SE539757C2

SE539757C2 - A locking arrangement

Info

Publication number: SE539757C2
Application number: SE1451075A
Authority: SE
Inventors: Zhouson Samuel
Original assignee: Scania Cv Ab
Priority date: 2014-09-15
Filing date: 2014-09-15
Publication date: 2017-11-21
Also published as: SE1451075A1; DE102015010314A1; DE102015010314B4

Abstract

Abstract A locking arrangement is configured to interlock two intercon-nected members (11, 12) in a locking state and release thesemembers to be movable with respect to each other in an un-locked state for changing their mutual position. The arrangementcomprises a hollow cylinder (18) and a piston (17) sealingly re-ceived in the cylinder while together with cylinder walls defining asealed space (20) therein. The piston and cylinder are movablewith respect to each other while changing the volume of thespace (20). A spring load acts to press parts of said members(11, 12) against each other so as to interlock them in said lockingstate, and a pressurized medium may be supplied to said space(20) for moving the piston (17) and cylinder (18) with respect toeach other against the action of said spring load for obtainingsaid unlocked state. The invention relates also to an apparatus for adjusting the position of an instrument panel. (Fig 2).

Description

The present invention relates to a locking arrangement config-ured to interlock two interconnected members in a locking stateand release said members to be movable with respect to eachother in an unlocked state for changing their mutual position.Such members to be interlocked in different relative positionsmay be located anywhere and be of any conceivable type, alt-hough such members arranged in a motor vehicle will be de-scribed below for illuminating but not in any way restricting the invention to that application.

Said two members to be interlocked may be considered to belongto the locking arrangement, since the design of these membersmay be selected so as to contribute to the function of the locking arrangement and be of essential importance for that function. “lnterconnected members” is here to be interpreted as a continu-ously existing connection of the two members to each other,which means that they are connected to each other also in theunlocked state but may then be moved with respect to each otherfor changing their mutual position enabling a locking thereof in another mutual position than they had before.

Many motor vehicles, especially wheeled motor vehicles, such astrucks, buses and cars, offer the possibility to adjust the positionof the steering wheel, and in some of such vehicles it is an ad- vantage if the instrument panel may then also be adjusted with respect to the position for adapting it to the new position of thesteering wheel. A locking arrangement of the type defined in theintroduction may then be used for obtaining locking of the in-strument panel in the respective position. One of said two mem-bers may then be directly or indirectly connected to the instru-ment panel or a carrier thereof and the other member may be di-rectly or indirectly connected to a body or a frame fixed with re- spect to the chassis of the vehicle.

BACKGROUND ART A locking arrangement of the type defined in the preamble of ap-pended claim 1 is known through US 3 735 842.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a locking ar-rangement of the type defined in the preamble of appended claim1 being improved in at least some aspect with respect to such locking arrangements already known.

This object is according to the invention obtained by providingsuch a locking arrangement with the features listed in the charac- terizing part of appended patent claim 1.

A locking arrangement according to the invention will reliably bemaintained in the locking state by the action of said spring load,since a pressurized medium has to be actively supplied for trans-ferring the locking arrangement into the unlocked state. Further- more, the movability of the piston and cylinder with respect to each other and the interaction thereof with said first meansproviding a spring load results in a simple construction and a re-liable operation of the locking arrangement according to the in-vention. By pressing a plurality of elements (the lamellas) to-wards each other a number of surfaces exerted to a normal forcein said locking state will result, and each such normal force willin combination with the respective coefficient of friction result ina force acting to obtain said locking state, and the total force in-terlocking said members will then be the sum of such forces. Thismeans that a quite moderate spring load may result in a reliableinterlocking of said members in said locking state and still enableeasy transfer of the locking arrangement into said unlocked state by controlling said second means.

According to an embodiment of the invention said cylinder or saidpiston is fixed with respect to said first member as in anotherembodiment of the invention. This embodiment enables easy un-locking of the members with respect to each other and movement thereof to and interlocking thereof in a new mutual position.

