JP2001071810A - Manufacture of expansion and contraction drive device and drive cord - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an expansion and contraction drive device for an electric- powered storage type vehicle corner pole and the like. SOLUTION: In an expansion and contraction drive device provided with an expansion and contraction unit part 30 composed of plural tube pole rods 20 assembled in expandable and contractable condition, drive cord 10 made of a flexible long body with a rack tooth part 13 and attached nearby an inside tip of an innermost tube pole rod 21 of the expansion and contraction unit part 30 at its tip end side 11 and expanding and contracting the tube pole rods 20 by advancing and retreating inside of the expansion and contraction unit part 30, a drive source 50 connecting to the rack tooth part 13 of the drive cord 10 through a transmission gear 40, the part of the tip end side 11 of the drive cord 10 with a length of the expansion and contraction unit part 30 in retracted condition does not have the rack tooth part 13. Owing to lack of the rack tooth part 13, high rigidity is provided to the drive cord 10 and deformation such as bend or curve of the drive cord 10 hardly happens after long term usage.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telescopic drive device such as an electrically retractable vehicle corner pole or a vehicle rod antenna, and a method of manufacturing a drive cord used as a built-in component thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a corner pole for an electrically retractable vehicle is used as an optional part in a luxury car.
It is often attached to a corner of a front bumper or a rear bumper, or a part of a vehicle body.

[0003] In the case of this electric retractable vehicle corner pole, there are roughly two types of means for extending and contracting a plurality of cylindrical pole rods:
In some cases, a flexible drive cord having a rack tooth portion is fed out.

[0004] In the case of a means for feeding out a wire, the wire is wound around a drum component and the wire is fed out using a gear mechanism. However, since the winding diameter of the wire cannot be made so small, the size of the drum component has to be reduced. It is difficult and the whole apparatus becomes large, so that there is a problem that various restrictions are imposed on the mounting in the front bumper where there is not enough space.

On the other hand, in the case of a means for feeding out a flexible drive cord, the drive cord is used in a linearly extended form without being wound around a drum part or the like. Although the length is long, the outer shape can be reduced, so that it can be easily incorporated into a narrow portion such as a front bumper where there is no room for space. For this reason, in recent years, corner poles using this drive cord have been widely used.

[0006]

However, in the case of a conventional drive cord, at the time of manufacture, as shown in FIG. 7, a rack tooth 1 is usually provided on one side of a resin cord 1a.
Long drive cord intermediate body (long molded body) provided with b
A is made and cut according to the length for each corresponding corner pole to obtain a desired drive cord 1.

The thus obtained drive code 1
As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 8, the distal end side 1c has an inner distal end of a cylindrical pole rod 2a which is the innermost part of a telescopic unit 3 in which a plurality of cylindrical pole rods 2 are telescopically assembled. On the other hand, the rack teeth 1b mesh with a pinion 4 to which a driving force from a driving source is transmitted, and the rack tooth portion 1b is rotated by the forward and reverse rotation of the pinion 4.
The extension unit 3 is extended and contracted.

However, in such a configuration, when the corner pole has been used for a long period of time, the distal end side of the drive cord 1 (the contraction of the telescopic unit 3) is always stored in the telescopic unit 3. In the minimum storage allowance part required at the time, in other words, the part that does not originally engage with the pinion 4) 1c, deformation such as bending or bending is apt to occur, which makes smooth expansion and contraction impossible. And eventually the code itself was damaged.

The inventors of the present invention have conducted intensive studies on the cause, and found that the conventional drive cord 1 is provided with the rack teeth 1b even at the distal end 1c where the rack teeth 1b are not required. It turns out that shortage is easy to occur. Furthermore, in the case of a corner pole, the period (time) when not in use is generally longer than when in use, and when the telescopic unit 3 contracts during this non-use, bending stress is always applied to the distal end 1c of the drive cord 1. It has been found that this is due to the fact that the cord resin is liable to be degraded due to the fact that it acts and that the temperature inside the cylindrical pole rod changes drastically, especially in summer in Japan, where the temperature becomes considerably high.

[0010] The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and a rack tooth portion is not provided in a portion which is always housed in a telescopic unit at a tip end of a drive cord. It is an object of the present invention to provide a telescopic drive device and a method of manufacturing a drive cord used for the telescopic drive device.

