Abstract:
An outer door handle for vehicles has a stationary housing in the vehicle door. The handle has a handle arm and acts on a lock arranged within the door. A pivotable latching member serves as a mass latching mechanism and makes the handle actuatable in a release position. Because of its inertia in a crash situation, the latching member reaches an active support position and blocks the handle. The pivot bearing for the latching member is located on the stationary housing. The movable handle arm has a shoulder. A counter shoulder is provided on the latching member. The folding movement path of the shoulder on the handle arm is intersected by the pivot movement path of the counter shoulder. In a crash situation the shoulder comes to rest against the counter shoulder. In the release position, the shoulder passes the counter shoulder upon handle actuation.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to an outer door handle comprising a housing stationarily arranged in the door, comprising a bearing for a manually actuatable handle on the housing, especially for a folding handle foldable about a hinge axis horizontally arranged or slantedly arranged relative to the horizontal, wherein the handle has a handle arm and upon handle actuation acts on a lock arranged within the door, and comprising a pivotable latching member serving as a mass latching mechanism, which is normally in an ineffective release position relative to a support surface provided on the housing and, in this way, makes the handle actuatable, which, however, as a result of the inertia of its masses, in a crash situation reaches an active support position on this support location and thus blocks the handle. Here, so-called “mass latching mechanisms” are provided which act as an automatic locking device on the folding handle in a crash situation. The mass latching mechanisms are formed as pivotable latching members and ensure that during a lateral impact on the vehicle the door with its lock remains in the locked state. During a crash, acceleration forces occur. These forces are used by the masses of the latching member. In a crash situation, the latching member is moved by these forces into a support position relative to a support surface on the housing where the movement of the handle is blocked. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     In the known outer door handle of this kind (DE 196 25 392 A1) the pivot bearing for the latching member is on the movable handle arm. Here the latching member is supported in a freely pendulous way. In this known outer door handle, the handle arm which is foldable together with the handle, on the one hand, and the latching member pivotably supported on the handle arm, on the other hand, form a modular unit movable together upon handle actuation. In this connection, the latching member moves pendulously freely on the movable handle arm. In this outer door handle, the handle is a so-called “folding handle” where a hinge axle is supported horizontally within the housing. However, the invention is also suitable for outer door handles with handles embodied differently, for example, in connection with “pulling handles” discussed in the following. The latching member usually points away with its free mass end, which is provided with a toothing, from a counter toothing provided on the housing. In a crash situation the mass end of the latching member is pivoted by the active inertia forces and engages with its toothing the counter toothing on the housing. Already upon the handle actuation during regular use, undesirable blockage can occur by means of the latching member which is entrained. In the support position of the latching member the support forces are transmitted via the pivot bearing onto the handle arm. The strength of this support action depends on the stability of the bearing of the latching member on the handle arm. 
     Mass latching mechanisms are also known from outer door handles (DE 196 10 200 A1) which are configured as the already mentioned “pulling handles” having a vertical pivot axis at one end of the handle. The other end of the handle cooperates with a pivot arm which is supported, in turn, in the housing so as to be pivotable about a substantially vertical axis. The invention can be employed, as mentioned above, also for such outer door handles. In order to differentiate the movement of the pivot arm from the pivot movement of the latching member, in the following description the term “folding movement” will be used in this connection, even though this term more closely fits the aforementioned configuration of the door handled as a folding handle. In the known outer door handles configured as a pulling handle the mass latching mechanism is a pivotable spring-loaded lever supported rotatably in a pivot arm. In this case, the mass latching mechanism, in analogy to the known folding handle, is thus pivotably supported in a component movable by the pulling handle. Therefore, the analog disadvantages as in the case of the above discussed folding handle are present. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention has the object to develop an inexpensive, compact outer door handle of the aforementioned kind which is reliable and which withstands high loads. This is achieved according to the invention in that the pivot bearing for the latching member is located on the stationary housing, that the movable handle arm has a shoulder and that this shoulder has correlated therewith a counter shoulder on the latching member, that the folding movement path of the shoulder arranged on the handle arm is intersected by the pivot movement path of the counter shoulder on the latching member and in the crash situation the shoulder comes to rest against the counter shoulder, that, however, normally in the release position of the latching member, the shoulder on the handle arm passes the counter shoulder of the latching member upon handle actuation. 
