1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a closure apparatus for a vehicle door, in which a striker is disposed on one of a periphery of a door and a periphery of an opening for the door, a lock apparatus removably engageable with the striker is disposed on the other of the periphery of the door and the periphery of the opening for the door, and a driven member of one of the striker and the lock apparatus is forcibly moved by a drive motor, so that the door in a half-close condition is closed completely.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, a known closure apparatus for a vehicle door was as disclosed, for example, in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-184144.
Specifically, according to the technology disclosed therein, a main actuation member that is the main part of a door closing mechanism linked to a door closing drive motor is provided with a neutral switch for detecting an initial position (a waiting position) from which the closing of the door begins or, rather than providing this neutral switch, the main actuation member is caused to come into contact with a stopper member at the initial position, thereby preventing movement, the neutral position being detected based on a drive condition (a load current or rotational condition) of the drive motor continuing to rotate.
In this prior art, however, when a neutral switch is provided within the apparatus so as to detect the initial position (the waiting position), there is an increase in the number of parts, the apparatus becomes large, and the cost increases. In the approach of detecting the initial position based on a drive condition of the drive motor, at the initial position the main actuation member is stopped in a condition pressing the stopper member, having mutual loads acting on the main actuation member and the stopper member, with an excessive load imposed on the drive motor, constituting a hindrance against improvements in durability of the main actuation member, the stopper, and the drive motor.
The present invention has been made with such points in view. It therefor is an object of the present invention to provide a closure apparatus for a vehicle door, permitting the number of component parts to be decreased and the scale of apparatus to be compact, with a reduced cost.
An aspect of the present invention to achieve the object is a closure apparatus for a vehicle door, comprising a stationary first locking element, a rotatable second locking element engaeable with the first locking element to lock the vehicle door, a link motion operatively connectable to and disconnectable from the second locking element, a drive motor operatively connected to the link motion, and a controller responsible for a motor current of the drive motor to control the drive motor to establish operative connection between the link motion and the second locking element.
According to this aspect of the invention, the link motion may have a voluntary link position disconnected from the second locking element, but the controller permits the motor to be operatively connected to the second locking element, so that the second locking element can be driven for a door locking operation, without the need of a limit switch to detect a link position of the link motion responsible for an established connection to the second locking element.