SAFETY DEVICE FOR A AUTOMOBILE FRONT HOOD

Abstract: A front hood opening safety device of the type operable from outside the passenger compartment, comprising a support on which there is pivoted a safety hook (27) which is retained by the force of a spring (88) in a first predetermined position corresponding to complete closure of the hood, the hook having at one end the shape of a ramp which blends into an inclined wall, on opening the hood the hook assuming a second position in which the ramp comes into engagement with a catch element (19), the hook being operationally connected to a control lever (37) provided with a handgrip, the lever being provided with at least one arm formed from at least one preloaded elastic element.

Description: This invention relates to a safety device for a front hood of an automobile. For safety reasons it is known to provide in front hood fastening systems further devices for restraining the hood. Usually, the hood fastening system can be operated from the interior of the passenger compartment, whereas the safety device which restrains the hood and retains it in a semi-open position is operated from the exterior of the automobile to allow full opening of the hood. This is desirable to prevent the front hood rising while the automobile is moving, due to either an erroneous manoeuvre or a strong accidental impact. In most cases, however, these safety devices are difficult to operate because for aesthetic and space reasons they are located in difficultly accessible positions. On the other hand, if they are provided with an operating lever, for example positioned in view, they are too exposed externally. The problem therefore arises to provide a safety device for the opening of the front or engine hood, which comprises a lever for its operation but which has the advantage of maintaining the lever hidden when the hood is closed whereas is able to automatically move the safety hook operating lever into an easily accessible region when the engine hood opening control is operated from the interior of the passenger compartment. A solution of this problem is given in FR-A-2 255 456, in which there is disclosed a device having the features of the preamble of claim 1. In this known device the lever is pivoted at one end to the hook and rests with its other end on a bar of the front grille of the automobile within the outer profile of the grille. When the hood is brought into its partly open position, the front end of the lever is caused to project from the grille and can be gripped by the user for releasing the hook. In the known device the lever may be subjected to vibrations during running of the automobile and may give rise to damages to the grille and to noise. Furthermore, the device may loose its safety function in case the spring acting on the hook becomes faulty. The present invention solves the above problem without having these drawbacks. The solution given by the present invention is defined in claim 1. Thanks to the preloaded spring and its direction of action, the lever constantly maintains a stable position on the abutting wall of the automobile front during running of the automobile, and furthermore ensures engagement of the hook with the catch element even if the spring acting on the hook should become defective, so improving the safety characteristics of the device. The invention is illustrated hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures, which show one embodiment of the invention by way of non-limiting example. Figure 1 shows with continuous lines the device mounted in the automobile with the engine hood in a first closed position, whereas the dashed lines show the device when in the safety position. Figure 2 is a view in the direction of the arrow II of Figure 1 showing the device before mounting in the automobile. Figure 3 is a view of the control lever alone. In Figure 1 the reference numeral 10 indicates overall a front or engine hood formed from an external sheet metal portion 11 with a relative internal stiffening sheet metal portion 12, and a radiator protection grille 13 which is also rigid with the hood 10. The reference numeral 14 indicates a front bumper (partly shown), and 15 and 16 indicate sheet metal portions forming a front cross-member 17. The sheet metal portion 16 comprises an aperture 18 provided with a catch element 19. A rivet 20 fixes the catch element 19 to the edge of said aperture 18 so that the catch element 19 is rigid with the front cross-member 17. The sheet metal portion 12 carries a support 21 which is fixed by a threaded pad 22 and a screw 23 to the portion 12 and is thus rigid with the hood 10. With the support 21, which is of double-T shape in the figure, there are rigid two lugs 24 which are disposed perpendicular to the intermediate portion of said double-T and are provided with a hole 25. A pin 26 is inserted through said hole 25, and on it there is pivoted a safety hook 27 having an end ramp 41 which smoothly joins into an inclined wall 42. Said hook 27 is retained in a first predetermined position corresponding to the complete closure of the hood by a spiral spring 28 centrally wound about said pin 26 and having two arms 29 and 31 which engage respectively in a hole 30 provided in one of the lugs 24, and in a hole 9 in the hook 27. Two seats 32 and 33 are provided in the hook 27, there being inserted in the seat 33 a pin 34 which by means of a split ring 35 retains coil turns 36 of a control lever indicated overall by 37. The control lever 37 consists of at least one preloaded spring to which a handgrip 38 is rigidly connected. The ends of two arms 39 of the spring, which is a wire spring, are engaged in the seats 32 of the hook 27, and the ends of further arms 43 are rigidly connected to the handgrip 38. Holes 40 provided in the support 21 are used for fixing the support 21 to the hood 10. As shown in Fig. 1, when the hood 10 is in its completely closed position, the handgrip 38 is hidden under the grille 13 and is unaccessible in said position. At the moment in which the hood 10 is released from the inside of the passenger compartment, an elastic system (not shown) tends to raise the hood and consequently also the safety device which comes into operation at this point. In this respect, in its upward movement, the hood 10 also carries with it the hook 27 which is retained against the catch element 19 by the action of the spring 28. This movement continues until the point in which the ramp 41, guided in its travel by the inclined wall 42 of the hook 27, hooks onto the catch element 19 so halting the hood in a second, partly open position. The vertical movement of the hood 10 also results in movement of the lever 37 as this is pivoted, at 34 to the hook 27. However, as the control lever 37 consists of a preloaded spring acting in the sense of moving the handgrip 38 away from the hook 27, the lever itself remains constantly in contact with the abutting wall of the bumper 14 during movement, until a position which is more accessible for the user for gripping purposes Is reached as shown in Figure 1 by dashed lines and indicated by 38'. On pulling the control lever 37 outwards, the ramp 41 is released from the catch element 19, so allowing the hood 10 to open. As shown in Fig. 3, the preloaded spring may consist of a pair of wire springs connected together at the ends of the arms 43 secured to the handgrip 38.

Claims: A front hood opening safety device of the type operable from outside the passenger compartment of an automobile, comprising a support (24) rigid with the hood (10) and on which there is pivoted a safety hook (27) which is retained by the force of a spring (28) in a first predetermined position corresponding to the complete closure of the hood (10), said hook (27) having at one end the shape of a ramp (41) which blends into an inclined wall (42), wherein on opening the hood (10) from the inside of the passenger compartment said hook (27) assumes a second position in which said ramp (41) comes into engagement with a catch element (19) rigid with a front cross member (17) of the automobile and said hood (10) is retained in a partly open position, said hook (27) being operationally connected to a control lever (37) provided with a handgrip (38) for releasing said hook (27) from said catch element (19), said handgrip (38) being hidden when the hood (10) is in the completely closed position and being accessible for the user when the hood (10) is in said partly open position, characterised in that said lever (37) comprises at least one preloaded spring having one end secured to said hook (27) and a second end secured to said handgrip (38), said spring acting in the sense of moving said handgrip (38) away from said hook (27) and of constantly maintaining said handgrip (38) in contact with an abutting wall (14) on the front of the automobile. A safety device as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said at least one preloaded spring is a wire spring the ends of which form arms (39,43), said wire spring having coil turns (36) between said arms (39,43), said coil turns (36) being retained around a pin (34) supported by said hook (27). A safety device as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said at least one preloaded spring consists of a pair of wire springs connected together at the ends of the arms (43) secured to said handgrip (38).

Inventors: DE FELICE, DOMENICO, VILLA, EZIO
Applicants: FIAT AUTO S.P.A.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: E05B65
IPC codes: E05B65