Abstract:
A carrier for electrical traces of an actuator for a latch is provided. The carrier is configured to receive a plurality of electrical traces; and wherein the carrier has features for receiving and retaining at least one switch, wherein the carrier is configured for use in at least two distinct configurations each of which being different from the other.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/949,683 filed Mar. 7, 2014. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a latch and more particularly, an actuator for a latch. 
     In some applications, latches are required to perform numerous operations within limited confines of an application area of the item they are installed in. Still further, some latches include motorized actuators for performing some of these operations. In addition, the motor and/or the actuator will also be operatively coupled to switches and connector circuits in order to detect a state of the actuator and provide that information to the motor or a controller operatively coupled to the motor. 
     Accordingly, it is desirable to an apparatus and method for allowing multiple switches to be added or removed from the system, latch or actuator without requiring multiple components or completely different designs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A carrier for electrical traces of an actuator for a latch is provided. The carrier being configured to receive a plurality of electrical traces; and wherein the carrier has features for receiving and retaining at least one switch, wherein the carrier is configured for use in at least two distinct configurations each of which being different from the other. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and/or other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein: 
         FIGS. 1-4  are views of a latch; and 
         FIGS. 5-11  are views of a connector for use with the latch. 
     
    
    
     Although the drawings represent varied embodiments and features of the present invention, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated in order to illustrate and explain exemplary embodiments the present invention. The exemplification set forth herein illustrates several aspects of the invention, in one form, and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference is made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,969,789; 6,568,741; 6,679,531; 8,348,310 and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. US 2010/0127512; US 2011/0204659; US 2012/0292927 and provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/806,530 filed Mar. 29, 2013, the entire contents each of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto. 
     Referring now to the FIGS. and in particular,  FIGS. 1-4 , a latch  10  is illustrated. In one embodiment, the latch  10  is a vehicle door latch or any other type of vehicle latch. Latch  10  has an actuator  12  operatively coupled to components of the latch  10  that are located within a latch housing  14 . 
     Latch  10  may have a lock lever  16  rotatably mounted to the latch about an axis  18  for movement in the direction of arrows  20 . The rotational movement of the lock lever actuates other component(s) of the latch  10 , for example a detent lever or pawl that operatively engages a claw or fork bolt of the latch  10 . It is, of course, understood that the lock lever  16  may also be configured to operatively engage other components of the latch  10  and the interaction of the lock lever  16  to the detent lever is one of many applications and/or operations that may be used alone or in combination with other features/operations of the latch  10 . 
     In one embodiment, the lock lever  16  is driven by a motor  22  of the actuator  12  via linear motion of a movable link  24  in the direction of arrows  26 . The moveable link  24  is pivotally connected to the lock lever at one end and a sector gear  28  at the other. The sector gear  28  is pivotally mounted to a housing  30  of the actuator  12  or any other location of the latch  10  such that movement in the direction of arrows  32  is possible. Sector gear  28  is configured to operatively engage a gear  34  rotatably mounted to a worm gear  36  rotatably mounted to the actuator housing  30  for rotation about an axis  38  in the direction of arrows  40 . Worm gear  36  is operatively coupled to a worm  42  which is rotatably driven by motor  22 . Gear  34  has a protrusion  44  that is located between a pair of features  46  and  48  of worm gear  36  such that as worm gear  36  rotates in one direction (e.g., clockwise) feature  46  will contact protrusion  44  and thus rotate sector gear  28  and accordingly move link  24  linearly such that lock link  16  can be rotated or pivoted. If the rotation of the worm  42  is reversed, the worm gear  36  will rotate counter clockwise and worm gear  36  will rotate and cause counter clockwise rotation of sector gear  28  via feature  48  contacting protrusion  44  and thus causes rotational of pivotal movement of sector gear  28  in an opposite direction to that caused by feature  46  contacting protrusion  44  and thus link  24  is also moved in an opposite linear direction and lock link  16  rotates or pivots in an opposite direction to that when feature  46  contacts protrusion  44 . Accordingly and through the rotational movement of the worm gear  36  in the direction of arrows  40  a range of operational movements of components of the latch  10  is possible. 
