Patent ID: 8827328
Filing Date: 2014-09-09
Classification: E05B,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A vehicle door lock device, comprising: a latch mechanism, which is capable of maintaining a door of a vehicle in a closed state with respect to a body, and is adapted to be assembled to the door together with a housing, the latch mechanism comprising a latch engageable with and disengageable from a striker, a pawl engageable with and disengageable from the latch and capable of maintaining and releasing the engagement of the latch with the striker, and a lift lever provided integrally with the pawl; an open lever, which is rotatably assembled to the housing, and is adapted to be driven along with an operation of a door handle provided on an inner side or an outer side of the door; an open link, which is interposed between the open lever and the lift lever, and is adapted to be switchable between an unlocked position at which an actuation of the open lever in a door opening direction along with a door opening operation of the door handle is transferred to the lift lever, and a locked position at which the actuation is not transferred to the lift lever; and an electric actuator for switching the open link between the unlocked position and the locked position, wherein the electric actuator comprises: wherein the gear unit comprises: wherein the open link is arranged so as to be pivotable with respect to the housing about a rotation axis whose direction is different from a direction of a rotation axis of the active lever and the worm wheel, wherein the worm wheel is arranged between the latch mechanism and the electric motor, wherein the housing is made of a resin and comprises: wherein an outer surface of the covering portion of the outer housing body and an outer surface of the outer shaft-supporting portion, which is provided in the outer housing body, for supporting the active lever, are formed in the same flat surface, wherein an outer surface of the outer shaft-supporting portion, which is provided in the outer housing body, for supporting the worm wheel, is formed in a recess or dented region dented inwardly with respect to the flat surface, the recess or dented region dented inwardly with respect to the flat surface functions as a portion for preventing slip of hands of a worker when the vehicle door lock device is assembled to the door of the vehicle by the worker, and the rotation axes of the worm wheel and a lever pass through the recess or dented region, wherein the open lever comprises: wherein the open link is assembled to a coupling portion so as to be capable of tilting by a predetermined degree, comprises a pushing portion engageable with an engagement portion of the lift lever provided to the latch mechanism, and is pushed from an initial position toward the lift lever when the inside open lever is rotationally driven from the initial position to the actuation position or when the outside open lever is rotationally driven from the initial position to the actuation position, the coupling portion being displaced along with rotation of the outside open lever, wherein the active lever is rotatably assembled to the housing, and is switched from an unlocked position to a locked position through a locking operation of a lock/unlock operation member to bring the open link into a locked state, and switched from the locked position to the unlocked position through an unlocking operation of the lock/unlock operation member to bring the open link into an unlocked state, and wherein the vehicle door lock device further comprises: