AU674062B2 - A hand control assembly - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2 0* o° 0

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT o Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: REGINALD JOHN BEAN Reginald John Bean

INTELLPRO

Patent Trade Mark Attorneys 13th Floor, 379 Queen Street BRISBANE, QLD, 4000 (GPO Box 1339, BRISBANE, 4001) "A Hand Control Assembly" Australian Patent Application No.

9 September 1992.

Details of As. nciated Provisional Application No: PL4584 filed The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: THIS INVENTION relates to a hand control assembly for operating the accelerator and brake pedals of a motor vehicle, where the motor vehicle includes a steering column and in particular to a hand control assembly supported by the steering column of the motor vehicle.

A hand control assembly is employed so that a disabled person can drive a motor vehicle fitted with the hand control assembly.

At present, hand control assemblies suffer from a number of disadvantages. They do not provide adequate adjustment for mounting to :.different vehicles. This makes the fitting procedure time consuming. In 10 addition, the present hand control assemblies are not flexible enough to cater for different disability problems encountered by disabled drivers that require different modes of operation.

As a consequence, present hand control assemblies are expensive to fit to vehicles and often have to be custom made or specially modified at high expense.

0: In addition, many unsafe "back yard" products have proliferated where disabled people are taken advantage of.

It is an object of the present invention to alleviate at least to some degree the aforementioned problems associated with the prior art.

In one aspect therefore, the present invention resides in a hand control assembly for operating the accelerator and brake pedals of a motor vehicle, where the motor vehicle has a steering column, said hand control assembly comprising:a brake pedal control member and an accelerator pedal control I' I 111 member; a main shaft having a distal end and a proximal end; a limited universal mounting means for securing ihe main shaft to the steering column, the mounting means being arranged for providing limited universal movement in a plurality of directions including at least two substantially perpendicuar directions which are lateral to the steering column so that the main shad i be set on a selected position relative to the steering column; a handle pivotally coupled at or adjacent the proximal end of the main shaft; and the brake pedal control member and the accelerator pedal control member being selectively operable by moving the handle.

Preferably, the hand control assembly includes a reconfigurable crank assembly coupled at or adjacent the distal end of the main shaft. Typically, the accelerator pedal control member extends from the crank assembly to the ."".accelerator pedal.

The brake control member typically extends from the handle to the brake .oe.°i pedal and in one embodiment, the accelerator pedal control member is coupled to the brake pedal control member by a lost motion means and extends to the accelerator pedal, the assembly in this embodiment being configured so that when an operator pushes on the handle, the brakes operate, while the accelerator operates when the operator pulls on the handle.

The limited universal mounting means preferably comprises a steering column coupling and a main shaft coupling, the main shaft coupling being reconfigurable relative to the steering column coupling to alter the position of the main shaft relative to the steering column as a means of adjustment independent of limited universal movement of the mounting means.

*f go **f ft a oe See e e• *f ft t ft**f r ft ft f ft f f f f f f -o U h I As a further means of adjustment, a main shaft is preferably telescopically and rotatably mountec in a casing so that the position of the handle and the reconfigurable crank assembly can be adjusted relative to the steering column.

The reconfigurable crank assembly is preferably rotatably adjustable on the distal end of the main shaft and also slideably adjustable along the main shaft thus providing still further adjustment.

The crank assembly preferably also includes an accelerator control member attachment means, thp attachment means being selectively adjustable 10 to reposition the acceleration control member in a direction transverse of the crank assembly to add still further adjustment.

i00 In order that the present invention can be more readily understood and be put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and wherein:- Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating a hand control assembly according to the present invention; Figures 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate a reconfigurable limited universal mounting means for a hand control assembly according to the present invention; Figure 3 is an exploded view of the mounting means of Figures 2A to 2C; Figures 4 and 5 are perspective views illustrating the limited universal movement of the mounting means; -dl _I Figure 6 is a schematic perspective view illustrating operation of the hand control assembly according to the present invention and configured for "push/pat" right hand operation; Figure 7 is a close-up view of a reconfigurable crank assembly suitable for use with a hand control assembly according to the present invention; Figure 8 is a view similar to that of Figure 7 but with the crank assembly reconfigured for an alternative mode of operation; o Figure 9 is a schematic plan view illustrating methods of adjusting the assembly of Figure 6; 10 Figures 10 and 11 are schematic views illustrating respectively operation and adjustability of a further embodiment of the present invention; and Figures 12 and 13 are schematic views illustrating respectively

II

operation and adjustment of a still further embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to the drawings and initially to Figure 1, there is illustrated a hand control assembly 10 for operating the accelerator pedal 11 and the brake pedal 12 of a motor vehicle 13. The motor vehicle has a steering column 14.

