JPH0320206Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Industrial application field This invention relates to a visor retracting device for a door mirror, and the visor is operated from the normal position to the retracted position, or from the retracted position to the normal position, by remote control from inside the vehicle. It is something.

PRIOR TECHNOLOGY Door mirrors that project laterally from the outer panels of automobile doors and display the rear view have a large protrusion, so when driving into a narrow space, attention is focused on the front, and the side door mirrors become distorted. It may come into contact with obstacles such as pillars. For this reason, various types of foldable door mirrors have been proposed in which the visor is rotated in the front-rear direction and stored in a position along the door outer panel. Conventionally, this type of folding door mirror uses a motor or a solenoid plunger in the case of an electric type that is remotely operated from inside the vehicle. However, when a motor or the like is used, there are problems such as the cost increases significantly, and the high speed of operation requires a large reduction ratio, and the provision of a reduction mechanism complicates the structure. .

Purpose of the invention This invention aims to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and uses a coil spring made of a shape memory alloy, and utilizes the property of the coil spring to return to its memorized shape when heated with electricity to store the visor. By operating the motor in the normal position or the normal position and eliminating the need for a motor, cost increases can be suppressed and the structure can be simplified.

Composition of the invention This invention was made to achieve the above-mentioned purpose. A rotating shaft part is provided on the stay attached to the outer panel of the door, and the rotating shaft part is fitted into the rotating shaft hole of the visor with a mirror attached. In a folding door mirror in which the visor is rotatable back and forth around the rotating shaft, the visor is semi-fixed in its normal position protruding from the door and in its retracted position, respectively. A moderation device provided between the visor and the pinion gear fixed to the rotating shaft of the stay engages with the pinion gear in between, and is supported parallel to the inside of the visor so as to be slidable in the direction in which the visor protrudes. two racks, a protruding coil spring made of a shape memory alloy that has a minimum installation length when the visor is in the normal position, and a maximum installation length when the visor is in the retracted position, and a coil spring in the normal position. and a retractable coil spring made of a shape memory alloy that has a maximum installation length and a minimum installation length in the retracted position, and the protruding coil spring is located between the visor protruding end of one rack and the spring receiver fixed within the visor. and tension the above-mentioned retractable coil springs between the visor protruding end of the other rack and the spring receiver fixed in the visor, and connect an external battery power source to both ends of the above-mentioned protruding and retractable coil springs. , by energizing and generating heat in the protruding and retracting coil springs, the visor is rotated to the retracted position or normal position by utilizing the force of the spring contracting from the maximum installation length position to the minimum position due to shape memory. The present invention provides a door mirror visor storage device with features.

In the door mirror visor storage device mentioned above,
Connect one side of the battery power source to one end of each of the two stretched shape memory alloy coil springs,
The other end is connected to the output contact terminal of a visor storage operation switch installed around the driver's seat of the vehicle, and the common contact terminal that opens and closes the output contact is connected to the other end of the battery power source.

Function The door mirror visor storage device of this invention is
Because of the above configuration, when rotating the visor from the retracted position to the normal position, connect the common contact to the output contact terminal on the protruding coil spring side, and the protruding coil spring, which has the maximum length in the retracted position, The coil spring is energized and generates heat, and due to its shape memory, it contracts until its installation length becomes the minimum, and the force of this contraction causes the visor to move to its normal position at an appropriate speed. On the other hand, at this time, the installation length of the retractable coil spring changes from the longest to the smallest. When the visor is to be rotated from the normal position to the retracted position, the retractable coil spring is energized and heated in the opposite manner to the above case, and the visor is rotated from the normal position to the retracted position by the same operation as in the above case.

Embodiments Hereinafter, this invention will be explained in detail with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings.

In the figure, 1 is a stay fixed to a door outer panel (not shown), 2 is a visor rotatably attached to the stay 1, and 3 is a mirror attached to the inside of the visor 2.

An arm portion 1a projecting outward and horizontally is provided at the lower end of the stay 1, and the arm portion 1a
A cylindrical rotating shaft portion 1b is provided upright on the upper surface, and the rotating shaft portion 1b is rotatably fitted into a rotating shaft hole 2a bored in the bottom wall of the visor 2. It serves as a fulcrum so that it can rotate back and forth.

