JPS62157860A - Steering wheel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit a horn switch to actuate reliably at all times, by forming in a late shape a horn switch disposed at the pad portion of a steering wheel and arranging the base of a horn switch member and a contact plate in parallel. CONSTITUTION:A steering wheel has a boss plate 5 fixed to the periphery of a boss 3 tighteningly fixed to the extreme end of a steering shaft 1 by a nut 4 and it is fixed to a core metals 8 of 2 spoke portions extending to the periphery of the plate 5 in a V-shape. In addition, a pad portion 17 of synthetic resin is disposed at the front of the boss plate 5 and a horn switch 21 is integrally provided at the inclined surface 18 disposed at its front surface side. In this case, the horn switch is formed in a plate-shape and a horn switch member 28 comprising a base 29 and contact plate 41 and the like, which are parallel with respect to the inclined surface 18 one another, is fixedly disposed between both cylindrical mounting projections 25 provided with both the ends of the horn switch 21 on the rear surface of the inclined surface 18 and extending downwardly.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Purpose of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a steering wheel attached to a vehicle such as an automobile, and more specifically relates to a mounting structure for a horn switch mechanism attached to a pad portion of the steering wheel. be.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, there is a steering wheel in which a pad portion has a three-dimensional appearance, in which a front side portion of the pad portion is provided with an inclined surface that is inclined toward a column side.

In this steering wheel, the horn switch mechanism integrated with the skin part, in which at least a part of the inclined surface thereof is used as the horn switch of the horn switch mechanism, is generally formed as shown below.

That is, as shown in FIG.
is integrally formed, and its lower surface 63a is formed perpendicular to the axial direction of the steering shaft 64. Further, cylindrical mounting protrusions 65 are similarly integrally formed at both ends (only one is shown) of the protrusion 63, and the lower surface 65a thereof is also formed perpendicular to the axial direction of the steering shaft 64. There is.

A base 67 to which a negative terminal of a horn power source is connected, a contact plate 68 to which a positive terminal is connected are connected between the two protrusions 65, and an insulating sheet 70 is installed between the two members 67. A horn switch member 71 is attached which includes a leaf spring 69 that prevents the horn switch 68 from coming into contact with the horn switch member 71 at all times.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) When operating the horn switch mechanism configured as described above, the direction in which the operator presses the horn switch 62 is SL, which is a direction perpendicular to the inclined surface 61.

On the other hand, since the operating direction of the contact plate 68 relative to the base 67 of the switch member 71 due to the pressing of the horn switch 62 is the direction S2 parallel to the axis of the steering shaft 64, the directions S1 and S2 do not match.
As a result, the contact plate 68 rolled, resulting in a poor operating feeling. Further, in some cases, the contact plate 68 and the base 67 may not come into contact with each other and the horn may not sound.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a steering wheel in which the operating direction S1 of the horn switch 62 and the operating direction S2 of the horn switch member 71 match, and the operating feeling of the horn mechanism itself is good, and the reliability of the horn switch is improved. Our goal is to provide wheels.

Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention forms a horn switch into a plate shape, and connects a base of the horn switch member and a contact plate to the horn switch. A method of arranging them parallel to each other is adopted.

(Function) Since the plate-shaped horn switch formed on the inclined surface and the base and contact plate of the horn switch member attached to the back surface are arranged parallel to each other, the direction in which the horn switch is pressed and the horn switch The operating direction of the member matches.

(Example) An example embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

A steering shaft 1 is rotatably provided at the front end of a column 2 of an automobile.
A metal boss 3 is fastened and fixed to the tip by a nut 4. A metal boss plate 5 is fixed to the outer periphery of the boss 3 via three connecting members 6 (only one is shown) having a curved cross section.

Two spoke part core metals 8 extending in a V-shape are fixed to the edge of the boss plate by welding or the like, and a ring part core metal 9 formed in an annular shape is fixed to the tip by welding or the like. It is fixed.

Further, the surfaces of the spoke part core metal 8 and the ring part core metal 9 are coated with a coating material lOa made of synthetic resin such as urethane, and a skin 10b is further wound around the outer side of the coating material lOa to cover the ring part 11 and the spoke respectively. A portion 12 is formed.

A lower cover 14 made of synthetic resin that covers the boss plate 5 is screwed onto the back surface of the boss plate 5 with bolts 15, and a wall portion 14a that faces upward and stands upright is integrally formed at the edge of the lower cover 14. .

A three-dimensional synthetic resin pad portion 17 is arranged in front of the boss plate 5.

Therefore, on the front side of the pad section 17, there is formed an inclined surface 18 that slopes toward the column side, and a flat section 20 on which switches 19 for a radio, an air conditioner, a constant speed driving device, etc. are attached. .

A horn switch 21, which is formed in a plate shape with the same thickness as the inclined surface 18 and has a trapezoidal shape as a whole, is integrally provided on a part of the inclined surface 18,
A groove 22 is recessed in its outer periphery. Also, the inclined surface 1
A similar groove 23 is recessed on the back surface opposite to the groove 22 of No. 8, and the horn switch 21 surrounded by the groove 22, 23 can be moved independently with respect to the other inclined surface 18. . Two protrusions 24 extending in the longitudinal direction of the horn switch 21 are integrally formed on the back surface of the horn switch 21.

At both ends of the horn switch 21 on the back surface of the inclined surface 18, downwardly directed cylindrical mounting protrusions 25 (only one is shown in FIG. 1) are integrally formed.
5a is formed to be perpendicular to the axis of the steering shaft 1. Further, a screw hole 26 is similarly screwed into the lower surface 25a so as to be parallel to the axis of the steering shaft 1.

An assembled horn switch member 28 is arranged and fixed in parallel with the inclined surface 18 between the two numbered protrusions 25, and the horn switch member 28 will be described in detail below.

As shown in FIG. 3, a horn spring 31 is fixed to the upper surface of a base 29 made of conductive metal in the shape of a rectangular plate by a conductive rivet 30 at its center. has been done. Furthermore, an insulating sheet 32 made of synthetic resin is interposed between the base 29 and the horn spring 31.
Thus, the center portion of the horn spring 31 and the rivet 30 are insulated from the base 29. A positive terminal 40 of a horn switch power source is connected to the lower end of the rivet 30 while being insulated from the base 29, and contacts 31a are formed at both ends of the horn spring 31 to project upward and downward. A copper contact member 33 exhibiting high conductivity is arranged and fixed below the contact point 31a in the base 29, and a through hole 34 is provided on the outside thereof. Inside the through hole 34 is a cylindrical member 43a having a tapered side wall and the through hole 34.
A locking rod 43 composed of a locking protrusion 43b formed with a larger diameter is loosely fitted.

A rectangular plate-shaped contact plate 41 is attached to the upper surface of the base 29 with a screw 44 screwed into the lower surface of the locking rod 43.
The contact plate 41 is attached by screwing its tips into screw holes 45 formed at both ends of the contact plate 41. Therefore, the horn spring 31 installed between the base 29 and the contact plate 41 presses the contact plate 41 upward by its own spring force. Further, a longitudinally extending protrusion 46 is integrally formed at the center of the upper surface of the contact plate 41.

A downwardly projecting piece 35 is integrally formed at both ends of the base 29 in the longitudinal direction, and a connecting piece is bent outward at 90 degrees at approximately the center thereof and comes into contact with the lower surface 25a of the mounting protrusion 25. 36 are formed. Further, the protruding piece 35 itself is integrally formed in a state inclined with respect to an axis perpendicular to the upper surface of the base 29, and a connecting hole 37 communicating with the screw hole 26 is transparently provided in the connecting piece 36. . Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the lower surface 2 of the mounting protrusion 25
By overlapping the threaded hole 26 of 5a and the connecting hole 37 of the connecting piece 36 and screwing the screw 38 together, the base 29 of the horn switch member 28 and the contact plate 41 are connected.
and are attached parallel to the inclined surface 18. A negative terminal 39 of the horn switch power supply is connected to the one connecting piece 36, and the negative terminal 39 and the positive terminal 40 are connected to the control section 19a in which the switch 19 is provided. A harness connected to the boss plate 5 and a harness (not shown) connected to the column 2 side by a connector (not shown) are connected to the control section 19a.

Two engagement members (only one is shown) 48 having an undercut portion 47 are formed integrally with the control portion 19a on the lower surface thereof. Also, two engaging members (only one is shown) are provided at the lower end of the inclined surface 18.
48, a positioning abutment member 50, and a force 9 are integrally formed with the inclined surface 18.

