Patent Publication Number: US-2015069767-A1

Title: Door outside handle assembly for vehicle

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     The present application claims priority of Korean Patent Application Number 10-2013-0107690 filed Sep. 9, 2013, the entire contents of which application is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     The present invention relates to a door outside handle assembly for a vehicle. More particularly, it relates to a door outside handle assembly for a vehicle, which can prevent unlocking of a door latch by a reverse inertial force by allowing a lever not to rotate even though the reverse inertial force is generated at a balance weight after a normal inertial force is generated upon side crash of a vehicle. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Generally, door outside handle assemblies for vehicles include a handle installed on the outer side surface of a door panel. As shown in  FIGS. 1 to 4 , a base  10  is installed at an inner side of a door panel  1 , and a handle  20  is mounted on the base  10  outside the door panel  1 . 
     Also, a lever  30  may be rotatably mounted on a pin axis  31  installed at the base  10 . The lever  30  is configured to rotate about the pin axis  31  when the handle (door outside handle)  10  is pulled. 
     Also, a connection part  32  of the lever  30  is connected to a latch of a door locking device by a cable (or rod)  40 , and a protrusion part  33  is provided at the lower end of the lever  30 . The protrusion part  33  is configured to longitudinally extend so as to be stopped in the pulling direction of the handle  20  by a stopper  21  of the handle  20 . 
     The stopper  21  is a part that is integrally formed with the handle  20  installed on the outer side surface of the door panel  1 . Since the stopper  21  has a structure to be inserted into the inside of a vehicle from the handle  20  based on the door panel  1  and the base  10 , the stopper  21  rotates the lever  30  via the protrusion part  33  while moving in the pulling direction of the handle  20  upon pulling of the handle  20 . 
     Also, a balance weight  34  with a certain volume and weight is integrally formed at the upper end of the lever  30 , and a return spring  35  is installed at the pin axis  31 , allowing one end portion and the other end portion thereof to be fixed on the base  10  and the lever  30 , respectively. 
     In this configuration, when the handle  20  is pulled, the stopper  21  moves and thus the lever  30  rotates. Thus, a cable  40  connected to the lever  30  is pulled to unlock the door latch. 
     In  FIG. 4 , the lever location ‘before operation’ represents a state before the handle is operated at ordinary times, and the lever location ‘after operation’ represents a state when the handle is pulled to open the door. Regarding the handle and the stopper, only the state before the operation is shown in the drawing. 
     Meanwhile, the balance weight  34  prevents the handle from being pulled due to the inertial load of the handle  20  and parts related thereto upon side crash of a vehicle, allowing the door latch not to be unlocked. 
     The vehicle door must not open even upon side crash to prevent passengers from being thrown out of a vehicle. 
     However, upon side crash, a vehicle is primarily subject to a normal inertial force. Regarding the handle  20 , since the normal inertial force acts in the same direction as the pulling direction, if the balance weight  34  is absent, a result similar to a case where the handle is actually pulled may occur. 
     That is, the door panel  1  moves toward the inside direction of a vehicle due to the side crash, but the handle  20  does not move due to the inertia. In this case, due to the inertial force (normal inertial force) toward the outside direction of a vehicle, the handle  20  is influenced by the same action as pulling. Finally, the door latch may be unlocked while the cable  40  is pulled at the same time as the rotation of the lever  30 . 
     In order to prevent this phenomenon, the balance weight  34  is provided, and upon side crash, an inertial force of the same direction as the normal inertial force applied to the handle  20  also acts on the balance weight  34 . 
     Since the normal inertial force of the balance weight  34  acts on the lever  30  with a force of the opposite direction to the rotation direction (counterclockwise in  FIG. 4 ) of the lever  30  when the handle  20  is pulled, the normal inertial force of the balance weight  34  serves to offset the normal inertial force of the handle  20  and thus prevents the oration of the lever  30  and the pulling of the handle  20  such that the door is not opened. 
     However, regarding the normal inertial force primarily generated at the moment of side crash of a vehicle, the balance weight  34  offsets the inertia of the handle  20  to prevent the rotation of the lever  30 , but a reverse inertial force of the opposite direction to the normal inertial force is instantaneously generated by an internal reaction force of a vehicle directly after the side crash, allowing the handle  20  and the balance weight to be influenced by a force toward the inside of a vehicle. Accordingly, the lever  30  may rotate, and thus the door latch may be unlocked. 
