JPS6271755A - Steering wheel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a gripping feeling of a driver and external appearance of a grip portion by affording communication between a through hole in a core bar located in the grip portion and a blast port in a split mold cover material formed separately from the core bar to blast air supplied into the core bar from the blast port. CONSTITUTION:Grip portions at two spots of a ring portion core bar 7 are fixedly covered with upper and lower split mold wooden cover materials 9, 10 formed separately therefrom. And the ring portion core bar 7 except for the grip portion is covered with a soft synthetic resin cover layer. Further, the ring portion core bar 7 is provided on the side with a plurality of air blast slot ports 8a, 8b, and a lower split mold cover material 10 opposed to said ports is formed with a notch 5. Then, a fan switch 14 in the upper split mold 9 is pushed to rotate a blower 12 and a portion of air is blasted from the slot 8a through a spoke portion core bar 6 and the other portion of air is blasted from a blast port 5 through the slot 8b at the opposite side to a ring portion core bar portion 7a and the slot 8a. As a result, air is blasted to a portion which a driver grips so that a gripping feeling can be improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Object of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a steering wheel attached to a vehicle such as an automobile, and more particularly, to a steering wheel equipped with a mechanism for blowing air from its grip. It is something.

(Prior Art) A proposal has been made to improve the feeling of gripping a steering wheel during driving by blowing air from a steering wheel core metal attached to a vehicle such as an automobile.

Conventionally, the method for blowing out this air from the steering wheel has been to provide a dedicated air outlet for the steering wheel in the interior air conditioning system installed in the car, attach a conduit to the outlet, and connect the tip of the conduit to the column. It has also been considered to penetrate the inside of the pad section and attach it to the steering wheel core metal provided with an air outlet.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in a typical steering wheel, a coating layer made of synthetic resin or the like is integrally formed around the outer periphery of the steering wheel core metal. Therefore, in order to form an air outlet in the steering wheel core metal, it is necessary to drill the air outlet through the steering wheel core metal from the outside of the steering wheel on which the coating layer is integrally formed using a drill or the like.

According to this method, if there is a deviation in the relative position of the steering wheel core metal to the coating layer, the air outlet may not be formed on the steering wheel core metal, or the air outlet may be formed from the outside with a drill etc. There was a problem in that the appearance of the upper part became poor.

Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention includes providing a through hole in the core metal located in the grip part, and
A split mold covering material formed separately from the core metal is attached, and a means is employed in which an air outlet provided in the split mold covering material is communicated with the through hole.

(Function) When a split type sheathing material formed separately from the core metal is attached to the core metal located in the grip part, the through hole formed in the core metal and the air outlet of the split type sheathing material are connected. Since the two are in communication with each other, the air passing through the core metal is blown out from the air outlet.

Since the air outlet is formed in the split covering material, the appearance can be improved.

(Example) An example embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

As shown in FIG. 4, a steering shaft 2 is rotatably provided on a column 1 of an automobile, and a metal boss 3 is attached to the tip of the steering shaft 2. As shown in FIG. A boss plate 4 also made of metal is fixed to the outer periphery of the boss 3 by welding or the like.

The left end of the boss plate 4 has an open proximal end, and a hollow spoke part core metal 6 is joined by welding or the like, and the tip thereof has a substantially semicircular arc shape as shown in FIG. The ring portion upper core bar 7a is formed by bending. The tip of the ring portion upper core bar 7a is bent again and fixed to the left end portion of the boss plate 4 and the right end portion opposite to each other with the boss 3 interposed therebetween to form the right spoke portion core bar 6, and the tip thereof is bent. is closed. Further, the ring portion upper core bar 7a
A ring lower core bar 7b made of the same metal is formed at the lower part of the ring, and the upper and lower core bars 7a, 7b
As a result, the ring portion core metal 7 is formed into a rectangular shape with rounded corners and whose upper and lower portions are slightly flattened.

Separately formed upper and lower wooden coverings 9 are attached to the two grip portions of the ring core bar 7.
, IO is coated, the bolt 20a and the nut 20
It is fixed by b.

The ring portion core metal 7 other than the grip portion is covered with a ring portion coating layer 13 made of soft synthetic resin.

Here, the grip portions are the two locations on the ring portion that the driver grips with his right and left hands when operating the steering wheel when the vehicle is moving straight, and when expressed in the direction of the hands of a clock, it is from 10:10 to 8:00. This refers to the range of 20 minutes past the hour.

A plurality of elongated holes 8a as air outlets are provided on the side surface of the ring portion core metal 7, which covers the grip portion.

8b is transparent, and a notch 5 is formed in a portion of the lower split mold covering material 10 that faces the elongated holes 8a and 8b. In this embodiment, since the portions facing the elongated holes 8a and 8b become the mating surfaces of the two split type sheathing materials 9 and 10, a recess 1 is formed in the mating surface of the lower split type sheathing material 10.
0a, and furthermore, a notch 5 is provided in the recess 10a. In addition, on the front side of the upper split type covering material 9, there are 2
Bush 2 fan switch 1 that can be switched in stages
4 (mechanism not shown) is attached.

A soft rubber duct 11 whose diameter gradually increases from the core metal 6 side is attached to the base end of the spoke core metal 6.
A cylindrical blower 12 is attached to the large diameter portion of the duct 1-11. In this embodiment, this proa 12 is
A motor equipped with a small prober (not shown) is used.

Therefore, the air blown from the blower 12 passes through the inside of the spoke part core bar 6 and is blown out from the right elongated hole 8a, and the ring part upper core bar 7 has a semicircular arc shape.
It passes through the inside of the air and is blown out from the elongated hole 8b on the left side.

