A soft rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter

Abstract

The present invention discloses a rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter, comprising a circuit board connector, a head plastic part, a magnet, a metal shift lever body, a reset spring and a shift pin; the head plastic part and the metal shift lever body are connected to form an integrated structure by injection molding, and the head plastic part is injection molded by an injection molding process; the circuit board connector and the head plastic part are plug-connected; the middle part and the upper part of the metal shift lever are coated with a soft rubber layer by injection molding; the magnet is wrapped in the soft rubber layer of the shift lever by injection molding, and the shift pin is telescopically arranged in the shift pin mounting hole of the shift lever through a reset spring, and the head of the shift pin extends from the large hole of the shift pin mounting cavity for sliding connection with the shift tooth groove. The present invention reduces the number of components of the electronic shifter, reduces the free clearance of the shifter, reduces the weight and noise of the shifter, and improves the smoothness and comfort of the shifting operation.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of automobile shifters, and in particular to a soft rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter. Background Art

[0002] With the rapid development of network technology, intelligent driving technology is becoming more and more mature. The existing traditional gear shifters are large, bulky, and have few safety integrated modules, which cannot meet the needs of lightweight and intelligent development of the entire vehicle. Electronic gear shifters have become the first choice of major domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers.

[0003] The shift lever is a major component of an electronic shifter. As it needs to bear a large load during the shifting operation, the existing shift lever is generally made of metal materials. The existing shift lever made of metal materials has the following technical problems:

[0004] 1. When installing the circuit board connector of the handball, it is necessary to first insert the circuit board connector into a plastic protective cover, and then the plastic protective cover is inserted and fixed on the shift lever. There are many assembly parts, which increases the manufacturing cost and maintenance cost of the electronic shifter.

[0005] 2. When shifting gears, the friction between the metal shift lever, the spherical bushing and the upper shell generates a lot of noise, affecting driving comfort.

[0006] 3. The free clearance between the shift lever, the spherical bushing and the housing is large, which can easily cause the shift signal to be triggered incorrectly, thereby causing a safety accident during the vehicle shifting.

[0007] 4. Metal materials cannot be directly matched with magnets. Due to the weak strength of magnets, they are easily damaged during assembly with metal shift levers, which affects the strength of the magnetic field. In addition, metal materials affect the reception and transmission of magnetic signals, thereby reducing the safety of the vehicle's shift signal.

[0008] 5. The tooth groove stroke of automatic gear shifting is generally long and there are many gears. When the operator uses too much force, the head of the gear pin is easy to slip out of the tooth groove, causing the shift signal to be triggered incorrectly and the signal to fail, thus causing a safety accident when the entire vehicle shifts gears. Summary of the invention

[0009] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides a rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter.

[0010] The technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0011] A rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter, comprising a circuit board connector, a head plastic part, a magnet, a metal shift lever body, a return spring and a shift pin;

[0012] The head plastic part and the metal shift lever body are connected to form an integrated structure through injection molding, and the head plastic part is injection molded through an injection molding process; the circuit board connector is plug-in-connected with the head plastic part;

[0013] A spherical protrusion is provided in the middle of the metal shift lever, positioning columns are provided at both ends of the spherical protrusion, and a stepped shift pin mounting hole and a magnet mounting hole are provided at the lower end of the shift lever, and the magnet mounting hole is provided on the side wall of the shift lever and communicates with the large hole of the shift pin mounting hole; the middle part and the upper part of the metal shift lever are coated with a soft rubber layer by injection molding; the large hole of the shift pin mounting cavity and the magnet mounting hole are connected as a whole by injection molding, the inner circumferential side wall of the large hole of the shift pin mounting cavity is coated with a soft rubber layer by injection molding, the magnet is wrapped in the soft rubber layer in the magnet mounting hole by injection molding, and the soft rubber layer on the surface of the magnet is provided with a magnetic flux hole;

[0014] The shift pin is telescopically arranged in the shift pin mounting hole of the shift lever through a return spring, the tail of the shift pin is slidably connected to the small hole of the shift pin mounting hole, the pin body of the shift pin is sleeved with the return spring, the return spring is located in the large hole of the shift pin mounting cavity, and the head of the shift pin extends out from the large hole of the shift pin mounting cavity for sliding connection to the shift tooth groove.

