GB2402729A

GB2402729A - A tapered pedal cover for a series of motor vehicles

Info

Publication number: GB2402729A
Application number: GB0410691A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Christopher James Slaney
Original assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Current assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Priority date: 2003-05-15
Filing date: 2004-05-13
Publication date: 2004-12-15
Also published as: GB0410691D0; GB0311152D0

Abstract

A series of motor vehicles, each vehicle having a body structure including a floor and a control pedal pivotally connected to part of the body structure. The control pedal comprises a foot plate 5 and a pedal cover 15 attached to the foot plate 5. The pedal cover 15 has a front face for contact with a foot of a driver and a rear face supported by the foot plate 5. The thickness of the pedal cover between the front and rear faces is tapered in the direction away from the floor so as to change the effective inclination of the foot plate 5 with respect to the floor. The pedal cover 15 is attachable to the pedal of vehicles within the series in first and second orientations disposed at 180 degrees to each other in order to provide an acceptable angle of contact between the foot and the front face of the pedal in each vehicle. The front face of the pedal cover may be arcuate. The pedal cover 15 may be attached to the pedal via an inwardly extending front lip 22 and have a raised central portion 23 engageable with a depression in the foot plate 5 to provide a driveable connection between the foot plate 5 and cover 15. The rear face of the pedal cover 15 may have a number of recesses (25, figure 8) formed therein. A range of pedal covers 15 having differing amounts of tapered thickness may be provided.

Description

Motor Vehicles This invention relates to motor vehicles and particularly

to vehicles having a control pedal such as a brake or clutch pedal.

Typically the control pedal includes a foot plate and a pedal cover attached to the foot plate, the pedal cover having a front face for contact with a foot of an operator and a rear face supported by the foot plate, the front face of the pedal cover presenting an acceptable angle of contact for the foot of the operator.

The current trend is for motor manufacturers to use as many common parts as possible to provide economies of scale and to reduce the number of parts that have to be kept as inventory and spares. This presents a problem for designers of control pedals if the manufacturer produces a wide range of motor vehicles of differing types, particularly if the vehicles have differing seating positions. For example, an off-road vehicle or sports utility vehicle (SUV) often has a high seating position for the driver whereas a sports car or sports saloon usually has a low seating position. In the case of the high seated driver, a comfortable shoe sole to floor angle is relatively horizontal, perhaps 30 degrees, whereas in the case of the low seated driver the comfortable shoe sole to floor angle is more vertical, perhaps 60 degrees.

It is an object of this invention to provide a series of differing motor vehicles which allow the use of a common control pedal.

According to the invention there is provided a series of motor vehicles, each vehicle having a body structure including a floor and a control pedal pivotally connected to part of the body structure, the control pedal including a foot plate and a pedal cover attached to the foot plate, the pedal cover having a front face for contact with a foot of an operator and a rear face supported by the foot plate, the thickness of the pedal cover between the front and rear faces being tapered in the direction away from the floor so as to change the À À À À Àe e À. * e À.. e À e Àe. .. -2 -

effective inclination of the foot plate with respect to the floor, the series including one type of motor vehicle in which the pedal cover is fitted to the pedal in one orientation and another type of motor vehicle in which the same pedal cover is fitted to the same pedal but in another orientation, 180 from said one orientation, so as to provide, for each type of vehicle, an acceptable angle of contact between the foot and the front face of the pedal cover. Preferably, the front face of each pedal cover is arcuate.

Each pedal cover may have an inwardly extending peripheral lip engaged with a peripheral edge of the foot plate.

The rear face may have a raised central portion which is engageable with a depression in the foot plate to provide a driveable connection between the cover and the foot plate.

The rear face of each pedal cover may have a number of recesses. Preferably, the recesses are grooves defining elongate ribs.

Each pedal cover may be selected from a range of pedal covers having differing amounts of tapered thickness. This extends the range of different vehicles using the same pedal The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Fig.1 is a schematic side view of part of a motor vehicle showing a control pedal but without a pedal cover; Fig.2 is an outline drawing showing the relationship between the foot of a high seated driver and a foot plate of the pedal shown in Fig.1; Fig.3 is a drawing similar to Fig.2 showing the relationship between the foot of a low seated driver and the foot plate of the pedal; À e.e e e e e see e À e see e À e e e e À. e e e e e À À e..e e. - 3

Fig.4 is an exploded perspective view showing the foot plate shown in Fig. 1 and a pedal cover prior to attachment to the foot plate; Fig.5 is a rear view of the pedal cover shown in Fig.4; Fig.6 is a cross-section along the line A-A on Fig.5; Fig.7 is a side view of the pedal cover in the direction of arrow C on Fig.5; and Fig.8 is a cross-section along the line B-B on Fig.5 With particular reference to Fig 1, a motor vehicle has a floor 3 and a bulkhead 4 to which is attached, by means of a bracket 8, a brake pedal 2 used to operate a brake servo 9. The brake pedal 2 is biased towards a rest or non-actuated position by a return spring (not shown) and comprises a foot plate 5 and an arm 6 pivotally connected to the bracket 8 at its upper end by means of a pivot pin 7. The foot plate 5 is inclined with respect to the floor 3 at a predetermined angle when the pedal 2 is in a rest position.

With particular reference to Figs 4 to 8, a tapered pedal cover 15 is provided for attachment to the foot plate 5 of the brake pedal 2. The cover 15 has an arcuate or curved front face 20, a generally flat rear face, a first transverse end face 16, a second transverse end face 17 and two side faces 18, 19. The cover 15 is symmetrical in outline, an axis of symmetry corresponding to the section line A-A on Fig.5, when fitted to the pedal 2 in the vehicle, lying in a vertical plane extending between the first transverse end face 16 and the second transverse end face 17. A peripheral flange or lip 22 extends inwardly from the end faces 16, 17 and the side faces 18, 19, to define a peripheral groove 21 which is used to attach the cover 15 to the foot plate 5 by being engaged with a peripheral margin 12 of the foot plate 5. The cover 15 is made from a resilient material such as rubber, elastomer or an elastomer-plastic copolymer so the lip 22 can be stretched over the foot plate 5 to attach the cover 15 to the foot plate 5.

The foot plate 5 is symmetrical in outline in a manner corresponding to that of the cover 15 and has a depression 11 which corresponds to a raised central portion 23 on the À À À e eve e e e e À e À. e ee. e e e he À À Àe. e. -4 -

rear face of the cover 15. The raised portion 23 is surrounded by a peripheral recess so that together with the depression 11 it forms a location for the cover 15 when fitted to the foot plate 5. Recesses in the form of grooves 25 are formed in the raised portion 23 to define ribs 24. The grooves 25 reduce the amount of material required to make the cover 15 and hence its weight and cost and the ribs 24 provide cushioning to reduce the transmission of vibration from the foot plate 5 to a driver's foot 10. When the cover 15 is attached to the foot plate 5, the raised portion 23 is engaged with the depression 11 to provide a driveable connection between the cover 15 and the foot plate 5. This permits load to be transferred from the cover 15 to the foot plate 5 without distorting the cover 15 around its periphery which could cause the lip 22 to become dislodged from the foot plate 5.

The thickness of the cover 15 near the first transverse end face 16 is greater than the thickness of the cover 15 near the second transverse end face 17. This is such that a plane "P" which passes through the corner edge where the front face 20 meets the first transverse end face 16 and the corner edge where the front face 20 meets the second transverse end face 17 is inclined at an angle 0 with respect to a plane R" which is parallel to the rear face 23. The effect of this inclination 6 between the two planes "P" and "R" is that when the cover 15 is attached to the foot plate 5 it changes the effective inclination of the foot plate 5 with respect to the floor 3.

Because of the symmetry of the cover 15 and the foot plate 5, the cover 15 can be attached to the foot plate 5 in two orientations disposed at 180 degrees with respect to one another. In the first orientation, as shown in Figs. 3, 6 and 7, the first transverse end face 16 is uppermost so that the thickest part of the cover 15 is at the top of the foot plate 5. In this orientation the cover 15 increases the effective inclination of the foot plate 5 and so provides, for the type of vehicle where the driver is seated relatively low in the vehicle, an acceptable angle of contact between the foot and the front face of the pedal cover 15. In the second orientation, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the second transverse end face 17 is À . À À e.

À a À À ... . . . À À À À . e.. - 5

uppermost so that the thinnest part of the cover 15 is at the top of the foot plate 5. In this orientation the cover 15 reduces the effective inclination of the foot plate 5 and so and so provides, for the type of vehicle where the driver is seated relatively high in the vehicle, an acceptable angle of contact between the foot and the front face of the pedal cover 15.

A vehicle designer is therefore able to design, for a range of vehicles, a single pedal which has an inclination of the foot plate 5 that is midway between the steepest angle required for a vehicle having the lowest seating position and the flattest angle required for a vehicle having the highest seating position. By using a pedal cover having a suitable corrective angle, the inclination of the foot plate can be modified to provide a comfortable and ergonomically sound inclination for the driver. To achieve this, a range of different covers having differing amounts of taper can provide the differing corrective angles. By using a pedal cover that is useable in two orientations, the number of required covers is halved because one cover provides two corrections depending upon the orientation in which it is attached to the foot plate 5.

The following table provides an example of a range of three pedal covers and the change in inclination they provide to a foot plate inclined at 45 to the floor.

Original Correction 15 Correction 10 Correction 5 Angle 45 First Second First Second First Second Orientation Orientation Orientation Orientation Orientation Orientation Effective 60 30 55 35 50 4oo Inclination À e..

À e A. . . . . À À . À À À À . - 6 Fig.2 shows the use of a cover 15 with a corrective angle of approximately 15 in the second orientation and the relative position of a foot 10 of a driver in a high seated vehicle relative to the cover 15 and Fig. 3 shows the use of the same cover 15 in the first orientation in relation to the foot 10 of a driver in a low seated vehicle.

It will be appreciated that one of the factors that needs to be considered when designing the control pedals of a motor vehicle is the ergonomics and comfort of the driver and that the angle between a foot and leg of a driver should preferable be greater than approximately 90 at all times.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a top hinged brake pedal it is equally applicable to other vehicle control pedals such as clutch and accelerator pedals and could also be applied to bottom hinged pedals that extend upwardly from the floor of the vehicle.

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Claims

1. A series of motor vehicles, each vehicle having a body structure including a floor and a control pedal pivotally connected to part of the body structure, the control pedal including a foot plate and a pedal cover attached to the foot plate, the pedal cover having a front face for contact with a foot of an operator and a rear face supported by the foot plate, the thickness of the pedal cover between the front and rear faces being tapered in the direction away from the floor so as to change the effective inclination of the foot plate with respect to the floor, the series including one type of motor vehicle in which the pedal cover is fitted to the pedal in one orientation and another type of motor vehicle in which the same pedal cover is fitted to the same pedal but in another orientation, 180 from said one orientation, so as to provide, for each type of vehicle, an acceptable angle of contact between the foot and the front face of the pedal cover.

2. A series as claimed in claim 1 wherein the front face of each pedal cover is arcuate.

3. A series as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein each pedal cover has an inwardly extending peripheral lip engaged with a peripheral edge of the foot plate.

4. A series as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the rear face has a raised central portion which is engageable with a depression in the foot plate to provide a driveable connection between the cover and the foot plate.

5. A series as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the rear face of each pedal cover has a number of recesses.

6. A series as claimed in any preceding claim wherein each pedal cover is selected from a range of pedal covers having differing amounts of tapered thickness.

7. A series of motor vehicle substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

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