EP4701881A1

EP4701881A1 - Roof assembly for a vehicle

Info

Publication number: EP4701881A1
Application number: EP24722553.5A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Robert Rikkert
Original assignee: Inalfa Roof Systems Group BV
Current assignee: Inalfa Roof Systems Group BV
Priority date: 2023-04-27
Filing date: 2024-04-26
Publication date: 2026-03-04
Also published as: WO2024223810A1

Abstract

Roof assembly for a vehicle having an opening (32) in its fixed roof (33), comprising an electric motor assembly (11) comprising a motor housing (24), extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of a winding tube (2) and positioned near a first transverse end of the winding tube (2), a motor shaft (25) extending from the motor housing (24) and extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2), said motor shaft (25) extending into a gearbox (21), said gearbox (21) connected to the motor housing (24) and extending adjacent to a short end of the winding tube (2) and said gearbox (21) extending perpendicular to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2), an output shaft (26) extending out of the gearbox (21) and in parallel to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2), wherein the output shaft (26) is removably engaged with at least one of the wire pulleys (6, 6') to rotatably drive the rollo assembly (23).

Description

Roof assembly for a vehicle

Technical Field

The roof assembly for a vehicle having an opening in its fixed roof , comprising a frame part for mounting the roof assembly to the fixed roof , an at least partly transparent panel for closing the roof opening, and a rollo assembly, said rollo assembly including a winding tube rotatably mounted on the frame part , a rollo screen having a first end attached to the winding tube to be wound onto and of f said winding tube in a mainly hori zontal direction and a second end provided with an operating beam, wherein at each of the opposite ends of the winding tube a wire pulley is attached for a rotation therewith around an axis of rotation, to which respective wire pulleys a first end of a tensioning wire is attached to be wound onto and of f said wire pulleys , which tensioning wires extend along each opposite lateral end of the rollo screen and around a respective reversal pulley and have a respective second end attached inside the operating beam, to a pull spring wherein the rollo screen and the tensioning wires engage the winding tube and wire pulleys respectively, in such a manner that when the rollo screen is wound of f from the winding tube , each tensioning wire is wound onto the respective wire pulley in a spirally-wound fashion and vice versa, wherein each tensioning wire extends from the respective wire pulleys via the respective reversal pulley, to the pull spring, and further an electric motor assembly comprising a motor housing, extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube and positioned near a first transverse end of the winding tube , a motor shaft extending from the motor housing and extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube , said motor shaft extending into a gearbox, said gearbox connected to the motor housing and extending adj acent to a short end of the winding tube and said gearbox extending perpendicular to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube , an output shaft extending out of the gearbox and in parallel to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube . Background

Rollo assemblies used in vehicles may be driven by an electric motor via flexible drive cables , whereby the drive cables are driven by the electric motor and in turn drive a rollo beam to which the screen material is attached . The screen material is unrolled from a winding tube when the rollo assembly closes an opening below the panel of a sunroof system . The operating beam is slidably guided in guides which are placed in a longitudinal direction at lateral sides of the rollo assembly . The trans fer of the torque of the electric motor to the flexible cables is done by means of a gearwheel driven by the electric motor . The gear wheel is at both opposite sides in engagement with two flexible steel drive cables . Said connection is supported by means of a steel bracket holding the drive cables in engagement with the gearwheel . When rotating the gearwheel by the electric motor the opposite flexible drive cables move in opposite directions . As such this connection between gearwheel and drive cables is capable of guiding up to 10 Nm of torque of the electric motor without any problems of disengagement . In another type of rollo assembly the electric motor is directly connected to the winding tube whereby the operating beam is driven by means of a system of pulleys , tensioning wires and a pull spring . This type of rollo assembly may be advantageous for reasons of costs and building space . Because the rollo assembly is driven only at one end of the winding tube , the components that form the engagement between the electric motor and the winding tube needs to be able to withstand the torque delivered by the electric motor . Further the components for engagement not only need to be strong enough, but also need to be light enough to save weight of the rollo assembly . And also in case of electric motor mal functions , it must be able to be serviced in an easy way without demounting the whole of the rollo assembly .