[0015] Furthermore, a T-shaped through slot is provided at the upper end of the head plastic part for plugging and unplugging a matching circuit board connector, one end of the T-shaped through slot is closed and the other end is open, the closed end of the T-shaped through slot is provided with an opening for ejecting the circuit board connector, and the two inner side walls of the open end of the T-shaped through slot are provided with positioning ribs; the circuit board connector is inserted into the T-shaped through slot of the head plastic part and is pressed and fixed by the positioning ribs.

[0016] Furthermore, the material used for injection molding is nylon, and the thickness of the soft rubber layer of the metal shift lever body is 1.5 to 3.5 mm.

[0017] Furthermore, two horn-shaped blocking parts are symmetrically provided at the lower end of the metal shift lever body, and the blocking parts are used to cooperate with the blocking blocks provided on the lower shell body to restrict the shift pin in the automatic gear shift tooth groove.

[0018] Furthermore, two cross-shaped blocks are symmetrically provided at the lower end of the metal shift lever body. The blocks are cross-staggered with the blocking portion. The blocks are used to cooperate with the clamping parts provided on the lower shell to restrict the shift pin in the automatic gear shift tooth groove and the manual gear shift tooth groove.

[0019] Furthermore, the shift pin includes a shift pin body and an open bushing. The shift pin body is in the shape of a stepped cylinder which is larger in the middle and smaller at both ends. The outer diameter of the large cylindrical portion in the middle is adapted to the inner diameter of the shift pin mounting cavity of the shift lever. The large cylindrical portion and the small cylindrical portion at the upper end are connected by a conical transition. The free end of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end is set as a deformable claw portion, and the free end of the small cylindrical portion at the lower end is set as a spherical head. The open bushing is sleeved on the conical portion of the shift pin to compensate for the free gap between the shift pin and the shift lever.

[0020] Furthermore, the deformable claw portion is formed by the end side surface and the central opening of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end of the shift pin body, and a deformable claw portion is formed between two adjacent side openings.

[0021] Furthermore, a protrusion is provided on the outer wall of the deformable claw portion.

[0022] Furthermore, a side opening is provided through the side of the open bushing, and a stepped through hole is provided in the center. The large hole of the stepped through hole is a tapered hole, and the taper of the tapered hole is slightly larger than the taper of the tapered part of the gear pin. The small hole of the stepped through hole is a cylindrical hole, and the diameter of the cylindrical hole is larger than the outer diameter of the small cylindrical part at the upper end of the gear pin.

[0023] Furthermore, the inner side wall of the upper end of the cylindrical hole of the open bushing protrudes radially inward to form an arc-shaped stopper, and the arc-shaped surface of the arc-shaped stopper is connected to the outer peripheral surface of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end of the shift pin.

[0024] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0025] 1. The head plastic part and the metal shift lever body are connected into an integrated structure through injection molding, which reduces the number of installation parts and reduces the manufacturing cost and maintenance cost of the electronic shifter.

[0026] 2. The rubber coating of the shift lever is adaptively matched with the spherical bushing and contacts with the small arc surface of the upper shell, thereby reducing the free gap between the shift lever, the spherical bushing and the upper shell, ensuring the safety of the shifting operation, reducing the noise generated during the shifting, and improving driving comfort.

[0027] 3. The soft rubber layer of the shift lever is made of nylon material, and the nylon material used for the rubber coating has lubrication and noise reduction effects. The nylon material cooperates with the spherical bushing and the upper shell pressure plate assembly to reduce the free gap between the shift lever and the spherical bushing and the upper shell, ensuring the safety of the shifting operation and improving driving comfort.

[0028] 4. The horn structure and cross block structure at the bottom of the shift lever, combined with the lower shell structure design, can limit the shift lever from sliding back and forth in the automatic gear shift tooth groove when shifting in automatic gear, which can completely prevent the shift lever from jumping out of the automatic gear shift tooth groove due to operator misoperation or excessive shifting force, causing safety accidents.

[0029] 5. The design of the open bushing of the shift pin, on the one hand, allows the shift pin itself to produce elastic deformation, thereby reducing the free gap between the shift pin and the shift lever; on the other hand, the service life of the shift pin can be increased by replacing the open bushing, thereby reducing the maintenance frequency of the electronic shifter.

[0030] 6. The design of the gear pin ball head structure enables the gear pin to contact the spherical surface of the toothed groove, effectively reducing the jumpiness of the gear shifting process, reducing the noise generated during the gear shifting process, and improving driving comfort.

[0031] 7. The magnet is connected to the shift lever as a whole through rubber coating, which reduces the number of parts such as the bracket and rotating parts for installing the magnet, reduces the weight of the electronic shifter, and improves driving comfort; and there will be no relative displacement between the magnet and the shift lever, which will affect the shifting accuracy. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the exploded structure of the rubber-coated shift lever of the present invention.

