JP2006183799A - Rotational resistance device, and pedal device provided with rotational resistance device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensively manufacturable rotational resistance device not needing high machining accuracy, and having a comparatively small number of components. <P>SOLUTION: The rotational resistance device 10 is provided with cylindrical housings 12 and 12b having a hollow part 12a around a predetermined axis O, a shaft body 14 extended along the axis O, and supported by the housings so as to freely rotate around the axis O, a rotor 20 arranged in the housings 12 and 12b so as to freely rotate in both directions around the axis along with the shaft body 14, and a spring member 22 attached to an outer circumferential face of the rotor 20 such that it can contact inner circumferential faces of the housings 12 and 12b. Radii of the inner circumferential faces of the housings 12 and 12b in regard to the axis O are formed such that they become gradually smaller toward one of the rotating directions of the rotor 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a rotation resistance device used for an accelerator pedal of an automobile, and more particularly to a rotation resistance device in which hysteresis is generated in resistance depending on a rotation direction, and a pedal device including the rotation resistance device.

  An accelerator pedal device for an automobile includes a case fixed to a vehicle body, a rotor rotatably disposed in the case, a pedal arm connected to the rotor, and a pedal arm disposed between the pedal arm and the case. A return spring for returning to the rest position, an accelerator position sensor for detecting the rotation position of the pedal arm, and the like are provided. In addition, in the accelerator pedal device, in consideration of the driver's operability, etc., the rotation resistance device generates a hysteresis that generates the pedal force required for the operation of the accelerator pedal according to different paths when the accelerator pedal is depressed and when the accelerator pedal is returned. Is provided. Patent Document 1 discloses an example of such an accelerator pedal device.

  In the pedal device disclosed in Patent Document 1, the inclined surface of the rotating body connected to the pedal arm and the coiled spring in the axial direction toward the rotating body in the case are contacted with the inclined surface of the rotating body. A movable body having an inclined surface and operating the pedal arm to move the movable body in the axial direction against the urging force of the coil spring when the rotating body rotates. It has become.

JP 2001-51737 A

  In the pedal device disclosed in Patent Document 1, the pedaling force is given hysteresis by the frictional force acting on two inclined surfaces that move relative to each other, but the inclined surfaces slide while contacting each other, but the cam surface Therefore, the inclined surface is required to have high machining accuracy and the number of parts is increased.

Therefore, the present invention has a technical problem to solve the problems of the conventional technology, and provides a rotational resistance device that does not require high processing accuracy and that can be manufactured at a low cost with a relatively small number of components. It is an object.
Furthermore, this invention aims at providing the pedal apparatus provided with this rotation resistance apparatus.

  The present invention according to claim 1 is a cylindrical housing having a hollow portion centered on a predetermined axis, and a shaft body that extends along the axis and is rotatably supported by the housing about a coaxial line. A rotor disposed in the housing together with the shaft body so as to be rotatable in both directions around the axis, and a spring member attached to the outer peripheral surface of the rotor so as to be in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the housing; And the radius of the inner peripheral surface of the housing with respect to the axis is a rotational resistance device formed so as to gradually become smaller in any one of the rotation directions of the rotor.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pedal arm rotatably supported through a bracket fixed to a vehicle body, a pad attached to one end of the pedal arm and stepped on by a user's foot, and the pedal The rotation resistance according to claim 1, further comprising: an accelerator position sensor that has a sensing lever that engages with the other end of the arm and detects a rotational position or a depression amount of the pedal arm; a return spring that returns the pedal arm to a rest position; And an accelerator pedal device in which the pedal arm is connected to the shaft body.

  According to the present invention, when the rotor rotates in the first direction, the inner peripheral surface of the housing is formed so that the radius gradually decreases toward the first direction of the rotor. The spring member is gradually compressed and biased radially inward by the inner peripheral surface of the housing. Therefore, the load for biasing the spring member inward in the radial direction and the load based on the frictional force acting between the spring member and the inner peripheral surface of the housing are rotated in the first direction of the rotor. It increases generally in proportion to the amount, so the rotational resistance also increases. On the other hand, when the rotor rotates in the second direction, the force that the spring member tries to spread acts to rotate the rotor in the second direction, so that the rotational resistance becomes small.

  The spring member is compressed through contact with the inner peripheral surface of the housing when the rotor rotates in the first direction, and resists rotation of the rotor in the first direction. On the contrary, when the rotor rotates in the second direction, the rotor is biased in the second direction with respect to the inner peripheral surface of the housing. As described above, according to the present invention, the direction of the force generated by the spring member with respect to the rotation direction of the rotor is reversed between when the rotor rotates in the first direction and when the rotor rotates in the second direction. By utilizing this, the resistance acting on the rotor is changed.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
First, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an accelerator pedal device 100 is shown as a pedal device to which the rotational resistance device of the present invention is applied. The accelerator pedal device 100 includes a bracket 102 fixed to a vehicle body, a pedal arm 104, a pad 106 attached to one end of the pedal arm 104, and a sensing lever 108a engaged with the other end of the pedal arm 104. An accelerator position sensor 108 for detecting the rotation position or the amount of depression, a return spring 110 for returning the pedal arm 104 to the rest position, and the rotation resistance device 10.

  The rotation resistance device 10 includes a cylindrical bottomed case 12 centering on an axis O, and a lid 12b that closes an opening of the case 12. The case 12 and the lid body 12b form a housing that defines a hollow portion 12a that houses a rotor 20 and a spring member 22 described later. The housings 12 and 12b support a shaft body or shaft 14 extending along the axis O so as to be rotatable about the axis O via bushes 16 and 18.