[0011]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a telescopic unit in which a plurality of cylindrical pole rods are assembled so as to be extendable and contractible, and a flexible elongated body having rack teeth. Along with the tip side is attached near the inner tip of the innermost cylindrical pole rod of the telescopic unit,
A telescopic drive device comprising a drive cord for moving back and forth inside the telescopic unit to expand and contract the cylindrical pole rod, and a drive source linked to the rack teeth of the drive cord via a transmission gear. And a length portion accommodated in the telescopic unit at the distal end side of the drive cord and when the telescopic unit is contracted is a portion having no rack teeth portion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the telescopic drive device according to the first aspect, wherein the plurality of cylindrical pole rods are a conner pole rod or an antenna rod for a vehicle.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the resin material is extruded into a strip shape by an extruder to form a resin cord made of a continuous elongated body, and then the rack teeth are intermittently formed on one side of the resin cord. A method of manufacturing a drive cord for a telescopic drive device, characterized in that a molding gear is pressed.

[0014]

1 to 3 show an example of a telescopic drive device according to the present invention when applied to a conner pole for a vehicle. In the figure, 10 is a drive code,
20 is a plurality of cylindrical pole rods, 30 is a telescopic unit,
Reference numeral 40 denotes a transmission gear (pinion), and reference numeral 50 denotes a drive source such as an electric motor.

As shown in FIG. 1, the telescopic unit 30 has a plurality of cylindrical pole rods 20 assembled so as to be extendable and contractable, and a base end 31 thereof is attached to a cylindrical receiving portion 61 of a housing 60. At the same time, the distal end 11 of the drive cord 10 is inserted into the innermost cylindrical pole rod 21.

At the end of the innermost cylindrical pole rod 21, a light-emitting rod 22 made of a transparent resin or the like, in which a light-emitting body is incorporated, is fixed, and as shown in FIG.
When the telescopic unit 30 is contracted (when not in use), the telescopic unit 30 is stored in the innermost cylindrical pole rod 21. Further, the tip of the drive cord 10 is fixed to the bottom side of the light emitting rod 22.

The drive cord 10 has a distal end 1
Except for 1, rack teeth 13 are provided on one side of a long resin cord 12 made of polyacetal resin or the like, and the rack teeth 13 are incorporated in the gear housing 62 of the housing 60. The transmission gear 40 meshes with the cord gear 41.

On the other hand, the rack teeth 1 of the drive cord 10
The distal end side 11 without 3 corresponds to a length portion stored in the telescopic unit 30 when the telescopic unit 30 is contracted, as shown by reference numeral A in FIG. That is, this portion corresponds to a storage allowance portion required when the extendable unit 30 contracts, and is a portion that does not originally mesh with the cord gear portion 41 of the transmission gear 40. In other words, it is an unnecessary portion of the rack teeth 13. In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a margin portion B is provided in the rack tooth portion 13 and a drive portion C extending linearly is continued from this portion. FIG. 3 shows an outline of these relationships.

The drive gear 42 of the drive gear 40 includes a drive gear 5 mounted on a drive shaft 51 of a drive source 50 housed in a drive source housing 63 of a housing 60.
The drive cord 10 moves forward and backward by the forward and reverse rotation of the transmission gear 40 driven by the drive source 50, whereby the extendable unit 30 expands and contracts.

As shown in FIG. 2, the drive portion C of the drive cord 10 extending linearly is
0 is housed in a protective case body 70 attached to the housing. Although not shown, a power cord is embedded in the longitudinal direction of the drive cord 10 in the resin so that the light emitting rod 22 is energized. As shown in FIG. 2, the drive cord 10 and the drive source 50 can be appropriately energized by a power cord 81 and a connector 82 wired to an appropriate portion of the housing 60.

As described above, in the case of the drive cord 10 of the present invention, since the rack teeth 13 are not provided on the distal end 11 corresponding to the storage margin contracted by the telescopic unit 30, a large rigidity is obtained. As a result, deformation such as bending or bending hardly occurs over a long period of time. Moreover, this tip side 1
In the case of No. 1, since it is a portion which is housed in a substantially straight line in the telescopic unit 30, not much flexibility is required, and even if the rigidity is increased, the drive cord 10 itself is hardly moved forward and backward. There is no adverse effect. Therefore, smooth expansion and contraction of the expansion unit 30 can be ensured for a long period of time.

The front end 11 of the drive cord 10
Since the thickness of the resin is increased due to the absence of the rack teeth 13, an improvement in resistance to temperature changes can be expected. Further, the bending stress due to the structure of the housing is shared only by the cord portion having the rack teeth portion 13 by increasing the rigidity of the distal end side 11,
It can be handled in a natural manner, and unnatural bending or bending in a long section is effectively prevented.

The production of such a drive cord 10 is as follows.
Although not particularly limited, it can be manufactured, for example, by a method as shown in FIG. That is, a predetermined resin pered such as polyacetal resin or the like is supplied to the resin receiver (hopper) 110 of the extruder 100, and the extruding die portion 12
From 0, the resin cord 12 portion of the drive cord 10 is extruded in a belt shape.