     According to the invention, the latching member is not pivotably supported on a movable component, like the handle arm or the pivot arm provided for this purpose in the prior art, but on a stationary component, i.e., on the stationary housing. Accordingly, the pivot bearing axis can be arranged external to the force transmission path which receives the support forces during blockage. The support position in the crash situation is realized with the invention in that the movable handle arm with a shoulder comes to rests against a counter shoulder on the latching member because the latching member, as a result of the inertia forces occurring during the crash situation, has been pivoted previously into its support position relative to the support location, also provided here, on the housing. The folding movement path of the shoulder intersects the pivot movement path of the latching member which is entirety separately supported relative to it, i.e., on the housing. In the normal situation, when the latching member is in its release position, the folding movement path of the shoulder provided on the handle arm or the pivot arm extends past the counter shoulder of the latching member. 
     However, in the normal situation a certain deflection movement of the latching member can occur. Already during the conventional handle actuation a small pivot movement of the latching member occurs without the latching member reaching its full support position relative to the housing. With this empty run movement of the locking member, which results already in the normal situation, its functionality in the crash situation is ensured. A freezing of the latching member on its pivot bearing because of extended periods of non-use is therefore not to be feared. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Further measures and advantages of the invention result from the further dependent claims, the following description, and the drawings. In the drawings the invention is illustrated with one embodiment. It is shown in: 
     FIG. 1 the back side of the housing in a plan view which is provided with a folding handle not illustrated here; 
     FIG. 2 a cross-section of the outer door handle of FIG. 1 along the indicated section line II—II in the rest position of the folding handle, which is indicated only by dash-dotted lines and whose pivot movement takes place together with the hatched handle arm, wherein the rest position as well as the working position of these components is illustrated; 
     FIG. 3 in a section corresponding to that of FIG. 2 the same outer door handle when its folding handle is in an intermediate position between the two positions illustrated in FIG. 1; and 
     FIGS.  4 + 5  again the sections of FIG. 2 when a crash situation is present, in particular, in FIG. 4 the initial phase and in FIG. 5 the end phase of such an impact. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The outer door handle illustrated in the Figures comprises a housing  10  of which in FIG. 1, as already mentioned, the backside  12  is visible. On the opposite front side  11  the actual manually actuatable handle  20  is arranged whose position, as already mentioned, is illustrated in FIG. 2 in a dash-dotted line. In the present case this is the folding handle already discussed above which is foldable about a hinge axis  13  arranged horizontally and indicated by dash-dotted lines in FIG.  1 . In this connection, the housing  10  has two spaced-apart bearing brackets  14 . The visible side  11  of the housing provides with a concave depression  15 , illustrated in FIG. 2, which is at least partially covered by the folding handle  20  and is provided space for allowing engagement by the hand when using the handle. 
     In this embodiment a handle arm  21  is fixedly connected for common rotation to the folding handle  20  by connecting means, not illustrated in detail. The two components  20 ,  21  thus form a commonly moved modular unit upon handle actuation. While the folding handle  20  is arranged on the visible side  11  of the housing  10 , the handle arm  12  is arranged at the backside. The handle  20  and the handle arm  21  are positioned angularly to one another. They are arranged on the same hinge axis  13  but on spaced-apart sections  16 ,  17 . While the folding handle  20  is supported on the central section  17  positioned between the two brackets pairs  14 , the arm  21  engages the outer section  16  of the hinge axis  13  arranged on one side of the bracket  14 . Because of the slanted position of the hinge axis  13 , the plane  23 , illustrated in dash-dotted lines in FIG. 1, of the folding movement is also arranged at a slant, the folding movement being indicated in FIG. 2 by the arrow  25 . 
     The hinge axis  13  could however also extend horizontally so that the folding movement plane  23  would then extend vertically. A nose  22  projects laterally from the handle arm  21 , as illustrated in FIG. 1; the nose has a shoulder  24  at the side facing the housing  10  which shoulder is effective for entrainment. When the handle  20  has been moved from its rest position in FIG. 2 into its working position  20 ′ by a handle actuation indicated by the arrow  26  in FIG. 2, the nose can enter through a cutout the interior  27  of the housing. In this working position  20 ′ of the handle, the nose  22  has reached a working position  22 ′ illustrated in FIG.  2  and also shown in dash-dotted lines. Its folding movement is illustrated by the arrow  25  and is carried out on the circular folding movement path  28  indicated in a dotted line in FIG.  2 . 