Summary

It is one of the obj ects of the present invention to eliminate , or at least reduce these disadvantages . According to the invention, the output shaft is removably engaged with at least one of the opposite wire pulleys to rotatably drive the rollo assembly . Due to this it is possible to have a low weight rollo assembly, with a low-weight electric motor-winding tube engagement which is also possible to be serviced in case a electric motor failure occurs . As such the whole rollo assembly does not need to be removed from the vehicle .

Preferably, longitudinal guides are fixed to the frame slidably guiding each end of the operating beam of the rollo screen, each tensioning wire running through a groove of the respective guide .

Each wire pulley is preferably conically shaped and is provided with a spiral-shaped winding groove for the tensioning wire , such that the (un) winding diameter of the tensioning wire on the wire pulley is always substantially equal to the (un) winding diameter of the rollo screen on the winding tube .

In this manner the travel distance of the rollo screen and of the tensioning wire is substantially equal , so that no compensating features are required to compensate for the di f ference in travel distance .

The guides may each guide a side edge of the rollo screen, and wherein each guide is provided with a lead-in for the rollo screen side edge to guide it into the respective guide .

According to another aspect of the invention the output shaft extends into a cavity of the wire pulley, and wherein the external shape of said output shaft and the internal shape of the cavity in a rotational sense have a corresponding formclosed shape such that power may be trans ferred from the output shaft to the wire pulley . And the output shaft and the wire pulleys are made of a material comprising polyamide . In this way a high quality engagement between output shaft and wire pulley is established . It avoids a " slack" movement whereby the wire pulley, due to some tolerances in the engagement starts to rotate somewhat later than the output shaft rotates . And as such it may also avoid wear on either of the output shaft and the cavity inside the wire pulley and avoids also noises when winding or unwinding the rollo assembly .

According to another aspect of the invention the output shaft has a hexalobular or six point star external shape and the cavity in the wire pulley has an internal hexalobular or six point star shape . And the si ze of the hexalobular or six point star shape has a standard dimension si ze lying in the range of T40 to T 65 , more speci fic in a range of T50 to T55 . To make sure that the torque of the electric motor via the gearbox is safely trans ferred to the wire pulley, without damaging either of the output shaft and the cavity inside the wire pulley, preferably a hexalobular, also known as six point star, shape may be used . This type of shape allows the highest amount of torque to be trans ferred without having damages in the parts that trans fer the torque . This is because it does not create a trans fer of high forces on a very small surface . The hexalobular shape may be chosen from a range having international standard si zes , such that an applicable si ze may be used in a certain available space or with a certain maximum output shaft torque .

According to another embodiment the output shaft has a hexagonal external shape and the cavity in the wire pulley has a hexagonal internal shape . An alternative for a hexalobular shape , a hexagonal shape may be chosen which is easier to be made in a steel tool for plastic parts .

According to another aspect of the invention the engagement of the output shaft with the wire pulley is removable when fixings with which the gearbox is fixed to the frame part are removed, such that the electric motor assembly may be removed from its engagement with the wire pulley . It may be conceivable that during li fetime of the rollo assembly the electric motor mal functions . It is an advantage that the electric motor assembly may be removed from the rollo assembly without removing the complete rollo assembly . This removal of the electric motor assembly can be done easily by unscrewing the screws or removing the fixings with which the electric motor assembly, in this case the gearbox, is fixed to the frame part . It is then possible that the electric motor assembly is removed in an axial direction easily from the frame part and a new one is assembled and fixed to the frame part .

According to another aspect of the invention the wire pulleys in a rotational sense are in fixed engagement with the winding tube , but also being removable in axial direction from the winding tube such that any rotational forces applied via the pulley' s are trans ferred to the winding tube . The torque of the output shaft is trans ferred to one of the wire pulleys , the wire attached to this wire pulley and the one on the opposite side of the winding tube is rolled up and unrolled from the respective wire pulley . The respective wires are attached at their opposite side to a spring in the operating beam . This spring keeps the rollo screen taut in every position that the operating beam may be in, between a fully unrolled and fully rolled up rollo screen . Further the rollo screen is rolled up and unrolled from the wire pulley . It is absolutely important to have a good fixing between the winding tube and each of the wire pulleys to avoid slack in the rollo screen .

