GB2515376A

GB2515376A - A roller guide for a motor vehicle

Info

Publication number: GB2515376A
Application number: GB201405727A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ralf Gaudig
Original assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Current assignee: GM Global Technology Operations LLC
Priority date: 2013-04-27
Filing date: 2014-03-31
Publication date: 2014-12-24
Also published as: DE202013003988U1; GB201405727D0

Abstract

A roller guide 1 for a motor vehicle 2 is provided. The roller guide 1 comprises: at least one fixed rail 3 having two rolling surfaces 5 aligned at a distance from each other as the first rolling surface 6 and the second rolling surface 7; at least one roller arrangement 8 with one respective main roller 9 and one respective auxiliary roller 10 in which the main roller 9 rests on the first rolling surface 6, and the auxiliary roller 10 rests on the second rolling surface 7; and at least one movable part 12. The main roller 9 and the auxiliary roller 10 are directly or indirectly mounted on the at least one movable part 12. The auxiliary roller 10 consists at least partly, and especially completely, of an elastic material 16. As a result of an elastic deformation of the elastic material 16, the main roller 9 and the auxiliary roller 10 rest on the two rolling surfaces 6,7 with a preload pressure.

Description

A roller guide for a motor vehicle

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a roller guide according to the preamble of claim I and a motor vehicleaccording to the preamble of claim 10.

Movable parts are held in motor vehicles by a roller guide. The roller guide generally comprises two fixed rails, in which a respective roller is mounted. The movable part, e.g. a trunk floor for the trunk of the motor vehicle or a console cover on a middle console between two front seats, is used for direct or indirect mounting of the roller.

The diameter of the roller is generally smaller than the distance between two rolling surfaces on the rail, so that this leads to rattling on the roller guide. It is already known to prevent rattling caused by play between the main roller and the two rolling surfaces e.g. by felt strips or grinding play compensation elements. Sliding of the play compensation elements leads to the disadvantage that this causes increased friction, and high forces are thus required in order to manually move the movable part by hand.

A roller guide in a rail for the relative movement of two parts that can displaced rela-tive to one another is known from DE 36 42 441 Cl, comprising a roller arranged on the one part and a rail arranged on the other part. The parallel and straight rolling surfaces which are spaced from each other are arranged on the rail. Furthermore, the roller guide comprises a second rotatable auxiliary roller which is arranged in an axially parallel manner relative to the roller, and the roller and the auxiliary roller are arranged between the rolling surfaces, wherein the sum total of the diameters of both rollers is greater than the distance of the rolling surfaces and the two axes of the rollers, and the two axes of the rollers are connected via a spring member press-ing the rollers against the rolling surfaces, wherein the roller can roll off on the one rolling surface and the auxiliary roller on the opposite rolling surface. A complex spring member for pretensioning the roller and the auxiliary roller are thus disadvan-tageously required and furthermore a complex mechanism for complex bearing of the roller and the auxiliary roller.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a roller guide and a mo-tor vehicle in which a movable part can be mounted reliably with the roller guide without any rattling noises in combination with low friction and a low amount of tech-nical effort.

This object is achieved by a roller guide, especially for a motor vehicle, comprising at least one fixed rail having two rolling surfaces aligned at a distance from each other as the first rolling surface and the second rolling surface, at least one roller arrangement with one respective main roller and one respective auxiliary roller, and the main railer rests on the first rolling surface and can be rolled off thereon, and the auxiliary roller rests on the second rolling surface and can be rolled off thereon, and at least one movable part, wherein the main roller and the auxiliary roller are directly or indirectly mounted on the at least one movable part, wherein the auxiliary roller consists at least partly, especially completely, of an elastic material, so that as a result of an elastic deformation of the elastic material of the auxiliary roller the main roller and the auxiliary roller rest on the two rolling surfaces of the rail with a preload pressure caused by the elastic deformation of the elastic material. The auxiliary roll-er consists at least partly of the elastic material and said elastic material is deformed on the auxiliary roller due to the geometry or the distance of the two rolling surfaces and the roller arrangement with the main roller and the auxiliary roller, so that as a result of the elastic deformation and the resulting spring effect of the elastic material the main roller and the auxiliary roller are pressed by means of a pressure force against the two rolling surfaces, thus producing a preload pressure between the main roller and the auxiliary roller and the two rolling surfaces on the rail. The main roller and the auxiliary roller are thus continuously pressed against two rolling sur-faces on the rail, so that a continuous contact exists between the main roller and the auxiliary roller and the two rolling surfaces on the rail, thereby preventing rattling on the roller guide. The roller guide is arranged in a very simple way as regards its construction, since a preload pressure can be achieved between the two rolling sur-faces on the rail and the main roller and the auxiliary roller merely by arranging the auxiliary roller at least partly of the elastic material. As a result, the roller guide is very easy to produce at low cost and is reliable in operation.

