Motor vehicle lock

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12006740-B2
Application number	US-201716331756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2017
Priority date	Sep 9, 2016
Publication date	Jun 11, 2024
Grant date	Jun 11, 2024

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a vehicle lock having a locking mechanism, a lock mechanism and an electrical setting arrangement, wherein the setting arrangement has a rotor arrangement, and a stator, wherein the stator forms at least two magnetic, unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement, wherein at least one of the magnet arrangements is associated with a coil arrangement, wherein by supplying current to the coil arrangement and a resulting magnetic interaction between rotor and stator, a drive torque to the rotor and thus an adjustment of the rotor can be generated in a predetermined number of actuator positions. Proposed is that the rotor magnet arrangement and the stator magnet arrangement are stationarily fixed to a support section of the motor vehicle lock, and the rotor is pivotable about a rotor axis relative to the support section and relative to the rotor magnet arrangement.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A motor vehicle lock comprising:
a locking mechanism,
a lock mechanism, and
an electrical setting arrangement for setting different lock states of the lock mechanism,
wherein the electrical setting arrangement has a rotor arrangement, with which a rotor and a rotor magnet arrangement for generating a rotor magnetic field is associated, and a stator, with which a stator magnet arrangement for generating a stator magnetic field is associated, wherein the stator forms at least two magnetic, unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement, wherein at least one of the magnet arrangement is associated with a coil arrangement that is configured to be supplied current to generate the respective magnetic field, wherein by supplying current to the coil arrangement and a resulting magnetic interaction between the rotor and the stator, a drive torque to the rotor and thus an adjustment of the rotor is configured to be generated in a predetermined number of actuator positions,
wherein, the rotor magnet arrangement and the stator magnet arrangement are stationarily fixed to a support section of the motor vehicle lock, and wherein the rotor is pivotable about a rotor axis relative to the support section, relative to the stator magnet arrangement and relative to the rotor magnet arrangement and forms at least two magnetic, unlike rotor poles of the rotor magnet arrangement, which are respectively pivotable about the rotor axis,
wherein the electrical setting arrangement as such, when opposite current is supplied, racks in exactly two magnetically stable actuator positions by the resulting drive torque.

2. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the rotor magnet arrangement has the coil arrangement for generating the rotor magnetic field and the stator magnet arrangement has a permanent magnet arrangement for generating the stator magnetic field, or wherein the stator magnet arrangement has the coil arrangement for generating the stator magnetic field and the rotor magnet arrangement has a permanent magnet arrangement for generating the rotor magnetic field.

3. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 2 , wherein in each actuator position when a current supply is switched off, a magnetic field of the permanent magnet arrangement passes through a magnetic circuit associated with the respective actuator position, so that the respective actuator position is a magnetically stable actuator position even when the current supply is switched off.

4. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein when current is supplied to the coil arrangement, unlike poles of the rotor on the one hand and of the stator on the other hand approach each other up to a respective magnetic gap by an adjustment of the rotor and thereby close a magnetic circuit associated with the respective actuator position for a superposition field of rotor field and stator field.

5. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 4 , wherein different actuator positions are associated with different magnetic circuits for the superposition field of rotor field and stator field.

6. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the electrical setting arrangement as such, depending on a current supply to the coil arrangement, can rack in at least two magnetically stable actuator positions by the resulting drive torque.

7. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least two magnetic, unlike rotor poles are arranged distributed over at least a part of the circumference of the rotor, and/or the at least two magnetic, unlike rotor poles of the rotor magnet arrangement are arranged distributed over an angular range of less than 180° with respect to the rotor axis.

8. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least two magnetic, unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement are arranged distributed along at least part of a movement path of the rotor.

9. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the at least two magnetic, unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement are arranged distributed along only a part of a movement path of the rotor.

10. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the at least two unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement are arranged distributed over an angular range of less than 180° with respect to the rotor axis.

11. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the stator magnet arrangement is designed and/or arranged asymmetrically with respect to the rotor axis, and/or the rotor magnet arrangement is designed and/or arranged asymmetrically with respect to the rotor axis.

12. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the coil arrangement has at least one magnetic coil of the rotor magnet arrangement stationarily fixed to the support section, which the magnetic coil is aligned coaxially with the rotor axis.

13. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in an assembled state, the motor vehicle lock is coupled to an actuation handle depending on a lock state of the lock mechanism, is configured to be opened by an actuation of the actuation handle, wherein the lock mechanism has a functional element which is configured to be brought into different functional settings to set different lock states and wherein the functional element is coupled to the rotor.

14. The motor vehicle lock as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the lock mechanism has a coupling arrangement for a switchable coupling of an actuating element to the locking mechanism, in particular with a locking pawl of the locking mechanism and wherein the coupling arrangement has an adjustable coupling element as a functional element.

15. A motor vehicle lock comprising:
a locking mechanism,
a lock mechanism, and
an electrical setting arrangement for setting different lock states of the lock mechanism,
wherein the electrical setting arrangement has a rotor arrangement, with which a rotor and a rotor magnet arrangement for generating a rotor magnetic field is associated, and a stator, with which a stator magnet arrangement for generating a stator magnetic field is associated, wherein the stator forms at least two magnetic, unlike stator poles of the stator magnet arrangement, wherein at least one of the magnet arrangement is associated with a coil arrangement that is configured to be supplied current to generate the respective magnetic field, wherein by supplying current to the coil arrangement and a resulting magnetic interaction between the rotor and the stator, a drive torque to the rotor and thus an adjustment of the rotor is configured to be generated in a predetermined number of actuator positions,
wherein, the rotor magnet arrangement and the stator magnet arrangement are stationarily fixed to a support section of the motor vehicle lock, and wherein the rotor is pivotable about a rotor axis relative to the support section, relative to the stator magnet arrangement and relative to the rotor magnet arrangement and forms at least two magnetic, unlike rotor poles of the rotor magnet arrangement, which are respectively pivotable about the rotor axis,
wherein the rotor magnet arrangement has the coil arrangement for generating the rotor magnetic field and the stator magnet arrangement has a permanent magnet arrangement for generating the stator magnetic field, or wherein the stator magnet arrangement has the coil arrangement for generating the stator magnetic field and the rotor magnet arrangement has a permanent magnet arrangement for generating the rotor magnetic field,
wherein in each actuator position when a current supply is swi

Assignees

• Brose Schliesssysteme Gmbh

Inventors

• Kothe Markus
• Stefanic Josip

Classifications

• E05B77/28

  for anti-theft purposes, e.g. double-locking or super-locking · CPC title

• E05B47/0038

  using permanent magnets · CPC title

• H02K37/04

  with rotors situated within the stators · CPC title

• E05B81/16

  operating on locking elements for locking or unlocking action · CPC title

• H02K26/00

  Machines adapted to function as torque motors, i.e. to exert a torque when stalled · CPC title