JPH0636038Y2 - Cable reel - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a cable reel for electrically connecting a fixed body and a rotating body using a flexible cable such as a flat cable.

[Conventional technology]

The cable reel that electrically connects the fixed body and the movable body is used, for example, in steering of an automobile or the like. In this case, the movable body can rotate in both directions to the same extent in the neutral position of the steering wheel. Need to be installed. If this movable body is assembled in a state where it is rotated in one direction, a difference occurs in the amount of rotation in both directions,
Excessive tension is applied to the flat cable, causing inconveniences such as buckling and damage.

Therefore, when installing the above-mentioned cable reel into various devices, in order to enable it to be installed in an appropriate state, a positioning mechanism that serves as a guide for positioning between the fixed body and the movable body is provided. Those that are attached are conventionally used. As such a positioning mechanism, one of the fixed body and the movable body is provided with a rotating member having a gear, and the other is provided with an engaging projection for engaging with the gear of the rotating member. When the gear is rotated, the gear is engaged with the engaging protrusion to follow the rotation of the movable body so that the movable body is rotated by a predetermined angle. Between the body and the fixed body,
When a gear is provided on the fixed body, a mark is provided between the gear and the movable body to indicate the proper mounting of the gear.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

By the way, the above-mentioned rotating member is usually formed by a molded product of synthetic resin, and when a soft resin material is used as the material of the rotating member, the gear of the rotating member engages with the engaging projection. Not only does the frictional resistance increase when the gears are engaged, the operation is not smooth, but the gears are deformed during operation, resulting in loss of the pointer function for proper alignment. There is.

For this reason, a nylon or urethane hard synthetic resin is generally used as the material of the rotating member, but when the rotating member is formed of such a hard material, the movable body is There is a drawback that noise is generated each time the gear of the rotating member engages with the engaging projection by being rotated.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, to provide a cable reel having excellent durability and reducing noise.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an electrical connection between a fixed body and a movable body that is rotatably attached to the fixed body via a flexible cable. One of the fixed body and the movable body is provided with a rotating member provided with a gear for alignment, and the other is rotated by a predetermined angle by engaging with the gear when the movable body makes one rotation. In the cable reel, the engaging protrusion is made of a hard material, and the engaging protrusion is provided so that the fixed member and the movable member are properly aligned by the display provided on the rotating member. Then, a soft material is applied to the engaging protrusion, the rotating member is formed of a soft material, and a hard coating is applied to the surface of the soft material.

[Action]

When the movable body makes one rotation, the engaging protrusion contacts the gear during this rotation to rotate the rotating member by a predetermined angle. In this case,
Although the engaging protrusion is made of a hard material having high rigidity, a soft material is applied to the surface of the engaging protrusion. On the other hand, the inside of the rotating member is made of a soft material excellent in sound absorption, but the surface has a friction resistance. Since it is coated with a small amount of hard coating, it is possible to reduce the noise when the engaging projection hits the gear,
A good alignment function can be exhibited over a long period of time.

〔Example〕

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a movable body, and a shaft insertion hole 2 is bored in the center of the movable body 1, and a cylindrical inner ring wall 3 is vertically provided around the shaft insertion hole 2 so that the movable body 1 is further movable. A cable extraction portion 4 is provided upright on the top surface of the body 1. On the other hand, 5 indicates a fixed body, and a cylindrical outer ring wall 6 is provided on the periphery of the fixed body 5.
Is provided upright, and a cable extraction portion 7 is provided on a part of the outer ring wall 6 so as to project. The fixed body 6 and the movable body 1 form the outer shell of the cable reel and are made of a hard resin such as ABS resin. Further, the fixed body 5 and the movable body 1 are rotatably connected by a snap or the like, and in this connected state, a storage space is defined between the inner ring wall 3 and the outer ring wall 6. . Further, 8 is a flat cable, and the flat cable 8 is a known one in which a plurality of conductors are laminated with a pair of resin films. The flat cable 8 is wound and stored in the above-described storage space for a plurality of turns, the inner peripheral end of which is the cable takeout portion 4 of the movable body 1 and the outer peripheral end of which is the cable takeout portion 7 of the fixed body 5, respectively. It is supposed to be extended to the outside.

The cable reel roughly constructed as described above is used, for example, by being incorporated in a steering wheel of an automobile. In this assembled state, the steer rig wheel connected to the movable body 1 is rotated clockwise and counterclockwise. At times, they must be able to rotate by approximately equal amounts.

In order that the movable body 1 forming the cable reel can be assembled to the fixed body 5 in an appropriate state, a flat U-shaped extension is provided on the outer circumferential wall 6 of the fixed body 5. A wall 9 is provided in a protruding manner, and a rotating member 10 is arranged inside the extending wall 9. This rotating member 10 has a second
As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 3, a first gear 11 having four tooth portions 11a at positions where their phases are changed by 90 ° to each other, and an angle of 90 ° like the first gear 11 are formed. And a second gear 12 having four tooth portions 12a are provided at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to each other, and these first and second gears 11 and 12 rotate the rotating member 10. It is displaced in the direction of the moving axis. The rotating member 10 is formed by coating the surface of a base material 10a made of a soft synthetic resin with a hard coating 10b. The former base material 10a is, for example, polyesteramide or synthetic rubber having a hardness of about 40D Shore hardness D scale. Is used, the latter hard coating 10
As b, for example, a hard coat material such as an acrylic UV resin is used.

The rotating member 10 configured as described above is provided with the second gear 12 on the support shaft 13 which is erected on the bottom surface of the extension wall 9 so that the axial direction thereof coincides with the rotation axis of the movable body 1. Is turned downward and is rotatably inserted through the spring washer 14,
The nut 16 is fitted into the support shaft 13 through the washer 15 from above to prevent the nut 16 from coming off.

On the other hand, an engaging member is provided on the peripheral surface of the movable body 1 so as to correspond to the rotating member 10. This engaging member is composed of a pair of engaging projections 17 and 17 vertically provided on the peripheral surface of the movable body 1 and an engaging groove 18 located between the engaging projections 17 and 17, Sound absorbing members 19, 19 made of a soft material such as a rubber tube or a heat-shrinkable resin tube are attached to the engaging protrusions 17, 17.

As shown in FIG. 3, the positional relationship between the rotating member 10 and the engaging member is set so that the substantially center of the tooth portion 11a of the first gear 11 coincides with the lower end of the movable body 1. When the movable body 1 is rotated once relative to the fixed body 5, the rotating member 10 can be rotated 90 degrees by the action of the engaging projection 17 and the engaging groove 18. It is becoming like this.
(This rotation operation will be described later). Further, a mark 20 is provided on the surface of one gear 12a of the second gear 12 as a guide for proper alignment of the rotating member 10, and a transparent member attached to the extension wall 9 is provided. Naive cover
A mark 22 is provided on a part of 21 and both marks 20, 22
When the alignment is done, the proper alignment is done.

The present embodiment is configured as described above, and its operation will be described next.

One end of the flat cable 8 is fixed to the movable body 1 and the other end is fixed to the fixed body 5, and the flat cable 8 is accommodated in the accommodation space formed between the movable body 1 and the fixed body 5. The cable reel is assembled by assembling in the state of being made. Then, when incorporating this cable reel into, for example, the steering of an automobile, in order to incorporate the relative positional relationship in the rotational direction between the movable body 1 and the fixed body 5 in an appropriate state, as shown in FIG. , The mark 20 on the side of the second gear 12 and the mark 22 on the side of the cover 21 (not shown in FIG. 4) can be used as a guide to match them.

Here, when the positions of the marks 20 and 22 are deviated at the time of this assembling, the movable body 1 may be rotated in the direction opposite to the deviating direction so as to establish alignment between them. This operation will be described with reference to FIG. That is,
When the movable body 1 is rotated in the direction of the arrow X from the state shown in FIG. 4A, as shown in FIG.
17 collides with the tooth portion 12a of the second gear 12 located in the traveling direction, and the rotating member 10 is rotated 45 degrees in the direction of the arrow Y. As a result of this rotation, as shown in FIG. As shown, the tooth portions 11 a of the adjacent first gears 11 enter the engaging groove 18.
When the movable body 1 is further rotated in the direction of the arrow from the state shown in FIG. 4 (c), the engaging projection 17 on the right side in the figure hits the tooth 11a at the tip as shown in FIG. , The rotating member 10 is an arrow Y
It is further rotated by 45 degrees in the direction, and the next tooth portion 12a of the second gear 12 is located behind the engaging member in the traveling direction.
When the engaging member passes the rotating member 10, the movable body 1
During the subsequent rotation of the second gear 12, the second gear 12 faces the lower end of the movable body 1 with a predetermined gap, and the two tooth portions 11a, 11a of the first gear 11 face the peripheral surface of the movable body 1. For turning member
Ten slips are prevented. In this way, when the movable body 1 is rotated once, the rotating member 10 is rotated 90 degrees by the engaging member,
Since the relative position between the mark 20 on the rotating member 10 side and the mark 22 on the cover 21 changes, when the marks 20 and 22 are in alignment, the movable body 1 and the fixed body 5 are properly aligned. Alignment is done.

As described above, the cable reel is used by being incorporated in the steering of the automobile with the movable body 1 and the fixed body 5 aligned with each other. During this use, the movable body 1 is frequently rotated in conjunction with the steering wheel. As a result, the tooth portions 11a, 12a of the rotating member 10 and the engaging protrusions 17 are abutted against each other many times. However, in this embodiment, the rotating member 10
Since a base material 10a made of a soft material is coated with a hard coating 10b as the material, and a sound absorbing member 19 made of a soft material is attached to the engaging projections 17, the generation of noise at the time of such impact can be significantly reduced. You can

As described above, in the above-described embodiment, since the base material 10a made of a soft material coated with the hard coating 10b is used as the rotating member 10, the tooth portions 11a and 12a of the rotating member 10 are used.
The second gear 12 without any damage or deformation.
The tooth portion 12a of the
When the tooth portion 11a of the gear 11 is rotated in the direction of the engaging groove 18, the tooth portion 11a does not rub against the peripheral wall of the movable body 1 and rotate undesirably. It is possible to maintain the pointer function for the alignment between and for a long time. In addition, the engaging protrusion 17 is formed on each of the tooth portions 11a and 12a of the rotating member 10.
Since the sound generated at the time of hitting the base material is absorbed by the base material 10a made of a soft material, the generation of noise can be reduced.

In the embodiment described above, as a positioning function, a rotating member in which the first gear and the second gear are axially displaced from each other,
Although the case where the pair of engaging protrusions face each other via the engaging groove and the engaging member is described, the shapes of the rotating member and the engaging member are not limited to the above-described embodiments.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the present invention, as the engaging member, a hard material having excellent rigidity is coated with a soft material having excellent sound absorbing property, and the engaging member is rotated by the engaging protrusion. As the rotating member, a soft material excellent in sound absorption is coated with a hard coating with low friction resistance.
At the time of engagement between these engaging protrusions and the rotating member that form the alignment mechanism, it is possible to prevent undesired rotation of the rotating member and suppress the generation of impact noise, thus providing durability. It is possible to provide a cable reel with excellent performance and low noise.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is an exploded perspective view of a cable reel according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an alignment mechanism provided on the cable reel, and FIG. 3 is a rotation member of the alignment mechanism. Explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship between engaging members, 4th
The figure is an explanatory view of the operation of the alignment mechanism. 1 ... Movable body, 3 ... Inner ring wall, 5 ... Fixed body, 6 ... Outer ring wall, 8 ... Flat cable (flexible cable), 9
...... Extended wall, 10 ...... Rotating member, 10a ...... Base material, 10b ...... Hard coating, 11 ...... First gear, 12 ...... Second gear, 17 ......
Engagement protrusion, 18 ... Engagement groove, 19 ... Sound absorbing member, 20, 22 ...
Mark, 21 …… Cover.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A fixed body and a movable body which is rotatably attached to the fixed body are electrically connected to each other via a flexible cable. Providing a rotating member with a gear for alignment on either one of the
On the other hand, when the movable body makes one rotation, an engaging protrusion that engages with the gear and rotates the rotating member by a predetermined angle is provided, and the fixed body and the movable body are indicated by the display provided on the rotating member. In a cable reel adapted to perform proper alignment between the engaging projections, the engaging projection is formed of a hard material, and a soft material is attached to the engaging projection, and the rotating member is formed of a soft material. And a hard coating formed on the surface of the soft material.