Thereafter, the gear guide 210 is guided to a tooth forming apparatus 200 having a gear 210 for forming a rack tooth part which is accommodated in a vertically movable manner. The rack teeth 13 may be formed intermittently and then cut at predetermined dimensions. Of course, the section in which the rack teeth 13 are formed is a section corresponding to the margin allowance portion B and the driving portion C of the rack teeth 13 shown in FIG. 3, and the rack teeth 13 are formed by raising the gear 210. The section not to be used is the tip side 1 shown in FIG.
This is a section of the storage allowance portion A of No. 1.

As a result, the drive cord 10 can be manufactured at low cost. Particularly, if the rack teeth 13 are formed continuously after the resin cord 12 is extruded and the resin temperature is appropriately lowered, extremely high productivity can be obtained. Of course, after the resin cord 12 is formed, the rack teeth 13 can be formed discontinuously.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the resin cord 12 of the drive cord 10 is extruded from the extrusion die 120 of the extruder into a substantially cylindrical shape (an elliptical column shape is also possible). The rack teeth 13 may be intermittently formed on one side (upper side) of the resin cord 12 by vertically moving the gear 210 for forming the rack teeth. Here, preferably, the resin cord 1
The hole diameter D2 of the guide hole 220 of the tooth part forming device 200 may be slightly smaller than the hole diameter D1 of the two extruded holes 130. Thereby, the guide hole 220 of the tooth part forming device 200 can respond smoothly to a decrease in the resin temperature after extrusion, and stable guiding can be performed.

The drive code 1 thus obtained
In the case of No. 0, as shown in FIG. 6, the storage margin portion A on the distal end side 11 has a columnar shape, so that greater rigidity can be obtained. Also,
Since the rear side of the rack teeth 13 as well as the front end 11 is semicircular, the sliding property is good in contact with the inner wall side of the extendable unit 30 and the inner wall side of the housing 60, and a smoother drive is possible. The code 10 can be moved forward and backward.

In the above embodiment, the electric retractable vehicle corner pole has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a telescopic drive device such as a vehicle rod antenna.

[0029]

According to the telescopic drive device according to the present invention, the length of the length of the drive cord to be accommodated in the telescopic unit when the telescopic unit is contracted at the distal end side of the drive cord to be used has no rack teeth. Therefore, large rigidity can be obtained, and deformation such as bending or bending does not easily occur over a long period, and excellent characteristics can be obtained. In addition, improvement in resistance to temperature changes can be expected, and a natural response to bending stress due to the structure of the housing can be achieved.

According to the method of manufacturing a drive cord according to the present invention, the resin material is extruded in a belt shape by an extruder to form a resin cord made of a continuous elongated body.
Since the gears for forming the rack teeth are intermittently pressed against one side of the resin cord to form the rack teeth, inexpensive manufacturing becomes possible. In particular, when the resin cord is extruded in a cylindrical shape, good sliding properties can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial vertical sectional side view showing an example of a telescopic drive device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the entire telescopic drive device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing a relationship among a drive cord, a telescopic unit, and a transmission key in the telescopic drive device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic explanatory view showing one example of a method of manufacturing a drive cord according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view showing another example of a method of manufacturing a drive cord according to the present invention.

6 is a perspective view showing a drive cord obtained by the method of manufacturing the drive cord of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic explanatory view showing one step of a conventional method of manufacturing a drive code.

FIG. 8 is a schematic explanatory view showing a driving state of a drive cord in a conventional vehicle conner pole.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Drive cord 11 Drive cord tip side 12 Resin cord 13 Rack teeth 20 Plural cylindrical pole rods 21 Innermost cylindrical pole rod 30 Telescopic unit 40 Transmission gear 50 Drive source 60 Housing 100 Extruder 120 Extrusion die part 200 Tooth Forming Device 210 Gear for Forming Rack Tooth

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A flexible elongate body having a plurality of cylindrical pole rods assembled so as to be able to expand and contract, and a flexible elongated body having a rack tooth part, and a tip end of the elongate body is the innermost part of the extendable unit. A drive cord attached to the vicinity of the inner end of the cylindrical pole rod for moving forward and backward inside the telescopic unit to expand and contract the cylindrical pole rod, and a transmission gear to the rack teeth of the drive cord. In a telescopic drive device provided with a linked driving source, a length portion accommodated in the telescopic unit at the distal end side of the drive cord and when the telescopic unit is contracted is a portion without a rack tooth portion. Telescopic drive device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The telescopic drive device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of cylindrical pole rods are a conner pole rod or an antenna rod for a vehicle. 3. After extruding a resin material into a belt shape by an extruder to form a resin cord made of a continuous elongated body,
A method of manufacturing a drive cord for an expansion / contraction drive, wherein a gear for molding a rack tooth portion is intermittently pressed against one side of the resin cord.