US2910318A

US2910318A - Doorlock for motorcars

Info

Publication number: US2910318A
Authority: US
Inventors: Elieser L Masur
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1955-12-27
Filing date: 1956-12-05
Publication date: 1959-10-27
Anticipated expiration: 1976-10-27

Description

Oct. 27, 1959- E. L. MASUR- DOORLOCK FOR MOTORCARS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 5, 1956 INVENTOR E/Ibser L. Masur BY mm M WM A TTOR NE Y5 Oct. 27, 1959 in. MASUR 2,910,318

DQORLOCK FOR MOTORCARS Filed Dec. 5, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E. INVENTOR E lleser L. Masar- BY M ATTORNEYS United States Patent DOORLOCK FOR MOTORCARS Elieser L. Masur, Tel-Aviv, Israel Application December 5, 1956, Serial No. 626,395 Claims priority, application Israel December 27, 1955 4 Claims. (Cl. 292-401) Door latching means for motorcars are generally so constructed as to split the process of door closing into two subsequent stages: the first or safety position of shutting the door is reached by light pressure on the door from outside or by a light pull from inside, so that the latch bolt (or other movable locking part) is loosely held by the keeper (or other corresponding part fixed at the door-pillar) and the door can not reopen without the release mechanism of the lock being operated; the second or full latched position of closing, is obtained only by exertion of more pressure on the door, or by a greater impact of the moving door itself, so that the bolt or other locking part snaps into its final position at the door post.

It happens frequently that passengers or drivers of motorcars shut doors, from outside or inside the car, by exerting so little pressure on the door, that only the safety position of closing is achieved, with the resuit that one or more doors are not properly locked, when the driver starts to move the car. Such a door has in most cases to be reopened in order to be properly shut, which is dangerous, when the car is already in motion; if the driver is alone in the car, he has to stop the vehicle once more in order to shut the rear or farside door, as it is difiicult to do so and to control the moving car simultaneously. Untimely opening of cardoors, while the vehicle is in motion or temporarily held up by traflic lights or obstacles, is another source of danger widely known. Whenever doors are opened on the tralficside, instead of on the curbside, or are opened prematurely, before the car has come to a standstill or when the car is temporarily held up and has to proceed on its way immediately, the danger to the safety of passengers, passers-by and vehicles is obvious.

The present invention aims at enabling the driver to perform the final shutting of one or more doors without having to reopen them; further to keep all doors locked, as long as he desires so, and finally to do so by means of a central control without interfering with any other operation necessary for the control of the car.

The invention refers to all recent constructions of doorlocks, in which the conventional bolt in the door and the keeper at the door-pillar have been replaced by other parts, as e.g. a rotating cogwheel at the door mating with a tooth-rack at the door-post, or a rotating fork at the door mating, with a pin fixed at the post, or a pin at the door, which rises in two stages and mates with a fork-shaped guide at the post, or other similar devices.

All these constructions have the common feature, that- ICC into the full latched position by means of a mechanical device like a push-rod or finger which pushes an extension of the bolt arranged on the inside of the door. Furthermore the application of this force is used for keeping the door latching means in the fully latched position so that the mechanism or the device as described by the invention overrides temporarily the regular release mechanism. The extension to which the said force is applied, can be shaped in different ways and in correspondence to the various types of door latching devices known hitherto. Several such variations will be described below, by way of example only, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view on the inside of the door with the mechanism shown diagrammatically only.

Fig. 2 is a view on the outer part of the same type of door latching means with the covering plate being removed.

Fig. 3 is a modification of the invention applied to the same type of door latching means showing diagrammatically the inside of the door.

Fig. 4 shows in'perspective another modification of the inside of the door latching means, and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section through part of the device according to Fig. 4.

