Patent ID: 7575270

Claim:
An opening/closing apparatus for vehicle for opening and closing a slide door provided to a vehicle by power of an electric motor, the opening/closing apparatus comprising: a guide rail provided to one of a vehicle body and the slide door; a support arm provided to the other of the vehicle body and the slide door, and movably supported to the guide rail; the electric motor provided with an output shaft rotatable in both forward and backward directions, and disposed in the other of the vehicle body and the slide door; a drive rotating body provided in the other of the vehicle body and the slide door, and rotationally driven by the electric motor; an open-side wire member whose one end is wound around the drive rotating body, and whose other end is coupled to an open-side end of the guide rail via the support arm; a close-side wire member whose one end is wound around the drive rotating body, and whose other end is coupled to a close-side end of the guide rail via the support arm; a speed reducing mechanism having an input gear fixed to the output shaft, an output gear provided to the drive rotating body and rotating together with the drive rotating body, and a switching gear meshing with the input and output gears and rotatably supported to a carrier; a latch provided in the other of the vehicle body and the slide door, and being rotatable between an unlatch position and a full latch position; a coupling member for closure coupling the carrier and the latch, and transmitting rotation of the carrier to the latch; and a switching mechanism for regulating rotation of the latch in a full latch direction due to the rotation of the carrier when the latch is at an unlatch position, and for releasing the regulation when the latch is rotated to the full latch direction from the unlatch position, wherein when the slide door is actuated for closure so that the regulation of the rotation of the latch is released by the switching mechanism, the latch is rotationally driven in the full latch direction by the carrier so that the slide door is retracted in a fully-closed position.