[0033] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the assembly structure of the rubber-coated shift lever of the present invention.

[0034] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the appearance structure of the rubber-coated shift lever of the present invention.

[0035] Figure 4 It is a structural schematic diagram of the head plastic part of the present invention.

[0036] Figure 5 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the metal shift lever body of the present invention.

[0037] Figure 6 It is a schematic structural diagram of the shift pin of the present invention.

[0038] Figure 7 It is a structural schematic diagram of the open bushing of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] In order to better understand the present invention, the content of the present invention is further explained below in conjunction with the embodiments, but the content of the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments.

[0040] See also Figure 1 to Figure 7 , this embodiment provides a rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter, including a circuit board connector 1, a head plastic part 2, a magnet 3, a metal shift lever body 4, a return spring 5, an open bushing 7 and a shift pin 6;

[0041] The head plastic part 2 and the metal shift lever body 4 are connected to form an integral structure through injection molding, and the head plastic part 2 is injection molded by injection molding. The upper end of the head plastic part 2 is provided with a T-shaped through slot 21 for plugging and unplugging the matching circuit board connector. One end of the T-shaped through slot is closed, and the other end is open. The closed end is provided with an opening 211 for ejecting the circuit board connector, and the two inner side walls opposite to the open end are provided with a straight-shaped positioning rib 23 extending along the depth of the groove; the circuit board connector 1 is inserted into the T-shaped through slot 21 of the head plastic part and is pressed and fixed by the positioning rib 23.

[0042] The middle part of the metal shift lever body 4 radially outwardly forms a spherical protrusion 401, and the central parts of the left and right ends of the spherical protrusion radially outwardly form positioning columns 402, and the spherical protrusion 401 and the positioning columns 402 at both ends thereof form a cross-axis universal joint structure. The upper and lower ends of the metal shift lever body are cylindrical, and a stepped shift pin mounting hole is axially opened inside the cylinder at the lower end of the shift lever. The lower end of the large cylindrical hole 4031 of the shift pin mounting hole passes through the bottom surface of the shift lever, and the upper end of the large cylindrical hole 4031 is connected to the small cylindrical hole 4032. A shoulder 4033 is provided between the two adjacent cylindrical holes, and the upper end of the small cylindrical hole 4032 extends upward to the inside of the spherical protrusion 401. A magnet mounting hole 404 and a plurality of glue injection holes 4034 are provided on the side wall of the large cylindrical hole 4031, and the magnet mounting hole 404 and the glue injection holes 4034 are communicated with the large cylindrical hole 4031; the inner circumferential side wall of the large cylindrical hole 4031 is coated with a soft glue layer 81 by injection molding, and the magnet 3 is wrapped in the soft glue layer in the magnet mounting hole 404 by injection molding, and the soft glue layer on the surface of the magnet is provided with magnetic flux holes; the middle part and the upper part of the metal shift lever are coated with a soft glue layer 8 by injection molding; the preferred injection molding material is nylon, and the thickness of the soft glue layers 8 and 81 is 1.5 to 3.5 mm.

[0043] An injection molding groove 405 is provided on the end surface of the upper cylindrical portion of the shift lever, and the metal shift lever body 4 and the head plastic part 2 are connected as one body by injection molding through the injection molding groove 405 .

[0044] Two symmetrical horn-shaped protrusions 407 are arranged on the cylindrical outer circumference of the lower end of the shift lever, and two cross-shaped clamping blocks 406 are symmetrically arranged below the horn-shaped protrusions 407. The two cross-shaped clamping blocks and the two horn-shaped protrusions are arranged alternately.

[0045] The gear pin 6 is in the shape of a stepped cylinder with a large middle and small ends. The outer diameter of the middle large cylindrical portion 61 matches the inner diameter of the soft rubber layer of the large cylindrical hole 4031. The large cylindrical portion 61 and the upper small cylinder are transitionally connected by a conical portion 62. The large end diameter of the conical portion is smaller than the outer diameter of the cylindrical portion, that is, an annular surface 65 is formed at the intersection of the cylindrical portion and the conical portion. The design of the annular surface 65 is to prevent the open bushing from falling off in the axial position, and at the same time effectively limit the axial displacement of the open bushing, ensuring the stability of the shifting force value and the comfort and safety during the shifting process. The small cylinder at the upper end is the tail of the gear pin, and its outer diameter matches the inner diameter of the small circular hole 4032 of the shift lever body; the small cylinder at the lower end is the head of the gear pin, and the bottom of the head is set as a hemispherical structure 64, which is adapted to the shift tooth shape of the electronic shifter. The end of the small cylinder at the tail of the shift pin is provided with a deformable claw 63, which is formed by cutting the end of the small cylinder, for example, a circular blind hole is provided in the axial center of the end face of the small cylinder, and a plurality of side openings are evenly provided on the side wall of the circular blind hole, and a deformable claw is formed between two side openings. In this embodiment, four are provided in total. The outer surface of the deformable claw is convex outward to form a protrusion 631.

