Rectilinear Rack Patents (Class 74/89.12)
  • Patent number: 8640561
    Abstract: A door driving apparatus having a motor, a sleeve formed at a drive end of a rotor of the motor, a pinion integrally fixed to a rotation shaft integrated with a spline shaft detachably fitted to the sleeve, and left and right racks disposed opposite to each other with respect to the pinion and engaged with the pinion so that the left and right racks can move in directions substantially parallel and opposite to each other. When the motor is individually removed from a rack and pinion casing, the pinion is left in the pinion and rack casing while upper and lower sides of the pinion are engaged with the right and left racks, respectively. Accordingly, the relative positions of the left and right racks are unchanged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Harie, Atsushi Kitabata
  • Patent number: 8082812
    Abstract: A closure system for a motor vehicle includes a pinion and a pair of U-shaped, flat sliders. The pinion is engaged to a drive shaft to rotate in a first rotational direction and an opposite second rotational direction in response to the drive shaft rotating. Each slider has an inner leg and an outer leg connected at one end to a bridge. The inner surface of each inner leg includes a gear rack. The inner surfaces of the inner legs face one another and surround opposite sides of the pinion such that corresponding portions of the gear racks engage the respective opposite sides of the pinion whereby the sliders are longitudinally displaced away from one another in response to the pinion rotating in the first rotational direction and are longitudinally displaced toward one another in response to the pinion rotating in the second rotational direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Magna Car Top Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Thorsten Schumacher
  • Patent number: 7926378
    Abstract: A rack shaft is supported in an inner peripheral portion of a tubular housing of a gear housing via a rack bush. An inner peripheral portion of the rack bush is formed as a peripheral surface approximately similar to a circle in which a peripheral surface constituted by a large circular arc and a peripheral surface constituted by a small circular arc are continuously provided. The rack shaft is not in contact with the peripheral surface constituted by the large circular arc, and the peripheral surface constituted by the small circular arc is formed as a support portion of the rack shaft. The support of the rack shaft by the peripheral surface constituted by the small circular arc is not accomplished when a load applied to the rack shaft is nothing or low, but is accomplished when the load is high. Further, an engaging convex portion acting as a positioning and rotation prevention for the bush is provided in an outer peripheral portion of the rack bush.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Showa Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuya Saito, Yukio Tajima, Yoshio Onoguchi
  • Publication number: 20110041631
    Abstract: The invention relates to a drive apparatus (10) for the linear movement of a processing tool with respect to a workpiece, having a tool holder (18) which is fixed on a carriage (16) and is intended for the fastening of the processing tool, having a stationary guide device (12) in which the carriage (16) is guided such that it can be displaced in a vertically linear manner, and having a drive device (42) with a first force transmission means (46) which, in an engaged position, engages with a second force transmission means (40) connected to the carriage (16) in order to move the carriage (16). According to the invention, it is provided that the drive device (42) is mounted in the guide device (12) such that it can be moved between a release position, in which the force transmission means (40, 46) do not engage with one another, and the engaged position in such a way that the gravitational force of the drive device (42) causes a movement from the release position into the engaged position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Inventor: Kurt Nachbargauer
  • Patent number: 7401789
    Abstract: The invention contemplates a rack bushing and a rack and pinion steering assembly for use in a vehicle that includes such a rack bushing. The steering assembly may include a housing having a tubular rack portion with a tubular end, a rack mounted in the tubular rack portion and extending out of the tubular end, and a rack bushing mounted in the rack portion around the rack. The rack bushing includes a generally annular main body portion having a generally cylindrical inner surface centered about the axis and supporting the rack, an outer surface centered about the axis and including a generally cylindrical main surface adapted to engage the tubular end of the housing, and a first end and an opposed second end. The rack bushing may include a plurality of bores extending within the main body axially from the first end a portion of the way toward the second end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2008
    Assignee: TRW Automotive U.S. LLC
    Inventors: Dennis F. Harer, Eric A. Roline, William E. Allen, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6910397
    Abstract: The axis of a gear is to follow a trajectory having a salient point. To this end, the gear rolls along two stationary toothed racks. A change-over toothing is provided between these two toothed racks. This change-over toothing extends non-smoothly with respect to the toothed racks. Such change-over toothing permits the gear to roll, without jamming, from one of the toothed racks to the other one, with its axis following a trajectory having a salient point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2005
    Inventors: Boris Schapiro, Naum Kruk, Lev Levitin
  • Patent number: 6318196
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an improved structure of an automobile center lock driving apparatus, and in particular to an center lock driving apparatus having an inertia gear module. The driving apparatus comprises a driving pull-rod, a transmission gear, an inertia clutching gear, an active gear and a motor. The apparatus provides a solution to wear of the gears, dislocation of the gears, and “dead lock” of the driving pull-rod, and gear damages as a result of shock caused by dislocation of transmission gear modules. At instantaneous driving, the driving pull-rod can be driven more smoothly and stable as a result of the inertia gap between the gear modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2001
    Inventor: Chung-I Chang