Pedal arrangement with safety device

Abstract

Pedal arrangement, consisting of at least one pedal with a pedal lever (2), a bearing block (1) for pivotably mounting the pedal lever (2) on the body of a vehicle and a safety device by which the pedal lever (2) is released from the bearing block (1) in the event of an impact or a strong deceleration of the vehicle by activating a micro gas generator (7), wherein the pedal lever (2) is mounted at one end (9) with a hollow cylindrical passage opening (3) projecting through it transversely to its longitudinal axis (12) between cheeks (5, 5') on the bearing block (1), wherein a.) the pedal lever with its through-opening (3) is mounted on two bearing bolts (4, 4') which are guided through the cheeks (5, 5') of the bearing block (1) on both sides of the pedal lever (2), wherein the bearing bolts (4, 4') project into the through-opening (3) of the pedal lever (2) on the inner sides of the cheeks (5, 5') and are each secured on the outer sides of the cheeks (5, 5') by a safety cap (6, 6') against slipping out of the through-opening (3) of the pedal lever (2), characterized in that b.) the bearing pins (4, 4') are pressed out of the passage opening (3) by the pressure of the gas then flowing explosively into a free space (10) within the passage opening (3) of the pedal lever (2) between the bearing pins (4, 4') upon activation of the micro gas generator (7) with which the pedal is equipped, overcoming the safety caps (6, 6'), and the pedal lever (2) is thereby released from the bearing block (1).

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a pedal assembly according to the preamble of claim 1. In particular, the invention relates to a pedal assembly for vehicles equipped with a safety device. It relates to a pedal assembly with at least one pedal whose pedal lever is pivotally mounted on the body of a motor vehicle via a bearing block. The safety device prevents a person operating the pedal from being injured in the event of a vehicle impacting an obstacle due to the pedal lever intruding into the passenger compartment and / or due to a sudden movement of the person in question or their legs due to a sharp deceleration of the vehicle.

[0002] In recent decades, motor vehicle manufacturers have made significant efforts to improve vehicle safety. In addition to measures to increase active safety, this also particularly applies to passive safety. Measures to increase the passive safety of vehicle occupants are particularly aimed at reducing the risk of injuries due to the intrusion of vehicle parts into the passenger compartment and deformation of the passenger compartment in the event of an impact, as well as due to strong acceleration or deceleration forces acting on the occupants. Therefore, passenger cars in particular are now usually equipped with a larger number of airbags.

[0003] To protect the leg area, especially of the driver, but possibly also of the passenger in a driving school car, it is necessary to take measures to prevent the person in question from being injured, for example, in the event of an impact, by rigid and / or sharp-edged parts of the vehicle's pedal system. Particular attention should be paid to the rigid pedal levers and the associated actuating elements, such as the push rod that acts on the brake pressure cylinder or brake booster when the brake pedal is depressed.

[0004] Solutions have become known and are already in widespread use in which, as a result of a relative movement between the foot pedal assembly and another vehicle component, such as a vehicle cross member, the parts of the pedal assembly that pose a risk of injury are displaced or partially destroyed. However, due to overall improvements in vehicle safety, deformation of the passenger compartment and intrusions of vehicle parts into the passenger compartment have been significantly reduced. This also means that in the event of an impact, the relative movements required to trigger safety devices of the type described above sometimes no longer occur or do not occur to a sufficient extent. As a result, the previously explained solutions for pedal assembly safety devices, which are based on the utilization of relative movements, carry the risk that they may not trigger at all or may not trigger properly.Nevertheless, in the event of an impact, the strong vehicle deceleration and the inertia of the vehicle occupants may result in relative movements of the vehicle occupants with high acceleration, so that if an existing safety device does not trigger, there is still a high risk, particularly for the driver, of potentially serious injury to his legs due to the rigid parts of the pedals.

