Patent ID: 8366129
Filing Date: 2013-02-05
Classification: B60R

Abstract:
1. A dual motion deployable vehicle access step including: a step component; a body component including a linear motion control element, a rotary joint, and an interlocking latch assembly; a mounting bracket adapted to be rigidly attached to a vehicle and operatively configured to anchor the rotary joint of the body component to the vehicle; the step component operatively configured to translate relative to the body component in constraint of said linear motion control element; said interlocking latch assembly being operatively configured to selectively limit operation of the deployable vehicle access step to one of an either linear motion of the step component relative to the body component or a rotary motion of the body component relative to the mounting bracket; an energy storage device adapted to impart both a torque to bias the body component into a retracted state and a force to bias the step component into a deployed state; such that when an operator pushes downwards on the retracted step the body component rotates to an intermediate deployed state against the biasing torque of the energy storage device and causes the interlocking latch assembly to lock the body component and release the step component so that the force produced by the energy storage device then biases the step component to translate to a fully deployed position.