The hand control assembly comprises a main shaft 15 having a distal end 16 and a proximal end 17, a limited universal mounting means 18 secures the main shaft 15 to the steering column 14 while a handle 19 is pivotally coupled at the distal end 17 of the main shaft. A brake pedal control member 20 and an accelerator control member 21 are arranged as shown and can be selectively operated by the handle 19.

I In Figure 1, the mounting means 18 is shown fitted beneath the steering column 14 but this is adjustable. The mounting means 18 is rotatable around the steering column 14 and can be located and secured on either side and set at angles of up to 900 as illustrated in Figure 2A.

Referring to Figures 2A to 5, the mounting means 18 comprises a Cclamp 22 which fits around the steering column 14 and is secured in place by a cast mounting 23. A pair of reversible slotted L-brackets 24 hold a second cast mounting 25. A C-clamp 26 is employed to hold the main shaft against the second cast mounting 25. As can be seen, the L-brackets 24 are 10 slotted so that both the cast mounting blocks 23 and 25 are set so that the mounting means between the steering column and the main shaft has limited universal movemer;t so the main shaft can be set in a selected position relative to the steering column.

*.1 It will be appreciated that this adjustability enables the main shaft to be positioned in a range of positions as illustrated in Figures 2A to 2C but also to •i "tilt relative to the steering column thereby enabling further adjustment. This adjustment has the advantage of enabling the main shaft to be fitted to different vehicles.

Figure 6 is a further schematic view for clarity, the control rods 20 and 21 have been offset. Where appropriate, like numerals have been used to illustrate like features. This illustration shows the operation of the present invention for "push/pat" right hand operation. In order to actuate the brake, an operator pushes the handle 19 in the direction of the brake while he pushes down on the handle 19 to operate the accelerator. The hand control assembly L* __I-I can be reconfigured by placing the handle and the brake control rod 20 in the position illustrated in phantom. A push/curl left hand operation is where the push operation brings about operation of the brake pedal while the curl or upward action on the handle 19 brings about operation of the accelerator via the crank assembly The crank assembly 25 is illustrated again in Figure 7 and as can be seen, the crank assembly 25 is mounted on the main shaft 15 and comprises a mounting plate 26, a crank 27, a push rod 28 and a link 29 carrying a cam which acts on a lever 31 to drive the push rod 32 in response to rotation of 10 the shaft 15. A return spring 33 is used to return the shaft 15 and thereby the handle 19 back to a retracted position and therefore return the accelerator pedal to the idle position in the push/pat mode. In the push/curl mode, the spring can be omitted.

The reconfigurable crank assembly 25 can be reconfigured so that the lever 31 adopts four possible positions for pushing or pulling on either side of the main shaft 15. For example, the assembly 25 can be removed from the shaft 25 inverted and then slid back onto the shaft. This will result in the lever 31 protruding so that it provides a right side pulling action rather than the pushing action as illustrated in Figure 7. The assembly 25 can be inverted so the lever 31 protrudes on the left hand side of the shaft 15 for further modes of operation.

In still another case, the assembly 25 can be reassembled to the Figure configuration with the spring 33 fitted between the crank post 34 and the plate post 35 rather than 36 as in the embodiment of Figure 7. In addition, the L 8 crank 27 is reversed so that it now protrudes from the underside of the assembly, thus reversing the whole operation of the assembly to now provide push/curl operation on the right side and push/pat on the left. It will be recalled that in the configuration of Figures 6 and 7, push/pat is provided on the right and push/curl on the left.

The assembly is especially flexible and the various degrees of movement of the assembly are illustrated in Figure 9 showing the available extremes of longitudinal movement. The shaft 15 is mounted inside a casing 37 so it can be moved longitudinally within the casing.

