Safety steering column assembly for automobiles

US4325268A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Benteler-Werke AG · DE

Inventors

• Hubertus Benteler · Bielefeld, DE
• Rainer Hansen · Paderborn, DE
• Egon Olszewski · Paderborn, DE
• Ferdinand Wecker · Hövelhof, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 18, 1980
• Grant date: Apr 20, 1982
• Expiry date: Mar 18, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B62D1/192
• WIPO field: Mechanical elements
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A safety steering column assembly for automobiles comprising a steering shaft of variable axial length for connecting a steering wheel with a steering gear mechanism. A portion of the steering shaft adjacent the steering wheel is surrounded by a guide and support tube in which a bearing for turnably supporting the steering shaft is mounted. The guide and support tube, in turn, is surrounded by a corrugated tube serving as an impact absorber in which the corrugations of the tube are compressed into a block to reduce the axial length thereof. The stiffness of the corrugations of the corrugated tube varies along the length of the latter and the end of the corrugated tube distance from the steering wheel is fixedly attached to the guide and support tube, whereas the other end adjacent the steering wheel is releasably attached by means of a bracket to a portion of the body of the automobile so that upon impact on the steering wheel, for instance when during an accident the body of the driver hits the steering wheel, the corrugated tube is stressed in tension, whereby the compressed corrugations of different stiffness are gradually extended to provide a gradually increasing impact absorb…