US 7,467,816 B2
Door latch device
Hayami Nakagawa, Anjo (Japan); Yasuji Akiyoshi, Nagoya (Japan); and Takashi Shibata, Okazaki (Japan)
Assigned to Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo K.K., Tokyo (Japan)
Filed on Nov. 23, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/285,181.
Claims priority of application No. P2004-339806 (JP), filed on Nov. 25, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2006/0119109 A1, Jun. 08, 2006
Int. Cl. E05C 3/06 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 292—216  [292/DIG. 56] 2 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A door latch device, comprising:
a striker;
a fork that grasps or releases the striker, while being rotated, with a speed in accordance with a closing speed of a door, about a rotation center thereof between an open state and a full-grasped state by way of a half-grasped state, the fork including;
a first locking part that abuts the striker upon closing a door when the fork is in the open state,
a grasping part that receives the striker after the first locking part abuts the striker, and
a second locking part;
a pawl lever that locks the rotation of the fork in the half-grasped state of the fork by engaging with the second locking part, and locks the fork in the full-grasped state of the fork by engaging with the first locking part;
a stopper member to which the pawl lever strikes when the pawl lever engages with the first locking part, the stopper member being made of an elastic material; and
a resin coating provided on the second locking part,
wherein the second locking part includes a first peripheral position where the pawl lever first strikes when the fork in the half-grasped state is rotated at a first speed, and a second peripheral position where the pawl lever first strikes when the fork in the half-grasped state is rotated at a second speed greater than the first speed, a distance between the rotation center of the fork and the second peripheral position being greater than a distance between the rotation center and the first peripheral position, and the resin coating having a first thickness, at the first peripheral position, and a second thickness, at the second peripheral position, greater than the first thickness,
wherein the resin coating continuously increases in thickness as the resin coating extends from the first peripheral position to the second position, such that when the pawl lever strikes the second locking part, a substantially uniform sound is generated regardless of a rotation speed of the fork, and
wherein no hollow part is formed in the resin coating.