[0046] The side of the open bushing 7 is provided with a side opening 71 that passes through the top and bottom thereof, and the center is provided with a stepped through hole. The large hole is a conical hole 72, and the taper of the conical hole is slightly larger than the taper of the conical part of the shift pin. The small hole is a cylindrical hole 73, and the diameter of the cylindrical hole is larger than the outer diameter of the small cylindrical part at the upper end of the shift pin, that is, a gap is provided between the cylindrical hole wall of the open bushing and the outer wall of the shift pin during installation. This design can reduce the wall thickness of the open bushing and increase its deformation. In order to increase the supporting area of ​​the reset spring, an arc-shaped stopper 74 is designed on the inner side wall of the cylindrical hole of the open bushing. The arc-shaped stopper 74 is formed by the inner side wall of the upper end of the cylindrical hole protruding radially inward, and the arc surface of the arc-shaped stopper 74 is adapted to the small cylindrical part at the upper end of the shift pin. The diameter of the outer circumferential surface of the open bushing 7 is adapted to the inner cavity diameter of the shift lever body. In order to make the product more evenly stressed, durable and reliable, a plurality of through grooves 75 are axially arranged on the inner circumference of the cylindrical hole 73. The arrangement of the through grooves 75 can improve the evenness of the product stress and ensure the safety and reliability of the liner ring. The open liner ring is preferably made of POM plastic.

[0047] Preferably, the return spring 5 is a cylindrical helical compression spring, the outer diameter of which matches the diameter of the small circular hole in the inner cavity of the shift lever, and the inner diameter of which matches the outer diameter of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end of the shift pin body.

[0048] During installation, first, install the open bushing 7 on the conical part 62 of the shift pin body, and then install the return spring 5 on the upper end of the open bushing, and the lower end of the return spring 5 abuts against the upper end surface of the open bushing 7; insert the assembled shift pin assembly into the inner cavity 43 of the shift lever, and the tail part 63 of the shift pin is inserted into the small cylindrical hole 4032 in the internal cavity of the shift lever, and the protrusion 6311 of the deformable claw part contacts the hole wall of the small cylindrical hole 4032; the upper end of the return spring 5 abuts against the shoulder 4033 of the shift lever, and the lower end of the return spring 5 abuts against the upper end surface of the open bushing 7; the head of the shift pin extends from the bottom of the shift lever.

[0049] During the gear shifting operation, the operator shakes the gear shift lever back and forth with his hands, and the gear shift lever swings back and forth around the positioning column. The gear pin performs telescopic movement in the inner cavity of the gear shift lever under the action of the spring force, driving the spherical head of the gear pin to slide back and forth in the automatic gear shift tooth groove, changing from one gear to another; the open bushing produces elastic deformation when squeezed by the spring, and the side opening opens to compensate for the free gap between the gear pin and the gear shift lever; the deformable claw part and the protrusion on its surface are squeezed and deformed, effectively reducing the assembly gap and friction between the gear pin body and the gear shift lever; the block on the gear shift lever is clamped in the lower shell bayonet, and the two horn-shaped protrusions on the gear shift lever abut against the lower shell block to prevent the operator from using too much force or applying force in a biased direction to cause the gear pin head to jump out of the automatic gear shift tooth groove, causing a safety accident of the whole vehicle shifting;

[0050] At the same time, when the shift lever is shaken, the rubber layer of the shift lever adaptively cooperates with the spherical bushing and contacts with the small arc surface of the upper shell, thereby reducing the free gap between the shift lever, the spherical bushing and the upper shell, ensuring the safety of the shift operation, reducing the noise generated during the shift, and improving driving comfort; the core rotating mechanism of the shift lever adopts a cross-axis universal joint structure, so that the shift lever cannot rotate by itself during the shaking process, ensuring the stability of the mechanism and improving the comfort of the shift operation.

