Connection for energy-absorbing steering column

摘要

A connection between a collapsible mast jacket of an energy-absorbing steering column and a body of a motor vehicle including an outboard mounting bracket on the mast jacket having a pair of lateral flanges, a pair of open slots in the lateral flanges each having a pair of side edges interrupted by a plurality of evenly-spaced notches, a pair of capsules in the open slots rigidly clamped to the vehicle body, and a plurality of equally-spaced plastic shear pins on the capsules seated in the notches to couple the capsules to the outboard mounting bracket. Each capsule includes a capsule base having the plastic pins thereon and a separate capsule cover. The linear pitch between the plastic shear pins is the same as the linear pitch between the notches. The magnitude of the force reaction between the outboard mounting bracket and the capsules required to separate the mounting bracket from the capsules and release the mast jacket for energy-absorbing linear collapse is adjusted by varying the longitudinal overlap between the capsules and the open slots in increments equal to the linear pitches between the plastic shear pins and between the notches.