Patent ID: 9599035
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: F02D,G05G,Y10T

Claim:
1. An accelerator apparatus comprising: a support member that is installable to a body of a vehicle; a shaft that is rotatably supported by the support member; a pedal boss portion that is fixed to an outer wall of the shaft and is rotatable integrally with the shaft; a pedal portion that extends from the pedal boss portion to an outside of the support member, wherein the pedal portion is depressable by a driver of the vehicle; a pedal-side urging member receiving portion that extends from the pedal boss portion; a first friction member that is placed between the pedal boss portion and the support member, wherein the first friction member is configured to be urged against an inner wall of the support member by rotation of the pedal boss portion in an accelerator opening direction; a pedal-side urging member that has one end portion, which is engaged with the pedal-side urging member receiving portion, and another end portion, which contacts a first contact surface formed in the inner wall of the support member, wherein the pedal-side urging member urges the pedal-side urging member receiving portion to rotate the pedal boss portion in an accelerator closing direction that is opposite from the accelerator opening direction; a hysteresis boss portion that is engaged with the pedal boss portion and is rotatably placed on a radially outer side of the shaft, wherein a distance between the pedal boss portion and the hysteresis boss portion is configured to be increased by rotation of the pedal boss portion in the accelerator opening direction; a hysteresis-side urging member receiving portion that extends from the hysteresis boss portion in a direction that coincides with an extending direction of the pedal-side urging member receiving portion; a second friction member that is placed between the hysteresis boss portion and the support member, wherein the second friction member is configured to be urged against the inner wall of the support member by rotation of the pedal boss portion in the accelerator opening direction; a hysteresis-side urging member that has one end portion, which is engaged with the hysteresis-side urging member receiving portion, and another end portion, which contacts a second contact surface formed in the inner wall of the support member, wherein the hysteresis-side urging member urges the hysteresis-side urging member receiving portion to rotate the hysteresis boss portion in the accelerator closing direction, and a distance between the hysteresis-side urging member and the shaft is larger than a distance between the pedal-side urging member and the shaft; and a rotational angle sensing device that senses a rotational angle of the shaft relative to the support member, wherein: the first contact surface is displaced from the second contact surface in a direction that is perpendicular to a plane of the second contact surface to form a step surface, which connects between the first contact surface and the second contact surface; one of the pedal-side urging member and the hysteresis-side urging member contacts the step surface; and the support member includes: a location of the pedal-side urging member limiting portion and a location of the hysteresis-side urging member limiting portion are displaced from each other in a direction that coincides with an urging direction of the pedal-side urging member and an urging direction of the hysteresis-side urging member.