In particular, the auxiliary roller comprises a roller rolling surface and the elastic ma-terial is arranged on the roller rolling surface and/or radially within the roller rolling surface on the auxiliary roller, and/or -without an elastic deformation of the elastic material of the auxiliary roller -the distance between the two rolling surfaces of the at least one rail perpendicularly to a main rotational axis of the main roller and/or perpendicularly to an auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller and perpendicu-larly to a direction of movement of the movable part is smaller than the distance of the roller rolling surfaces of the main roller and the auxiliary roller perpendicularly to the main rotational axis of the main roller and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rota-tional axis of the auxiliary roller and perpendicularly to the direction of movement of the movable part.

In a further embodiment, the elastic material is a foam made of plastic, especially a polyurethane elastomer in foamed form.

In a supplementary embodiment, the elastic material is relaxation-free. The elastic material, e.g. in form of a polyurethane elastomer, is i relaxation-free material, so that even in the case of a prolonged deformation of the elastic material at one posi-tion of the auxiliary roller and a subsequent movement of the movable part and a resulting rolling movement of the auxiliary roller a substantially complete recovery occurs at this position of the auxiliary roller. If for example the movable part is situ-ated over a prolonged period of time at the same location with respect to the rail, the elastic deformation on the auxiliary roller occurs over a prolonged period of time at only one location or region on the roller rolling surface of the auxiliary roller. In the case of a movement of the movable part, the auxiliary roller rolls off on the second rolling surface of the rail and thus performs a rotational movement about an auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller, so that the roller rolling surface of the auxiliary roller thus rests at another location on the rolling surface of the rail. As a result of this relaxation-free property of the elastic material, the roller guide can practically be operated with little noise in operation. Furthermore, this also ensures continuous preload pressure between the main and the auxiliary roller and the two rolling sur-faces on the rail.

Preferably, a main bearing axis for the main roller and an auxiliary bearing axis for the auxiliary roller are rigidly connected to the at least one movable part, and prefer-ably the main bearing axis for the main roller and the auxiliary bearing axis for the auxiliary roller are regarded as at least one movable part.

In one variant, the main roller is rotatably mounted about a main rotational axis and the auxiliary roller is rotatably mounted about an auxiliary rotational axis, and the main rotational axis of the main roller and the auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller are aligned at a distance from each other and/or parallel with respect to each other.

The sum total of the diameters of the main roller and the auxiliary roller is appropri-ately greater than the distance of the two rolling surfaces on the at least one rail perpendicularly to the main rotational axis of the main roller and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller and perpendicularly to the direc-tion of movement of the movable part.

In a further embodiment, the main bearing axis for the main roller and the auxiliary bearing axis for the auxiliary roller are pivotably mounted about a pivoting axis with respect to the movable part and/or the rail, and the eccentricity of the main rotational axis and the auxiliary rotational axis perpendicularly to the main rotational axis of the main roller and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller and perpendicularly to the direction of movement of the movable part can thus be changed, so that the preload pressure of the main roller and the auxiliary roller can be changed on the two rolling surfaces, wherein preferably the pivoting axis is aligned in parallel to the main rotational axis of the main roller and the auxiliary rota-tional axis of the auxiliary roller. As a result of a change in the eccentricity of the main rotational axis and the auxiliary rotational axis, the preload pressure of the main roller and the auxiliary roller on the two rolling surfaces or the pressure force with which the main roller and the auxiliary roller are pressed against the two rolling surfaces can be changed. In the case of an increase in the eccentricity, the elastic deformation of the auxiliary roller will increase at the location where the auxiliary roller rests on the second rolling surface, thus producing a greater preload pressure between the main roller and the auxiliary roller and the two rolling surfaces and vice versa. An increase in the eccentricity of the main rotational axis and the auxiliary rotational axis thus increases the distance of the roller rolling surface of the main roller and the auxiliary roller without elastic deformation of the elastic material of the auxiliary roller perpendicularly to the main rotational axis of the main roller and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller and perpendicu-larly to the direction of movement of the movable part.

In particular, the movable part is movably mounted with two rails which are prefera- bly aligned in parallel with respect to each other and at least three roller arrange-ments and/or the movable part is a trunk floor.

A motor vehicle in accordance with the invention, comprising at least one roller guide, wherein the at least one roller guide is arranged as a roller guide de-scribed in this patent application.