According to another aspect of the invention a transverse beam connects a right-hand frame part with a left-hand frame part . Also , the transverse beam supports each of the lateral frame parts , and wherein one of said frame parts supports the electric motor assembly, such that an axis of rotation of the electric motor assembly is parallel to the axis of rotation of the winding tube . The frame part may be a frame part comprising two laterally placed guides and further left and right frame parts connected to the rear parts of the guides . A transverse beam may then connect the left- and right-hand frame parts such as to create a defined distance between the latter parts . In such a case , the winding tube and the electric motor assembly may be mounted to this frame part .

According to another aspect of the invention the dimension t is the distance , measured perpendicularly with respect to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube , between outer surface at the largest diameter of the wire pulley and the nearest outer surface of the motor housing and wherein the value of dimension t lies between 4 mm and 2 mm, more particularly is 3 mm . It is important to keep the space for the rollo assembly small as can be . Hence it is important to reduce the distance between the motor housing and the rotating wire pulley and winding tube having the rollo screen wound onto it as small as possible without having any interference during the li fe time of the rollo assembly .

According to another aspect of the invention the gearbox has a transmission ratio for reduction of the rotational speed of the motor shaft to the rotational speed of the output shaft in the range of between 1 : 60 and 1 : 80 , more speci fically in the range of between 1 : 70 and 1 : 74 . The electric motor assembly needs to be designed with a ratio which is the optimal between several aspects . Namely, noise aspects , speed of moving of the operating beam and required torque to actually move the operating beam, the rollo screen and the movement of the wiring . The first two aspects are usually requirements from the OEM . It has been found out through tests that a ratio in the range as set above is an optimal range within which the mentioned aspects may be reached .

According to another aspect of the invention a connector housing for an electrical connection is connected to the short end of the rear of the motor housing to a position most remote from the winding tube . And further an electrical earth connection is placed between the motor housing and the gearbox and is an integrated part of the gear box . The electric motor assembly requires an electrical connection to make a connection with the DC voltage of the vehicle electrical net . The connector is placed such that it does not compromise the ( rectangular ) space required for the rollo assembly and in that it is positioned away from the rotating winding tube with the rollo screen rolled up on it . This is to avoid any stains on the rollo screen .

According to another aspect of the invention the electric motor assembly has a U-shape , formed by the mutual position of the motor housing, gearbox and output shaft . This U shape is advantageous for acquiring a limited space of the complete rollo assembly . Brief Description of the Drawings

Hereinafter the invention will be elucidated while referring to the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a vehicle roof comprising an embodiment of the rollo assembly.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the rollo assembly alone.

Fig. 3 is an exploded view of the rollo assembly of Fig. 2, although without longitudinal guides.

Fig. 4 is a partial plan view according to arrow IV in f ig .2.

Fig. 5 is an isometric view on the rollo assembly.

Fig. 6A is a side view of the gearbox showing the output shaft.

Fig. 6B is a side view on the wire pulley showing the cavity .

Fig. 7A is a sectional view across the winding tube showing further the wire pulley and the output shaft.

Fig. 7B is a sectional view according to line VIIB-VIIB of fig. 7A.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of the electric motor, the gearbox, and the wire pulley.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of the electric motor assembly.

Detailed Description of the Embodiment

Referring firstly to Fig. 1, a vehicle is shown having a roof assembly. This roof assembly comprises a closure element, such as a transparent, e.g. glass or plastic panel 31 for selectively opening and closing a roof opening 32 in a fixed roof 33 of the vehicle, in particular a passenger car. The panel 31 may also be fixed in the roof opening 32, or a combination of panels may be used in the roof assembly.

