CN113389446A - Door lock, in particular motor vehicle door lock - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a door lock, in particular a motor vehicle door lock, comprising: a locking mechanism (4, 5) which mainly comprises a rotary lock fork (4) and a locking claw (5); a release lever (12) for the locking pawl (5); and tensioning means (6, 7, 8, 9, 10). The tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) has a drive pawl (9) which is driven in a motorized manner and acts directly on the rotary catch (4), and at least one unlocking element (10) which interacts with the drive pawl (9) and serves to mechanically interrupt the flow of force from the motor (6) of the tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) to the rotary catch (4). The release lever (12) is used to mechanically interrupt the force flow and simultaneously to move out the locking pawl (5) when the tensioning process is interrupted in an emergency. According to the invention, the unlocking element (10) is designed to act directly on the ejection lever (10) of the drive pawl (9). The release lever (12) acts directly on the ejection lever (10) for the purpose of raising the drive pawl (9) from the rotary latch (4) and acts directly on the locking pawl (5) for releasing the rotary latch (4) for emergency interruption.

Description

Door lock, in particular motor vehicle door lock

Technical Field

The invention relates to a door lock, in particular a motor vehicle door lock, comprising: the locking mechanism mainly comprises a rotary lock fork and a locking claw; a release lever for the locking pawl; and a tensioning device, wherein the tensioning device has a drive pawl which is driven in a motorized manner and acts directly on the rotary catch and at least one unlocking element which interacts with the drive pawl and is used to mechanically interrupt the flow of force from the motor of the tensioning device to the rotary catch, and wherein the release lever is used to mechanically interrupt the flow of force and simultaneously to move out the locking pawl when the tensioning process is interrupted in an emergency.

Background

It is known that a tensioning device improves the comfort of a door lock, in particular of a motor vehicle door lock. They are not only used for motor vehicle door locks, for example on the tailgate, but increasingly also for motor vehicle side door locks. This is because, with the aid of the respective tensioning device, the motor vehicle door lock can be moved in a motorized manner from a previously acquired, mostly manually reachable, pre-locking position into a primary locking position. The tensioning device ensures this with its motor. This has been generally demonstrated.

However, when a motor vehicle door or a motor vehicle door flap equipped with the door lock or motor vehicle door lock is pulled tight, the following situations may occur: for example, pinching the operator's clothing or other objects, or even one or more fingers in the worst case. In order to be able to cope with this situation, the prior art according to DE 202008015789U 1 proposes a possibility for an emergency interruption of the tensioning process. For this purpose, in the prior art, the drive pawl is assigned an ejection unit for selectively interrupting the tensioning process. For this purpose, the ejection unit has its own ejection lever and ejection drive. This is expensive, since an additional ejection drive must be implemented, and thus delays are observed or occur in the event of a possible emergency interruption.

In the closing device according to EP 1243725B 1 with a tensioning aid, the decoupling element simultaneously ensures a mechanical interruption of the force flow of the drive of the tensioning aid and the door to be closed. In particular, the tensioning device or the tensioning aid ensures that the driving element is driven. The decoupling element is movably supported on the driver element and can be moved into a disengaged position in which the rotary catch is released. The decoupling element is an arcuate decoupling lever which, in the driven position, clamps the driving bolt part to the rotary catch fork, thus ensuring the desired tensioning movement.

In this case too, a relatively complex construction is caused, which comprises a plurality of elements or rods which are mounted on or in the region of the rotary catch. In particular, functional failures can result over a relatively long period of time, since the rotary latch fork is generally supported in the region of the access opening of the lock case and is exposed to contaminants or penetrating water, which can impair the functionality.

In the prior art of the type mentioned above, according to EP 0979915 a2, an unlocking mechanism is provided which simultaneously ensures a mechanical interruption of the force flow to the tensioning aid or to the drive of the tensioning device and to the door to be closed. For this purpose, the drive of the tensioning aid acts on a first eccentric element, which in turn acts on an intermediate piece which is supported on the rotational axis of the rotary catch and carries the rotary catch in the closing direction. In this connection, the intermediate piece is used in the broadest sense as a drive pawl. The first eccentric element acted on by the drive is arranged on a multi-part toggle lever which is held in an initial position by a prestressing spring, in which the required tensioning force can be transmitted to the rotary latch fork. By means of the mechanical engagement, the toggle lever can be moved into a bent position, in which the eccentric element, which also acts as an unlocking element, leaves the entrainment position, thus leading to a mechanical interruption of the flow. Furthermore, a release lever or actuating lever is provided which, in its open position, disengages the pawl from the rotary catch. At the same time, the actuating lever or release lever ensures that the toggle lever is bent. Thereby causing the desired mechanical interruption of the force flow.