Turning first to Fig. 2 the outside of this type of a door latching means mainly consists, as known per se, of a rotating cogwheel 1 which serves as a pivoted bolt, mating with a tooth-rack 2 serving as a keeper mounted on the door. The circumference of cogwheel 1 is divided into six teeth and is keyed on an axle which penetrates into the inside of the door, hearing at its inner end a pivot 33. At the inner side a conventional ratchet wheel 4 equally divided at its circumference into six teeth, which are however of a shape different of these of cogwheel 1, is keyed on the common axle, so that cogwheels 1 and 4 can not change their position in relation to each other. Ratchet wheel 4 is adapted to rotate in the direction of the arrow A. When wheels 1 and 4 have moved through an angle of 60 a pawl 6 will snap into position behind the next tooth of wheel 4, preventing the back movement of ratchet wheel 4 and bolt 1. In that position bolt 1 has entered the first tooth of keeper 2, Le. the safety stage of the door closing has been reached. Whenever the impact of the closing is not sufficient to move the cogwheels through another angle of 60, the full latch position of the door, that means the entering of bolt 1 into the second deepening of rack 2, is achieved by the device according to the invention. To that end a further (third) cogwheel 7 is keyed on the common axle of cogwheels 1 and 4 at the inside of the door or made as an integral part with wheel 4. A bolt actuating member in the form of a slotted pushrod 8 ending at one side in an actuating finger 9 is arranged on a bracket 10 mounted on the inside of the door. It is held to this bracket by means of a guiding pin 11, so that it can move towards the cogwheel '7 and back within the plane of the Wheel rotation, and is held within this plane by the same pin 11, which extends at its head over both. lateral sides of the slot. The pushrod 8 is at its other end fixed to a piston 12, which will be described below. The actuating finger 9 can move in the direction of the arrow B and/ or around a fulcrum 13 and is held in or brought back to its rest-position by a leaf spring 14. The movement of the pushrod 8 and actuating finger 9 is brought about by hydraulic power. For that purpose a hydraulic cylinder 16 of the well known type of a wheel cylinder in hydraulic brake system, is used. The cylinder contains piston 12 connected at its outer extension to the pushrod 8, a retracting spring 15, a rubber piston 17, an inlet opening 18 for the drive liquid with a leak proof connection to a pipe (not shown) which is directly or indirectly connected to the foot pedal at the drivers left foot. A further weaker spring 19 is inserted in cylinder 16 between said inlet 18 and rubber piston 17 and secures the latter to remain in constant contact with piston 12.

The action of the device according to Fig. 1 is as follows: When the door latching means is in the safety position and a force acts on the pushrod 8 in the direction towards the cogwheel 7, the actuating finger will move the cogwheel 7 in the direction of the arrow A through at least 60 degrees, until the pawl 6 snaps into position behind the next tooth of the ratchet wheel 4 and the proper locking of the door has been obtained by rotating bolt 1 and moving the door into the full latched position. When the door is properly locked and a force acts on the pushrod 3 in the direction towards the cogwheel 7, the actuating finger will be pressed against one tooth of the cogwheel 7, in this case the cogwheel 7 can not be moved in the direction of the arrow A and can not move in the reverse sense either, as long as the force on the pushrod is maintained, even if the regular release mechanism lifts the pawl 6 out of its position behind a tooth of the ratchet wheel 4, ie in case of an attempt at opening the door. When the force ceases to act on the pushrod 8, the pushrod is drawn back into its rest-position by means of the retracting spring 15. If the device has been used for moving the device to the full latched position and the actuating finger is in the position 9a, the finger will, when retracted, move in the direction of .the arrow B around its fulcrum 13 against the pressure of the leaf spring 14 and snap over one tooth of cogwheel 7. The actuating finger 9 in its rest position does not impede the free movement of the cogwheel 7.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3 the conventional door latching means is the same as that described in Fig. l, viz. it bears at the inside a ratchet wheel 4' which can be engaged by a pawl 6. Instead of keying on it a further cogwheel 7, as in the first modification, pins 7' are provided near the edges of the teeth of the ratchet wheel which pins project in the direction of the inside of the door. The pushrod 8' adapted to slide over a bracket 10 with guide pin 11 is connected to an actuating finger 9 which has at its end a rather large and straight recess 29, adapted to receive between its prongs and 31 one of the pins 7 of the ratchet wheel 4'. The dimension of the recess 29 is necessary to give room for the movement of pin 7 during its travel on a circular path. Thus, if the device has reached only the safety position, pushrod 8 when moved will cause the actuating finger 9" to perform a movement as indicated by dotted lines. It comes then in contact with the nearest pin 7 and pushes the ratchet wheel 4 through an angle of 60 into the full latched position. The return of the finger 9" is brought about by the same means as described before with reference to Fig. l.