A locking member 52 having a locking hole is integrally formed on the lower cover 14 corresponding to each of the locking members 48 . Therefore, when assembling the pad portion 17 to the lower cover 14 attached to the boss plate 5, the undercut portion 47 of the engaging member 48 is inserted into the engaging hole of the locking member 52. Just lock it.

In the steering wheel configured as above, the operation of the horn mechanism will be described together with the effects.

First, when the horn switch 21 disposed on the inclined surface 18 of the pad section 17 is pressed, the pressing force is applied to the inclined surface 18.
The direction PL is perpendicular to . Then, due to this pressing force in the P1 direction, only the horn switch 21 moves independently and presses the contact plate 41. The pressed contact plate 41 presses the horn spring 31 downward against its own elastic force, and brings its contact point 31a into contact with the contact member 33. Then, the positive terminal 40 connected to the horn spring 31 and the negative terminal 39 connected to the connecting piece 36 are electrically connected, and a horn (not shown) sounds.

At this time, the moving direction of the contact plate 41 moved by the pressing force P1 is a direction P2 perpendicular to the inclined surface 18, which coincides with the pressing direction P1. Therefore, no matter which part of the horn switch 21 is pressed, the horn switch mechanism operates reliably, so that the operating feeling is improved and contact failures do not occur.

In addition, as a method for attaching the horn switch member 28 parallel to the inclined surface 18, the protruding pieces 35 at both ends of the base 29 are formed obliquely with respect to the upper surface of the base 29. can be used as is.

Furthermore, the mounting protrusion 25 provided on the pad portion 17, the engaging member 48. When the pad portion 17 is formed by injection molding, the contact member 50 needs to be aligned with the drawing direction of the injection mold due to the three-dimensional shape of the pad portion 17.
If this is not done, the molded product will not come out of the mold (in order to pull it out, the mold must be equipped with a complicated mechanism such as a slide core, which increases the molding cost. According to this structure, since the engaging member 48 and the like can be aligned with the direction of removal of the mold, it is very effective because it can be done at low manufacturing cost without providing a complicated a structure such as a slide core in the mold.

Furthermore, since the grooves 22 and 23 are provided on the outer surface and back surface of the horn switch 21, the horn switch 21 can easily move independently from the other inclined surface 18, and the horn switch 21 can be operated with a small pressing force. can.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
For example, it is also possible to implement the following modifications.

(1) In addition to the horn switch 21 of this embodiment,
Two or more may be provided.

(2) The configuration of the switch member 28 is not limited to the configuration of this embodiment, and any other configuration may be used as long as the positive terminal and the negative terminal are attached via an elastic member. .

(3) In addition to this embodiment, the shape of the connecting piece 36 is an uneven holding piece 56 that holds the mounting protrusion 25 as shown in FIG.
may be provided. This allows the switch member 28 to be easily positioned during installation.

Effects of the Invention As detailed above, the present invention provides a plate-shaped horn switch integrally provided on the sloped surface of the pad portion, and a base and a contact plate on the back surface of the horn switch, and an elastic member mounted therebetween. Since the base and the contact plate are arranged parallel to each other and the horn switch, the pressing direction of the horn switch and the operating direction of the horn switch member coincide with each other. Therefore, not only can the horn switch be reliably activated no matter which part of the horn switch is pressed, but it also has the excellent effect of improving the operating feeling.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 4 show embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the steering wheel, and FIG. 3 is an exploded view showing the horn switch member. FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a main part showing an attachment part of a hose switch member, FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view showing another example of a connecting piece, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a conventional one. ″ Column...2 Bad part...17 Inclined surface...18 Horn switch...21 Horn switch member...28 Base...29 Elastic member...31 Contact plate...41

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An inclined surface (18) facing toward the column (2) is formed on the front surface of the pad portion (17), and a horn switch (21) of a horn mechanism is provided on a part of the inclined surface (18). is the inclined surface (1
8), and on the back side there is a base (29), a contact plate (41), and an elastic member (31) mounted between the base (29) and the contact plate (41) so that the two do not always come into contact with each other.
), in which the horn switch (21) is formed into a plate shape, and the base (29) of the horn switch member (28) and the contact plate are attached. (41) are arranged parallel to each other with respect to the horn switch (21). 2. The base (29) has a negative terminal (3
9) are connected, and the elastic member (31) has a positive terminal (40) connected to its center and is riveted to the base (29) via the insulating sheet (32). A steering wheel according to claim 1.