In this case, a relatively complex construction is also caused, in particular when a toggle lever is used, which ultimately ensures that the force flow is interrupted and for this purpose must be acted upon by an actuating lever or a release lever. Functional faults cannot be completely ruled out in this way, mainly because the toggle lever is held in its initial position only by the aforementioned pretensioning spring. Thus, for example, the initial position may be unintentionally moved out of the way when the spring force of the pretensioning spring is reduced. Furthermore, when there is a possibility of contamination or due to corrosion, it cannot be ensured that: after the activation, the toggle lever is reliably transferred back into its initial position by means of an actuating or release lever. Since the toggle lever transmits the required tensioning force to the rotary latch fork, a malfunction of the tensioning device can occur in this case. The present invention remedies this as a whole.

Disclosure of Invention

The object of the invention is to further develop such a door lock, in particular a motor vehicle door lock, such that the structural costs are reduced and no functional impairment occurs even in the event of prolonged use.

In order to solve this problem, it is within the scope of the invention that a door lock of this type is distinguished in that the unlocking element is designed to act directly on the ejection lever of the drive pawl, and in that the release lever acts directly on the ejection lever for the purpose of emergency interruption both to lift the drive pawl from the rotary catch and to the blocking pawl for releasing the rotary catch.

Therefore, a structurally simple solution is explicitly proposed within the scope of the invention. First, the tensioning device has a drive pawl which acts directly on the rotary catch. That is to say, it is explicitly possible to dispense with other possible levers or switching devices, such as the switching device shown in the prior art according to EP 1243725B 1. Furthermore, the toggle lever according to EP 0979915 a2 may not be necessary. Instead, in order to interrupt the tensioning process in an emergency, the release lever acts first directly on the ejection lever, which in turn acts directly on the drive pawl, in the process of which the drive pawl is lifted from the rotary latch fork. At the same time, the release lever ensures: the pawl releases the rotating fork. For this purpose, the release lever acts again directly on the locking pawl.

By this corresponding direct action of the ejection lever on the drive pawl on the one hand and the locking pawl on the other hand for releasing the rotary catch, the invention expressly eliminates the intermediate lever or element. Furthermore, it is within the scope of the invention for the drive pawl to be lifted positively from the rotary latch fork, i.e. by: the release lever acts directly on the ejector lever, which in turn acts directly on the drive pawl, for an emergency interruption.

In contrast, in the prior art according to EP 0979915 a2 of this type, the rotary latch fork together with the intermediate piece or the drive pawl mounted on the rotary latch fork is disengaged from the unlocking element and moves approximately automatically into its open position in the event of such an emergency interruption. The precondition is that the actuating force exerted, for example, by the restoring force of the door sealing rubber is sufficient, on the one hand, to be able to move the rotary latch fork together with the intermediate piece, and, on the other hand, no interaction with the unlocking element or the toggle lever takes place in the process.

In contrast, according to the invention, the drive pawl is lifted from the rotary latch fork by means of a release lever which acts directly on the ejection lever, so that the rotary latch fork is transferred (individually/solely) into its (spring-loaded) open position. The invention thus provides a construction which is extremely simple in construction and particularly functionally reliable. This is a major advantage.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the release lever is mounted in the lock case so as to be rotatable about a rotational axis. It is also advantageous if an actuating lever acting on the drive pawl is additionally provided. Usually, the motor of the tensioning device acts on the actuating lever. For this purpose, the actuating lever can be coupled to the associated electric motor by means of, for example, a bowden cable or other flexible or rigid transmission means. Typically, the motor oscillates the actuating lever when it is acted upon.

A particularly preferred variant is distinguished in that the actuating lever is mounted coaxially with the release lever. This further provides a structurally simple and functionally reliable solution. In addition, the design generally further includes: the actuating lever and the drive pawl are rotatably coupled to one another. In this way, the oscillating movement imparted to the actuating lever by the motor is transmitted to a drive pawl which is rotatably connected to the actuating lever and which, in turn, normally acts on a cam of the rotary latch fork.