The modifications shown in Figs. 4 and 5 refer to another type of door latching means, which is also known in the art. In that door latching means a plate 20 which serves as a latch bolt is riveted or otherwise connected to a fork on the outside of the door on a common axle 21. The bolt 20 has at the end opposite to the axle 21- two teeth-

like projections

22 and 22a, cooperating with a keeper 23, which snaps into position behind the flank faces of the two

teeth

22 and 22a respectively, one after the other, corresponding to the two positions as described above. According to the invention a pin 24 protrudes from bolt 20 in the circuit of the second tooth 22a. The pushrod 25, which can move in the direction of the arrow C and back on a bracket 26, whereby it is guided by a slot 27 and a pin 28, has at its front edge a recess 29', so as to receive pin 24 between its prongs 30' and 31'. The rear edge of the pushrod 25 is connected to the hydraulic piston as described regarding the other modi fications. If therefore keeper 23 has only reached the recess between

teeth

22 and 22a, the pushrod on being actuated by the driver through the hydraulic system, pushes pins 24 by means of its front edge into the position shown in dotted lines in the figure, and will hold it there, that means the full latched position, as long as the pressure on the system is applied. To reduce friction between pin 24 and the fork-like front edge 30', 31' of pushrod 25, a sleeve (not shown) can be slipped over the pin 24.

The force applied to the pushrod in any of the modifications described can be provided by electro-magnetic devices, vacuum powered systems, electrically actuated hydraulic systems or otherwise.

What I claim is:

1. In combination, a bolt member movable around an axis, a keeper member engageable with said bolt member, said members being engageable with each other for holding the door in either a safety position or a fully latched position, one of said members being on a door and the other of said members being on a jamb adjacent said one member, a bolt actuating member mounted for movement toward and away from said bolt member for engagement with said bolt member for pivoting said bolt member, and a centrally controlled power means connected to said bolt actuating member for moving said bolt actuating member, whereby said bolt actuating member may contact said bolt member and pivot it to move the door from a safety to a fully latched position.

2. In combination, a bolt member movable around an axis and having a plurality of teeth thereon, a keeper member engageable with said bolt member, said members being engageable with each other for holding the door in either a safety position or a fully latched position, one of said members being on a door and t e other of said members being on a jamb adjacent said one member, a bolt actuating member slidably mounted for movement toward and away from the teeth on said bolt member for engagement with said teeth on said bolt member for pivoting said bolt member, and a centrally controlled power means connected to said bolt actuating member for moving said bolt actuating member, whereby said bolt actuating member may contact said bolt member and pivot it to move the door from a safety to a fully latched position.

3. The combination as claimed in claim 2 in which said bolt member comprises a cogwheel, and said bolt actuating member comprises a bent over finger and a slid-- able push rod bearing against said bent over finger and to which said centrally controlled power means is attached.

4. The combination as claimed in claim 2 in whichv said bolt member comprises a ratchet wheel having pins protruding from the individual teeth thereof, and said bolt actuating member comprises a slidable pushrod having one end forked, the forked end being adjacent said ratchet wheel, the said centrally controlled power means being connected to the other end of said push rod.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Schulenberg June 22, 1954