Vehicle air outlet with uniform precision feel to operator
Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000
United States of America Patent
Stats
-
Jul 13, 1999
Grant Date -
N/A
app pub date -
Apr 1, 1996
filing date -
Apr 1, 1996
priority date (Note) -
Expired
status (Latency Note)
Importance
Abstract
A vehicle air outlet having an outlet bell, an upstream intruder member, a control shaft secured to the upstream intruder member, and a ball and socket device for mounting the control shaft to the outlet bell. In a preferred embodiment a portion of the control shaft is made to serve as a housing having a fixed hemispherically shaped bearing seat which is integrally formed therein at the closed end of the housing and a slot is formed in the housing to allow the ball supporting struts to extend outwardly from proximate the axial center of the outlet. A spring loaded bearing seat forming a second hemispherical and floating portion of the socket is guided by the housing into engagement with and to capture the is ball in the socket and a closure cap retains the compression spring in position. In a preferred embodiment, a long compression spring is used. This is advantageous over a short spring element where minor changes in compressed length can cause relatively high changes in spring force.
First Claim
Other Claims data not available