FR2890408A1 - Boot`s bonnet closing and opening control system for e.g. convertible vehicle, has coupling system with coupled and decoupled states to couple or decouple cable from driving device by management unit to permit movement of bonnet - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has an actuating unit (100) for assisting closing and opening movements of the bonnet and having a cable (6) and a tube (19) indirectly connected to a shell of the vehicle and the bonnet. The unit is disposed near a balancing jack (5), and the cable is connected to an electric motor (10) by a coupling system (18). The system (18) has coupled and decoupled states to selectively couple or decouple the cable from an output driving device by a management unit for permitting a manual movement or motorized movement of the bonnet, where the driving device is assisted by the jack.

Description

Control system for opening and closing a two-way hood

opening.

  The invention relates to a control system.

  It also relates to the two-way opening cover provided with said control system.

  In the case of convertible vehicle with moving roof, it is known EP-A-949 104 a trunk whose hood is connected to the body by releasable joints.

  The front and rear edges of the trunk lid are provided with these releasable joints and by means of a motorized control, it releases either the front edge of the hood to clear the opening and introduce into the trunk the movable roof, or the edge rear of the hood to store in the said chest objects.

  In addition to the motorized control of these releasable joints, an actuator also motorized pivots the hood both in the direction of the opening and the direction of closure. To do this, an electro-hydraulic or hydro-pneumatic cylinder is used.

  It is not necessary that in all cases, the opening of this hood is motorized.

  The object of the invention is to allow to offer a plurality of operating modes of the opening by simple means.

  For this purpose, the system according to the invention combines a two-way opening cover, an actuator (preferably a balancer), a motorized drive member and a coupler for selectively coupling or uncoupling the drive means. motorized drive to a portion of the actuator.

  This arrangement makes it possible to envisage multiple modes of operation: motorized mode preferably automated: the hood opens in both directions thanks to the motorized drive means coupled by the coupler to a motor.

  - semi-motorized mode: opening the hood from front to rear for the storage of the roof is carried out in motorized mode and its closing by reverse movement, the coupler being coupled by cons, the opening of the back forward and back in position for access to luggage is carried out either coupler coupled, or manually coupler uncoupled. In this case, the choice of the opening mode of the rear to the front and / or of the reverse closure can be left to the user: when the latter presses on the command to open the cover, the system passes in manual mode. One can also consider freeze this choice definitely for the vehicle: the opening will then be configured either fully motorized or semi-motorized (that is to say, opening from front to rear and / or motorized reverse closing and opening the rear to the front manually and / or reverse closing).

  a manual mode: in this case, the two directions of opening of the cover will be made uncoupled coupler. This corresponds, for example, to a degraded mode that can be encountered during a malfunction. The transition to this mode can be performed by a selection button The balancer is preferably sized to balance the weight of the hood and keep it in equilibrium position or up. With this arrangement, in manual mode, the user will need only to exert a slight pressure on the hood to close it or a slight pull to open it. Similarly in motorized mode, the motorized drive means will be assisted by the balancer and will therefore have to deliver a limited power. This last feature will reduce the dimensioning of the drive motors and the motion transmission components (cables, gears ...) and reduce the onboard power required for the opening / closing of the hood and the weight of the different equipment. .

  The invention will be better understood from the following description given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the drawing which represents: FIG. 1: A trunk lid equipped with the invention FIG. 2: The hood of the FIG. 1 is a rear view FIG. 3: A first variant of the control device FIG. 4: A second variant of the control device FIG. 5: a detail of FIG. 3 FIG. 6: A detail of FIG. 4 FIG. AA of Figure 5 FIG 8: A third variant.

  Referring to the drawing Figures 1 and 2, we see a cover 1 chest provided with joints 2A, 2B releasable in front and back. The detail of operation of these joints is disclosed in EP-A-949 104.

  We see the hood that flips F l arrow for the storage of the mobile roof 3 convertible vehicle or the arrow F2 for the deposit of items in the trunk. It shows the control device 4 according to the invention and part of the transmission.

  Figure 3 shows a first embodiment.

  Balancing cylinders 5 are generally arranged laterally, on either side of the hood. They allow thanks to a pressurized gas to balance the weight of the hood in the two open positions.

  Each jack includes a body in which a rod and a pressurized gas exerting a force tending to pull the rod out of the jack.

  These could be springs or hydraulic cylinders.

  The body 5A of the cylinder is, for example, fixed by a hinge on the body and the top of the rod 5B is fixed at least indirectly on the hood.