10 Referring now to Figures 10 and 11, there is illustrated a push/pull hand control assembly employing a handle 19, a brake push rod 38 and an accelerator push rod 39. The push rods 38 and 39 are coupled together by a lost motion coupling 40 so that as the handle 19 is pushed to the position illustrated in phantom 41, the brake push rod 38 operates the brake whereas when the handle is pulled to the position at 42, the accelerator is operated. In this embodiment the accelerator rod 39 operates as a pull rod coupled to the accelerator brake pedal above its pivot rather than below the pivot as is the situation in the previous embodiments.

Figure 11 illustrates the adjustability of this assembly with the mounting means 18 operating as before and simply by moving the handle to the position as illustrated in phantom at 43, the assembly can be reconfigured for right or left hand operation.

Figures 12 and 13 illustrate a push/pull arrangement where in this case, the accelerator push rod 44 actually pushes on the accelerator rather than pull.

This movement is illustrated in Figure 12 and the range of adjustment is illustrated in Figure 13. Again, this arrangement of Figures 12 and 13 is for push/pull operation.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present invention enables various modes of operation of the hand control assembly and in different environments.

Whilst the above has been given by way of illustrative example of the present invention, many variations and modifications thereto will be apparent *to those skilled in the art without departing from the broad ambit and scope of 10 the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims (9)

1. A hand control assembly for operating the accelerator and brake pedals of a motor vehicle, where the motor vehicle has a steering column, said hand control assembly comprising:- a brake pedal control member and an accelerator pedal control member; a main shaft having a distal end and a proximal end; a limited universal mounting means for securing the main shaft to the steering column, the mounting means being arranged for providing li.mited universal movement in a plurality of directions including at least two substantially perpendicular directions which are lateral to the steering columns so that the main shaft can be set on a selected position relative to the steering column; a handle pivotally coupled at or adjacent the proximal end of the main shaft; and the brake pedal control member and the accelerator pedal control memrnber being selectively operable by moving the handle.

2. A hand control assembly according to claim 1 wherein a reconfigurable crank assembly is coupled at or adjacent the distal end of the main shaft and the accelerator pedal control member extends from the crank assembly to the accelerator pedal so that upon rotation of the main shaft, the accelerator operates.

3. A hand control ass'mbly according to claim 1 wherein the brake control member extends from the handle to the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal control member is coupled to the brake pedal control member by a lost motion rnm dns and extends to the accelerator pedal, the assembly being configured so that when an operator pushes on the handle, the brakes operate, while the accelerator operates when the operator pulls on the handle.

4. A hand control assembly according to claim 1 wherein the mounting means includes a steering column coupling and a main shaft coupling, the main shaft coupling being reconfigurable relative to the steering column coupling to alter the position of the main shaft relative to the steering column as a means of adjustment independent of any limited universal movement of the mounting means.

5. A hand control assembly according to claim 1 or claim 4 wherein the main sliaft is telescopically mounted in a casing for elongate adjustment of the I iain shaft along the steering column.

6. A hand contrcl assembly according to claim 2 wherein the reconfigurable crank assembly is rotatably adjustable on the distal end of the S..main shaft.

7. A hand control assembly according to claim 2 wherein the reconfigurable crank assembly is slideably adjustable along the main shaft.

8. A hand control assembly according to claim 2 wherein the crank assembly includes accelerator control member attachment means, the accelerator control member attachment means being selectively adjustable transverse of the crank assembly.

9. A hand control assembly according to claim 2 wherein the crank assembly is reconfigurable for different modes of operation of the hand control assembly. DATED this 28th day of April, 1994 REGINALD IOHN BEAN By his Patent Attorneys INTELI PRO I; ABSTRACT A hand control assembly 10 for operating the accelerator pedal 11 and the brake pedal 12 of a motor vehicle 13. The motor vehicle has a steering column 14. The hand control assembly comprises a main shaft 15 having a distal end 16 and a proximal end 17, a limited universal mounting means 18 secures the main shaft 15 to the steering column 14 while a handle 19 is pivotally coupled at the distal end 17 of the main shaft. A brake pedal control member 20 and an accelerator control member 21 are arranged as shown and o can be selectively operated by the handle 19. o.. ft ft o o