Figs. 2, 3 illustrate a rollo assembly 23, wherein Fig. 2 shows the rollo assembly 23 in assembled state and Fig. 3 in an exploded view. The rollo assembly 23 is arranged in such manner in the roof assembly that the rollo assembly 23 can either cover or free roof opening 32 in fixed roof 33 from below.

The rollo assembly 23 comprises a winding tube 2 mounted for a rotation in a shaft mounting (of which both sides are shown in fig. 3, 4 and 5) . This rollo assembly 23 will generally be located below fixed roof 33, behind roof opening 32. Both short sides of the winding tube 2 are equipped with wire pulleys 6, 6' whereby one of the wire pulleys 6' has a tube support 3 and the opposite wire pulley 6 has a cavity 27 into which an output shaft 26 of a gearbox 21 is provided. As such the winding tube 2 has two opposite tube supports 3, 3' for a concentric rotation therewith. A rollo screen 4 has a first end (at the top right of Fig. 2) which is attached to the winding tube 2 to be wound onto and off said winding tube 2, and a second end (at the bottom of Fig. 2) provided with an operating beam 5 which may be manipulated in a manner to be described and cooperates with parallel guides 9, 9' , one on each longitudinal side of a roof opening (only shown in Fig. 2) .

At each of the opposite ends of winding tube 2 the wire pulleys 6, 6' are attached. To each wire pulley 6, 6' a first end of a tensioning wire 7, 7' is attached to be wound onto and off said wire pulley 6, 6' . To facilitate the winding of the wire 7, 7' onto the pulley winding grooves 16 are provided on the sloped part of the wire pulley 6, 6' . Each tensioning wire

7, 7' extends along rollo screen 4 and around a reversal pulley

8, 8' rotatably attached to respective guides 9, 9' . The second ends of the tensioning wires 7, 7' are each attached at the position of operating beam 5, in this case inside the operating beam 5, to the other of the tensioning wires 7, 7' through a pull spring 10 inside operating beam 5.

As is generally known for such rollo assembly 23, rollo screen 4 and tensioning wires 7, 7' engage winding tube 2 and wire pulleys 6, 6' respectively, in such a manner that when rollo screen 4 is wound off from the winding tube 2, tensioning wires 7, 7' are wound onto the respective wire pulleys 6, 6' . As a result, tensioning wires 7, 7' move operating beam 5 away from winding tube 2 (because of the reversal pulley 8) to keep rollo screen 4 taut. When rollo screen 4 is wound onto winding tube 2, tensioning wires 7 , 7 ' are wound of f from the respective wire pulleys 6 , 6 ' allowing operating beam 5 to move closer again to winding tube 2 .

It is noted that causing the winding tube 2 to rotate , thus automatically leads to a corresponding movement of operating beam 5 ( away from or towards winding tube 2 , depending upon the direction of rotation of the winding tube 2 ) . In this case winding tube 2 is driven by an electric motor assembly 11 which will be further described below .

In fig . 4 a plan view is shown of the electric motor assembly 11 . A motor housing 24 , extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube 2 and positioned near a first transverse end of the winding tube 2 . A motor shaft 25 extending from the motor housing 24 and extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube 2 , said motor shaft 25 extending into a gearbox 21 . The gearbox 21 being connected to the motor housing 24 and extending adj acent to a short end of the winding tube 2 and said gearbox 21 extending perpendicular to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube 2 . An output shaft 26 extending out of the gearbox 21 and in parallel to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube 2 , wherein the output shaft 26 is removably engaged with at least one of the wire pulleys 6 , 6 ' to rotatably drive the rollo assembly 23 . A frame part 17 is shown to which the gearbox 21 and therewith the motor housing 24 is fixed with fixings 28 . As such the winding tube 2 is at one end, shown in fig . 4 , supported via a cavity 27 to an output shaft 26 which is connected to the gearbox 21 , and the gearbox 21 is connected to the frame part 17 . The output shaft 26 in the cavity 27 forms the rotation axis ( i . e . , the tube support 3 ) for a concentric rotation of the winding tube 2 at the side of the electric motor assembly 11 . On the back side of the motor housing 24 a connector housing 29 is shown which is remote from the winding tube 2 and the screen 4 wound up on it . The wire pulley 6 is equipped with a tensioning wire 7 in this case wire 7 is drawn in two positions . In one position, drawn vertical , ( on the left-hand side ) the tension wire 7 is fully wound up onto the wire pulley 6 . And drawn under an angle (right-hand side in fig. 4) , the tensioning wire 7 is fully wound off from the wire pulley 6.

