Patent ID: 7788955

Claim:
An ignition switch and steering lock device for motor vehicles, comprising: a main body on which other elements comprising the device are assembled, an electronic control circuit for controlling the device, equipped with input/output interfaces; means for locking, mobile between a locked position thereof in which the means block a vehicle steering in a fixed orientation, and an unlocked position thereof in which the means for locking do not block rotation of the steering, the means for locking being movable into the locked position only when the vehicle steering is in at least a locking orientation thereof; a mechanical actuator, for moving the means for locking, being connected operatively to the means for locking and controlled by the electronic control circuit; wherein the device comprises at least a sensor of the unlocked position, for detecting a position of the means for locking and at least a sensor of the steering orientation for determining an orientation of the steering, both the at least a sensors being connected to the electronic control circuit; the sensor of steering orientation comprising a feeler element and means for detecting a configuration of the feeler element, the feeler element being mobile, in relation to the main body, between a first configuration of the feeler element, assumed at a minimum steering lock orientation, and a second configuration of the feeler element, assumed at other steering orientations, the feeler element interacting by contact with a striker element, means for resetting also being provided for returning the feeler element into a configuration thereof of relative to the striker element and wherein the main body is associated with the vehicle steering, the means for locking comprising a bolt which is mobile in translation along a longitudinal axis thereof, the bolt engaging with a vehicle frame in the locked position of the means for locking, the striker element being a raised element solidly constrained to the vehicle frame and designed to interact contactingly with the feeler element at the at least a minimum steering lock orientation; the feeler element being substantially cylindrical in shape and is mobile along a longitudinal axis thereof which is substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the bolt, the feeler element exhibiting a transversal notch permitting passage, at only the locked position of the feeler element, of a rib fixed to the bolt.