electrical actuator for the secondary hood latch are triggered, thereby releasing hood from a closed position into an open position. When the vehicle speed is above this vehicle speed threshold, only the primary electrical actuator for primary hood latch is triggered; leaving the hood in a partially open position held in place by the secondary hood latch.

A compartment latch is shown. It includes a fork bolt that moves between an open position and a closed position and a first detent lever that that cooperates with the fork bolt and that moves between a latched position and a released position. A support for holding the fork bolt and the detent lever is also provided. A second detent lever for biasing against the first detent lever when the first detent lever is in the released position is provided. The second detent lever is connected to the support at a hinge.

A door latch mechanism for a vehicle comprising a release lever operable by a door handle and a transmission path linkage containing a resiliently biased inertia device. During normal operation, the inertia device is biased to form a transmission path that transmits an unlatching movement from the release lever to release a latch bolt of the latch. If an impact on the vehicle creates an acceleration force above a predetermined level, the inertia device moves to break the transmission path, preventing the latch from being unlatched.

A power drive system is adapted for a sliding door mounted on at least one side of a vehicle for sliding movement forwardly and rearwardly of the vehicle. The system includes a reversible motor. A bracket is guided within a guide along a fixed path between the opened and closed positions of the door. An elongated drive member is slidably disposed within the guide and connected to the bracket at one end for driving the bracket along the fixed path. A translator mechanism operably engages with the drive member for powering movement of the door. The translator mechanism can include a rotatable hub, operably engageable with the drive member, a gear transmission for driving the hub, and a clutch mechanism for connecting the motor to the transmission. The translator mechanism preferably has sufficient power to pull the sliding door into a primary latch position with respect to the corresponding portions of a latch mechanism attached to the door and frame defining the door opening. A power striker moves the door into and out of sealing engagement with the frame. A lock mechanism selectively maintains the latch in a locked position. At least one sensor provides an input signal to a control system corresponding to movement of the door, position of the lock mechanism, and position of the power striker for controlling the door drive unit, power striker drive unit, and lock mechanism drive unit in accordance with a program stored in memory.

A fuel lid open-close mechanism includes a fuel lid open sensor for detecting an opening of a fuel lid, and the fuel lid is automatically closed by a fuel lid controller when the opening of the fuel lid is detected. The close operation of the fuel lid is performed when a predetermined condition of fuel lid closure absence is fulfilled. The fuel lid is closed by driving shutter members from an open position to a close position.

A latch has a unidirectional power release mechanism. The mechanism has a rotatable gear with a boss on the gear, a motor for rotating the gear to orbit the gear boss through an operating cycle of the mechanism, a ratchet movable from a latched position to an unlatched position, a pawl lever, a pawl, and a toggle which moves between a first toggle position and a second toggle position to set the limits of the operating cycle of the mechanism. The toggle pivots in response to the orbiting gear boss and presents a stop for the gear boss at the end of the operating cycle. The gear boss effects movement of the pawl lever to effect unlatching and stops the orbiting gear boss when it encounters the stop. The toggle is pivoted back removing the stop in response to the ratchet rotating to the latched position.

An opening/closing apparatus for a vehicle, which has a door-lock mechanism, is provided. An output of a motor unit is transmitted to a drum having a planetary gear mechanism, and the slide door of the vehicle is driven by an open-side cable and a close-side cable wound around the drum. A closer cable of the door-lock mechanism is coupled to a carrier of the planetary gear mechanism, and coupled to a latch of the door-lock mechanism via a coupling link. The coupling link is constituted as a toggle mechanism so as to regulate the rotation of the latch by the traction force of the closer cable until the latch is rotated toward a full latch direction from an unlatch position. When the regulation of the latch by the toggle mechanism is released, the latch is rotationally driven toward the full latch direction due to the rotation of the carrier.

The invention relates to a door lock provided with a roller catch (11). When the door is closed an immobile locking part (10) moves into said roller catch (11), causing it to pivot from an open position into a preliminary or main latching position, the roller catch (11) being held by a latch. For greater user comfort and a more compact door lock the invention provides for the same drive motor (30) to be used as locking aid and as opening aid. A transmission element (35) which can be moved into two different positions is introduced into the gear assembly (31, 37). The drive energy generated by the drive motor (30) is transmitted in one position to the roller catch and in the other position to a second output track leading to the locking latch (20).

A vehicle door latch device has a child-proof mechanism provided between an inner lever and an open lever, a powered closing mechanism arranged to rotate a latch toward a full-latched position from a half-latched position by motor power, and a safety mechanism arranged to urgently stop actuation of the powered closing mechanism in response to rotation of the open lever. The child-proof mechanism has a transmitting device which transmits the rotation of the inner lever to the safety mechanism to actuate the safety mechanism, without rotating the open lever in the child-proof state.

A power drive assembly (110) for controlling movement of a closure panel (102, 105) of a vehicle includes a closure panel (102, 105) that moves relative to the vehicle between open and closed positions, and a latch (108, 115) for cinching the closure panel (102, 105) to the vehicle. The drive assembly (110) includes an actuator (134), a first torque output (136) coupled to effect movement of the closure panel (102, 105), a second torque output (138) coupled to the latch (115), and a clutch assembly (144, 150) coupled between the actuator (134) and the torque outputs (136, 138) for selectively transferring torque between the actuator (134) and the torque outputs (136, 138).

In a first aspect, the invention is directed to a vehicle latch including a ratchet, a main pawl, a cam, and at least one auxiliary pawl, wherein a secondary engagement is provided between the cam and the at least one auxiliary pawl in case a primary engagement between the cam and at least one auxiliary pawl is missed. In a particular embodiment of the first aspect, the ratchet is movable between a ratchet open position wherein the ratchet is positioned to receive a striker and a ratchet locking position wherein the ratchet is positioned to retain the striker. The ratchet is biased towards the ratchet open position. The main pawl is movable between a main pawl locking position wherein the main pawl is positioned to hold the ratchet in the ratchet locking position and a main pawl release position wherein the main pawl permits the movement of the ratchet out of the ratchet locking position. The main pawl is biased towards the main pawl locking position. The cam is operatively connected to the main pawl. The cam is movable between at least two main pawl enabling positions in which the main pawl is enabled to move to the main pawl locking position, and a main pawl disabling position in which the cam positions the main pawl in the main pawl release position. The cam is biased towards the main pawl disabling position. The at least one auxiliary pawl is movable to hold the cam in each of the at least two main pawl enabling positions and movable to permit the cam to move to the main pawl disabling position.

A latch with dual rotary magnets is disclosed. The latch is particularly suited for releasably securing dual doors of a compartment in the closed position. Each rotary magnet holds in a closed position a magnetic insert attached to a respective door by magnetic attraction to secure both doors in the closed position relative to the compartment. Mechanical hook-like rotary pawls supplement the action of the magnets. In addition, the latch is provided with a safety feature that prevents the latch from opening in the event that the vehicle in which the latch is installed is involved in a collision.