Abstract: A centralized door-locking system in a motor vehicle in which all of the doors of the vehicle and a tailgate of the vehicle have lockable latches which can be locked/unlocked electrically using key-operable switches asociated with the lockable latches in the driver's door, front passenger's door and the tailgate of the vehicle. In the system, it is possible to selectively lock/unlock the driver's door and/or the tailgate independently of the remaining doors of the vehicle, thus improving the overall security against unauthorized entry to the vehicle by third persons during usage of the vehicle. This selective locking/unlocking of the driver's door and tailgate may be achieved by using, for example, a key-operable switch in the driver's door having a rotatable key barrel 32 with key slot 160 which is rotatable clockwise or anticlockwise from a central position N to sequential switching positions A and B, or C and D, against an increasing spring bias 162, 164.

Abstract: An electrically-operable actuator 10, for use in locking and unlocking a latch mechanism in a motor vehicle by the selective operation of a switchable direct current electrical supply to said actuator, comprises a housing 12, 14 enclosing a reversible direct current electric motor 16 adapted to be coupled to said electrical supply, a reduction gear train, a reciprocable member 96 movable between two predefined limits and adapted at one end to be coupled with a locking lever of said latch mechanism, and a rotary, load-sensitive releasable coupling 64 provided between said reversible electric motor 16 and said reciprocable member 96, the actuator including a releasably-engagable locking lever 132 which is operable to lock said reciprocable member 96 against any movement relative to said housing 12, 14, said locking lever 132 being applied, when the actuator 10 is coupled to said switchable electrical supply and after one of said predetermined limits has been reached, by the operation of a switch means in said s

Abstract: An electrically-operable actuator 10 which includes a reversible direct current electric motor 16, a reduction gear train and a reciprocable member 96 adapted at one end to be coupled, for example with a locking lever of a motor vehicle door latch has, in the reversible direct current electric motor 16, a permanent magnet stator 18 in the form of a cylindrical ring, the internal diameter of which is at least twice the actual length thereof; a coil-wound armature 24 in the form of a salient pole rotor having a diameter of at least twice the actual thickness thereof; and a flat disc-shaped segmented commutator secured to said rotor concentric with, and adjacent, a pinion output gear 40 on said rotor.

Abstract: A resilient metal contact brush for use in an electric motor, which contact brush comprises a strip-like metal member having a contact head protruding substantially normally to the plane of the strip-like member, contact head being an integral portion of the strip-like member and being formed by the juxtaposition of two flat ear-like protrusions formed on the strip-like member adjacent one end thereof.