A lower cover 16 made of synthetic resin is fixed to the boss plate 4 by screws 17 on the back side of the spoke core 6, and a slip made of conductive metal is provided on the part of the column 1 facing the contact pin 1a. Lingue 5 is installed. Further, on the surface side of the spoke part core metal 6, a pad part 18 made of synthetic resin is also attached to the boss plate 4 with a screw 1.
9 is stopped.

A horn switch 21 is attached to the pad portion 18, and the horn switch 21. A circuit connecting the blower 12 and fan switch 14 is shown in FIG.

In other words, a battery ring whose negative terminal is grounded to the vehicle body *
Connect the positive terminal of 22 to the horn body 23 and the horn switch 2.
1, contact pin la and slip ring 1
5, and the blower 1
2 and a fan switch 14 are connected in parallel to the horn switch 21.

Next, the operation of the steering wheel configured as above will be explained together with the effects.

When the fan switch 14 is pressed while the car is running,
The blower 12 rotates and blows out air, and some of the air passes through the hollow spoke part core metal 6 and is blown out from one long hole 8a, and the other part passes through the upper ring part core metal 7a. The air is blown out from the long hole 8b on the opposite side of the long hole 8a.

For this reason, the air is blown out from the notch 5 of each grip part, and is further blown out from the entire upper and lower split mold coverings 9 and 10 through the recess 10a.

Therefore, since air is always blown out over the entire grip section, which is the part that the driver's hand holds, it is possible to improve the driver's grip. Furthermore, by providing the recess 10a, the air is blown out from the entire side surface of the grip, which is the part that the driver's palm always comes into contact with, so that the entire palm of the driver can be irradiated with air. Therefore, the operating feeling when operating the steering wheel can be improved, and the appearance of the steering wheel itself when viewed from the front is not impaired.

Further, upper and lower split mold covering materials 9 are separately formed on the grip portion of the ring core bar 7. 10 and provided with a notch 5 in the lower split type covering material 10, there is no need to provide a through hole from the outside to the ring part as in the conventional case, and furthermore, the appearance of the air outlet becomes poor. can also be prevented.

In addition, since the through holes provided in the ring portion core bar 7 are a plurality of elongated holes 8a and 8b, the strength of the ring portion core bar 7 itself is reduced when one large elongate hole is provided through the ring portion core bar 7. Never.

In addition, since the duct 1-11 made of soft rubber is provided between the spoke part core metal 6 and the blower 12, vibrations generated from the blower 12 can be absorbed by this part, and
Since the duct 11 has a shape that decreases in diameter toward the spoke core metal 6, the wind force of the air blown out from the blower 12 can be increased.

Also, since the switch is a two-stage type, you can blow out the desired amount of air.

Furthermore, since the blower I2 is mounted inside the pad portion I7, there is no need to draw a dedicated conduit from the in-vehicle air conditioning system as in the conventional case, so there is no need to make a special column or in-vehicle air conditioning system. Therefore, not only does the degree of freedom in designing the column and the air conditioning system not be impaired (but it can also be manufactured at low manufacturing cost).

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
For example, it is also possible to implement it as shown below.

(1) The elongated holes 8a, 8b may be provided not only on the side surface of the ring portion but also on the back surface side and the front side, and the notch portion 5 may be provided at one or more locations. Furthermore, it is not necessary to provide the recess 10a as in this embodiment, and slits may be provided directly in the upper and lower split covering materials 9 and 10. Further, it is not necessarily necessary to form the notch 5, and it may be formed into a plurality of through holes, and any shape may be used as long as it allows air to hit the driver's hands efficiently.

(2) Although the blower 12 uses a motor with a small propeller in this embodiment, a sirocco fan may also be used. By using this sirocco fan, it is possible to further reduce the vibration and noise generated by the motor itself.

(3) Although the present embodiment is embodied in a two-spoke type steering wheel, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is possible to realize a steering wheel with one spoke or three or more spokes.

(4) In this embodiment, the upper core bar 7a of the ring core bar 7 is formed by bending the spoke core bar 6, but the present invention is not limited to this. A combination of a core metal part and a spoke part may also be used.

(5) Although this embodiment uses an elliptical ring portion, a normal circular ring portion may also be used.

Effects of the Invention As detailed above, according to the present invention, a separately formed split covering material is attached to the core metal located in the grip part, and an air outlet is provided in the split covering material. Air sent from a pipe communicating with the grip portion is blown out from an outlet provided in the split mold covering material. Therefore, it is possible to not only improve the driver's grip on the steering wheel when operating the steering wheel (also, it is possible to provide a steering wheel having an air outlet that looks good on the outside). play.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts of a steering wheel embodying the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing only the split covering material in Fig. 1 assembled, and Fig. 3 is a partially broken view showing the steering wheel. FIG. 4 is a plan view, FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the main part of the steering wheel, and FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of this embodiment. Air outlet...5. Spoke part core metal...6゜Ring part core metal...7. Through hole...8a, 8b split type covering material...
9,10

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The core metal (6, 7) located in the grip part has a through hole (8
a, 8b) are provided, and a split mold covering material (9, 10) formed separately from the core metal (6, 7) is attached, and the split mold covering material (9, 10) is provided. Air outlet (5
) are communicated with the through holes (8a, 8b). 2. The steering wheel according to claim 1, wherein the through holes (8a, 8b) are a plurality of elongated holes formed through the ring core metal (7). 3. The air outlet (5) is connected to one of the split covering materials (9, 10
2. The steering wheel according to claim 1, wherein the steering wheel is formed on a side surface of the steering wheel.