STEERING COLUMN FOR VEHICLE

• US 20110056324A1
• Filed: 09/07/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HL Mando Corporation (Halla Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mando Corporation (Halla Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: PARK, Jung Sik, Kwon, Kyung Tae
• Granted Patent: US 8,459,141 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 74/493
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 1/184 Mechanisms for locking columns at selected positions

Abstract

Disclosed is a steering column having an outer tube, an adjustment lever, a tilt bolt and a steering shaft. According to the present invention, force for supporting the outer tube is increased and strengthened at the time of tightening the adjustment lever, and the tilt bolt is coupled on the central axis of the steering shaft so that no bending is caused and the adjustment lever does not hit a driver on the knee when a vehicle collision occurs, whereby the collision safety of the vehicle can be improved, and the number of parts and steps for assembling the parts can be reduced.

Claims

1. A steering column for a vehicle, comprising:

a hollow inner tube surrounding a steering shaft;

a hollow outer tube fitted on the outer periphery of the inner tube to be slid at the time of telescopic action;

a ring bolt having a pair of fastening parts, to which an adjustment lever and an anchoring means are coupled, respectively, and an annular through-hole part formed between the fastening parts, the outer tube being introduced through the annular through-hole part; and

a tilt bracket having an anchoring part coupled to a mounting bracket, and a pair of clamping parts extending substantially vertically from the anchoring part to be opposed to each other, wherein the clamping parts are formed with seating recesses, respectively, and the through-hole part of the ring bolt is fitted in the seating recesses, wherein each of the seating recesses is formed with a tilt slot, the fastening parts of the ring bolt extending through the tilt slots and coupled to the adjustment lever, and wherein support parts for supporting the outer periphery of the outer tube are formed at the opposite lateral sides of each of the seating recesses.

2. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer tube is provided with one or more holes extending in the longitudinal direction on the outer periphery thereof.

3. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein a telescope bush is interposed between the inner tube and the outer tube.

4. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer tube is provided with a telescopic action area formed by reducing the outer diameter of the outer tube, thereby forming steps so as to limit the extent of telescopic action, and the extent of telescopic action is limited as the steps at the opposite axial ends of the telescopic action area are caught by the support parts of the tilt bracket.

5. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seating recesses of the tilt bracket receive the through-hole part of the ring bolt with a clearance being formed in relation to the outer periphery.

6. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer tube is provided with one or more ribs which protrude from the outer periphery of the outer tube and extend in the axial direction of the outer tube.

7. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer tube is provided with flat mounting surfaces formed on the opposite lateral sides of the outer periphery of the outer tube engaged with the through-hole part of the ring bolt, the flat mounting surfaces coming into face-to-face contact with the support parts of the tilt bracket, and wherein the opposite lateral sides of the through-hole part of the ring bolt are also formed in flat shapes to correspond to the mounting surfaces of the outer tube, respectively.

8. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support parts of the tilt bracket are formed with serration areas so as to increase support force with the outer tube.

9. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support parts of the tilt bracket are formed with coating areas for increasing frictional force with the outer tube.

10. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the clamping parts of the tilt bracket is formed with a concave part recessed from the outer surface to the inner surface of the clamping part so as to reduce the thickness of the clamping part.

11. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the clamping parts of the tilt bracket has a slit formed by cutting the clamping part around the tilt slot.

12. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the tilt slots has ledges at the open end thereof, which protrude from the inner walls of the tilt slot so as to prevent the ring bolt from escaping at the time of tilt action.

13. The steering column as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anchoring part of the tilt bracket is formed with a coating area on the outer surface, which comes into contact with the mounting bracket so as to increase frictional force with the mounting bracket at the time of a vehicle collision.