[0005] The aforementioned disadvantages are avoided by safety devices for pedal systems that are equipped with a gas generator, similar to an airbag. A corresponding solution is described, for example, in DE 196 17 372 C1. This document describes a pedal assembly for a motor vehicle, according to which a pedal of the assembly is equipped with a decoupling device, by which the respective pedal is decoupled in the event of an impact either from an actuating element, such as a strut acting on the master brake cylinder when the brake pedal is depressed, or from the pedal bearing, via which the pedal is pivotally mounted on the vehicle.Decoupling occurs through the activation of a pyrotechnic gas generator, whose gas, released upon impact, acts on corresponding mechanical elements of the decoupling device, moving them into a position where the pedal is released, i.e., decoupled from the actuating element or the pedal bearing. However, the arrangement provided for decoupling the pedal from the pedal bearing has a comparatively complicated and therefore potentially failure-prone mechanical design. According to this design, the end sections of two pistons are pressed by a spring in the area of ​​the bearing axis into a passage opening or hollow axis provided for this purpose on the pedal lever.Furthermore, during normal operation of the pedal assembly, the pistons are each locked in this position by a spring-loaded locking element that engages radially in a groove running around the circumference of the respective piston. The outlet of the aforementioned gas generator is connected to the through-opening in the area of ​​the bearing axis of the pedal lever. When the gas generator is triggered, gas suddenly flows into the through-opening of the pedal lever and pushes the ends of the pistons that protrude into the through-opening out of it. To do this, firstly, the spring force pressing the pistons inward must be overcome and secondly, the locking element locking the respective piston must be released, i.e., brought out of engagement with the groove running around the circumference of the respective piston.Due to the large number of spring elements, namely the springs that push the pistons inward on the one hand, and the springs that press the locking elements into the groove of the pistons for locking, on the other hand, there is a certain risk that the bolts will jam and prevent the pedal lever from being reliably decoupled. Furthermore, as already mentioned, the relatively large number of parts in the device results in a relatively complex structure, which disadvantageously leads to increased material costs and also increased assembly effort in the manufacture of the pedal assembly and the installation of the pedal lever on the pedal bearing.In addition, increased effort must be made to ensure that the arrangement is gas-tight and that the piston ends, which are pushed outwards for decoupling, do not move back to their original position due to any escaping gas and a resulting drop in the gas pressure acting on them.

[0006] DE 102 09 907 A1 discloses a safety device for a motor vehicle for implementing a safety function with a U-shaped bearing block which has at least one bore, a two-part bolt which is inserted coaxially into this bore in order to connect the bearing block to a pedal and means for removing the bolt which form a mechanism which can be activated in the event of an accident and which has a pyrotechnic unit with a gas generator and is accommodated in a housing connected to the bearing block and is connected to the bolt in an axial extension to the bolt axis.

[0007] JP 2002 - 173 007 A describes a pedal assembly with a brake pedal rotatably mounted on a U-shaped bearing block by means of a bearing pin. An explosive cylinder equipped with an ignition device is provided on one side of the bearing pin or bearing block, and a containment housing is provided on the other side of the bearing pin or bearing block. To release the brake pedal from the bearing block, the explosive present in the explosive cylinder is detonated by the ignition device, causing the bearing pin to move toward the containment housing and thereby disengage it from the brake pedal and the bearing block. The released bearing pin is received by the containment housing.

[0008] The object of the invention is to design a pedal arrangement with a safety device in such a way that it has a simple structure, but nevertheless the triggering of the safety device and thus the decoupling of the associated pedal from the pedal bearing is ensured with high reliability regardless of the strength and type of impact and thus independent of the path.

[0009] The object is achieved by a pedal arrangement having the features of patent claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention are provided by the subclaims.

[0010] The pedal arrangement proposed to achieve this objective comprises at least one pedal with a pedal lever, a bearing block for pivotably mounting the pedal lever on the body of a vehicle, and a safety device. As is generally known, the safety device releases the pedal from the bearing block in the event of an impact or sharp deceleration of the vehicle by activating a micro gas generator. A tread is preferably formed at a free end of the aforementioned pedal lever. In the region of the end opposite the free end, i.e., the end facing away from the preferably present tread, the pedal lever is mounted on the bearing block with a hollow cylindrical through-opening extending transversely to its longitudinal axis.The release of the pedal from the bearing block when the safety device is triggered largely prevents injuries to the legs or feet of a person operating the pedal.

[0011] For this purpose, the pedal lever and its through-opening are mounted on two bearing pins that extend through the cheeks of the bearing block on both sides of the pedal lever. The bearing pins protrude into the through-opening of the pedal lever on the inside of the cheeks of the bearing block and are each secured on the outside of these cheeks by a safety cap to prevent them from slipping out of the through-opening of the pedal lever. When the micro gas generator with which the pedal is equipped is activated, for example due to an impact, the pressure of the gas then flowing explosively into a free space in the through-opening of the pedal lever, overcoming the safety caps and pushing the bearing pins out of the through-opening of the pedal lever, which is then decoupled from the bearing block.The bearing block can be a separate component to be connected to the vehicle body. However, in the context of the invention presented, two cheeks serving to mount the pedal lever in the manner described above, which may be arranged directly on the vehicle body, are also considered a bearing block. The cheeks are two elevations or bulges with mutually facing inner surfaces, between which, during normal operation of the arrangement, i.e., when the gas generator is not triggered, the end of the pedal lever mounted on the bearing block is arranged. The surface vector or the surface normal of the aforementioned inner surfaces preferably coincides with the longitudinal axis of the pedal tube, but extends at least substantially in the direction of the pedal tube.