Fig. 5, in contrast to fig. 4, focusses on the opposite end of the winding tube 2 which is, in this embodiment, not configured with an electric motor assembly 11. In Fig. 5 the frame part 17' is not shown. However, the rear end of guide 9 is mounted on frame part 17' . Also, in contrast to fig. 4, here the tube support is formed by a protruding part on the wire pulley 6' , which is rotatably supported by a hole in frame part 17' (the latter not shown) .

In fig. 6A and 6B it is shown that the output shaft 26 has a hexalobular or six-point star external shape and the cavity (27) in the wire pulley (6) has an internal hexalobular or six-point star shape. Off course it is also conceivable that instead of this particular shape another shape is chosen, for instance a hexagonal shape or a square shape, or another shape which is suitable to transfer power in a rotational direction.

In fig. 7A and 7B a section is shown which shows the engagement of the output shaft 26 in the cavity 27 of the wire pulley 6, and also the engagement of the wire pulley 6, 6' in the winding tube 2. The engagement of the output shaft 26 into the cavity 27 of the wire pulley 6 is removable, meaning that the output shaft 26 can be removed from the cavity 27 in axial direction by demounting the gearbox 21 from the frame part 17. In fig. 7B it is shown that the engagement between wire pulley 6 and winding tube 2 is in a rotational sense a fixed engagement, but also being removable in axial direction, whereby a multiple of protrusions 34 extend in radial direction from the part of the wire pulley 6 and extend into slot holes provided in the winding tube 2.

In fig. 8 the electric motor assembly 11 is shown in plan view also showing the wire pulley 6, 6' . In this case the maximum diameter of the wire pulley 6, 6' is slightly bigger than the diameter of the winding tube 2 including the wound-up screen 4. The minimum distance between motor housing 24 and outer diameter of the wire pulley 6 is given by dimension t. which dimension is in practise chosen between 4 mm. and 2 mm. but more specifically is 3 mm. This minimum must be observed to avoid in practise any collision between the screen being wound up or wound of f onto/ from the winding tube 2 and the motor housing 24 .

Fig . 9 shows the electric motor assembly 11 without the wire pulley 6 whereby the motor assembly 11 is formed in a U- shape .

The invention is not limited to the embodiments described before which may be varied widely within the scope of the invention as defined by the appending claims . For example , the invention could also be used for rollo systems in which the tensioning spring 10 is within the winding tube 2 . And also , it is conceivable that an electric motor assembly 11 is configured on each opposite ends of the winding tube 2 .

