Patent ID: 7946634
Filing Date: 2011-05-24
Classification: E05B,Y10S,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A vehicle door latch comprising: a locking mechanism; an operating lever a motor drive containing a drive disk with a front-sided cam for causing a reciprocating motion of the operating lever, the cam having an irregular-shaped wheel portion and an end portion located about a cam rotational axis coincident with a drive disk rotational axis, a rear-sided element limiting the angle of rotation of the drive disk and an electric motor capable of turning in both an actuation direction and a reverse direction for directly driving a corresponding rotation of said drive disk in an actuation direction and in a reverse direction, said rotations being limited by the element limiting the angle of rotation, a control unit for controlling said turning of said electric motor, and a first sensor and a second sensor for signaling to said control unit a position of a catch of the locking mechanism and a position of the drive disk, respectively, for coordinating and timing said turning of the electric motor, said rotations of the drive disk and said resulting motions of the operating lever; wherein the motor drive opens the locking mechanism by directly acting upon the locking mechanism solely via contact of the cam with the operating lever resulting from said driving of said drive disk in the actuation direction, wherein the operating lever pivotally engages a pawl of the locking mechanism to cause said pawl to release the catch and said rotation in the actuation direction continues until limited by the element limiting the angle of rotation, an opening position of the drive disk, wherein in said opening position of the drive disk, a counterforce generated by a spring on the operating lever, runs solely and radially through the irregular-shaped wheel portion of the cam in the direction of a rotation axis of the drive disk without providing a lateral force running in said actuation direction or in said reverse direction on the drive disk and said counterforce generated by the spring causes a frictional force on a generally flat surface of the cam to engage the operating lever to set and maintain the opening position of the drive disk regardless of any driving from said electric motor, wherein said opening position of the drive disk is maintained until the catch rotates to a fully open position, as signaled by said first sensor, and wherein the motor drive is then acted upon in reverse direction, based on said signaling from said first and said second sensors, until the pawl, held previously by the operating lever is released.