The at least one rail is appropriately arranged in a sectional view perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the rail in a substantially C-shaped manner.

In a further variant, a longitudinal axis of the at least one rail corresponds to the direction of movement of the at least one movable part.

In a supplementary embodiment, the rail consists at least partly, especially com-pletely, of metal, e.g. aluminum or steel, and/or of plastic.

In an additional embodiment, the main roller consists at least partly, especially com-pletely, of metal, e.g. aluminum or steel, and/or of plastic.

In a further embodiment, a hypothetical plane spanned by the two flat rolling surfac-es of the rail is aligned in parallel to the direction of movement of the movable part and/or parallel to a longitudinal axis of the rail, and preferably the two hypothetical planes of the rolling surfaces are aligned on the rail in parallel with respect to each other.

In an additional variant, the longitudinal axis of the rail and/or the direction of move- ment of the at least one movable part is a straight line or a curved line, e.g. a seg-ment of a circle. In the case of a straight line, the at least one movable part moves in a movement plane and in the case of a segment of a circle the at least one movable part moves in a segment of a circle.

In a further embodiment, the movable part is a trunk floor in a trunk and/or a sun-shade cover on a roof of the motor vehicle and/or a console cover between the two front seats.

The movable part is appropriately not a vehicle seat.

An embodiment of the invention will be explained below in closer detail by reference to the enclosed drawings, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a side view of a motor vehicle; Fig. 2 shows a side view of a roller guide; Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of the roller guide according to Fig. 2 without the rail and without the main and auxiliary roller; Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of the roller guide according to Fig. 2 without the rail; Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of a trunk floor as a movable part with two rails, and Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of the trunk floor according to Fig. 5 without the rails.

A motor vehicle 2 with an internal combustion engine and/or an electric motor 24 for driving the motor vehicle 2 as shown in Fig. I comprises a car body and doors. The car body of the motor vehicle 2 delimits a passenger compartment 25, and vehicle seats 26 for passengers (not shown) of the motor vehicle 2 are arranged in the pas-senger compartment 25. A trunk 27 for accommodating items is arranged behind the rear seats as the vehicle seats 26, and the trunk 27 is bounded at the bottom by a trunk floor 13 as a movable part 12. A roller guide 1 is used for movably mounting the trunk floor 13 as the movable part 12.

The roller guide I comprises two rails 3 made of metal, e.g. aluminum, which rails 3 are C-shaped in the cross-section. The rails 3 comprise two parallel and flat rolling surfaces 5, namely a first rolling surface 6 and a second rolling surface 7. A roller arrangement 8 comprises a main roller 9 made of plastic or metal and an auxiliary roller 10 made of an elastic and relaxation-free material 16, namely a polyurethane elastomer in foamed form. The main roller 9 is mounted by a main bearing axis 19 as a plain bearing and/or rolling bearing, and the auxiliary roller 10 with an auxiliary bearing axis 20 is also mounted by means of a plain bearing and/cr rolling bearing.

A fastening ring 29 secures the auxiliary roller 10 in the axial direction of the auxilia- ry bearing axis 20. The main roller 9 is thus mounted to roll off about a main rota- tional axis 21 on the main bearing axis 19 by means of the plain bearing and/or roll-ing bearing, so that the main roller 9 can perform a rotational movement about the main rotational axis 21, and the auxiliary roller 10 is mounted analogously about the auxiliary rotational axis 22 on the auxiliary bearing axis 20. The main and auxiliary rollers 9, 10 respectively comprise a roller rolling surface 11, and the roller rolling surface 11 of the main roller 9 rests on the first rolling surface 6 on the rail 3 and the roller rolling surface 11 of the auxiliary roller 10 rests on the second rolling surface 7 on the rail 3. The main and auxiliary rotational axes 21, 22 of the main and auxiliary roller 9, 10 are aligned in parallel with respect to each other.

The rail 3 has a longitudinal axis 4 which is arranged as a straight line. The trunk floor 13 is movably mounted by a handle 14 in a direction of movement 15 by means of the roller guide 1. The direction of movement 15 is aligned as a straight line, so that the trunk floor 13 performs a movement within a plane during a move-ment in the direction of movement 15 and the two longitudinal axes 3 of the rails 4 are aligned in parallel with respect to each other. A roller arrangement 8 is respec-tively arranged in the four corner regions of the trunk floor 13 (Fig. 6), so that two respective roller arrangements 8 with one respective main and auxiliary roller 9, 10 are arranged in each of the two rails 3 between the two rolling surfaces 5 of the rail 3.

