Patent ID: 7735883
Filing Date: 2010-06-15
Classification: E05B,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A latch device comprising: a latch mechanism that is disposed on one of a vehicle body and a door body, and is configured to hold the door body in a fully-closed state with respect to the vehicle body, wherein the latch mechanism includes: an open lever that is connected to an operating handle provided on the door body and disposed oscillatably to perform a door opening operation by an opening operation of the operating handle, and that is configured to release the fully-closed state held by the latch mechanism by the door opening operation; a release assisting unit that is triggered by the opening operation of the operating handle, and is configured to assist the release of the fully-closed state of the door body by the open lever, wherein the release assisting unit comprises: a control unit configured to control the actuator to rotate the lever member in a clockwise direction so as to cause an excessive oscillation of the latch in the counterclockwise direction for a preset time counted by a timer to disengage a hook unit of the latch from an engagement unit of the ratchet; and a charging device configured to charge a portion of a driving current supplied to a driving source of a lock mechanism that is switched over between an unlocked state in which the opening operation of the operating handle is enabled and a locked state in which the opening operation of the operating handle is disabled between the operating handle and the latch mechanism, and configured to supply a charged driving current to the release assisting unit, wherein the charging device is connected to a battery mounted on the vehicle so as to be in parallel with the driving source of the lock mechanism.