According to another embodiment of the invention the locking ar-rangement comprises a piston rod secured to said piston and tosaid first member, said cylinder is movable with respect to saidpiston along said piston rod, and the cylinder is configured tomove along the piston rod when supplying a pressurized mediumto said volume. ln such a movement along the piston rod the cyl-inder may either be fixed with respect to said first member andthe piston rod move or the piston rod may be secured to said firstmember and the cylinder move. ln the latter case said first means may be configured to apply said spring load on an inner surface of an end of said cylinder and press this end of the cylinder against a part of said first member.

According to another embodiment of the invention the locking ar-rangement comprises washer-like discs separating adjacent la-mellas, penetrated by said piston rod and configured to follow thepiston rod in movements thereof along said slot. This means thatsaid spring load will in the locking state press a stack of saiddiscs and lamellas against each other resulting in an high num-ber of surfaces onto which a normal force is applied resulting in aforce preventing the respective disc to slide with respect to therespective lamella due to the coefficient of friction of said surfac- es bearing against each other.

According to another embodiment of the invention constituting afurther development of the embodiment last mentioned said discsbear tightly circumferentially against the piston rod penetratingthem. This fact ensures that the discs may not slide independent-ly with respect to the lamellas and an optimum said force main-taining the arrangement in the locked stack may by that be ob-tained by the addition of such a force for each interface between disc and lamella.

According to another embodiment of the invention said firstmeans comprises at least one mechanical spring, such as a cupspring or a plate spring. The use of such mechanical springs forobtaining said spring load of said first means results in a reliablefunction of the locking arrangement with a minimum risk of mal- function.

According to another embodiment of the invention said secondmeans is configured to supply compressed air to said space for transferring the arrangement to said unlocked state.

According to another embodiment of the invention said firstmember is configured to be connected to a carrier of a device tobe moved between different positions with respect to a fixedbody, and such a device may for instance be an instrument panel of a motor vehicle.

According to another embodiment of the invention one end ofsaid second member is configured to be pivotally connected to afixed part, and this fixed part may be a part fixed with respect to the chassis of a motor vehicle.

A plurality of separate said locking arrangements with a first anda second member may then for instance be used for holding andlocking an instrument panel of a motor vehicle in a determinedposition after adjusting the position of a steering wheel and bythat of said instrument panel.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for adjusting the posi-tion of an instrument panel of a motor vehicle arranged to followa steering member, such as a steering wheel, when adjusting theposition of said steering member, and that apparatus comprisesa locking arrangement according to the present invention forlocking said instrument panel in a fixed position with respect to afixed part of the vehicle in the locking state of the arrangement.

As already mentioned, several such locking arrangements may then be used for locking said instrument panel in a fixed position with respect to said fixed part of the vehicle.

Other advantageous features as well as advantages of the pre- sent invention will appear from the description following below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With reference to the appended drawings, below follows a specif-ic description of an embodiment of the invention cited as an ex-ample. ln the drawings: Fig1 is a simplified view very schematically illustratingthe use of a locking arrangement according to thepresent invention in a driving compartment of a mo-tor vehicle, Fig 2 is a perspective view of a locking arrangement ac-cording to an embodiment of the invention interlock-ing two interconnected members in a first mutualposition thereof, Fig 3 is a view corresponding to Fig 2 with said membersinterlocked in another second mutual position, Fig 4 is a perspective view of said locking arrangementwith members in a position according to Fig 3 from another direction, and Fig 5 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the con-struction of a second member of said locking ar- rangement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT OF THEINVENTION Fig 1 illustrates very schematically a driving compartment 1 of amotor vehicle 2, such as a truck or a bus, provided with a steer-ing wheel 3 which may be adjusted with respect to the chassis 4of the vehicle by displacing a steering column 5 and locking thisin different positions by means not shown. A carrier 6 for a body7 provided with an instrument panel 8 is arranged to follow saidsteering wheel when the position thereof is adjusted. Said carrier6 is for that sake connected to a locking arrangement 9 accord-ing to the present invention enabling displacement of the carrier6 along an elongated second member 12 to be explained belowwith reference made to Fig 2-4 and pivoting of that member withrespect to the chassis 4 for adjusting the position of said instru-ment panel 8 to the position of the steering wheel 3. How this isobtained and how said locking arrangement may be constructed will now be explained while making reference to Figs 2-5.

