JPH0332015Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Industrial application field This invention relates to a horn switch mechanism for a steering wheel.

Assemble the horn pad so as to cover almost the entire upper surface of the hub part of the wheel body, and when the horn pad is pressed, the contact plate attached to the horn pad and supported by the boss plate so as to be movable up and down via a spring is activated to turn on the horn switch. This horn switch mechanism is designed to absorb the initial backlash that occurs when assembling the contact plate.

Prior Art Conventionally, in this type of steering wheel, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a hub shaft 3 is connected to a ring portion 1 through a spoke portion 2 and is pivotally supported by a steering shaft (not shown). The horn pad 4, which is assembled so as to cover the entire upper surface, is attached by fitting a contact plate 5 to the lower end of its shaft portion 4a, and a spacer 9 in which the contact plate 5 is fixed onto a boss plate 6 via an insulator 7 with a screw 8. By fitting the spring 10 between the insulator 7 and the contact plate 5 so as to be vertically movable, the contact plate 5 is supported at the upper limit position where it contacts the upper end flange 9a of the spacer 9. The contact plate 5 has feet 5a and 5b hanging downward, and contacts 11 and 12 are attached to the lower end surfaces of the feet 5a and 5b, and the pad 4 is pushed so that the contact plate 5 resists the spring 10. When lowered, one or both of the contacts 11 and 12 come into contact with contacts 13 and 15 provided on the boss plate 6, thereby forming a closed circuit and causing the horn to sound.

The contact plate 5 is connected to a power source of the vehicle through a harness, a contact ring (not shown), etc., and the boss plate 6 is connected to a power source through a boss, a main shaft (not shown), etc.

In the above device, the outer diameter of the shaft portion 9b of the spacer 9 and the spacer fitting hole 5c of the contact plate 5 are
The inner diameter is the appropriate clearance required for horn operation1.
It has a value of 9. However, the gap 19 causes a problem in that the contact plate 5 rattles, which in turn causes the pad 4 to rattle, and also has the disadvantage that abnormal noise is generated between the contact plate 5 and the spacer 9 due to vibration during driving. Ta. Furthermore, there is a misalignment between the pitch between the spacer fitting holes 5c formed in the contact plate 5 and the pitch of the screw holes 6a formed in the boss plate 6 into which the screws 8 for fixing the spacer 9 to the boss plate 6 are screwed. If this occurs, the contact plate 5 is attached eccentrically to the spacer 9, and the above-mentioned moderate gap 19 is
There was a problem in that the horn was not secured and the horn operation was hindered.

Purpose of the invention This invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems. It eliminates the initial play that occurs when assembling the contact plate to the spacer, prevents the pad from shaking, and also improves the space between the spacer fitting holes of the contact plate. Even if there is a misalignment between the pitch of the contact plate and the pitch of the screw hole of the boss plate, eccentricity between the contact plate and the spacer can be prevented, and the horn can be operated smoothly.

Structure and operation of the device In this device, a spacer is attached to a boss plate via an insulator with screws, a contact plate is fitted to the spacer so as to be movable up and down, and a spring is compressed between the contact plate and the insulator. , the shaft part of the pad that covers the entire upper surface of the hub part is attached to the contact plate to elastically support the pad and the contact plate, and when the pad is pressed, the contact plate descends and the horn switch is turned on, in which the spacer is attached to the contact plate. The contact plate has a shaft portion on which the plate slides and a flange portion for hanging the contact plate at the upper end of the shank portion, which is approximately T-shaped in cross section, and a tapered portion is formed from the flange portion to the shaft portion, and a hole is formed in the contact plate. The inner circumferential surface of the spacer fitting hole should be in slidable contact with the tapered part, and the inner diameter of the screw hole to be drilled through the shaft of the spacer should be set to the outside of the boss plate mounting screw. By making the shape larger than the diameter of the spacer, the gap between the pitch between the spacer fitting holes of the contact plate and the screw hole pitch of the boss plate can be reduced by increasing the gap between the inside diameter of the screw hole of the spacer and the outside diameter of the screw.
The tapered part of the spacer and the spring force are used to absorb the force, eliminating eccentricity between the contact plate and the spacer, and by keeping the contact plate in constant contact with the tapered part of the spacer, play is eliminated without interfering with horn operability. The present invention provides a horn switch mechanism for a steering wheel that prevents this from occurring.

Embodiments This invention will be explained in detail below with reference to embodiments shown in FIG. 4 and below. Note that the configuration other than the contact plate, spacer, and screw is the same as that of the conventional example described above, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in the figure, the spacer 20 provided on the boss plate 6 via the insulator 7 has a substantially T-shaped cross section with a flange portion 20b projecting outward at the upper end of a cylindrical shaft portion 20a for sliding the contact plate. A tapered portion 20c is formed from the lower end of the flange portion 20b to the upper side of the flange portion 20b, at a portion that was conventionally bent at a right angle. The diameter d of the spacer fitting hole 21a of the contact plate 21, which is slidably fitted into the shaft portion 20a of the spacer 20, is the maximum outer diameter of the upper end of the tapered portion 20c.
Same as D ₁ , set larger than the minimum outer diameter D ₂ of the lower end, (D ₁ = d > D ₂ ) the tapered part 20 of the spacer 20
The contact plate 21 is configured to slide vertically from the upper end of the shaft portion 20a to the shaft portion 20a.

Further, a screw insertion hole 20d is formed through the axial center of the spacer 20, and the inner diameter s of the screw insertion hole 20d is set larger than the outer diameter t of the screw 22 for attaching the boss plate (s> t), screw 22 and hole 20
A larger gap c than before is created between d and d.

Contact plate 2 is attached to the spacer 20 described above.
1, the insulator 7 is placed on the boss plate 6, the coil spring 10 is placed on the spring receiver 7a of the insulator 7, and the spacer 20 is placed on the upper end of the insulator 7. , the screws 22 are loosely inserted into the screw insertion holes 20d of the spacer 20 and then screwed into the screw holes 7b and 6a formed in the insulator 7 and the boss plate 6 to be assembled. By tightening the screw 22, the upper end of the spring 10 comes into contact with the lower surface of the outer periphery of the spacer fitting hole 21a of the contact plate 21, and as the spring 10 is compressed between the contact plate 21 and the insulator 7, the contact plate 21 force upward.
At that time, if there is a misalignment between the pitch between the spacer fitting holes 21a of the contact plate 21 and the pitch of the screw holes 6a drilled in the boss plate 6, the force of the spring 10 pushing up the contact plate 21 will be applied to the contact plate 21 and the spacer. 20, the force of the spring 10 causes the contact plate 21 to slide up the tapered portion 20c of the spacer 20 as shown in FIG. 7A. At this time, the spacer 20 is pushed by the contact plate 21 and moves in the radial direction, and as shown in FIG. The plate 21 and the spacer 20 are not eccentric, and the spacer 2
The contact plate 2 is attached to the bottom surface of the collar portion 20b of
1 are in contact with each other when assembled. Therefore, the contact plate 21 and the pad 4 attached to the contact plate 21 are elastically supported so as to be vertically movable.

With the above structure, the contact plate 21 is coaxial with the spacer 20 and is assembled to the spacer 20 without any gaps, so there is no looseness that occurs during assembly, and the pads attached to the contact plate 21 are There is no backlash. Therefore, the pad does not rattle due to vibrations while the vehicle is running, and no abnormal noise is generated between the contact plate 21 and the spacer 20. Furthermore, when pressing the pad to sound the horn, the contact plate 21 is connected to the tapered portion 20 of the spacer 20.
Since the contact plate 21 moves downward from the upper end of the maximum diameter of c, the contact plate 21 can be pushed down easily because it is not smaller in diameter, but it also slides back along the tapered part 20c during automatic return, so the contact plate 21 can move up and down smoothly. , there will be no problem with horn operation.

It goes without saying that this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and that the mounting positions of the contacts provided on the contact plate and the boss plate can be changed as appropriate.

Effects As is clear from the above explanation, according to this invention, a tapered part is formed in the spacer to which the contact plate is slidably attached, and the insertion hole for the screw to be attached to the boss plate is set to be considerably larger than the outer diameter of the screw. Since there is a large gap between the contact plate and the spacer, there is no eccentricity between the contact plate and the spacer.
Moreover, it is assembled in such a way that there is no looseness. Therefore, while the vehicle is running, it is possible to prevent backlash and abnormal noise from occurring due to vibrations, and the horn can be operated smoothly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a steering wheel with a horn pad, and Fig. 2 is a conventional example.
3 is a sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 2, FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part showing an embodiment of this invention, and FIG. The figure is a sectional view of the spacer, and FIGS. 7A and 7B are sectional views when assembled. 6...Boss plate, 7...Insulator,
10...Spring, 20...Spacer, 20a
...Shaft portion, 20b...Brim portion, 20c...Tapered portion, 20d...Screw insertion hole, 21...Contact plate, 21a...Spacer fitting hole, 22...
screw.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] A spacer is attached to the boss plate via an insulator with screws, a contact plate is fitted to the spacer so as to be movable up and down, and a spring is compressed between the contact plate and the insulator. , the shaft part of the pad that covers the entire upper surface of the hub part is attached to the contact plate to elastically support the pad and the contact plate, and when the pad is pressed, the contact plate descends and the horn switch is turned on, in which the spacer is attached to the contact plate. The contact plate has a shaft portion on which the plate slides and a flange portion for hanging the contact plate at the upper end of the shank portion, which is approximately T-shaped in cross section, and a tapered portion is formed from the flange portion to the shaft portion, and a hole is formed in the contact plate. The inner circumferential surface of the spacer fitting hole should be in slidable contact with the tapered part, and the inner diameter of the screw insertion hole to be drilled through the shaft of the spacer should be the same as that of the boss plate mounting screw. A horn switch mechanism for a steering wheel, characterized in that the spacer has a shape larger than the outer diameter, and the gap absorbs misalignment between the spacer fitting hole and the screw hole of the boss plate, and the spacer and the contact plate are assembled concentrically.