The pivoting movement transmitted by the actuating lever to the drive pawl thus generally causes the drive pawl to exert a thrust force on the lug of the rotary latch fork and in this way enables the rotary latch fork to be shifted generally from its previously manually acquired pre-locking position into the main locking position or even into an over-travel position beyond the main locking position. The pre-locking position, which is usually manually detected, is usually detected by a sensor and transmitted to a control unit, which then acts on a motor that is part of the tensioning device, in order then to pull the rotary locking fork from its pre-locking position into the main locking position by means of the drive pawl.

In order to be able to perform the functions according to the invention, i.e. not only for emergency interruption, but also for releasing the rotary latch fork, the release lever acts directly on the catch pawl, it is often provided that: the release lever is typically provided with a pawl and unlock arm. The pawl arm is moved against the associated pawl latch primarily to lift the pawl from the rotating fork.

The unlocking arm is in turn moved against an unlocking bolt of the ejection lever in order to lift the drive pawl from the rotary latch fork. In this case, when the tensioning process is interrupted suddenly, the release lever acts simultaneously with its locking pawl arm on the locking pawl latch and with its unlocking arm on the unlocking latch. In practice, therefore, the pawl is lifted from the rotary latch fork on the one hand and the drive pawl is simultaneously moved away from the projection on the rotary latch fork by means of the ejection lever. This not only interrupts the tensioning process, but at the same time also opens the rotary catch and thus the locking mechanism.

As mentioned above, the ejector rod ensures a direct action on the drive pawl. For this purpose, the ejection lever advantageously has, in addition to the unlocking bolt, a pawl bolt for lifting the drive pawl from the rotary latch fork. That is to say, as soon as the unlocking arm of the release lever acts on the unlocking bolt of the ejection lever, the introduction of a swinging movement into the ejection lever thus ensures: the pawl latch moves against the drive pawl and lifts the drive pawl from its engagement region with the rotary catch or a projection on the rotary catch.

For this purpose, the ejection lever is usually designed as a toggle lever, which is advantageously mounted in a rotatable manner in the lock case. For this purpose, the toggle lever has two toggle arms, wherein its pivot axis is arranged in the region of the vertices/intersections of the two toggle arms. The toggle arms are provided at their respective ends with a latch, on the one hand an unlocking latch and on the other hand a pawl latch. The two toggle arms here generally enclose an angle of 90 ° and more, i.e. are usually arranged at an obtuse angle to one another.

The result is a door lock, in particular a motor vehicle door lock, which is equipped as a so-called servo lock with a tensioning device which, after the pre-locking position of the locking mechanism has usually been manually acquired, ensures: the locking mechanism is either motorized to shift into the primary locking position or previously shifted into the over travel position. In this case, problems which may occur during the tensioning process, in particular objects which may become stuck in corresponding gaps in the motor vehicle door or in the motor vehicle hatch, can be overcome simply by an emergency interruption of the tensioning process.

In such an emergency interruption, the release lever ensures according to the invention: the locking pawl is positively and directly lifted from the rotary catch and simultaneously the drive pawl is likewise positively and directly lifted off the rotary catch. This directly releases the locking mechanism and the previously gripped catch, with the corresponding motor vehicle door or motor vehicle hatch being subsequently directly released. This is particularly comfortable and does not confuse the operator.

The release lever can be acted on, usually by means of an outer actuating lever or an inner actuating lever, i.e. mechanically. Of course, it is also possible to act on the release lever independently or additionally in a motorized manner, so as to interrupt the tensioning process in an emergency, which action is also included in the invention. This is a major advantage.

Drawings

The invention is explained in detail below on the basis of the figures, which show only one embodiment.

Fig. 1 and 2 show a normal tensioning process without an emergency interruption, wherein fig. 1 shows the initial state and fig. 2 shows the tensioning process itself.

Fig. 3 and 4 show an emergency interruption of the tensioning process, wherein fig. 3 shows the beginning of the emergency interruption and fig. 4 shows the locking mechanism which is subsequently opened.

Detailed Description

In the figures, a door lock is shown, which according to this embodiment is a motor vehicle door lock. The motor vehicle door lock is arranged for this purpose on or in a motor vehicle door, a motor vehicle hatch, a motor vehicle hood or the like, which are not explicitly shown. As soon as the motor vehicle door, the motor vehicle hatch or the motor vehicle hood in question is (manually) closed, the catch 1 enters the access opening 2 of the lock case 3 and thus interacts with the locking mechanism 4, 5 supported in the lock case 3, which mainly comprises the rotary catch 4 and the locking pawl 5. In the process, the locking mechanisms 4, 5 are transferred to their pre-locking position shown in fig. 1.