A stopper 4 is fixed to the tip of the rotating shaft portion 1b projected into the visor 2, and a pinion gear 21 having a gear formed on the outer periphery is fitted to the lower side in a non-rotatable but slidable manner. A moderation spring 6 is inserted between the stopper 4 and the pinion gear 21 to elastically urge the pinion gear 21 downward.
A moderation plate 7 is fixed to the bottom wall of the visor 2, and the pinion gear 21 is mounted on the moderation plate 7.
As shown in FIG. 4, moderation portions 7a and 21a consisting of concave and convex portions are provided on the sliding surfaces of the moderation plate 7 and pinion gear 21 to constitute a moderation device. . The moderating portions 7a and 21a are formed at 90° intervals so that they fit together when the visor 2 is in its normal position protruding perpendicularly to the door, and they fit together when the visor 2 is in its retracted position along the door. , Visor 2 in the normal position and storage position above.
It constitutes a moderation device that semi-fixes the

First and second racks 22 are provided on both front and rear sides of the pinion gear 21 so as to sandwich the pinion gear 21 therebetween.
a and 22b are arranged parallel to the protruding direction of the visor 2, and the gears of the first and second racks 22a and 22b are engaged with the gear of the pinion gear 21, so that the first and second racks 22a and 22b are arranged in parallel to the protruding direction of the visor 2. It is designed to slide in the direction (left and right in FIG. 2). The first and second racks 22
a, 22b are slidably held in guide grooves 23c, 23d of rack support members 23a, 23b fixed within the visor 2. 1st rack 22 above
One end of the protruding coil spring 11 is connected to the end 22c in the visor projecting direction of a, and one end of the retractable coil spring 12 is connected to the end 22d of the second rack 22b in the visor projecting direction. The other ends of these protruding and retracting coil springs 11 and 12 are connected to the visor 2
Connection part 14 of coil spring receiver 14 fixed inside
a and 14b, respectively.

The protruding and retracting coil springs 11 and 12 are made of a shape memory alloy, and when energized and heated to a predetermined temperature, they are compressed and deformed into a memorized shape. In other words, the above-mentioned protruding coil spring 11 has a minimum installation length when the visor 2 is in the normal position.
X ₁ and the installation length is set to be the maximum length X ₂ when the visor 2 is in the retracted position. Further, the retractable coil spring 12 is attached to the visor 2
The installation length is set so that when it is in the normal position, the installation length is the maximum length Y ₁ , and when it is in the retracted position it is the minimum length Y ₂ . Therefore, when moving the visor 2 from the normal position to the retracted position, the retractable coil spring 12 is energized and heated to compress it into the memorized shape, and the compressing force rotates the visor 2 toward the rear, while the retractable coil spring 12 is compressed into the memorized shape. When the protruding coil spring 11 is electrically heated and compressed at this position, the visor 2 is rotated forward and returned to its normal position by the force of contracting into the memorized shape.

The first and second racks 22a and 22b are provided with spring terminals 22e and 22f, which are connected to one end of the protruding and retracting coil springs 11 and 12, respectively. The spring terminals 22e and 22f are connected to one side of the battery power source 16 (shown only in FIG. 5) via a cord 17 that passes through the arm portion 1a of the stay 1 and the rotating shaft portion 1b. Further, the other ends of the coil springs 11 and 12 are connected to a coil spring receiver 1.
The output contact terminal 19 of the visor retraction operation switch 19 is connected to the spring terminals 14c and 14d attached to the visor 4, and these spring terminals 14c and 14d are connected to the output contact terminal 19 of the visor storage operation switch 19 provided around the driver's seat of the vehicle via the cord 18.
a, 19d (shown only in FIG. 5), and a common contact terminal 19c, which opens and closes with these output contact terminals 19a and 19b, is connected to the other side of the battery power source 16.

Incidentally, the mirror 3 is held by a mirror holder 20,
The spherical portion formed on the mirror holder 20 is supported by a spherical bearing provided on a mirror holding member 13 fixed within the visor 2, and the mirror 3 itself can be tilted horizontally and vertically, so that the angle of the mirror 3 can be adjusted. ing.

