Opening and closing apparatus with lock

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9759004-B2
Application number	US-201214343385-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2012
Priority date	Sep 9, 2011
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

An opening and closing apparatus with a lock that is provided is capable of safely and promptly closing a sliding door, and also easily performing unlocking with a simple configuration. In an opening and closing apparatus with a lock for opening and closing sliding doors that are provided with elastic members at their door leading ends, output of an electric motor is transmitted to a rack-and-pinion mechanism or a lock mechanism. A control unit controls the electric motor such that a closing operation is performed, the closing operation operates the rack-and-pinion mechanism so as to move the sliding doors to a fully closed position and then displacing a link mechanism in a lock mechanism from an unlocking position to a locking position. Furthermore, the control unit controls the electric motor so as to reduce the output of the electric motor at a predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An opening and closing apparatus with a lock for opening and closing a sliding door that is installed at an entrance of a vehicle and is provided with an elastic member at its door leading end, the opening and closing apparatus with a lock comprising:
an actuator;
a moving mechanism for moving the sliding door in a predetermined opening direction and closing direction, using output of the actuator;
a lock mechanism that is moved to a locking position by output of the actuator so that the lock mechanism at the locking position restricts movement of the sliding door in the opening direction when the sliding door is at a fully closed position; and
a control unit for controlling the actuator, wherein
the control unit controls the actuator such that a closing operation is performed, the closing operation serving as an operation of operating the moving mechanism so as to move the sliding door along the closing direction to the fully closed position and, at a predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation, changes the output of the actuator from a predetermined first driving force to a second driving force which is lower than the first driving force, and
the lock mechanism is moved to the locking position by the actuator once the control unit determines a value of the second driving force.

2. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein a pair of sliding doors are provided such that door leading ends thereof face each other, and
the predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation is a time point when the sliding doors reach a position where the elastic members of the sliding doors come into contact with each other.

3. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein at a time point before the predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation, if the actuator is forcibly stopped, the control unit controls the actuator so as to increase the first driving force.

4. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 3 ,
wherein if a state where the actuator is forcibly stopped continues for a predetermined time, the control unit controls the actuator so as to reduce the output of the actuator, set the output of the actuator to zero, or reverse a direction of the output of the actuator.

5. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according claim 1 ,
wherein at a time point at or after the predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation, the control unit controls the actuator such that the second driving force is constant.

6. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein at a time point at or after the predetermined intermediate time point during the closing operation, when the actuator is forcibly stopped, the control unit controls the actuator so as to reduce the output of the actuator, set the output of the actuator to zero, or reverse a direction of the output of the actuator.

7. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein the second driving force is set smaller than a minimum value of the first driving force.

8. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein the engaging member is configured to be capable of rotating around a predetermined pivoting shaft as a result of coming into contact with the lock member, and
the engaging member has a first engaging portion, at least part of the first engaging portion is disposed on the opening direction side with respect to the lock member when the sliding door is at the fully closed position, and a second engaging portion that engages with the restricting member located at the locking position, and the rotation of the engaging member is restricted by the engagement between the restricting member and the second engaging portion.

9. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 8 ,
wherein the engaging member has a third engaging portion that engages with the restricting member so as to restrict displacement of the restricting member to the locking position when the sliding door is at an opened position.

10. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
further comprising a planetary gear mechanism for selectively distributing the output of the actuator to one of the moving mechanism and the lock mechanism,
wherein the planetary gear mechanism has an input portion to which the output of the actuator is input, a first output portion capable of transmitting the output to the moving mechanism, and a second output portion capable of transmitting the output to the restricting member, the planetary gear mechanism being capable of transmitting the output from the first output portion to the moving mechanism when the sliding door is at the opened position, and capable of transmitting the output from the second output portion to the restricting member when the sliding door is at the fully closed position.

11. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 1 ,
wherein the actuator includes an electric motor.

12. The opening and closing apparatus with a lock according to claim 11 ,
wherein the control unit calculates the predetermined intermediate time point based on a rotation amount of an output shaft of the electric motor.

Assignees

• Uno Hiroki
• Masuda Takeshi
• Nabtesco Corp

Inventors

• Uno Hiroki
• Masuda Takeshi

Classifications

• E05Y2201/22

  Locks · CPC title

• Y10T292/1043

  Swinging · CPC title

• E05Y2800/73

  Multiple functions · CPC title

• E05B83/363

  for railway vehicles (E05B77/54 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E05B81/21

  with means preventing or detecting pinching of objects or body parts · CPC title