Without an elastic deformation of the elastic material 16 of the auxiliary roller 10, i.e. in the case of an arrangement of the roller arrangement 8 outside of the rail 3 for example, a distance 18 of the two roller rolling surfaces 11 of the main and auxiliary roller 9, 10 perpendicularly to the main rotational axis 21 or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis 22 and perpendicularly to the direction of movement 15 of the movable part 12 is greater than a distance 17 between the two rolling surfaces 5 of the rail 3 in the same direction. This leads to an elastic deformation of the auxilia- ry roller 10 on the roller rolling surface 11 in the region where the roller rolling sur-face 11 of the auxiliary roller 10 rests on the second rolling surface 7 of the rail 3. As a result of this elastic deformation of the elastic material 16 and the resulting spring action of the elastic deformation of the elastic material 16 of the auxiliary role 10, the main roller 9 and the auxiliary roller 10 are pressed with a pressure force against the two rolling surfaces 5, so that the roller rolling surfaces 11 of the main and auxiliary rollers 9, 10 thus rest under preload pressure on the rolling surfaces 5 of the rail 3.

The main bearing axis 19 and the auxiliary bearing axis 20 are rigidly connected to the movable part 12 and the main bearing axis 19 and the auxiliary bearing axis 20 are also regarded as a further movable part 12. The main bearing axis 19 and the auxiliary bearing axis 20 are further pivotably mounted about a pivoting axis 23 with respect to the trunk floor 13, and the pivoting position of the main bearing axis 19 and the auxiliary bearing axis 20 is changeable or can be changed by means of an adjusting mechanism. The adjusting mechanism comprises an adjusting plate 30 with an oblong hole 31 and a fastening element 32 such as a screw. The adjusting plate 30 is rigidly connected to the main and auxiliary bearing axis 19, 20 and is also pivotable about the pivoting axis 23. The adjusting plate 30 can be pivoted together with the main and auxiliary bearing axis 19, 20 about the pivoting axis 23 by releas-ing the fastening element 32 as a result of the arrangement of the fastening element 32 in the oblong hole 31. The fastening element 32 is also fixed in a borehole (not shown) on the trunk floor 13. Fixing (e.g. tightly screwing) the fastening element 32, e.g. the screw, blocks the pivoting about the pivoting axis 23. An eccentricity 28 or a distance of the main rotational axis 21 and the auxiliary rotational axis 22 perpen-dicularly to the main rotational axis or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis 22 and perpendicularly to the direction of movement 15 of the movable part 12 can be changed in this manner. The larger the eccentricity 28 of the main and auxiliary rotation axis 21, 22, the larger the pressing force and the preload pressure with which the main and auxiliary rollers 9, 10 are pressed against the two rolling surfac-es 5 and vice versa.

In summary, the roller guide I in accordance with the invention and the motor vehi-cle 2 in accordance with the invention offer substantial advantages. The trunk floor 13 as a movable part 12 can be movably mounted with the roller guide I in an es-pecially simple and reliable manner without any rattling in the direction of movement 15. The roller guide I is especially cheap to produce because only the auxiliary roll-er 10 made of an elastic material 16 is necessary in order to continuously prevent raffling of the roller guide I as a result of the preload pressure with which the main and auxiliary roller 9, 10 rests on the two rolling surfaces 5.

At least one embodiment was described, wherein notice must be taken that there are a large number of variants in respect of said embodiment. Notice shall also be taken that the embodiment or the embodiments are only examples and it is there-fore not intended to limit the scope of protection, the applicability or feasibility or the configuration in any way. The above description will provide the person skilled in the art with a suitable instruction for implementing at least one embodiment. It is under-stood that various modifications can be made to the function and arrangement of the described components in an exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope of protection of the claims below and the equivalents of the subordinate claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

I Roller guide 2 Motor vehicle 3 Rail 4 Longitudinal axis of the rail Rolling surface 6 First rolling surface 7 Second rolling surface 8 Roller arrangement 9 Main roller Auxiliary roller 11 Roller rolling surface 12 Movable part 13 Trunk floor 14 Handle on trunk floor Direction of movement of the movable part 16 Elastic material 17 Distance between the two rolling surfaces 18 Distance between the roller rolling surfaces of the main and auxiliary roller 19 Main bearing axis of the main roller Auxiliary bearing axis of the auxiliary roller 21 Main rotational axis of the main roller 22 Auxiliary rotational axis of the auxiliary roller 23 Pivoting axis of the main and auxiliary bearing axis 24 Combustion and/or electric motor in the motor vehicle Passenger compartment 26 Vehicle seat 27 Trunk 28 Distance, eccentricity of the main and auxiliary rotational axis 29 Fastening ring for auxiliary roller Adjusting plate 31 Oblong hole 32 Fastening element