     As illustrated, the sector gear  28  is connected or operatively coupled to the lock lever  16  through the movable link  24 . The sector gear  28  engages or is operatively coupled to a gear train  50  connected to the drive motor  22 . Accordingly, the actuator  12  has a motor drive  22  engaging a gear train  50  to connect with a sector gear  28 . The sector gear  28  has an integral arm  52  and rotates about a fixed pivot  54 . The arm  52  travels through an arc created by the rotation of the motor  22  and the gear train  50 . The motion developed by the gear rotation and the arm  52  develops a linear motion at the end of the arm  52  that equals the linear travel of the lock lever  16 . The arm  52  of the sector gear  28  is connected to the lock lever  16  by a link  24  with pivoting connections  56  and  58  allowing for the change between the rotational movement and the linear travel. 
     This arrangement or design disclosed herein also allows for a compact design. In addition, this design or arrangement also allows for less movable components required to be located between the motor  22  and lock lever  18  thus reducing cost, noise, size requirements, possible wear issues etc. In one embodiment, the actuator  12  is configured to be perpendicularly arranged with respect to a plane  70 , which is parallel to or corresponds with housing  14 . 
     As mentioned, above the actuator  12  has motor  22  and worm drive  42  engaging a worm gear  36  with floating pinion gear  34 . The pinion gear  34  engages the sector gear  28  that is attached to the link  22 . The link  24  is coupled to the lock lever  16  of the latch  10  to move from a locked to unlocked position. A switch  72  is positioned to be actuated by a surface  74  of protrusion  44  as it rotates with gear  34  and actuation of switch  72  will identify the unlocked position of the latch  10  with the capability for an additional switch  76  to be provided to identify a door ajar condition. It is understood, that latch  10  may be configured with only switch  72  or switches  72  and  76  or still other switches. When activated, the motor  22  will drive the gear system or gear train  50 , move the link  24  and the latch lever  16 . The lever  16  will stay in the locked or unlocked position as the gear train  50  returns to a central position by a spring force of a spring  78  (illustrated schematically by dashed lines) acting on the worm gear  36 . In other words, sector gear  28  is not pivoted or rotated until either one of features  46  or  48  contacts protrusion  44 . The will occur when the motor  22  is operated in one of two directions and reversing the flow of current to the motor  22  will reverse the direction of the motor  22  and move the latch lever or lock lever  16  in an opposite direction thus, changing the state of the latch  10  from lock to unlock or vice versa. Once the state has been changed the spring  78  will again return the gear train  50  and/or worm gear  36  to a central position. 
     Gear  34  is rotatably mounted to a worm gear  36  rotatably mounted to the actuator housing  30  for rotation about an axis  38  in the direction of arrows  40 . Accordingly, gear  34  can rotate with respect to worm gear  36 . Worm gear  36  is operatively coupled to a worm  42  which is rotatably driven by motor  22 . Gear  34  has a protrusion  44  that is located between a pair of features  46  and  48  of worm gear  36  such that as worm gear  36  rotates in one direction (e.g., clockwise) from a home or central position and gear  34  is in the position illustrated in  FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 , feature  46  will contact protrusion  44  and thus rotate sector gear  28  clockwise and accordingly move link  24  linearly such that lock link  16  can be rotated or pivoted. 
     Once, the motor  22  is denergized worm gear  36  rotates counter clockwise back into the central or home position (see at least  FIGS. 1-4 ) via a spring biasing force however, gear  34  will remain in the position illustrated in at least  FIG. 3 . At this point (e.g., when the worm gear  36  rotates counter clockwise back to the home or central position due to the spring biasing force and gear  34  remains in the position illustrated in  FIG. 3 ) feature  48  is positioned adjacent to protrusion  40  such that counter clockwise rotation of worm gear  36  will cause counter clockwise rotation of gear  34  via feature  48 . Thereafter and when the motor is denergized worm gear  36  returns to the home or central position and gear  34  remains in the position illustrated in  FIGS. 1, 2 and 4  such that feature  46  is adjacent to protrusion  40  and is ready to move gear  34  via clockwise movement of worm gear  36 . 