[0012] The use of elastic or elastomeric materials has proven particularly suitable for the caps that secure the bearing bolts against slipping out of the opening of the pedal lever during normal operation of the pedal assembly.

[0013] According to one possible embodiment of the invention, if the micro gas generator is triggered, the bearing pins are allowed to fall out of the cheeks of the bearing block, whereby the caps securing them are pushed out of the cheeks of the bearing block due to the high gas pressure and the resulting compressive force acting on the bearing pins. In another possible embodiment, the elastomer caps are pressed into a corresponding through-bore in the cheeks on the outside, which serves to pass through the bearing pins, and are firmly bonded to the bearing block or its cheeks by vulcanization. In this case, however, the caps are not completely closed on their outside. Rather, they have a central through-opening, the diameter of which is significantly smaller than the outer diameter of the bearing pins they are to secure.Only when the micro gas generator is triggered, however, is it possible, due to the high gas pressure that occurs, for the caps to be deformed in the area of ​​their passage opening by the outward-pressing bearing pins, so that a surface section of the elastomer material extending around the caps' passage opening is pressed outwards, causing the passage opening to widen and the bearing pins to fall laterally out of the cheeks of the bearing block through the widened passage opening of the caps. Furthermore, it is also conceivable to construct the caps from a material that, in the event of a sufficiently high pressure force caused by the gas flowing into the passage opening of the pedal lever, is torn open by the bearing pins, so that in this case, too, the bearing pins can fall laterally out of the cheeks of the bearing block.

[0014] According to a preferred development of the pedal arrangement according to the invention, a housing is formed on the outer sides of both sides of the cheeks of the bearing block, by means of which the bearing bolts falling out of the bearing block laterally in the event of the safety device being triggered and, if applicable, the safety caps pushed out by them are caught.

[0015] A possible embodiment of the bearing according to the invention will be explained below with the aid of drawings. The drawings of the exemplary embodiment show in detail: Fig. 1 a possible embodiment of the pedal arrangement according to the invention in a spatial representation, Fig. 2: the bearing of the pedal lever during normal operation, Fig. 3: the pedal bearing with the pedal lever released from the bearing block when the safety device is triggered.

[0016] The Fig. Figure 1 shows a possible embodiment of the pedal arrangement according to the invention in a three-dimensional view. The pedal itself, equipped with the safety device, is formed by a pedal lever 2, at the free end of which a tread 8 for pedal actuation is formed. At its other end 9, the pedal lever 2 is pivotally mounted on a bearing block 1, via which the pedal is coupled to the body of a vehicle after the arrangement has been installed. The figure shows an essential element of the safety device with which the pedal of the bearing arrangement according to the invention is equipped. This is a micro gas generator 7, which is activated preferably by pyrotechnic means in the event of an impact or a strong deceleration of a vehicle equipped with the pedal arrangement and which is inserted into the hollow bearing axis formed as a through-opening 3 of the pedal lever 2 (see Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) releases incoming gas.

[0017] In the Fig. 2 is a section of the pedal arrangement according to the Fig. 1 in a plan view in a partially sectioned illustration, this section being the area in which the pedal lever 2 is pivotally mounted on the bearing block 1. The illustration shows particularly well how the pedal lever 2 is mounted. As can be seen, the mounting is provided by two bearing pins 4, 4', which are guided on both sides of the pedal lever 2 through the cheeks 5, 5' of the bearing block 1, shown here in section, and protrude into the hollow cylindrical through-opening 3 formed in the pedal lever 2 and running transversely to the longitudinal extent or longitudinal axis 12 of the pedal lever 2. On the outer sides of the cheeks 5, 5' of the bearing block 1, the two bearing pins 4, 4' are each secured by a safety cap 6, 6' against slipping out of the through-opening 3 of the pedal lever 2.Between the two mutually facing ends of the bearing bolts 4, 4', a free space 10 of the passage opening 3 of the pedal lever 2 remains, into which, as indicated by the arrows in the figure, gas released by the micro gas generator 7 can flow in the event of its activation.