  According to this variant, along the balancing cylinders extends a cable 6 connected to a motor housing 7 moving it. The cable 6 is attached at its free end 6A to the end of the balancer rod 5B and at the other end 6B to a winding pulley 8. Each cable 6 is guided by a sheath 9 immobilized in translation between two points A, B.

  In this embodiment, the sheath 9 is locked on the cylinder 5A of the balancer and 20 on the motor housing 7.

  Stops lock the translation of the sheath.

  Operation of the first embodiment

  In motorized mode, the motor is coupled. For opening the motor drives the pulley so as to unroll the cables, balancers pushing in the direction of opening the cover. For closing, the motor rotates in the opposite direction so as to wind the cables on the pulley.

  In manual mode the engine is uncoupled and the weight of the hood is balanced by the balancers.

  FIG. 5 shows more precisely the motor housing 7: it comprises a motor 10 with an endless screw 11 which drives in rotation a cylindrical part 12 carrying a crank pin 13. The crank pin cooperates with V-shaped slots 14 of a part 15 carrying engagement teeth 16 which cooperate with other teeth 17 carried directly or indirectly by a pulley 18 or a wheel. The wheel rotates the winding pulley of the cable or cables 6. The crankpin and the slots cooperate to move the piece bearing teeth 16 to the other teeth 17 from the start of the engine and therefore acts as a coupler 18 automatic. Alternatively, it could be an electromagnetic coupler or centrifugal effect.

  Figure 4 shows a second embodiment. The cables 6 of the first mode are here replaced by traction and compression cables that work as well by pulling as pushing the rod of the balancing jack. These cables are closer to rods than flexible cable. They are stiffer while being flexible.

  The movement of these cables is printed by a toothed pinion 27 which drives one end of the cables which are provided with racks 28.

  The cable is locally guided by a guiding means such as a tube 19 which in the case of this figure 4 is attached laterally to the actuator. The tube may be formed with the jack, for example from profiled, extruded or molded tubes.

  However, the cable and its guide can be fixed independently of the cylinders in that they can perform their actions on other places of the hood. In FIG. 5 and FIG. 7, which is section A-A of FIG. 5 or 6, there is shown a possible embodiment of a part of the coupler.

  The electric motor 10 drives an endless screw 11 which rotates a cylindrical part 12 rotatably mounted in the housing. This cylindrical piece guides in rotation and in translation a cylinder 15 provided with drive-shaped elements (here teeth) located at its end.

  The cylinder 15 can slide along the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical part and, for this purpose, it has, on either side of the periphery of its skirt, grooves or slots in V which house the ends of the cylindrical part. a crank pin 13 secured to the shaft. The crankpin and the V-grooves thus make it possible to control the translational movement of the cylinder 15 with respect to the cylindrical part 12. The tip of the V is turned towards the end bearing the teeth. During the rotation of the shaft, the crank pin pushes forward (the top of the drawing figure 5) the cylinder through the V-shaped grooves, which causes the teeth or claws to come into contact with each other. drive, the coupler then being in the coupled state. A spring (not shown) is disposed between the cylinder and the shaft so as to return the cylinder to its uncoupled position.

  As can be seen in Figure 5, a return spring 22 actuates the rotation of the pulley on which are attached the actuating lines of the cover. The spring rotates the pulley in the direction of pulling the cable to ensure the winding of the cables when closing the hood.

  Figure 6 shows more precisely a motor housing in which we took over the coupler system 18 described above.

  The coupler actuates a toothed wheel 21 which drives a notched pinion 27 which cooperates with a rack 28 which is coupled or directly formed on the traction / compression cable. In this embodiment, the rack and pinion system which is reversible also allows to synchronize laterally the movement of the hood which can be useful at the time of closing and locking the hood closed on the vehicle body.

  Thus, it has created a control system for opening and closing of a trunk lid retractable roof vehicle, the hood being articulated to the vehicle body by releasable joints located forward and rearward of the hood and allowing on the one hand, the opening of the hood from the front to the rear for the storage of the roof by releasing the articulation (s) before and by locking the articulation (s) ) rear, and secondly, the opening of the hood from the rear to the front for access to the luggage by releasing the rear articulation (s) and locking the front articulation, one of the features of which is that: - the opening / closing movements of the cover are assisted by at least one actuating member 100 of the cover having a first part 6 and a second part 9, 19 connected, at least indirectly, to the body of the vehicle and the bonnet, the first and the second part being mobile one With respect to the other, one of said parts of the actuating member is connected to a motor 10 via a coupler, the coupler 18 having a coupled or uncoupled state so as to couple or selectively disconnecting said portion of the actuator from the driver so as to allow manual movement of the hood or assisted movement.

