Operating device for a vehicle door latch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9284758-B2
Application number	US-201313927289-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2013
Priority date	Jun 28, 2012
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

An operating device for a vehicle door latch comprises an inside handle, a base member fixed to a door, and inside lever connected to the inside handle, a locking lever, a housing, a motor, an output lever, a detected lever coupled to the inside handle and an inside-handle detecting switch. The motion of the inside handle is detected by the inside-handle detecting switch via the detected lever of the device to make the door open or close. Another detecting switch detects motion of a swinging member outside the housing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An operating device for a vehicle door latch, comprising; an inside handle disposed on a door inside a vehicle, wherein the inside handle is swingable between an opening direction and a closing direction; a base member fixed to the door; an inside lever pivotally mounted to the base member and connected to the inside handle; a locking lever moving between an unlocking position for validating a releasing action of the inside lever and a locking position for invalidating the releasing action of the inside lever; a housing fixed to the base member; a motor disposed in the housing; an output lever disposed outside the housing to move the locking lever between the unlocking position and the locking position by actuation of the motor; a detected lever pivotally mounted to the housing and coupled to the inside handle so as to swing in response to the swinging of the inside handle; and an inside-handle detection switch disposed in the housing to detect an opening swinging direction of the detected lever and a closing swinging direction of the detected lever so as to enable the swinging of the inside handle to be detected; wherein the inside-handle detecting switch detects the opening and closing swinging directions of the detected lever and therefore, the opening and closing directions of the inside handle, respectively, so as to transmit a signal to control circuits to open and close the door, respectively.

2. The operating device of claim 1 wherein the detected lever is pivoted to a part of the housing facing the inside handle and engages with a connecting portion of the inside handle so that the detected lever is moved with the inside handle.

Assignees

• Mitsui Kinzoku Act Corp

Inventors

• Yokomori Kazuhito
• Yamashita Kohei

Classifications

• E05B81/64

  Monitoring or sensing, e.g. by using switches or sensors · CPC title

• Y10T292/57

  Operators with knobs or handles · CPC title

• E05B85/10

  Handles · CPC title

• E05B83/40 Primary

  for sliding doors · CPC title

• E05B81/76

  Detection of handle operation; Detection of a user approaching a handle; Electrical switching actions performed by door handles · CPC title