JPH023746B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a core material for a steering wheel such as a steering wheel for an automobile.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Traditionally, the core material for steering wheels is
For example, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a horizontal flange plate 2 is formed on the outer periphery of the upper end of an iron boss 1, and a horizontal flange plate 2 is formed along one side of the upper outer periphery of the boss 1 and the lower surface of the flange plate 2. The curved center part 4 of the spoke core metal 3 made of a round bar material is joined and welded 5, and both ends of the spoke core metal 3 are connected to the rim core metal 6.
Welded to 7.

Then, the boss 1 is fitted onto the steering shaft 8 and fixed by tightening with a nut 9.

However, in such a core material, when transmitting the operating force applied to the rim core metal 6 from the spoke core metal 3 to the steering shaft 8 via the boss 1, the load is not transmitted between the spoke core metal 3 and the boss 1. Since it is supported only by the welded part 5, there is a risk of damage to the welded part 5 if the welding is incomplete, and a great deal of effort is required for quality checks to prevent this, resulting in increased costs. Cause.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to improve reliability by making it possible to connect a spoke core metal to a boss without welding.

[Summary of the invention]

According to the present invention, a boss to be fitted to a steering shaft is divided into upper and lower parts, an engagement groove is formed in at least one mating surface of the upper and lower boss bodies, and a central part of a spoke core metal is formed in this engagement groove. The spoke core metal is sandwiched between the upper and lower boss bodies by engaging with the spoke core metal, and the boss and the spoke core metal are directly connected.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a boss made of iron. This boss 11 is divided into a cylindrical lower boss body 12 and an upper boss body 13, and shaft holes 14 and 15 are formed in the center of the lower boss body 12 and the upper boss body 13. to drill. Further, a substantially U-shaped engagement groove 16 is formed on the upper surface of the lower boss body 12 along the outside of the shaft hole 14 and communicates with the outside at both ends.

Then, a curved center portion 18 is embedded in the engagement groove 16 of the lower boss body 12 so as to match the engagement groove 16 of the spoke core metal 17, and an upper boss 13 are crimped and bonded via an adhesive applied to their lower surfaces, and the spoke core metal 17 is held between them. Further, a rim core metal 19 is welded 20 to both ends of the spoke core metal 17.

The core material thus formed is inserted into a mold to form a synthetic resin layer at required locations. Then, the shaft holes 14 and 15 of the boss 11 are inserted into the steering shaft 21 and tightened and fixed with a nut 22.

By doing this, the load applied to the rim portion having the rim core metal 19 is reduced to the spoke core metal 1.
7 to the boss 1 through engagement with the engagement groove 16 of the boss 11, and therefore the boss 1
1 and the spoke core metal 17 can be welded together.

In addition, as shown in Figure 7,
Engagement grooves 16 having a substantially semicircular cross-section are formed on both mating surfaces of the lower boss body 12 and the upper boss body 13 of the boss 11.
_a , _16b are formed to face each other, and the engagement grooves _16a , 16b are formed to face each other.
_16b may be engaged with the center portion 18 of the spoke core metal 17. In this case, the lower boss body 12
When the spoke core metal 17 is held between the upper boss body 13 and the upper boss body 13, an appropriate gap is formed between the mating surfaces of the lower boss body 12 and the upper boss body 13, and along the outer periphery of the mating surfaces. By fixing by welding 23, the clamping force by the boss can be transmitted to the spoke core metal 17 more reliably.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, an engagement groove is formed in at least one mating surface of the upper and lower boss bodies, and the center part of the spoke core metal is engaged with this engagement groove, and the upper and lower boss bodies are connected to the spoke core. Since the metal is clamped, operating force can be transmitted even without welding the boss and the spoke core metal.Therefore, there is no risk of damage due to poor welding, and reliability can be improved. There is no need for welding strength tests, and costs can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the core material of a conventional steering wheel, Fig. 2 is a bottom view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the core material of a conventional steering wheel.
4 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the steering wheel core material of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the portion in FIG. 5. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a portion corresponding to FIG. 6 showing another embodiment. 11...Boss, 12...Lower boss body, 13...
Upper boss body, 16, 16 _a , 16 _b ...Engagement groove, 1
7... Spoke core metal, 18... Center part, 21...
steering shaft.

[Claims]

1 A magnetically conductive elastic body interposed between the lower end of the upper shaft extending from the steering wheel and the upper end of the intermediate shaft;
a second displacement plate fixed to the upper end of the intermediate shaft and displaced by rotation of the intermediate shaft; and a circular substrate fixed to the intermediate shaft below the second displacement plate. , a magnet fixedly disposed on the vehicle body at a position close to the outer periphery of the circular substrate and forming a magnetic path passing through the first and second displacement plates; and a magnet on the outer periphery of each of the first and second displacement plates. a detection unit having first and second detection elements that are fixedly disposed on the vehicle body side at adjacent positions and detect the amount of change in magnetic flux of each of the magnetic paths; and a torque generator provided at the lower end of the intermediate shaft. a lower shaft connected to a steering wheel via a transmission mechanism; a control section connected to the detection section and having a discriminator and a timer for discriminating the angular velocity and torque difference between the upper shaft and the intermediate shaft; and one end connected to a power source. A power steering device comprising: a contactor connected to a power steering motor, the other end of which is connected to a power steering motor, and the contactor is turned on and off by an output from the control section.