[0051] The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for ordinary technicians in this technical field, several improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the principle of the present invention. These improvements and modifications should also be regarded as the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A rubber-coated shift lever for an electronic shifter, characterized in that: It includes a circuit board connector, a head plastic part, a magnet, a metal shift lever body, a return spring and a shift pin; The head plastic part and the metal shift lever body are connected to form an integrated structure through injection molding, and the head plastic part is injection molded through an injection molding process; the circuit board connector is plug-in-connected with the head plastic part; A spherical protrusion is provided in the middle of the metal shift lever, positioning columns are provided at both ends of the spherical protrusion, a stepped shift pin mounting hole is provided at the lower end of the shift lever, a magnet mounting hole and a plurality of glue injection holes are provided on the side wall of the large cylindrical hole of the shift pin mounting hole, and the magnet mounting hole and the glue injection holes are connected with the large cylindrical hole; the middle part and the upper part of the metal shift lever are coated with a soft glue layer by injection molding; the large cylindrical hole of the shift pin mounting hole and the magnet mounting hole are connected as a whole by injection molding, the inner circumferential side wall of the large cylindrical hole of the shift pin mounting hole is coated with a soft glue layer by injection molding, the magnet is wrapped in the soft glue layer in the magnet mounting hole by injection molding, and the soft glue layer on the surface of the magnet is provided with a magnetic flux hole; The shift pin is telescopically arranged in the shift pin mounting hole of the shift lever through a return spring, the tail of the shift pin is slidably connected to the small hole of the shift pin mounting hole, the pin body of the shift pin is sleeved with the return spring, the return spring is located in the large cylindrical hole of the shift pin mounting hole, and the head of the shift pin extends out from the large cylindrical hole of the shift pin mounting hole for sliding connection to the shift tooth groove.

2. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 1, characterized in that: A T-shaped through slot is provided at the upper end of the head plastic part for plugging and unplugging the matching circuit board connector. One end of the T-shaped through slot is closed and the other end is open. An opening is provided at the closed end of the T-shaped through slot for ejecting the circuit board connector. Positioning ribs are provided on the two inner side walls of the open end of the T-shaped through slot. The circuit board connector is inserted into the T-shaped through slot of the head plastic part and is pressed and fixed by the positioning ribs.

3. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The material used for injection molding is nylon, and the thickness of the soft rubber layer of the metal shift lever body is 1.5 to 3.5 mm.

4. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 1, characterized in that: The lower end of the metal shift lever body is symmetrically provided with two horn-shaped blocking parts, which are used to cooperate with the blocking block arranged on the lower shell body to limit the shift pin in the automatic gear shift tooth groove.

5. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 1, characterized in that: Two cross-shaped blocks are symmetrically arranged at the lower end of the metal shift lever body. The blocks are cross-staggered with the blocking part. The blocks are used to cooperate with the clamping parts arranged on the lower shell to limit the shift pin in the automatic gear shift tooth groove and the manual gear shift tooth groove.

6. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 1, characterized in that: The shift pin includes a shift pin body and an open bushing. The shift pin body is in the shape of a stepped cylinder which is larger in the middle and smaller at both ends. The outer diameter of the large cylindrical portion in the middle is adapted to the inner diameter of the shift pin mounting hole of the shift lever. The large cylindrical portion and the small cylindrical portion at the upper end are connected by a conical portion transition. The free end of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end is set as a deformable claw portion, and the free end of the small cylindrical portion at the lower end is set as a spherical head portion. The open bushing is sleeved on the conical portion of the shift pin to compensate for the free gap between the shift pin and the shift lever.

7. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 6, characterized in that: The deformable claw portion is formed by the end side surface and the central opening of the small cylindrical portion at the upper end of the shift pin body, and a deformable claw portion is formed between two adjacent side openings.

8. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 7, characterized in that: The outer wall of the deformable claw portion is provided with a protrusion.

9. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 6, characterized in that: A side opening is provided on the side of the open bushing, and a stepped through hole is provided in the center. The large hole of the stepped through hole is a tapered hole, and the taper of the tapered hole is slightly larger than the taper of the tapered part of the gear pin. The small hole of the stepped through hole is a cylindrical hole, and the diameter of the cylindrical hole is larger than the outer diameter of the small cylindrical part at the upper end of the gear pin.

10. The rubber-coated shift lever according to claim 9, characterized in that: The inner side wall of the upper end of the cylindrical hole of the open bushing protrudes radially inward to form an arc-shaped stopper, and the arc-shaped surface of the arc-shaped stopper is connected to the outer peripheral surface of the small cylindrical part of the upper end of the shift pin.

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