  In addition, it comprises at least one operating mode in which the opening of the hood from front to rear (and / or reverse closing) is in the coupled state of the coupler and the opening of the rearward forward (and / or reverse closing) is either a coupler coupled or uncoupled.

  For this purpose, there is provided a means 200 for managing the modes of operation of the coupler and the releasable joints.

  Also, it includes an automatic open / close mode in which the coupler is in the coupled state and a manual open / close mode in which the coupler is in the uncoupled state.

  Also, the coupler is in the uncoupled state when the motorized driving device is inactive and in the coupled state when the driving device is active.

  The coupler is in the uncoupled state when the driving current of the driving device is interrupted.

  By drive device will be understood the actuator and the balancer. According to a variant (not shown), it is possible to add in the first embodiment a cable winding on the reel and for pulling the rod of the balancing jack out of the cylinder. In this case, a return pulley will be needed on the balancer. In this variant as in the second variant, the system is reversible, and the motor actuates both opening and closing the hood. Yet another variant is for the opening / closing access to luggage to use a motorized mode for opening and a manual mode for closing or vice versa.

  In another variant instead of passing along the balancer, the cables can be integrated in this balancer, for example within it, thanks to a sleeve system externally guiding the balancer shaft and housing internally. cables and balancer.

  In the variant shown in Figure 8, the balancers 5 are arranged in the vicinity of the joints, for example if it is deployable multi-arm joints, relying on arms: the race and the length of the balancers can then to be reduced. The cable system is implanted as in Figure 1, that is to say, partly substantially median trunk.

  For reasons of stiffness, the cable system will be that of the second variant and will use more rigid cables.

  The joints are carried by plates 30 and 31 releasable, these plates further bearing the pivots balancing cylinders.

  Incidentally, the worm 11 which rotates the cylindrical part 12 is a non-reversible connection. It could be another type of non-reversible bond. Therefore the coupler can also be used as a brake and thus as a means of immobilizing the hood.

  To immobilize the cover simply couple the coupler and do not power the electric motor.

  This can be very useful for a secure mode in order to immobilize the hood, for example in the event of detection of interference with luggage or pinching of a body part.

Claims (14)

  1. Control system for opening and closing a trunk lid for a vehicle with retractable roof, the hood being hinged to the vehicle body by releasable joints located towards the front and towards the rear of the hood, characterized in that - the opening / closing movements are assisted by at least one actuating member (100) for the cover having a first part (6) and a second part (9, 19) connected, at least indirectly, to the vehicle body and hood, the first and the second part being movable relative to each other, - one (6) of said parts of the actuating member is connected to a motor (10) by the intermediate of a coupler (18), the coupler having a coupled or uncoupled state for selectively coupling or uncoupling, by a management means (200), said portion of the driving member of the driving device so as to allow manual movement of the hood or a motorized movement.   2. Control system according to claim 1 characterized in that it comprises at least one operating mode in which the hood opening from front to rear and / or reverse closure is in the coupled state. of the coupler and the opening of the rear to the front and / or the reverse closure is made to choose, coupler coupled or uncoupled.   3. Control system according to claim 2 characterized in that it further comprises an automatic opening / closing mode in which the coupler is in the coupled state and a manual opening / closing mode in which the coupler is in the uncoupled state.   4. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the coupler is in the uncoupled state when the motor drive device is inactive and in the coupled state when the drive device is active.   5. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the coupler is in the uncoupled state when the control current of the drive device is interrupted.   6. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the coupler is of the electromagnetic type or shaped elements such as jaw or teeth.   7. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the actuating member is a cable system with sheath stopped or a pull / compression cable.   8. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that it comprises an electric motor (10).   9. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that it comprises a balancing jack or a balancing spring.   10. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the actuating member is disposed close to a balancing jack.   11. Control system according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the actuating member is housed in a sleeve housing a balancing jack 12. Control system according to claim 8 characterized in that the motor 30 drives a worm and forms a non-reversible connection.   13 A two-way opening cover comprising releasable joints at the front and rear characterized in that it comprises a control system according to any one of the preceding claims.   14 cover with two directions of opening according to claim 12 characterized in that it comprises a means (200) for managing the operating modes of the coupler and releasable joints.