[0018] When the micro gas generator 7 is activated, for example in the event of a vehicle collision, the gas released by the micro gas generator 7 flows explosively into the aforementioned free space 10 located between the mutually facing ends of the bearing bolts 4, 4', as is known from airbag devices. As a result, the bearing bolts 4, 4' are pushed apart and finally, as shown in the Fig.3, are pushed out of the passage opening 3 of the pedal lever 2 by overcoming the safety caps 6, 6', whereby they finally fall out of the bearing block 1 laterally due to their explosive protrusion over the outer sides of the cheeks 5, 5'. As a result, the pedal lever 2 is decoupled from the bearing block 1 in the area of ​​its bearing and thus from the body of the vehicle accommodating the pedal assembly. Since the bearing pins 4, 4' are, so to speak, ejected laterally from the cheeks 5, 5' of the bearing block 1, it is reliably ensured that the pedal lever 2 remains decoupled or detached from the bearing block 1 even after all of the gas from the micro gas generator 7 has flown out, even when the gas escapes again from the hollow cylindrical passage opening 3 of the pedal lever 2. Consequently, no special measures are required to seal the space into which the gas enters when the micro gas generator 7 is triggered.It is also immediately apparent from the illustration that the entire pedal assembly, including the pedal and the associated safety device, has a very simple mechanical design. As indicated by the dash-dotted line on the left, a housing 14 can be additionally provided on both sides of the cheeks 5, 5' of the bearing block 1, if necessary. This housing 14 catches the respective bearing pin 4, 4' that shoots out or falls out of the bearing block 1, i.e., its cheeks 5, 5', and, if applicable, the safety cap 6, 6' that is pushed out by it. Reference symbol 1 bearing block 2 pedal levers 3 Passage opening 4, 4' bearing bolts 5.5' cheek 6, 6' safety cap 7 Micro gas generator 8 Tread 9 End 10 Free space 11, 11' through hole 12 Longitudinal axis 13, 13' passage opening 14 Enclosure

Claims

[1] Pedal assembly comprising at least one pedal with a pedal lever (2), a bearing block (1) for pivotally mounting the pedal lever (2) on the body of a vehicle, and a safety device by which the pedal lever (2) is released from the bearing block (1) in the event of an impact or strong deceleration of the vehicle by activating a micro gas generator (7), wherein the pedal lever (2) is mounted at one end (9) on the bearing block (1) with a hollow cylindrical opening (3) projecting transversely to its longitudinal axis (12) through it between cheeks (5, 5'), wherein a.) the pedal lever with its through-hole (3) is mounted on two bearing bolts (4, 4') which are guided through the cheeks (5, 5') of the bearing block (1) on both sides of the pedal lever (2), wherein the bearing bolts (4, 4') project into the through-hole (3) of the pedal lever (2) on the inner sides of the cheeks (5, 5') and are each secured against sliding out of the through-hole (3) of the pedal lever (2) by a retaining cap (6, 6') on the outer sides of the cheeks (5, 5'), characterized by , that b.) the bearing bolts (4, 4') are forced out of the passage opening (3) of the pedal lever (2) by the pressure of the gas which then flows explosively into a free space (10) existing within the passage opening (3) of the pedal lever (2) between the bearing bolts (4, 4') overcoming the safety caps (6, 6') and thereby the pedal lever (2) is released from the bearing block (1). [2] Pedal arrangement according to claim 1, characterized by , that the locking caps (6, 6') which secure the bearing bolts (4, 4') against slipping out of the through-opening (3) of the pedal lever (2) when the micro gas generator (7) is not activated, are made of an elastic material. [3] Pedal arrangement according to claim 2, characterized by , that the safety caps (6, 6') are made of an elastomer. [4] Pedal arrangement according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by, that in the event of activation of the gas generator (7) the safety caps (6, 6') are pushed out of through holes (11, 11') in the cheeks (5, 5') through which the bearing bolts (4, 4') are passed by the bearing pins (4, 4'). [5] Pedal arrangement with safety device according to claim 3, characterized by , that the safety caps (6, 6') made of an elastomer have a passage opening (13, 13') with an inner diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the bearing pins, wherein this passage opening (13, 13') is widened in the event of activation of the micro gas generator (7) by the bearing pin (4, 4') pressing against the respective safety cap (6, 6') so that the bearing pin (4, 4') falls out of the bearing block (1) through it. [6] Pedal arrangement with safety device according to claim 1, characterized by, that the safety caps (6, 6') are torn open by the bearing bolts (4, 4') pressing against them in the event of activation of the gas generator (7), so that the bearing bolt in question (4, 4') falls out of the bearing block (1) through them. [7] Pedal arrangement with safety device according to one of claims 4 to 6, characterized by , that on the outer sides of the cheeks (5, 5') of the bearing block (1) a housing (14) is formed, through which a bearing bolt (4, 4') falling out of the bearing block (1) and, if applicable, the retaining cap (6, 6') pushed out by it are caught.

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