A locking arrangement according to the present invention andshown in Fig 2-4 is configured to interlock a first member 11 inthe form of a bracket to be secured to said carrier 6 and a sec-ond elongated member 12 pivotally connected to another bracket13 to be secured to a part of said chassis 4 or an element fixed with respect thereto. Said first member 11 is provided with a weld nut 14 into which a piston rod 15 is screwed and secured by an-other nut 16. The piston rod 15 has at one end thereof a piston17 sealingly received in a cylinder 18 while together with cylinderwalls 19 defining a sealed space 20 therein. Said cylinder has alid 21 participating in defining said sealed space. A part of thecylinder is broken away in the figures for showing the interior ofthe cylinder. lt is illustrated how the piston is provided with seals 22 bearing tightly on inner circumferential walls of the cylinder.

The cylinder is movable with respect to said piston while beingdisplaced along the piston rod 15 while changing the volume of the space 20.

First means in the form of mechanical springs 23, such as platesprings, are arranged in said cylinder and apply a spring load try-ing to separate the piston 17 and a bottom 24 of the cylinder 18while reducing the volume of the space 20. This means that thesprings 23 will apply a spring load to the cylinder 19 pressing thecylinder against said second member 12 and by that said secondmember against the first member 11, since the piston 17 has afixed position with respect to said first member, so that a locking state of the locking arrangement is obtained.

The second member 12 is formed by a plurality of elongated thinelements 25 in the form of lamellas, such as in the order of 5metal sheets with a thickness of O.5-1.5 mm superimposed, andhas a slot 26 extending in the longitudinal direction of the lamel-las. Adjacent lamellas are at one end 27 separated by washer-like discs 28 (see Fig 5) which may be of a suitable metal and have a thickness similar to that of the lamellas. These discs will be penetrated by a pin pivotally connecting the second memberto the bracket 13 and may by that not be moved with respect tothe lamellas. Such discs 28 are also arranged where said firstmember 11 is connected to the second member 12 and athrough-hole 29 of these discs 28 is penetrated by the piston rod15, which also extend through the slots 26 of the lamellas 25.This means that the washer-like discs and the lamellas togetherform a stack where the discs are located, whereas there will be agap separating adjacent lamellas where no such discs are locat-ed. One such disc is also located on each outermost lamella of the stack as may be seen in Fig 3.

The arrangement of the stack of lamellas and discs where thepiston and cylinder are located means that the springs 23 willpress the cylinder against said stack and press each lamella anddisc against each other and the stack against the first member11. This results in a large number of surfaces to which a normalforce is applied and co-operate with a coefficient of friction ofsuch surfaces for obtaining a force acting against a displacementof the first member 11 along the second member 12. The totalforce acting against such a displacement will be the sum of all such forces obtained at each interface between disc and lamella.

The arrangement also comprises a second means 30 schemati-cally indicated in Fig 3 configured to transfer the arrangementinto an unlocked state by being controllable to supply a pressur-ized medium to the space 20 defined by the piston 17 and thecylinder 18. A supply of such compressed air will act against theaction of the springs 23 so as to move the cylinder away from the stack of discs 28 and lamellas 25 transferring the locking ar- rangement into an unlocked state enabling a movement of thefirst member 11 with respect to the second member 12 guided bythe piston rod 15 received in the slots 26, such as from the posi-tion shown in Fig 2 to that shown in Fig 3 and 4. The discs 28surrounding the piston rod will then follow the piston rod in thatmovement, and when a new desired position of said first member11 with respect to the second member 12 has been obtained thecompressed air is let out of the space 20, so that the springs 23will press the cylinder 18 against the stack of discs and lamellasformed at that location for reliably interlock the first member 11 and the second member 12 in the new position.