     In the interior  27  of the housing a latching member  30  is arranged in a special way which acts automatically as a so-called “mass latching member”. The latching member  30  is always stationarily supported for its pivot action by means of the pin  31  arranged in the housing  10 . Its pivot movement path  38  is also indicated by a dotted line in FIG.  2 . The latching member  30  is under the effect of a spring force  41  of a torsion spring  40  or the like which, as will be explained in more detail in connection with FIG. 4, is supported with one end on a cam  32  of the latching member and with the other end on a stationary stop  18  in the housing  10 . By means of the spring force  41  the latching member  30  is secured in its position illustrated in FIG.  2 . This position is determined by contacting a counter stop  37  provided on the latching member  30  and illustrated in FIG. 4 of the latching member on the already mentioned stop  18  in the housing  10 . A counter cam  33  on the latching member  30  is correlated with the cam  32 , as illustrated in FIG. 4, and determines one latching end  39  of the latching member  30 . In the position illustrated in FIG. 2 of the latching member  30 , this latching end  39  is at a spacing from a support location  19  provided on the housing  10 . In the position of FIG. 2 the latching member  30 , aside from the aforementioned spring force  41 , is thus free so that this position will be referred to in the following as “release position” for short. 
     This is changed only when a crash situation occurs which is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. In this case, inertia forces act on the masses of the two projections  32 ,  33  which transfer the latching member into the position  30 ′ illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. The inertia forces that are caused are sufficient in order to overcome the small spring force  41 . In this position  30 ′ the latching end  39  of the latching member  30  is supported on the support location  19  of the housing. Accordingly, this position  30 ′ will be referred to for short in the following as “support position” of the locking member. This support position  30 ′ occurs in the crash situation. 
     The initial phase of the crash situation is shown in FIG.  4 . In this connection, the latching member reaches very quickly the described support position  30 ′ in the housing  10 . The inertia forces which are caused by the acceleration in the crash situation act, of course, also on the handle  20  and on the handle arm  21  which is movable together with it. This modular unit  20 ,  21  is also under the effect of a restoring spring, not illustrated in detail, which has the tendency to secure the handle in the rest position  20  illustrated in FIG.  2 . This handle spring, however, has a greater restoring force in comparison to the spring force  41  of the latching member  30 ,  30 ′. Because of this and because of the constructive conditions, the inertia forces occurring during the crash situation act only after a certain delay on this modular unit  20 ,  21 . The handle arm may have moved in the crash situation into the minimally pivoted position  21 ′″ illustrated in FIG. 5; however, a further pivot movement of the modular unit releasing the lock into the working position described in connection with FIG. 2 is prevented. The nose which is in the position  22 ′″ of FIG. 5 is in fact supported by means of its aforementioned shoulder  24  on the counter shoulder  34  of the latching member which is in the support position  30 ′. This counter shoulder  34  in the present case is comprised of an end face of the counter cam  33 . The inertia force which is illustrated in FIG. 5 by the force arrow  42  is transmitted by the nose  22 ′″ via the counter cam  33 , the latching end  39 , and the support position  19  directly onto the housing  10  and thus becomes ineffective. When the inertia force  42  ends after the crash, the spring  40  returns the latching member again into the release position  30  illustrated in FIG.  2 . 
     As illustrated in FIG. 3, the counter shoulder  34  provided on the counter cam  33  forms one flank of a groove whose other groove flank is formed by the corresponding end face of the cam  32 . The thus resulting groove  43  has an inner width which is somewhat greater than the width of the nose  22  provided on the handle arm. Accordingly, the nose can be moved from its already mentioned rest position  22 , illustrated in solid lines in FIG. 2, along the folding movement path  28 , also already mentioned and indicated by a dotted line, through the groove  43  into the already described working position  22 ′, illustrated in FIG. 2 in dash-dotted lines, without this causing the aforementioned collisions between the shoulder  24  of the moving handle arm and the counter shoulder  34  of the latching member. The folding movement path  28 , the described pivot movement path  38 , and the counter shoulder  34  intersect one another, as illustrated in FIG. 2, at the point of intersection  29 . This leads in the crash situation to the collision shown in FIG.  5 . The groove  43  is however over portions thereof narrowed by a projection  44  illustrated in FIG. 3 so that already for a normal handle actuation  26  of FIG. 2 a small entrainment of the latching member  30  is realized which will be explained in more detail in connection with FIG.  3 . 