     Worm gear  36  is spring biased back into the home or central position by a spring  78  located between worm gear  36  and actuator housing  30 . As mentioned above, worm gear  36  is operatively coupled to the worm  42  which is rotatably driven by the motor. Gear  34  is rotatably mounted to worm gear  36  about an axis such that gear  34  can rotate with respect to the worm gear  36  about axis. 
     If the rotation of the worm  42  is reversed, the worm gear  36  will reverse its rotation and thus cause an appropriate rotation of the sector gear  28  as either feature  46  or  48  contacts protrusion  44  depending on the location of gear  34  and thus causes rotational of pivotal movement of sector gear  28  and link  24  is also moved in a corresponding linear direction. Accordingly and through the rotational movement of the worm gear  36  in the direction of arrows  40  a range of operational movements of components of the latch  10  is possible. 
     It is noted that the protrusion  44  of  FIG. 1  has a slightly different configuration than that illustrated in  FIG. 2 . It is also noted that the distance between features  46  and  48  is larger than protrusion  44  such that the rotational movement of gear  34  with respect to worm gear  36  is possible. 
     Therefore, a latch  10  with an actuator  12  capable of providing full angular travel of the lock lever  16  with linear motion of a link  24  is provided. 
     Switches  72  and  76  are operatively coupled to a controller or microcontroller  80  that is provided with the states of switches  72  and  76  and can thus operate the motor in the aforementioned opposite directions based upon the states or information received from the switches  72  and  76 . 
     As mentioned above, it is desirable to an apparatus and method for allowing multiple switches to be added or removed from the system, latch or actuator without requiring multiple components or completely different designs. Accordingly, it is also desirable to develop a way to build the motor and connector circuits for the actuator so that it can be flexible in order to allow for multiple switches to be added or removed depending on the system required. The design also needs to be compact with an integrated connector and motor attachments while also allowing for the use of micro switch technology. 
     One such design is illustrated in at least  FIGS. 5-11 . Here a plastic carrier  100  is provided. Plastic carrier  100  is configured to provide mounting for the motor  22 , switches  72  and  76 , a connector  102  and circuits  104 . 
     In one embodiment, the circuits  104  can be but are not limited to metal traces or wires stranded or solid captured in the plastic carrier. The traces may be insert molded or encapsulated in the carrier or simply placed therein after molding of the carrier in accordance with any know method of forming. The carrier will also provide a mounting for the motor, switches and the connector. In one embodiment, the parts will be separate components and thus allow for the same to be built together in several different configurations depending on the configuration of the separate components each or which may have a different configuration but will still be able to be secured to the carrier and thus allow for design modification without adverse impact or cost the would require a redesign of the whole design. 
     In some embodiments, the connector  102  is an independent component configured to be snap fittingly attached to the carrier. The connector may have a locator to allow for easier assembly to the carrier. 
     Use of a carrier  100  allows for flexibility in manufacturing with independent switches, traces and connector allowing for variability in number of circuits. The commonality of motor and micro switches with a standard connector installation also aids in manufacturability and reduced cost impact for various designs within a platform. 
     As such, common components reduce the manufacturing cost while also providing variety in a number of circuits. The separate components can snap fit together in order to provide flexibility on the available circuitry. 
     In one embodiment, a housing  110  for the switches is also provided. Housing  110  will have features or areas  112  and  114  configured to receive and retain switches, for example, switches  72  and  76 . Of course, the number and orientation of switches may be different than the specific configurations illustrated in the attached FIGS. For example, more or less than two switches may be contemplated and their orientation with respect to the carrier  100  may vary. Accordingly, housing  110  may have a variety of configurations and in some embodiments may be integrally formed with carrier  100  or alternatively be yet another separate component snap fittingly engaged to carrier  100  and as such numerous housings  110  or various configurations may be secured to carrier  100  to provide various configurations. 
     As used herein, the terms “first,” “second,” and the like, herein do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another, and the terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item. In addition, it is noted that the terms “bottom” and “top” are used herein, unless otherwise noted, merely for convenience of description, and are not limited to any one position or spatial orientation. 
     The modifier “about” used in connection with a quantity is inclusive of the stated value and has the meaning dictated by the context (e.g., includes the degree of error associated with measurement of the particular quantity). 
     While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplary embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.