In view of reducing the shock which a driver receives when an automobile collides with the other automobile and thereby the driver runs into a steering wheel as the secondary collision due to the inertia, a steering column device has been proposed, in which the steering column is separated from the body together with the steering shaft, if the driver dashed against the steering wheel in the form of the secondary collision.
In such steering column device, a body mounting bracket integrated with the steering column is fixed to a body via a capsule made of an aluminum alloy or the like in the structure that the body mounting bracket is removed from the capsule with a shock load by the secondary collision.
To this body mounting bracket, an almost U-shape cut-away groove is formed with the body backward side thereof opened. The internal surface of this cut-away groove is external engaged with a concave groove formed in the external surface of the capsule. Moreover, a resin pin is formed, with the injection molding process, to the through-holes formed to the capsule and body mounting bracket. Accordingly, a separating load is generated and the body mounting bracket (namely, steering column) can be removed from the capsule integrated with the body by shearing off this resin pin when the secondary collision occurs (JP-A No. 301127/1996).
However, the capsule of the conventional steering column device explained above is coupled with the body mounting bracket with the resin pin, resulting in the problem that not only the coupling rigidity of the body mounting bracket to the body, particularly rigidity to vibration becomes insufficient but also it becomes troublesome to attain sufficient conductivity between the body mounting bracket and the body.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds