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The tilt mechanism is made up of two plates to guide the movement of the steering column through the use of a bolt and threads through the middle portion. Tightening or loosening the handle/bolt will allow the angle to be adjusted.
Telescoping Mechanism
- The telescoping mechanism allows the linear distance of the steering wheel to be adjusted by the driver.
- This system adjusts incrementally. It is not infinitely adjusting.
- Infinitely adjusting systems allow for the shaft to be adjusted to any distance within a given range. Incremental adjusting systems only allow the user to adjust to specific locations along the shaft.
- The initial design consists of an Shoulder Bolt and a Hex nut pinning a telescoping shaft to another column through evenly spaced holes.
- This is not a user-friendly design and would require the user to likely adjust the telescoping under the dashboard.
- This can be improved by adding a knob or lever to the end of the shoulder bolt. This eliminates the need for the user to
- This can also be improved by using a detent mechanism. This involves a spring-loaded ball which prevents the shaft from moving unless the force required to compress the spring is exceeded.
- A friction-based mechanism would allow for infinite adjustment; however, this requires a very large friction force to ensure that no components are slipping.
U-Joint
- The U-joint connects the lower steering column to the upper steering column. It is a part of the upper steering column assembly.
- The part can be found here.
- To mate this to the proper point of the master geometry, the feature Move/Copy was used in SolidWorks.
- This was necessary as the U-joint CAD was supplied from the McMaster-Carr website as one part instead of as an assembly. Using this tool allows the part to rotate its individual components about a point.
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