     That is, the balance weight  34  is secondarily subject to the reverse inertial force after the generation of the initial normal inertial force, and thus the lever  30  rotates counterclockwise (the same direction as the rotation direction upon pulling of handle) in  FIG. 4 , unlocking the door latch. 
     The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     The present invention provides a door outside handle assembly for a vehicle, which can prevent unlocking of a door latch by a reverse inertial force by allowing a lever not to rotate even though the reverse inertial force is generated at a balance weight after a normal inertial force is generated upon side crash of a vehicle. 
     In one aspect, the present invention provides a door outside handle assembly for a vehicle, including: a base disposed on a door panel; a handle disposed on the base to be manipulated to open a door; a lever rotatably disposed on the base, connected to a cable for actuating a door latch, and rotated by the manipulation of the handle to pull the cable in an unlocking direction of the door latch; and a balance weight disposed on the base so as to be movable in inside and outside direction of the vehicle, wherein a pushing end part is integrally formed on the lever to prevent a rotation of the lever by being pushed by the balance weight when a normal inertial force of the balance weight acting in the outside direction of the vehicle is generated. 
     The door outside handle assembly may include a guide slot formed in the base to guide the movement of the balance weight, and the balance weight may be movably coupled to the guide slot. 
     The balance weight may include pins protrusively disposed at both end portions thereof, and the pins may be inserted into the guide slots disposed in parallel in the base. 
     The door outside handle assembly may further include a weight return spring that is disposed between the balance weight and the base to provide an elastic restoring force for returning the balance weight in a state deformed by the balance weight moving in the inside direction of the vehicle. 
     The weight return spring may be two parallel coil springs having one end portion thereof coupled to the pin disposed at each end portion of the balance weight and the other end portion thereof coupled to the base. 
     The methods and apparatuses of the present invention have other features and advantages which will be apparent from or are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, and the following Detailed Description, which together serve to explain certain principles of the present invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIGS. 1 and 2  are perspective views illustrating a typical door outside handle assembly; 
         FIG. 3  is a front view illustrating a typical door outside handle assembly; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A of  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view illustrating an exemplary door outside handle assembly according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a front view illustrating an exemplary door outside handle assembly according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 7(A)  and  FIG. 7(B)  are a cross-sectional views taken along line B-B of  FIG. 6 , which shows the operation states (operation states according to ordinary handling manipulation) of a door outside handle assembly according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 8(A)  and  FIG. 8(B)  are perspective views illustrating an operation state of an exemplary balance weight upon side crash according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 9(A)  and  FIG. 9(B)  are a cross-sectional views taken along line B-B of  FIG. 6 , which shows the operation states of a balance weight upon side crash. 
     
    
    
     It should be understood that the accompanying drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various exemplary features illustrative of the basic principles of the invention. The specific design features of the present invention as disclosed herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes will be determined in part by the particular intended application and use environment. 
     In the figures, reference numbers refer to the same or equivalent parts of the present invention throughout the several figures of the drawing. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present invention(s), examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below. While the invention(s) will be described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments, it will be understood that present description is not intended to limit the invention(s) to those exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, the invention(s) is/are intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. 
     It is understood that the term “vehicle” or “vehicular” or other similar term as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g., fuels derived from resources other than petroleum). As referred to herein, a hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has two or more sources of power, for example both gasoline-powered and electric-powered vehicles. 
       FIG. 5  is a perspective view illustrating a door outside handle assembly according to various embodiments of the present invention, and  FIG. 6  is a front view illustrating a door outside handle assembly according to various embodiments of the present invention. 
     Also,  FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view taken along line B-B of  FIG. 6 , which shows the operation states (operation states according to ordinary handling manipulation) of a door outside handle assembly according to various embodiments of the present invention.  FIG. 7A  shows an operation state before the handle is pulled, and  FIG. 7B  shows an operation state after the handle is pulled to open the door. 
     Also,  FIG. 8  is a perspective view illustrating an operation state of a balance weight upon side crash according to various embodiments of the present invention, and  FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional view taken along line B-B of  FIG. 6 , which shows the operation states of a balance weight upon side crash.  FIG. 9A  shows an action of a normal inertial force upon side crash of a vehicle, and  FIG. 9B  shows an action of a reverse inertial force. 