The preliminary locking position according to fig. 1 can be detected by a sensor and transmitted to a control unit, not shown. As a result, the control unit ensures that the tensioning means 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are acted upon. By means of the tensioning devices 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, the locking mechanisms 4, 5 are moved in a motorized manner from a first manually acquired pre-locking position corresponding to the functional diagram shown in fig. 1 into a main locking position shown in the functional diagram according to fig. 2.

For this purpose, the tensioning devices 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 have first of all an electric motor 6 which acts on an actuating rod 8 via a flexible or rigid transmission 7. Actuating lever 8 is coupled in a rotatable manner to drive pawl 9. It can be seen that the actuating lever 8 is mounted in the lock case 3 so as to be rotatable about an axis 11. A release lever 12, which will be described in more detail below, is likewise supported in the lock case 3 coaxially with the actuating lever 8.

The pulling movement, shown at the beginning of the tensioning process shown in fig. 1, applied to the actuating lever 8 by the electric motor 6 via the transmission 7 in the direction of the arrow shown in fig. 1 ensures at this time that: the actuating lever 8 pivots about its axis or pivot axis 11 in the counterclockwise direction. Since the tensioning claw 9 is coupled to the actuating lever 8 in a rotatable manner, the tensioning claw 9 follows a counterclockwise movement of the actuating lever 8, which is indicated by an arrow in fig. 1. Thereby, the pulling pawl 9 can be moved with its front end against the boss 4a of the rotary lock fork 4 and exert a pushing force thereon. The rotary latch fork 4 is thus pivoted about its axis in the counterclockwise direction in the transition from fig. 1 to fig. 2 and during the tensioning. The tensioning process can be carried out not only up to the main locking position shown in fig. 2, but also up to a so-called overrun position, which is not shown in detail, however. At the same time, a vehicle door, a vehicle hatch or the like equipped with the lock block 1 is motorically transferred to its locking position.

The tensioning device 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 further comprises at least one unlocking element 10 interacting with the drive pawl 9. The unlocking element 10 mechanically interrupts the force flow from the motor 6 of the tensioning device 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 to the drive pawl 9 and thus to the rotary catch 4, if required.

According to the invention, the release lever 12, which is shown only in fig. 3 and 4 for reasons of clarity and is mounted in the lock case 3 coaxially with the actuating lever 8 about a common or rotational axis 11, not only mechanically interrupts the force flow but simultaneously moves out the locking pawl 5 in such an emergency interruption of the tensioning process. This will be described in detail below. In fact, the unlocking element 10 is configured within the scope of the invention to act directly on the ejection lever 10 of the drive pawl 9. For this purpose, the ejection lever 10 first has a claw portion 10 a. By means of the pawl latch 10a, the drive pawl 9 can be lifted off the rotary latch 4 or the projection 4a of the rotary latch 4 during an emergency interruption, which will be described in more detail below. Further, the knock-out lever 10 has an unlocking pin portion 10b.

It can be seen that the ejection lever 10 is designed as a toggle lever according to this exemplary embodiment and has two toggle arms which are each provided on the end side with the above-described latching portions 10a, 10b, namely the unlatching latching portion 10b and the pawl latching portion 10 a. For this purpose, the two toggle arms are at an essentially obtuse angle to one another and extend from a common vertex which at the same time defines the axis of rotation 13 of the ejector lever 10 relative to the lock case 3.

Fig. 3 and 4 show an emergency interruption of the tensioning process. In fact, the release lever 12 ensures, according to the invention: for an emergency interruption, the release lever 12 acts directly on the ejection lever 10 for lifting the drive pawl 9 from the rotary latch fork 4 and also acts directly on the locking pawl 5 for releasing the rotary latch fork 4. For this purpose, the release lever 12 is equipped with a locking pawl arm 12a and an unlocking arm 12 b. The pawl arm 12a moves against the pawl latch portion 5a to lift the pawl 5 from the rotary lock fork 4. For this purpose, the pawl latch 5a extends substantially perpendicularly to the pawl 5 and thus perpendicularly to the plane of the drawing. The same is true of the unlocking pin portion 10b and the claw pin portion 10a on the knock-out lever 10. The unlocking arm 12b of the release lever 12 interacts with the unlocking peg 10b. As described above, the release lever 12 is mounted coaxially with the actuating lever 8 of the tensioning means 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in a common or rotary axis 11 relative to the lock case 3.