  The rotor 20 is disposed in the housings 12 and 12b together with the shaft 14 so as to be rotatable in both directions as indicated by an arrow R, that is, in the first and second directions. A spring member 22 (see FIGS. 3 and 4) is disposed. In the present embodiment, the rotor 20 has a plurality of protrusions 20a having an arcuate outer peripheral surface with a predetermined radius and protruding in the radial direction, and is formed in a spline shape as a whole. Here, in the present specification, the predetermined radius is defined as a reference radius.

  The spring member 22 can be formed by pressing a thin plate made of spring steel, and includes a main body portion 22a, a plurality of tongue portions 22b protruding outward from the main body portion 22a, and both circumferential ends of the main body portion 22a. It has the engaging part 22c formed by bending. The main body portion 22a is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape so that its inner peripheral surface is curved along an arc according to the reference radius. The tongue portion 22b can be formed by cutting out a part of the side wall of the main body portion 22a, leaving the base end portion 22d, and the distal end portion 22e bulges in the radial direction from the cylindrical outer peripheral surface of the main body portion 22a. ing.

  On the inner peripheral surface of the case 12, there are a minimum radius portion 12b having a minimum radius equal to the reference radius plus the plate thickness of the spring member 22, and a maximum radius portion 12c adjacent to the minimum radius portion 12b. The inner peripheral surface of the case 12 is formed such that the radius gradually decreases from the maximum radius portion 12c toward the minimum radius portion 12b in the rotation direction of the rotor 20 when the pedal arm 104 is depressed. ing. The minimum radius portion 12b and the maximum radius portion 12c are provided in accordance with the number of tongue portions 22a of the spring member 22. Therefore, in this embodiment, three minimum radius portions 12b and maximum radius portions 12c are provided every 120 °. Is provided.

Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described along the process of starting from the rest position shown in FIG. 5, going through the maximum depression position shown in FIG. 6, and returning to the rest position again.
In FIG. 5, no operating force is applied to the pedal arm 104, and the pedal arm 104 is biased to the rest position by the return spring 110. When the user steps on the pedal pad 106 attached to one end of the pedal arm 104 with his / her foot 112, the pedal arm 104 swings in the clockwise direction in FIGS. As a result, the rotor 20 connected to the pedal arm 104 via the shaft 14 also rotates in the clockwise direction in FIGS.

When the pedal arm 104 is in the rest position, the tongue portion 22a of the spring member 22 is disposed between the maximum radius portion 12c and the minimum radius portion 12b along the inner peripheral surface of the case 12. When the user steps on the pedal pad 106 and the rotor 20 rotates, the tongue portion 22a of the spring member 22 moves along the inner peripheral surface of the case 12 toward the minimum radius portion 12b. As a result, the tongue 22 a is urged radially inward by the inner peripheral surface of the case 12. Therefore, a load by the return spring 110 acting on the pedal arm 104, a load for urging the tongue 22a of the spring member 22 radially inward (indicated by an arrow A in FIG. 6), and an outer peripheral surface of the tongue 22a And the load based on the frictional force acting between the inner peripheral surface of the case 12 increases substantially in proportion to the depression amount of the pedal arm 104. Accordingly, the pedal effort required to step on the pedal arm 104 increases in proportion to the amount of depression, as indicated by reference numeral F ₁ in FIG.

When returning to the rest position, as shown by an arrow A 'in FIG. 5, in order to force the tongue 22a is going Hirogaro of the spring member 22 which has been compressed is applied, reference 7 code F ₂ As shown, the pedaling force is smaller than when the pedal arm 104 is depressed, that is, when the pedal arm 104 is moved to the maximum depressed position. Thus, the pedaling force F changes along different paths at the time of stepping on and returning, and the pedaling force F can be given hysteresis.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications are possible.
For example, in the embodiment described above, the three tongue portions 22a are arranged at equal angular intervals in the circumferential direction, but the number of the tongue portions 22a is appropriately selected in consideration of the rotation angle range of the rotor 22. be able to.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the rotation resistance device of the present invention is applied to an accelerator pedal device has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, for example, a console box of a car or a hinge of a door of a glove box You may incorporate the rotation resistance apparatus of this invention in a part.

It is sectional drawing which follows the arrow line II-II in FIG. 2 of the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention. It is sectional drawing which follows the arrow I-I in FIG. 1 of the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention. It is an end view of the spring member of the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the spring member and rotor of the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention. It is a schematic side view of the accelerator pedal apparatus provided with the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention, and is a figure which shows a rest position. It is a schematic side view of the accelerator pedal apparatus provided with the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention, and is a figure which shows the maximum depression position. It is a graph which shows the change of the treading force of the accelerator pedal apparatus provided with the preferable rotation resistance apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Rotation resistance apparatus 12 Case 14 Shaft 16 Bush 18 Bush 20 Rotor 22 Spring member 100 Accelerator pedal apparatus 102 Bracket 104 Pedal arm 106 Pad 108 Accelerator position sensor 110 Return spring

Claims (2)

A cylindrical housing having a hollow portion centered on a predetermined axis;
A shaft that extends along the axis and is rotatably supported by the housing about a coaxial line;
A rotor disposed in the housing so as to be rotatable in both directions around the axis together with the shaft body;
A spring member attached to the outer peripheral surface of the rotor so as to be in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the housing;
A rotation resistance device in which a radius of an inner peripheral surface of the housing with respect to the axis is gradually reduced in any one of the rotation directions of the rotor. A pedal arm rotatably supported via a bracket fixed to the vehicle body;
A pad attached to one end of the pedal arm and stepped on by a user's foot;
An accelerator position sensor that has a sensing lever engaged with the other end of the pedal arm and detects a rotational position or a depression amount of the pedal arm;
A return spring that returns the pedal arm to the rest position;
A rotation resistance device according to claim 1;
An accelerator pedal device in which the pedal arm is connected to the shaft body.

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