     An outside handle assembly according to various embodiments of the present invention may include a base  10  disposed on a door panel  1 , a handle  20  mounted on the base  10  to be manipulated for the opening of the door, and a lever  30  rotatably mounted on the base  10 , connected to a cable (or rod)  40  for operating a door latch, and rotated by the operation of the handle  20  to actuate the cable  40 . 
     This configuration is a basic configuration of the outside handle assembly in which the lever unlocks the door latch by actuating the cable  40  when the handle  20  rotates the lever  30  such that the door latch can be unlocked in linkage with the manipulation and operation of the handle. 
     In the accompanying drawings, the cable  40  is illustrated as being used as an actuating factor for the connection with the door latch. However, since a common outside handle assembly for a vehicle uses a rod in addition to a cable for the connection with the door latch, a rod may also be used instead of a cable in various embodiments. 
     The lever  30  may be rotatably coupled to a pin axis  31  installed at the base  10 . The cable  40  may be connected to a connection part  32  formed at one side of the lower portion of the lever  30 , and a protrusion part  33  that longitudinally extends may be provided on the other side of the lower portion of the lever  30  so as to be stopped in the pulling direction of the handle  20  by a stopper  21  of the handle  20 . 
     A return spring  35  may be installed at the pin axis  31 , and the return spring  35  may have one end portion fixed to the base  10  and the other end portion fixed to the lever  30 . 
     The stopper  21  may be a part that is integrally formed with the handle  20  installed on the outer side surface of the door panel  1 . One will appreciate that such integral components may be monolithically formed. Since the stopper  21  has a structure of being inserted into the inside of a vehicle from the handle  20  based on the door panel  1  and the base  10 , the stopper  21  may rotate the lever  30  via the protrusion part  33  while moving in the pulling direction of the handle  20  upon pulling of the handle  20 . 
     In this configuration, when the handle  20  is pulled, the stopper  21  may move and thus the lever  30  may rotate. Thus, a cable  40  connected to the lever  30  may be pulled to unlock the door latch. 
     Unlike a typical configuration in which a balance weight is integrally formed at the upper end of the lever, in various embodiments, a balance weight  34  may be manufactured and assembled independently of the lever  30 . 
     The balance weight  34  may be assembled on the base  10  so as to be movable in inside and outside directions of a vehicle. For this, a guide slot  11  may be longitudinally disposed to guide the movement of the balance weight  34  along the movement direction (inside and outside direction of a vehicle) of the balance weight  34 , and the balance weight  34  may be coupled so as to be movable along the guide slot  11 . 
     Here, the inside direction of a vehicle to which the balance weight  34  moves means a direction to which the balance weight  34  is moved by a reverse inertia upon side crash of a vehicle, and the outside direction of a vehicle means a direction to which the balance weight  34  is moved by a normal inertia upon side crash of a vehicle. 
     In various embodiments, both end portions of the balance weight  34  may be coupled to the guide slot  11  by a pin coupling method to be installed at the base  10  for implementation of the assembling structure of the balance weight  34  movable in the inside and outside directions of a vehicle. 
     That is, pins  34   a  that can be inserted into the guide slot  11  may be protrusively disposed at both end portions of the balance weight  34 , and two guide slots  11  may be disposed in parallel on the base  10  to allow the pins  34   a  disposed at each end portion of the balance weight  34  to be inserted into the corresponding guide slots  11 . 
     Also, a weight return spring  36  may be mounted between the balance weight  34  and the base  10  to return the balance weight  34  moved to the inside direction of a vehicle by the reverse inertial force to the outside direction of a vehicle. 
     The weight return spring  36  may be disposed along the inside and outside directions of a vehicle between the balance weight  34  and the base  10 . Accordingly, the weight return spring  36  may be extended when the balance weight  34  is moved in the inside direction of a vehicle by the action of the reverse inertial force (backward inertial force), and then may move the balance weight  34  in the outside direction of a vehicle by an elastic restoring force thereof when the action of the reverse inertial force is released. 
     In various embodiments, the weight return spring  36  may become two parallel coil springs that have one end portion coupled to the pin  34   a  formed at each end portion of the balance weight  34  and the other end portion coupled to the base  10 . 
     Also, a pushing end part  37  may be integrally formed at the upper end of the lever  30  such that the balance weight  34  can push the pushing end part  37  in the outside direction of a vehicle. One will appreciate that such integral components may be monolithically formed. 
     The pushing end part  37  may upwardly extend from the upper end of the lever  30  so as to be located at the rear side (outside direction of a vehicle) of the balance weight  34 . Upon side crash, when the balance weight  34  receives a force (forward inertial force, i.e., normal inertial force) of the outside direction of a vehicle, the balance weight  34  may pressurize the pushing end part  37  of the lever  30  such that the lever  30  does not rotate in an unlocking direction (i.e., pulling direction of cable) of the latch even though a normal inertial force occurs in the handle. 
     In this configuration, a spring force of the weight return spring  36  that is installed to hold the balance weight  34  from the base  10  may act as a force that pulls the balance weight  34  in the outside direction of a vehicle so as to adhere closely to the pushing end part  37  at ordinary times. 
     Thus, the configuration of the outside handle assembly according to various embodiments of the present invention has been described. Hereinafter, the operation state of the outside handle assembly will be described with reference to  FIGS. 7 and 9 . 
     First,  FIG. 7A  shows a state before operation at the locking state of the door latch, i.e., a state before the handle  20  is pulled, a state before the lever  30  rotates, and a state before the cable  40  is pulled. 
     In this state, when the handle  20  is pulled to open the door, the state becomes a state after operation (b). 
     When the handle  20  is pulled, the stopper  21  may move in the outside direction (right direction in the drawing) of a vehicle, which is the pulling direction. In this case, the stopper  21  may push the protrusion part  33  of the lever  30  to rotate the lever  30  counterclockwise. When the lever  30  rotates, the cable  40  is pulled, unlocking the door latch. 
     In this process, the pushing end part  37  of the lever  30  that rotates may push and move the balance weight  34  in the inside direction of a vehicle, and the weight return spring  36  may be pulled and extended by the balance weight  34  that moves. 
     Also, the balance weight  34  may move along the guide slot  11  of the base  10 , and the pin  34   a  of the balance weight  34  may be configured to move along the guide slot  11 . 
     Meanwhile,  FIG. 9A  is a view illustrating a forward inertia primarily acting upon side crash. When a side crash of vehicles occurs in a locking state of the door latch, a normal inertial force may act on both of the handle  20  and the balance weight  34 . Accordingly, the inertial force of the balance weight  34  may offset the inertial force of the handle  20 , preventing the lever  30  from rotating. 
     In this case, since the balance weight  34  is pushing the pushing end part  37  of the lever  30  by the inertial force, the lever  30  may not rotate in the pulling direction (unlocking direction) of the cable  40 . Accordingly, since the cable  40  is not pulled, the latch may not be unlocked. 
     On the other hand, when a backward inertial secondarily acts, as shown in  FIG. 9B , only the balance weight  34  that is a separate object may move in the inside direction of a vehicle that is the reverse inertia acting direction while extending the weight return spring  36 . In this case, since the lever  30  is not influenced by the reverse inertia regardless of the balance weight  34 , the lever  30  may not rotate. 
     Also, since the lever  30  does not rotate, the cable  40  may not be pulled. Accordingly, the locking state of the door latch may not be released. 
     Also, the balance weight  34  may move along the guide slot  11  of the base  10 . Thereafter, when the action of the reverse inertial force disappears, the balance weight  34  may be pulled and returned to the location of  FIG. 9A  by the elastic restoring force of the weight return spring  36 . 
     According to various embodiments of the present invention, a door outside handle assembly has an effect of preventing a rotation of a lever due to a generation of a reverse inertial force of a balance weight and thus preventing unlocking of a door latch and a door opening upon side crash of a vehicle, by disposing the balance weight that offsets a normal inertial force of a handle generated upon side crash of a vehicle independently of the lever to allow the balance weight to independently move regardless of the lever upon action of the reverse inertial force. 
     For convenience in explanation and accurate definition in the appended claims, the terms upper or lower, rear, and etc., are used to describe features of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions of such features as displayed in the figures. 
     The foregoing descriptions of specific exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain certain principles of the invention and their practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to make and utilize various exemplary embodiments of the present invention, as well as various alternatives and modifications thereof. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the Claims appended hereto and their equivalents.