Claims

1. Roof assembly for a vehicle having an opening (32) in its fixed roof (33) , comprising a frame part (17) for mounting the roof assembly to the fixed roof (33) , an at least partly transparent panel (31) for closing the roof opening (32) , and a rollo assembly (23) , said rollo assembly (23) including a winding tube (2) rotatably mounted on the frame part (17) , a rollo screen (4) having a first end attached to the winding tube (2) to be wound onto and off said winding tube (2) in a mainly horizontal direction and a second end provided with an operating beam (5) , wherein at each of the opposite ends of the winding tube (2) a wire pulley (6, 6' ) is attached for a rotation therewith around an axis of rotation, to which respective wire pulleys (6, 6' ) a first end of a tensioning wire (7, 7 ’ ) is attached to be wound onto and off said wire pulleys (6, 6' ) , which tensioning wires (7, 7' ) extend along each opposite lateral end of the rollo screen (4) and around a respective reversal pulley (8, 8' ) and have a respective second end attached inside the operating beam (5) to a pull spring (10) , wherein the rollo screen (4) and the tensioning wires (7, 7' ) engage the winding tube (2) and wire pulleys (6, 6' ) , respectively, in such a manner that when the rollo screen (4) is wound off from the winding tube (2) , each tensioning wire (7, 7' ) is wound onto the respective wire pulley (6, 6' ) in a spirally-wound fashion, and when the rollo screen (4) is wound on the winding tube (2) , each tensioning wire (7, 7' ) is unwound from the respective wire pulley (6, 6' ) , wherein each tensioning wire (7, 7' ) extends from the respective wire pulleys (6, 6' ) via the respective reversal pulley (8, 8' ) , to the pull spring (10) , and further an electric motor assembly (11) comprising a motor housing (24) , extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2) and positioned near a first transverse end of the winding tube (2) , a motor shaft (25) extending from the motor housing (24) and extending in parallel to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2) , said motor shaft (25) extending into a gearbox (21) , said gearbox (21) connected to the motor housing (24) and extending adjacent to a short end of the winding tube (2) and said gearbox (21) extending perpendicular to a centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2) , an output shaft (26) extending out of the gearbox (21) and in parallel to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2) , characterized in that the output shaft (26) is removably engaged with at least one of the wire pulleys (6, 6' ) to rotatably drive the rollo assembly (23) .

2. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein the output shaft (26) extends into a cavity (27) of the wire pulley (6) , and wherein the external shape of said output shaft (26) and the internal shape of the cavity (27) in a rotational sense have a corresponding form-closed shape such that power may be transferred from the output shaft (26) to the wire pulley (6) .

3. Roof assembly of claim 2 wherein the output shaft (26) has a hexalobular or six-point star external shape and the cavity (27) in the wire pulley (6) has an internal hexalobular or six-point star shape.

4. Roof assembly of claim 2 wherein the output shaft (26) has a hexagonal external shape and the cavity (27) in the wire pulley (6) has a hexagonal internal shape.

5. Roof assembly of claim 3, wherein the size of the hexalobular or six-point star shape has a standard dimension size lying in the range of T40 to T65, more specific in a range of T50 to T55.

6. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein the engagement of the output shaft (26) with the wire pulley (6) is removable when fixings with which the gearbox (21) is fixed to the frame part (17) are removed, such that the electric motor assembly (11) may be removed from its engagement with the wire pulley (6) .

7. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein the wire pulleys (6, 6' ) are in a rotational sense in fixed engagement with the winding tube (2) , but also being removable in axial direction from the winding tube (2) such that any rotational forces applied via the pulleys are transferred to the winding tube (2) .

8. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein a transverse beam (20) connects a right-hand frame part (17) with a left-hand frame part ( 17 ’ ) .

9. Roof assembly of claim 8 wherein the transverse beam (20) supports each of the lateral frame parts (17, 17' ) , and wherein one of said frame parts (17) supports the electric motor assembly (11) , such that an axis of rotation of the electric motor assembly (11) is parallel to the axis of rotation of the winding tube (2) .

10. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein dimension t is the distance, measured perpendicularly with respect to the centre line of rotation of the winding tube (2) , between an outer surface of the diameter of the wire pulley (6) and the nearest outer surface of the motor housing (24) and wherein the value of dimension t lies between 4 mm and 2 mm, more particularly is 3 mm.

11. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein the gearbox (21) has a transmission ratio for reduction of the rotational speed of the motor shaft (25) to the rotational speed of the output shaft (26) in the range of between 1:60 and 1:80, more specifically in the range of between 1:70 and 1:74.

12. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein a connector housing (29) for an electrical connection is connected to the short end of the rear of the motor housing (24) at a position most remote from the winding tube (2) .

13. Roof assembly of claim 1 wherein an electrical earth connection (30) is placed between the motor housing (24) and the gearbox (21) and is an integrated part of the gear box assembly (11) has a U-shape, formed by the mutual position of the motor housing (24) , gearbox (21) and output shaft (26) . 15. Roof assembly of claim 2 wherein the output shaft

(26) and the wire pulleys (6, 6' ) are made of a material comprising polyamide.