As the electric power steering device of this type, techniques disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication JP-A-2003-118602 and JP-A-2005-212722 have been known.
In the technique disclosed in the JP-A-2003-118602, a motor and a controller are arranged in parallel. Further, the motor and the controller are attached to stand upright on a steering column so that they are directed upward a vehicle substantially at right angles to the axis of the steering column. Thus, when the steering column is mounted on the vehicle, the balance of the weight of the steering column in right and left parts can be obtained, so that attaching characteristic to the vehicle can be improved.
Further, in the technique disclosed in the JP-A-2005-212722, a motor and a controller are adjacently arranged (see FIGS. 2 and 3 in the JP-A-2005-212722). Thus, a long harness is not required so that a cost is reduced and an electromagnetic wave noise is preferably met.
However, as in the techniques disclosed in, for instance, the Patent Documents 1 and 2, when the motor and the controller are simply adjacently arranged, for instance, in the case of the electric power steering device of a column type, a motor 120 is frequently laid out to be inclined relative to a vehicle as shown in FIG. 6. Thus, an amount of protrusion T2 of a controller 150 is undesirably increased. When the motor and the controller are simply adjacently arranged in such a way, a layout to the vehicle may be possibly greatly restricted. Accordingly, there is still room for an improvement in providing the electric power steering device requiring a compact layout.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds