US3667791A - Door lock mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

A DOOR LOCK MECHANISM COMPRISING A BASE MEMBER FIXEDLY MOUNTED ON A DOOR OF AN AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLE, A RECESS FORMED ON THE BASE MEMBER AND HAVING AN ARCSHAPED PERIPHERY DEFINING PART OF THE CONFIGURATION OF THE RECESS, A SECTOR LATCH MEMBER PIVOTABLY MOUNTED IN THE RECESS, THE LATCH MEMBER FORMED WITH AN ARC-SHAPED PERIPHERAL PART HAVING THE SAME RADIUS AS THAT OF THE ARCSHAPED PERIPHERY OF THE RECESS. A SPRING URGING THE LATCH MEMBER TO ROTATE IN ONE DIRECTION WITH A CHECKER ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON THE BASE, A SECOND SPRING URGING THE CHECKER TO ROTATE IN A DIRECTION OPPOSITE TO THE ONE DIRECTION. A

FIRST AND A SECOND TOOTH IS FORMED ON THE LATCH MEMBER FOR COOPERATING IN SUCCESSION WITH THE FIRST AND SECOND TOOTH TO KEEP THE LATCH MEMBER IN ITS SAFETY LATCH AND FULL LATCH POSITION, AND A SECOND AND SUBSTANTIALLY RADIALLY DIRECTING RECESS FOR COOPERATING RECEIVING A STRIKER IS MOUNTED ON A STATIONARY PART OF THE VEHICLE WHEN THE DOOR IS OPERATED IN ITS CLOSING DIRECTION.

Description

Jun 6, 1972 KENICHI KAZAOKA ETAL 3,

DOOR LOCK MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed F'eb. S), 1970 FIG.2

FIG.

June 7 KENICHI KAZAOKA ETAL 3,66

DOOR LOCK MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 9, 1970 FIG.7

DOOR LOCK MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Shoot 5 Filed Feb. 9, 1970 FIG.||

FIG.IO

United States Patent Oifice 3,667,791 Patented June 6, 1972 US. Cl. 292-216 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A door lock mechanism comprising a base member fixedly mounted on a door of an automotive vehicle; a recess formed on the base member and having an arcshaped periphery defining part of the configuration of the recess; a sector latch member pivotably mounted in the recess, the latch member formed with an arc-shaped peripheral part having the same radius as that of the arcshaped periphery of the recess. A spring urging the latch member to rotate in one direction with a checker rotatably mounted on the base; a second spring urging the checker to rotate in a direction opposite to the one direction. A first and a second tooth is formed on the latch member for cooperating in succession with the first and second tooth to keep the latch member in its safety latch and full latch position; and a second and substantially radially directing recess for cooperatingly receiving a striker is mounted on a stationary part of the vehicle when the door is operated in its closing direction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to improvements in and relating to door lock mechanisms for use with automotive vehicle doors.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide a rigid, compact and efficient door lock mechanism adapted for bearing every directional outside forces of substantial magnitudes acting on the door lock mechanism, especially in the axial, lateral and vertical directions, even in an emergency.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a door lock mechanism of the above kind, capable of functioning in a more stabilized and efficient manner than the conventional comparative mechanisms, although the door lock mechanism according to this invention has only a limited space requirement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent when read in the following detailed description of the invention by reference to the accompanying drawings illustrative by way of example two preferred embodiments of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front view of a preferred first embodiment of the door latch mechanism in its normal or off-service position with the automotive door, not shown, being kept open.

FIG. 2 is a similar view to FIG. 1, wherein, however, the door lock mechanism is shown in its safety latch position, as met with the door positioned in its almost closed state.

FIG. 3 is a similar view to FIG. 1, wherein, however, the door lock mechanism is shown in its full latch position, as met with the door positioned in its closed position.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along a sectional line IV-IV shown in FIG. 3.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are respective perspective views of a checker and a striker.

FIGS. 7-10 are similar views to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, yet showing a second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a similar view to FIG. 10, wherein, however, a substantial external force is being applied to the mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the accompanying drawings, several preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail.

In FIGS. 1-4, the numeral 10 denotes a base member, preferably made of a rigid plastic material such as polycarbonate, phenolic or the like resin, and having substantially a rectangular configuration when seen in each of FIGS. 1-3.

The base member 10 is made substantially into a plate having a thickness of several millimeters and provided with a peripheral reinforcing rib 10a. The base 10 is further formed with a plurality of, four in this preferred embodiment, bolt holes 11 adapted for attachment to a door of an automotive vehicle, not shown.

A substantially segmental latch member 12 is pivotably mounted around a projection or pin 13 having its center at 14 and made integral with said base 10 which is formed with a recess 15 having substantially the form of a half moon. The latch member 12 is formed with an arc-shaped peripheral edge 12a having a radius R measured from the center 14 of the pin 13, said peripheral edge 12a being kept in slidable engagement with a correspondingly formed arc-shaped peripheral edge 15a defining part of said recess 15 and having the same radius R measured from said center 14. The peripheral edge 15a is interrupted at its intermediate point by the provision of a round recess 16 formed in the base member 10 and receiving rotatably the enlarged head 17a of a checker 17. The pin head 17a is recessed at 17b as most clearly seen from FIG. 5 and the checker 17 has a concentric stem 17c which passes rotatably and projectingly through a bore 18 drilled through the body of base member 10. As seen from FIG. 4, the bore 18 is provided concentrically with the round recess 16.

For allowing the latch 12 to perform pivotal movement, the latch is formed with a rounded recess 12b which is concentric with the arc-shaped outer periphery 12a and kept in slidable contact with pivot pin 13.

The recess 15 is formed with an arc-shaped groove 19 in which an urging coil spring 20 is positioned. With one end of this spring 20, a pin 21 is kept in engagement. As seen from FIG. 4, this pin 21 is made integral with the body of latch 12, the latter being therefore resiliently urged to turn in clockwise direction when seen in FIGS. 1-3. The spring 20 is naturally mounted in position with a certain predetermined precompression.

The latch 12 is provided with a straight edge 12c which is kept in pressure engagement with a straight edge portion 15b forming a part of the overall wall part defining the general configuration of the recess 15 when seen in FIGS. 1-3. The design and arrangement of said groove 19, latch 12, recess 15 and pin 21 are so selected that with the latch 12 positioned in its off-service position shown in FIG. 1, there is a small idle gap between the pin 21 and the neighboring end wall of said groove 19.

The latch 12 is formed with a first tooth surface 12d and a second tooth surface 12e at a small mutual distance as shown. These tooth surfaces are so designed and arranged that when the latch is rotated counterclockwise from the position shown in FIG. 1, they are brought into successive engagement with tooth-like portion 23 which is formed on the recessed head 17a of the rotatably mounted checker 17, as will be easily understood when observing FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively.

The latch 12 is formed with a substantially radially directing recess or notch 24 so as to provide a projecting arm 25, said notch being cooperatable with a conventional striker 26, as will be more fully described hereinafter. The striker 26 is shown specifically in FIG. 6.

In FIG. 6, the striker 26 comprises a disk-like main body 26a which is formed in turn with two bolt holes 27 and 28 for the fixed attachment to the main body, preferably pillar means thereof, not shown, of a vehicle. Although conventional striker is provided with a striker pin, the door latch mechanism according to this invention, as exemplified, is fitted rigidly with a modified striker proper into a U-shaped member 29 as shown.

As shown in FIG. 4, a latch-release lever 30 is rigidly fixed at its one end with the projecting stern 170 of checker member '17 by conventional fixing means such as riveting as shown. A tension spring 31 is tensioned between a stop pin 32 rigidly mounted on base member 10, and the latch-release lever 30, thus urging the assembly comprising said lever 30 and the checker 17 to turn counter-clockwise in FIG. 3.

With the lever 30 turned in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3, the tension of the spring 31 is correspondingly increased so that the counterclockwise turning effort being applied on the lever will become correspondingly increased. It should be however noted that a certain initial tension is applied and thus, even when the lever 30 is positioned at its rest position shown in FIG. 3, where the lever abuts against a stop pin 32 rigidly attached on the back surface of the base member 10, with the spring 31 kept in its least tensioned state, the lever is being subjected to a certain amount of counterclockwise turning effort when seen in FIG. 3.

The base member 10 is further formed with an elongated passage recess, generally shown at 33, which has an enlarged part 33a as shown, a guide pin 36 bridges the left and right hand end wall parts 331: and 330. A slide block 34 is mounted slidably on the guide pin 36, said slide being urged resiliently to move along the pin from right to left in FIGS. 1-3 by virtue of the provision of an urging coil spring 35 which is mounted around the guide pin and inserted between the slide block 34 and the wall part 33c. As will become more clear hereinafter, the passage recess 33 is arranged to receive the striker per se and the slide block 34 functions to assure more positively the latched position of the latch mechanism when operated. In the off-service position or so of the latch mechanism, the slide block 34 is kept in its lefthand extreme position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, where the slide abuts against the left-hand side wall 33b defining a part of the enlarged recess part 33a. Any turning movement of the slide block 34 around guide pin 36 is positively prevented by forming the rear surface of said slide into a plane surface kept in slidable contact with a correspondingly plane surface formed on the base member 10.

The door plate to which the main parts of the door latch mechanism comprising said base member 10 fixedly attached is shown only schematically in FIG. 4 by two parallel chain-dotted lines The operation of the first embodiment of the door latch mechanism so far shown and described is as follows:

As referred to hereinbefore, the position of the door latch mechanism shown in FIG. 1 is the unlatched or latch-release one, thus the door being kept in its open position. When a driver or the like person operates the open door in its closing direction, the striker 26 fixedly attached to the automotive body and together with its latching member 29 will relatively approach towards the advance into passage recess 33. The member 29 will then be brought into collision with arm 25, thereby the latch 4 member 12 being rotated in the counter clockwise direction around the pivot pin 13 against the urging force exerted by the compression spring 20 through the intermediary of motion-receiving pin 21 upon the latch with its outer peripheral edge 12a performing a sliding motion on the arc-shaped wall 15a of recess 15.

Since checker 117 is always urged resiliently by tension spring 31 to turn counterclockwise in FIGS. 1-3, the tooth-like portion 23 on the checker is brought into engagement with first tooth surface 12d, after the latch 12 has been rotated a predetermined angle from the position shown in FIG. 1 to that shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, this engaged position between the both is clearly demonstrated, which corresponds to the safety latch position so-called by those skilled in the art.

With further door-closing operation and thus with further advancing movement of the latching member 29 from left to right, from the position shown in FIG. 2 to that shown in FIG. 3, the latch 12 is further rotated in the counter-clockwise direction as before, and the provi sionally established engagement between 12b and 23 is released and a new engagement is brought about between 122 and 23, as shown in FIG. 3. At the same time, the lever 30 is urged into engagement with stop pin 32 by the spring 31 and therefore, any further counterclockwise rotation of the checker 17 and clockwise rotation of the latch 12 is positively prevented. During straight invading movement of the latching member 29 along the passage recess 33, more specifically its enlarged inner end part 33a, the member 29 will be brought into pressure contact with the inclined, motion-receiving surface at 34a of the slide block 34 and ride therealong so that the latter is moved forcibly towards right in FIG. 2, against the urging force exerted by compression spring 35. At the almost final stage, the mutual position of latch 12, latching member 29 and slide block 34 will be that shown in FIG. 3, this engaged position being called the full latch position.

The automotive door can be operated to a certain small degree in its closing direction. With this movement, the latching member 29 can advance only a small distance in the right-hand direction from the position shown in FIG. 3. But, the base member 10 is so designed and arranged that it is kept in contact with a conventional weather strip, not shown, provided on the vehicle body, for limiting this kind of excess movement of the door or latching member 29 to only a small distance.

When any unintentional outside or inside force is applied to the thus latched door, and thus the latching member 29 is subjected to a force for moving leftwards in FIG. 3 from the position shown therein, the latch 12 is exerted upon by a corresponding force directing in the same sense by virtue of the latched engagement between the both. In this case, however, the thus urged latch 12 is prevented from its moving in that direction by virtue of the broad contact between the arc-shaped outer periphery 12a and the correspondingly shaped recess-defining wall surface at 15a. A clockwise rotation of the latch 12 urged at the same time by the door-opening force is also prevented in a positive manner, because in this position the tooth-like portions 23 on checker 17 is kept in engagement with the second tooth 12a of the latch 12.

As commonly known, a hinged door such as the automotive door has disadvantageously a tendency of hangingdown by its own weight. A positive prevention of such hanging-down of the door is brought about by use of the door latch mechanism according to this invention wherein with the door closed, the channel-shaped striker proper 29 is brought into positive engagement with the upper wall 36b defining the upper limit of the groove 33', thus the door being definitely supported through the base gilecr tnbgr 10 by the striker as will be clearly seen from When, as an example, a vehicle should come into collision in the lateral direction and against the body of the vehicle fitted with the present door latch mechanism a substantial force will act in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, thus tending the latch member 12 being forcibly moved in the axial direction of pivot pin 13, or more specifically in the perpendicular direction to the drawing paper surface of FIG. 3 and towards the viewer by the striker proper 29. In this case, the engagement of the second tooth 122 with the checker tooth 23 will be released and the latch 12 will move in the aforementioned direction, but, in the mechanism so far shown and described, an excess displacement of the latch would be positively prevented by contact with the rear surface of the door plate 5'0, to which the base member of the door latch mechanism is fixedly attached by bolts, not shown, which are screwed in position after passage through the bolt holes 11, as was briefly hinted hereinbefore. Therefore, it will be easily understood that the latch member is not removed from position in this case, should the door latch not be subjected to destruction.

When it is desired to open the door from its closed position with the constituent parts of the latch mechanism positioned as shown in FIG. 3, lever 30 is turned in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3 against the urging force exerted by the spring 31, so as to rotate the checker 17 in the same direction and in unison with the lever and to release the engagement between 23 and 12e. Thus, the latch 12 is rotated automatically in the clockwise direction in FIG. 3 under the action of the biasing spring 20. Therefore, the latch 12 will be returned from the position shown in FIG. 3 to that shown in FIG. 2, or directly to the position shown in FIG. 1.

The first embodiment shown and described so far has the following several advantages.

Since the latch 12 has been formed into substantially a sector shape, the radius R extending from the center 14- of pivot pin 13 to the arc-shaped outer periphery 12a of the latch can be selected toa considerably large value in comparison with that adopted in a comparatively compact design of the door lock mechanism. In effect, the distance shown at B1 in FIG. 3 can be increased considerably when compared with the similar part in the conventional mechanism, even with such assumption that the thickness of the latch be identical with each other. By adopting this measure, the durable performance of the latch 12 against the forced shift of the striker leftwards in FIG. 3 by virtue of an unintentional application of a sudden and substantial door-opening force, as may be met in an emergency.

By the adoption of a larger value of the radius R, the contact area of the arc-shaped outer periphery of the latch with the similarly shaped recess-defining wall part of the base plate 10, providing a broader pressure transmitting area of the latch member acting against possible movement of the striker urged unintentionally and forcedly in the door-opening direction, as may be encountered in an emergency, thereby constituting a substantially rigid door latch mechanism. In a preferred embodiment as the present one, the ratio: R/C shown in FIG. 3, wherein the distance C is that measured from the center 14 of pivot pin 13 to the central axis of the locus of the striker per se 29 when the striker 26- moves relative to the base member 10 in the aforementioned way, is selected to be substantially equal to that employed in the conventional comparative mechanism, even for a larger value of said distance C, the acting pressure between the both teeth -12e and 23 which appears when the latch member 12 is rotated in the aforementioned way, Will be substantially equal to that conventionally adopted. Therefore, the dimensional requirement for the checker 17 and its related parts serving for returning the latch from the position shown in FIG. 3 to that in FIG. 1 may not be unchanged for attaining equal strength as conventional.

Next, referring to FIGS. 7-11, a preferred second embodiment of the invention will be described in detail.

The reference symbol 10' is a similar base member to that shown at 10 in the foregoing, said base being formed equally with a peripheral reinforcing rib 10a as well as four bolt holes 11' as before.

A segmental latch member 12' is also provided which is rotatably mounted around a fixed pivot pin 13', yet through the intermediary of a first bushing 40 made of a resilient material, such as hard rubber or the like, and a second concentric smaller diameter bushing 41 made of metal or metal alloy having a small frictional coefficient. The first bushing 40 is fixed to the latch 12, while the second bushing 41 is rotatable relative to the first bushing and the pivot pin 13, said pin 13 being equal design as that shown at 13 in the foregoing embodiment. As before, the latch 12 has an arc-shaped peripheral edge 12a having a radius R measured from the center 14' of the pivot pin 13. The latch 12' is rotatably and slidably mounted on the bottom of a mounting recess 15 having an arcshaped peripheral wall 15a having an equal radius as R, but its center is offset a small distance from the said center 14', said offset distance being naturally equal to the gap at g between the latch peripheral edge 12a and the recess-defining peripheral Wall 1511'. The gap g is maintained normally, so far as the first bushing 40 keeps its regular cylindrical shape as shown in FIGS. 7-9. As seen, the wall thickness of the first or elastic bushing 40 is substantially larger than the dimension of said gap g. The material of the elastic bushing 40 has a rather substantial rigidity so that the bushing may be elastically deformed only when a substantial lateral force, when 'seen in FIGS. 7-9, as met in a vehicle collision or the like emergency accident, should be applied to the latch mechanism, as will be more fully described hereinafter by reference to FIG. 11.

Several other parts, such as shown at 12b, 12c, 12d, 122', 151), 16', 17', 17a, 17b, 17c, 18', 19', 20', 21', 22', 23, 24', 25, 26', 29', 30', 31, 32', 33', 33a, 33b, 33c, 34, 35', 36, 50' have substantially same design and function as those denoted with same reference numerals without attaching no prime, shown and described in the foregoing first embodiment. Therefore, no further analysis of the second embodiment would be necessary for the understanding thereof.

In the normal operation of the door lock mechanism, the latch 12' rotates in one or the other direction as before, but, without sliding contact of its arc-shaped outer peripheral edge 12a with the correspondingly arc-shaped wall part 15a of the mounting recess 15, thus the gap g being maintained for smooth rotation of the latch.

On the contrary, if a sudden and considerable dooropening force should act in the door-opening direction, by way of example, in an emergency, and thus the striker proper 29 is moved suddenly from right to left in FIG. 9 with the latch mechanism kept in its full latch position shown therein, the latch 12 is pushed leftwards and the elastic bushing 40 will be subjected to deformation as shown in FIG, 11 and the latch 12 will be brought into direct contact with the arc-shaped peripheral wall part 15a of the recess 15, thus the gap g disappearing and the door-opening force being borne by the direct abutment between the latch and the base member. Therefore, in this case, the broad engagement surface of said areshaped wall part 15a serves for bearing the intensive door-opening force. In this case, even when the latch 12' is subjected to clockwise rotation, the already established engagement between the tooth parts 12e' and 23', will effectively prevent such latch rotation, if not the dooropening force should be so large that the door latch mechanism may be destroyed.