The invention is of course not in any way restricted to the em-bodiments described above, but many possibilities to modifica-tions thereof would be apparent to a person with ordinary skill inthe art without departing from the scope of the invention as de- fined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. 1 Claims A locking arrangement configured to interlock two intercon-nected members (11, 12) in a locking state and release saidmembers to be movable with respect to each other in an un-locked state for changing their mutual position, said arrangement comprising: o a hollow cylinder (18), o a piston (17) sealingly received in said cylinder while to-gether with cylinder walls defining a sealed space (20)therein, said piston (17) and cylinder (18) being movablewith respect to each other while changing the volume ofsaid space (20), o first means (23) configured to apply a spring load to actto reduce said volume while pressing parts of said mem-bers (11, 12) against each other to interlock them in saidlocking state, and o second means (30) configured to transfer the arrange-ment into said unlocked state by being controllable tosupply a pressurized medium to said space (20) movingsaid piston (17) and cylinder (18) with respect to eachother against the action of said spring load, said cylinder (18) and piston (17) being connected to a first(11) of said members so as to follow this member in move-ment thereof with respect to a second (12) of said membersin said unlocked state characterized in that said second member (12) is elongated,that said first member (11) is movable along the secondmember in the longitudinal direction thereof and securable in different positions therealong by application of said spring 12 load of said first means (23) urging a part of said first mem-ber against a part of said second member, that said secondmember (12) comprises at least two superimposed elongatedelements having a slot (26) extending in said longitudinal di-rection of the second member (12), that a piston rod (15) se-cured to said piston (17) penetrates through the slots of saidelements, that said first member (11) is movable with respectto said second member (12) while being guided throughmovement of said piston rod (15) along said slots (26), andthat said second member (12) comprises at least three saidelements in the form of lamellas (25) forming a laminatedmember and configured to be compressed by said spring load so as to interlock them with said first member. A locking arrangement according to claim 1, characterizedin that it comprises washer-like discs (28) separating adja-cent lamellas (25), penetrated by said piston rod (15) andconfigured to follow the piston rod in movements thereof along said slots (26). A locking arrangement according to claim 2, characterizedin that said discs (28) bear tightly circumferentially against the piston rod (15) penetrating them. A locking arrangement according to any of the precedingclaims, characterized in that said cylinder (18) or said pis- ton (17) is fixed with respect to said first member (11). A locking arrangement according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a piston rod (15) 10. 13 secured to said piston (17) and to said first member (11),that said cylinder (18) is movable with respect to said piston(17) along said piston rod (15), and that the cylinder is con-figured to move along the piston rod when supplying a pres- surized medium to said space (20). A locking arrangement according to any of the precedingclaims, characterized in that said first means (23) compris-es at least one mechanical spring, such as a cup spring or a plate spring. A locking arrangement according to any of the precedingclaims, characterized in that said second means (30) is con-figured to supply compressed air to said space (20) for transferring the arrangement to said unlocked state. A locking arrangement according to any of the precedingclaims, characterized in that said first member (11) is con-figured to be connected to a carrier (6) of a device to bemoved between different positions with respect to a fixedbody (4). A locking arrangement according to claim 8, characterizedin that said device is an instrument panel (8) of a motor ve-hicle (2). A locking arrangement according to any of the precedingclaims dependent upon claim 2, characterized in that oneend (27) of said second member (12) is configured to be piv- otally connected to a fixed part (4). 11. 12. 14 A locking arrangement according to claim 10, characterizedin that said fixed part is a part fixed with respect to the chas- sis (4) of a motor vehicle (2). An apparatus for adjusting the position of an instrumentpanel (8) of a motor vehicle (2) arranged to follow a steeringmember (3), such as a steering wheel, when adjusting theposition of said steering member, characterized in that itcomprises a locking arrangement (9) according to any ofclaims 1-11 for locking said instrument panel in a fixed posi-tion with respect to a fixed part (4) of the vehicle in the lock- ing state of the arrangement.