As soon as the release lever 12 is pivoted in the illustrated counterclockwise direction in the primary locking state in the illustration according to fig. 3, its pawl arm 12a moves against the pawl latch 5a and lifts the pawl 5 from its region of engagement with the rotary latch 4. Since the pawl arm 12a ensures by a counterclockwise movement of the release lever 12 about its axis 11: the pawl 5 is pivoted in the clockwise direction about its axis defined relative to the lock case 3 by the pawl latch 5a and is thereby disengaged from the rotary latch 4, which then moves (with spring support) into its open position according to fig. 4.

At the same time, in the process, the unlocking arm 12b of the release lever 12 rests against the unlocking bolt 10b of the ejection lever 10. In this case, the anticlockwise movement of the release lever 12 ensures: the ejector rod 10 executes a clockwise movement about its axis 13, which is illustrated in fig. 3. Thereby, the claw bolt 10a of the ejector rod 10 moves against the tightening claw 9 from below according to this embodiment and ensures: the tensioning claw 9 pivots clockwise about its bearing with the actuating lever 8. The tensioning claw 9 is thus moved away from the projection 4a of the rotary latch fork 4, so that not only is the force flow of the tensioning means 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 from the motor 6 to the rotary latch fork 4 interrupted, but at the same time the locking claw 5 is lifted off the rotary latch fork 4.

List of reference numerals:

1 lock stop block

2 inlet port

3 Lock box

4 rotating lock fork

4. 5 locking mechanism

4a convex part

5 locking pawl

5a locking pawl latch

6 electric machine

6. 7, 8, 9, 10 tensioning device

7 transfer element

8 actuating lever

9 driving claw and tensioning claw

10 unlocking element, ejector rod

10a claw bolt part

10b unlocking bolt part

11 axis, axis of rotation

12 release lever

12a locking pawl arm

12b unlocking arm

13 rotating shaft

Claims (11)

1. Door lock, in particular motor vehicle door lock, having: a locking mechanism (4, 5) which mainly comprises a rotary lock fork (4) and a locking claw (5); a release lever (12) for the locking pawl (5); and a tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10), wherein the tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) has a drive pawl (9) which is driven in a motorized manner and acts directly on the rotary catch (4) and at least one unlocking element (10) which interacts with the drive pawl (9) and is used for mechanically interrupting the force flow from the motor (6) of the tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) to the rotary catch (4), wherein the release lever (12) is used for mechanically interrupting the force flow and simultaneously removing the catch (5) when the tensioning process is interrupted urgently,

it is characterized in that the preparation method is characterized in that,

the unlocking element (10) is designed to act directly on the ejection lever (10) of the drive pawl (9), and the release lever (12) acts directly on the ejection lever (10) for the purpose of emergency interruption both to lift the drive pawl (9) from the rotary catch (4) and to release the rotary catch (4) from the locking pawl (5).

2. A door lock according to claim 1, characterized in that the release lever (12) is supported in the lock case (3) in a rotatable manner about the axis of rotation (11).

3. A door lock according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that there is an actuating lever (8) acting on the driving pawl (9), which actuating lever is acted on by the motor (6) of the tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

4. A door lock according to claim 3, characterized in that the actuating lever (8) is supported coaxially with the release lever (12) in the lock case (3).

5. Door lock according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that the actuating lever (8) and the driving pawl (9) are coupled to each other in a rotatable manner.

6. A door lock according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the releasing lever (12) is equipped with a pawl arm (12a) and a release arm (12 b).

7. A door lock according to claim 5, characterized in that the pawl arm (12a) is moved against the pawl latch (5a) in order to lift the pawl (5) from the rotary lock fork (4).

8. A door lock according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the unlocking arm (12b) is moved against the unlocking bolt (10b) of the ejector rod (10) in order to lift the drive pawl (9) from the rotary lock fork (4).

9. A door lock according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the ejector lever (10) has, in addition to the unlocking bolt (10b), a pawl bolt (10a) for lifting the drive pawl (9) from the rotary lock fork (4).

10. Door lock according to any of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the ejector lever (10) is configured as a toggle lever with a bolt part (10a, 10b) on each end.

11. A door lock according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the rotary lock fork (4) has a projection (4a) that can be acted on by a tensioning device (6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

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