     In the release position  30  of the latching member this projection  44  projects into the folding movement path of the nose  22  illustrated by arrow  25  in FIG.  2 . This position is also indicated in FIG. 3 by dash-dotted lines. With this folding movement  25  the nose impacts on the projection  44  and entrains the latching member partially  46  up to an intermediate position  22 ″. During the further course of the handle actuation  26  in which the nose describes the full angle  45  marked in FIG. 2, the latching member is again released. This point of release is illustrated in FIG.  3 . Here the intermediate position  30 ″ of the latching member is illustrated where at this moment the release of the projection by the nose  22 ″ of the handle arm illustrated in the corresponding intermediate position  21 ′ is realized. In this intermediate position  30 ″ the latching member has been pivoted about a partial angle  46  which is smaller than the aforementioned full angle  45 . In the intermediate position  30 ″ the latching member with its latching end  39  is still clearly spaced from its support location  19  on the housing; between the components  19 ,  39  a gap  47  exists (FIG.  3 ). 
     The projection  44  is provided with a leading slant  49  extending in the direction of the folding movement  25 . The size of the partial angle  26  characterizing the intermediate position  30 ″ depends inter alia on the height of the projection  44 . In the borderline situation of FIG. 3, the projection  44  is supported on the narrow side of the nose  22 ′ facing the hinge axis  13  illustrated therein. Upon further completion of the folding movement  25 , the shoulder  22 ″ moves away again from the projection  44  of the latching member  30 ″ when following its folding movement path  28 , already explained in connection with FIG. 2, up to its working position  22 ′. The released latching member  30 ″ is then returned again as a result of the force effect  41  of the restoring spring  40  into its release position  30  shown in FIG.  2 . Upon handle actuation  26 , the latching member carries out only a small pendulous movement in the amount of the aforementioned partial angle  46 . 
     The projection  44 , as shown in FIG. 4, is positioned on the inner surface  35  of the cam  32 . In intermediate position  30 ″ of the latching member of the handle arm has moved into the already mentioned intermediate position  21 ″, in particular, by the angular distance  48  illustrated in FIG.  3 . The projection  44  is recessed relative to the end face of the cam  32  limiting the groove  43 . In the release position of FIG. 2, the nose  22  is aligned with the entrance of the groove and the groove  43  provides, aside from the afore described pendulous movement  46  at the beginning of actuation, a passage for the nose  22  of the handle arm  21 . 
     List of Reference Numerals 
       10  housing 
       11  front side of  10   
       12  backside of  10   
       13  hinge axis on  10   
       14  bearing brackets for  13  on  10   
       15  depression of  10  on  11   
       16  outer section of  13  for  21   
       17  center section of  13  for  20   
       18  stop on  40  in  10   
       19  support location on  10  for  39  of  30 ′ 
       20  folding handle (rest position) 
       20 ′ working position of  20   
       21  handle arm  20  (rest position) 
       21 ″ intermediate position of  21  (FIG. 3) 
       21 ′″ minimally pivoted position of  21  (FIG. 5) 
       22  nose on  21  (rest position) 
       22 ′ intermediate position of  22  (FIG. 3) 
       22 ″ intermediate position of  22  (FIG. 3) 
       22 ′″ minimally pivoted position of  22  (FIG. 5) 
       23  plane of folding movement of  21  (FIG. 1) 
       24  shoulder on  21   
       25  folding movement arrow (FIG. 2) 
       26  arrow of manual handle actuation 
       27  interior of housing of  10   
       28  folding movement path of  22  to  22 ′ 
       29  point of intersection of  28  and  38  (FIG. 2) 
       30  latching member (working position) 
       30 ′ support position of  30  (FIGS. 4,  5 ) 
       30 ″ intermediate position of  30   
       31  pivot bearing pin for  30  on  10   
       32  cam on  30   
       33  counter cam on  30   
       34  end face on  33 , counter shoulder for  24   
       35  inner surface of  32   
       37  counter stop on  30  for  18   
       38  pivot movement path of  30  (FIG. 2) 
       39  latching end of  30  (FIGS. 4,  5 ) 
       40  restoring spring for  30 , tension spring 
       41  spring force of  40   
       42  inertia force (FIG. 5) 
       43  groove between  32 ,  33   
       44  projection in  43   
       45  full angle between  22 ,  22 ′ (FIG. 2) 
       46  partial angle between  30 ,  30 ″, pendulous movement (FIG. 3) 
       47  gap between  19 ,  39   
       48  angular distance between  22 ,  22 ″ (FIG. 3) 
       49  leading slant of  44  for  22 ,  22 ″