In the present embodiment, the pivot pin 13 may be of slender design than that employed in the foregoing embodiment, because a severe door-opening force can not be borne by the pivot pin, thanks to the provision of the elastic bushing 40.

Other functions of this second embodiment are substantially similar to those in the first embodiment, so that no further analysis thereof would be necessary for better understanding of the invention.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are as follows:

1. In a door lock mechanism for a vehicle door comprising a base member fixedly mounted on said vehicle door and having a curved wall recess along one side thereof;

a latch member pivotably mounted in said recess and having a second recess;

a striker mounted rigidly on a stationary part of said vehicle, and adapted to enter on said same side as said recess of said base member, said second recess capable of engagingly receiving said striker;

a checker means pivotably mounted on said base member for locking said door by engagement with said latch member, said latch member having a generally sector-shaped configuration with an are shaped outer peripheral surface, said curved wall recess having an are shaped wall surface complementary to said latch member peripheral surface so that their radii are substantially the same dimension, whereby said two surfaces can engage along a major portion of their surfaces upon the transmission of a large force from said striker to said latch member during and after a door locking operation and while said door is in its closed position, and

a pivot pin rigidly mounted on said base member, said latch member being pivotably mounted on said pivot pin and supported against a door closing force transmitted from said striker to said latch member when said door is being closed, said arc shaped wallsurface of said base member supporting said latch member against a door opening force transmitted from said striker to said latch member.

2. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 1,

further comprising:

a groove formed on said base member, and

a spring inserted in said groove, one end of said spring being kept in pressure engagement with said latch member so as to urge the latter to move in the dooropening direction.

3. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a second spring mounted on said base member and acting upon said checker means which is thereby urged to move in a direction for engaging with said latch member.

4. In a door lock mechanism for a vehicle door comprising a base member fixedly mounted on said vehicle door and having a curved wall recess along one side thereof;

a latch member pivotably mounted in said recess and having a second recess;

a striker mounted rigidly on a stationary part of said vehicle, said second recess capable of engagingly receiving said striker;

a checker means pivotably mounted on said base memher for locking said door by engagement with said latch member, said latch member having a generally sector-shaped configuration with an are shaped outer peripheral surface, said curved wall recess having an are shaped wall surface complementary to said latch member peripheral surface, with the radius of said curved wall recess being slightly larger than the radius of said latch member peripheral surface, whereby the two surfaces will engage only upon the transmission of a large force form said striker to said latch member after a door locking operation and while said door is in its closed position;

a pivot pin rigidly mounted on said base member, and

elastic bushing means connecting said pivot pin to said latch member for absorbing the normal forces transmitted between said latch member and said base member during a normal door locking operation.

5. The door locking mechanism as claimed in claim 4, where said elastic bushing means further includes a first elastic bushing fixedly mounted on said latch member and a second bushing rotatably mounted on said pivot pin and connected to said first elastic bushing.

6. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a spring biased camming member directly engaging said striker in a closed door position to help support said striker.

7. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 5, where the first elastic bushing has a thickness capable of resiliently being deformed to absorb normal door locking operation forces between said base member and said latch'member without said curved wall recess surface contacting said latch member peripheral surface, the resilient thickness, however, not preventing the engagement of said surfaces upon the occurrence of extraordinary forces beyond normal door locking operation forces.

8. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 4, further comprising:

a groove formed on said base member, and

a spring inserted in said groove, one end of said spring being kept in pressure engagement with said latch member so as to urge the latter to move in the dooropening direction.

9. The door lock mechanism as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a second spring mounted on said base member and acting upon said checker means which is thereby urged to move in a direction for engaging with said latch member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,060,019 4/1913 Pederson 292-99 3,123,390 3/ 1-964 Sandor et al. 292280 3,416,826 12/1968 Putsch et al. 292-198 3,415,559 12/1968 Jeavons 2922l6 FOREIGN PATENTS 482,149 6/ 3 Italy 292-201 RICHARD E. MOORE, Primary Examiner

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