Next, to explain the operation of the above device, in the normal position where the visor 2 is projected outward, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, the protruding coil spring 11 has a minimum length X ₁
, and the retractable coil spring 12 has a maximum length _Y1 . When operating the visor 2 from the normal position to the retracted position, when the visor retracting operation switch 19 near the driver's seat is operated to connect the common contact terminal 19c and the output contact terminal 19b, the retractable coil spring 1
2 generates heat when energized and reaches a predetermined temperature, the storage coil spring 12 contracts to return to the memorized shape.
Due to the force of contraction of the retractable coil spring 12, the other protruding coil spring 11 is expanded and the visor 2 is rotated counterclockwise about the center of the rotating shaft portion 1b as shown by the chain line in the figure, and the visor 2 is folded backward. It is stored in the specified storage position. During the rotation, the first coil spring connected to the protruding and retracting coil springs 11 and 12
and the second racks 22a, 22b are the pinion gears 2.
1 and moves to the position shown by the chain line in the figure.
In the stored position, the protruding coil spring 11 has the maximum length.
X ₂ , and the retractable coil spring 12 has a minimum length Y ₂ . On the other hand, when returning the visor 2 from the storage position to the normal position, the visor storage operation switch 1
9 and common terminal 19c and output contact terminal 1
9a, and the protruding coil spring 11 is energized and heated. The protruding coil spring 11 has a maximum length X ₂ in the stored position, and when it reaches a predetermined temperature, it contracts in an attempt to return to its memorized shape. This contracting force causes the visor 2 to rotate clockwise while expanding the retractable coil spring 12, thereby returning the visor 2 to its normal position. When the visor 2 is located at the normal position and the storage position, the moderation plate 7 fixed to the visor 2 and the moderation part 7 of the pinion gear 21
a and 21a are engaged, and the visor 2 is semi-fixed at these positions.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the door mirror visor storage device according to the invention utilizes a coil spring made of a shape memory alloy, and is connected by the characteristic that the coil spring returns to the memorized shape when heated with electricity. Since rotational force is applied to the visor, it is easy to return the visor from the normal position to the retracted position, and vice versa, from the retracted position to the normal position at an appropriate speed. In this way, the visor storage device that is electrically remotely controlled from the driver's seat does not require a motor, so there is no need to provide a deceleration mechanism, which can significantly reduce costs, and the structure is extremely simple. It has various advantages such as eliminating design restrictions and being able to be made thinner.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view with a main part cut away showing an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the - line in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the - line in Fig.
1, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the moderation device, and FIG. 5 is an electrical circuit diagram of the embodiment of FIG. 1. 1... Stay, 1b... Rotating shaft portion, 2... Visor, 3... Mirror, 11... Projecting coil spring,
12...Retraction coil spring, 14...Coil spring receiver, 19...Visor storage operation switch, 19
a, 19b... Output contact terminal, 19b... Common contact terminal, 21... Pinion gear, 22a... First
Rack, 22b...Second rack, 22c, 22d
...Protruding end towards the visor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] 1. A rotating shaft is provided on the stay attached to the door outer panel, and the rotating shaft is fitted into the rotating shaft hole of the visor with a mirror attached, so that the visor rotates around the rotating shaft. In a folding door mirror that can be rotated forward and backward, a moderation device is provided between the rotating shaft portion and the visor, which semi-fixes the visor at its normal position protruding from the door and at its retracted position, respectively; It engages with a pinion gear fixed to the rotating shaft of the stay, sandwiching the pinion gear, and
The two racks are slidably supported in parallel inside the visor in the direction in which the visor protrudes, and the installation length of the coil spring is the minimum when the visor is in the normal position, and the maximum when the visor is in the retracted position. A protruding coil spring made of a shape memory alloy, and a retractable coil spring made of a shape memory alloy, the installation length of which is maximum in the normal position and minimum in the retracted position, and the visor protrusions direction of one rack. The above-mentioned protruding coil spring is stretched between the end and a spring holder fixed in the visor, and the above-mentioned retracted coil spring is stretched between the visor-projecting end of the other rack and the spring holder fixed in the visor, respectively. , by connecting an external battery power source to both ends of the protruding and retracting coil springs, and energizing the protruding and retracting coil springs to generate heat, the installation length moves from the maximum position to the minimum position using the force that causes the spring to contract due to shape memory. A visor storage device for a door mirror, characterized in that the visor is rotated to a storage position or a normal position. 2. In the device according to Claim 1 of the above utility model registration, one end of each of the two stretched coil springs made of shape memory alloy is connected to one end of a battery power source, and the other end is installed around the driver's seat of the vehicle. A visor storage device for a door mirror, which is connected to an output contact terminal of a visor storage operation switch, and a common contact terminal that opens and closes with the output contact is connected to the other side of a battery power source.