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A roller guide (1), especially for a motor vehicle (2), comprising -at least one fixed rail (3) having two rolling surfaces (5) aligned at a dis- tance from each other as the first rolling surface (6) and the second roll-ing surface (7); -at least one roller arrangement (8) with one respective main roller (9) and one respective auxiliary roller (10), and the main roller (9) rests on the first rolling surface (6) and can be rolled off thereon, and the auxiliary roller (10) rests on the second rolling surface (7) and can be rolled off thereon; -at least one movable part (12), wherein the main roller (9) and the auxil- iary roller (10) are directly or indirectly mounted on the at least one mov-able part (12); wherein the auxiliary roller (10) consists at least partly, especially completely, of an elastic material (16), so that as a result of an elastic deformation of the elas-tic material (16) of the auxiliary roller (10) the main roller (9) and the auxiliary roller (10) rest on the two rolling surfaces (6, 7) of the rail (3) with a preload pressure caused by the elastic deformation of the elastic material (16).
2. A roller guide according to claim 1.characterized in that the auxiliary roller (9) comprises a roller rolling surface (11) and the elastic material (16) is arranged on the roller rolling surface (11) and/or radially with-in the roller rolling surface (11) on the auxiliary roller (10), andlor -without an elastic deformation of the elastic material (16) of the auxiliary roller (10) -the distance (17) between the two rolling surfaces (6, 7) of the at least one rail (6, 7) perpendicularly to a main rotational axis (21) of the main roller (9) and/or perpendicularly to an auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roll-er (10) and perpendicularly to a direction of movement (15) of the movable part (12) is smaller than the distance (18) of the roller rolling surfaces (11) of the main roller (9) and the auxiliary roller (10) perpendicularly to the main ro-tational axis (21) of the main roller (9) and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roller (10) and perpendicularly to the di-rection of movement (15) of the movable part (12).
3. A roller guide according to claim I or 2, characterized in that the elastic material (16) is a foam made of plastic, especially a polyurethane elastomer in foamed form.
4. A roller guide according to one or several of the preceding claims, characterized in that the elastic material (16) is relaxation-free.
5. A roller guide according to one or several of the preceding claims, characterized in that a main bearing axis (19) for the main roller (9) and an auxiliary bearing axis (20) for the auxiliary roller (10) are rigidly connected to the at least one mov-able part (12), and preferably the main bearing axis (19) for the main roller (9) and the auxiliary bearing axis (20) for the auxiliary roller (10) are regard-ed as at least one movable part (12).
6. A roller guide according to one or several of the preceding claims, characterized in that the main roller (9) is rotatably mounted about a main rotational axis (21) and the auxiliary roller (10) is rotatably mounted about an auxiliary rotational axis (22), and the main rotational axis (21) of the main roller (9) and the auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roller (10) are aligned at a distance from each other and/or parallel with respect to each other.
7. A roller guide according to one or several of the preceding claims, characterized in that sum total of the diameters of the main roller (9) and the auxiliary roller (10) is greater than the distance of the two rolling surfaces (6, 7) on the at least one rail (3) perpendicularly to the main rotational axis (21) of the main roller (10) and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roll-er(10) and perpendicularly to the direction of movement (15) of the movable part (12).
8. A roller guide according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the main bearing axis (19) for the main roller (9) and the auxiliary bearing ax-is (20) for the auxiliary roller (10) are pivotably mounted about a pivoting axis (23) with respect to the movable part (12) and/or the rail (3), and the eccen-tricity (28) of the main rotational axis (21) and the auxiliary rotational axis (22) perpendicularly to the main rotational axis (21) of the main roller (9) and/or perpendicularly to the auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roll-er (10) and perpendicularly to the direction of movement (15) of the movable part (12) can thus be changed, so that the preload pressure of the main roll-er(9) and the auxiliary roller (10) can be changed on the two rolling surfaces (6, 7), wherein preferably the pivoting axis (23) is aligned in parallel to the main rotational axis (21) of the main roller (9) and the auxiliary rotational axis (22) of the auxiliary roller (10).
9. A roller guide according to one or several of the preceding claims, characterized in that the movable part (12) is movably mounted with two rails (3) which are pref-erably aligned in parallel with respect to each other and at least three roller arrangements (8), and/or the movable part (12) is a trunk floor (13).
10.A motor vehicle (2), comprising at least one roller guide (1), wherein the at least one roller guide (1) is arranged according to one or several of the preceding claims.