Locking lever and vehicle door opening-closing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10352069-B2
Application number	US-201514632444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2015
Priority date	Feb 28, 2014
Publication date	Jul 16, 2019
Grant date	Jul 16, 2019

Abstract

A locking lever includes: a pair of lever pieces connected to each other to be relatively rotatable; and a spring member which extends about rotating axes of the lever pieces, of which both end portions engage with the lever pieces, and thereby, which biases the lever pieces to rotate in opposite directions, wherein contact portions, which come into contact with each other based on a biasing force of the spring member and thereby, are able to hold relatively rotating positions of the lever pieces, are provided in the lever pieces, respectively, wherein the spring member has spring end portions extending in a radial direction of the rotating shaft, and wherein an engagement surface with which the spring end portion comes into contact in a circumferential direction of the rotating shaft is provided on at least one of the lever pieces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A locking lever comprising:
a pair of lever pieces including a latching-side lever piece and an engagement-side lever piece connected to each other to be relatively rotatable; and
a spring member which extends about a rotating shaft of the lever pieces, in engagement with the lever pieces, and thereby, which biases the lever pieces to rotate in opposite directions,
wherein the spring member has a pair of spring end portions extending radially with respect to the rotating shaft,
wherein the rotating shaft is formed by inserting a shaft provided on one of the latching-side lever piece or the engagement-side lever piece into a through-hole provided on an other of the latching-side lever piece or the engagement-side lever piece,
wherein the latching-side lever piece has a latching portion on which one of the spring end portions is latched,
wherein the engagement-side lever piece has an engagement surface with which an other of the spring end portions comes into contact in a circumferential direction of the rotating shaft,
wherein, when the shaft is inserted into the through-hole, a facing surface of the engagement-side lever piece faces and comes into sliding contact with a facing surface of the latching-side lever piece, and
wherein, when the engagement-side lever piece and the latching-side lever piece are rotated relative to each other and when the facing surfaces of the engagement-side lever piece and the latching-side lever piece are detached, an insertion amount of the shaft becomes adjustable so that a step section of the engagement-side lever piece, which is contiguous with the facing surface of the engagement-side lever piece, and a side-end surface of the latching-side lever piece, which is contiguous with the facing surface of the latching-side lever piece, contact each other based on a biasing force of the spring member and thereby, are able to hold a relatively rotating position of the lever pieces.

2. The locking lever according to claim 1 ,
wherein a circumferential wall section is formed in the latching-side lever piece, extends in a circumferential direction on the outer side of the rotating shaft in the radial direction, and thereby, forms an accommodation section of the spring member between the engagement-side lever piece and the circumferential wall section, and
wherein the latching portion comprises an open section of the circumferential wall section that extends in an axial direction and has a protrusion portion where the one of the spring end portions rests.

3. The locking lever according to claim 1 ,
wherein both spring end portions do not protrude from an outline of both of the lever pieces when viewed in the axial direction of the rotating shaft.

4. A vehicle door opening-closing device comprising:
the locking lever according to claim 1 .

5. The vehicle door opening-closing device according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a base bracket that is fixed to an inner panel of a vehicle door,
wherein a holding section that is able to hold a connector of a wiring harness routed in the vehicle door is formed in the base bracket.

6. A method of assembling a locking lever, the locking lever having a pair of lever pieces including a latching-side lever piece and an engagement-side lever piece connected to each other to be relatively rotatable, and a spring member which extends about a rotating shaft of the lever pieces, in engagement with the lever pieces, and thereby, which biases the lever pieces to rotate in opposite directions, wherein the spring member has a pair of spring end portions extending radially with respect to the rotating shaft, the latching-side lever piece has a latching portion on which one of the spring end portions is latched, and the engagement-side lever piece has an engagement surface with which an other of the spring end portions comes into contact in a circumferential direction of the rotating shaft, the method comprising:
latching the one of the spring end portions to the latching portion of the latching-side lever piece;
inserting a shaft provided on one of the latching-side lever piece or the engagement-side lever piece into a through-hole provided on an other of the latching-side lever piece or the engagement-side lever piece to form the rotating shaft, wherein, when the shaft is inserted into the through-hole, a facing surface of the engagement-side lever piece faces and comes into sliding contact with a facing surface of the latching-side lever piece;
rotating the engagement-side lever piece and the latching-side lever piece relative to each other to detach the facing surfaces of the engagement-side lever piece and the latching-side lever piece are detached; and
adjusting an insertion amount of the shaft so that a step section of the engagement-side lever piece, which is contiguous with the facing surface of the engagement-side lever piece, and a side-end surface of the latching-side lever piece, which is contiguous with the facing surface of the latching-side lever piece, come into contact each other based on a biasing force of the spring member and thereby, are able to hold a relatively rotating position of the lever pieces.

Assignees

• Aisin Seiki

Inventors

• Yamane Ryohei
• Makino Sadayuki

Classifications

• Y10S292/61

  Spring devices · CPC title

• E05B77/32

  allowing simultaneous actuation of locking or unlocking elements and a handle, e.g. preventing interference between an unlocking and an unlatching action · CPC title

• E05B79/08

  Mounting of individual lock elements in the lock, e.g. levers · CPC title

• Y10T74/20006

  Resilient connections · CPC title

• E05B83/40

  for sliding doors · CPC title