FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10; rule 13)
TITLE OF THE INVENTION
Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function
APPLICANTS
TATA MOTORS LIMITED, an Indian company
having its registered office at Bombay House,
24 Homi Mody Street, Hutatma Chowk,
Mumbai 400 001, Maharashtra, India
INVENTOR
AJIT BALAJI BARBADEKAR
Indian national
of TATA MOTORS LIMITED,
An Indian company having its registered office
At Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Hutatma Chowk,
Mumbai 400 001 Maharashtra, India
PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of invention:
This invention relates to Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function and more particularly to endurance test rig for validating Direction Indication (DI) function [Right Hand Side (RH) / Left Hand Side (LH)] and subsequent Self Cancellation (SC) function.
Background of invention:
DI function (RH/LH) and Self Cancellation (SC), are two different functions of vehicle mounted combination switch. This is accomplished by two different mechanisms in combi switch.
Conventional endurance test rigs provides for testing of DI function (RH/LH) and its SC either separately. They neither simulate vehicle conditions nor have automatic facility to find out failure in deactivation of DI function (RH/LH) through its SC function, during targeted endurance test cycles.
Objects of the invention:
The main objective of the present invention is to obviate above mentioned drawbacks.
Another object of the invention is to provide the test rig capable of simulating vehicle conditions, which conducts endurance test of combi switch DI function (RH/LH) and its SC function, simultaneously,
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide automation in endurance test rig, which facilitates to compare number of activated cycles of DI function with that of deactivation cycles, through SC function. This is to ensure deactivation of DI function (RH/LH), under criteria of SC function, only.

Summary:
Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function comprising:
- a Rigid frame to mount structures and fixed the same to ground,
- Steering column whose one end is coupled with DC motor and on other end combi switch and steering wheel are being mounted as in vehicle conditions,
- a DC motor to rotate said steering wheel in Right Hand or Left Hand direction,
- Rubber tube fitted on said steering wheel to activate Direction Indication function,
- a Forward-Reverse circuitry to rotate said DC motor in forward/reverse direction
resulting into rotation of said steering wheel in Right Hand or Left Hand direction
respectively,
- a DC power source to run said DC motor, and at least one Bulb load to simulate vehicle electrical loads,
- a Real time system to control steering wheel rotation angle and to control direction of rotation of DC motor through said Forward-Reverse circuitry.
Said real time system counts number of endurance cycles of test rig, contact making cycles of Direction Indication function and missing cycles of Self Cancellation function.
Brief description:
Figure No. 1 show the schematic diagram of the present invention.
Detailed Description of the Invention:
Referring now to the drawings wherein the showings are for the purpose of illustrating only a preferred embodiment of the invention, and not for the purpose of limiting the same.

According to the present invention, integrated endurance test rig for vehicle mounted combi switch DI (RH/LH) and its SC function test comprises; A rigid frame (1) to mount other structures and fixed to the ground, Steering column (2) whose one end is coupled with DC motor (3) and on other end combi switch (4) and steering wheel (5) are mounted as in vehicle conditions, DC motor (3) to rotate steering wheel (5) in RH/LH direction, Combi switch (4) is component under test, Steering wheel (5) whose bottom cover design in conjunction with SC mechanism of combi switch (4) used to deactivate DI function, Rubber tube (6) fitted on steering wheel (5) to activate DI function (RH/LH), Forward-Reverse circuitry (7) to rotate DC motor (3) in forward/reverse direction resulting into rotation of steering wheel (5) in RH/LH direction respectively, DC power source (8) to run DC motor, Bulb load (9) to simulate vehicle electrical loads, Real Time system (10) to control steering wheel rotation angle, to control direction of rotation of DC motor (3) through Forward-Reverse circuitry (7), to count number of endurance cycles of test rig (RH and LH), to count number of contact making cycles of DI function (RH and LH) and to count number of missing cycles of SC function (RH and LH).
Invented test rig is small and simple in construction. It contains a rigid frame (1) simulating vehicle condition, which is fixed to the ground. Steering column (2) is fixed on rigid frame (1). One end of steering column is coupled with DC motors (3) and'on other end combi switch (4) and Steering wheel (5) are mounted as in vehicle condition.
Real Time system (10) is operates in such a way that, whenever DC power source (8) gets switched ON (8) it first check for status of last activated DI function (RH/LH) and depending on that it brings combi switch (4) lever to neutral position through DC motor (3). Further, Real Time system (10) rotates DC motor (3) into opposite direction of last activated DI function (RH/LH) resulting into rotation of steering wheel (5) in the same direction. Rotational speed of steering wheel (5) is controlled by changing the voltage of DC power source (8) connected to DC motor (3). During Steering wheel (5) rotation, Rubber tube (6) fitted on it, activates DI function (RH/LH) resulting to switching ON of

Bulb load (9). With every activation cycle of DI function (RH/LH), respective counter present in Real Time system (10) gets incremented by one. After activating DI function (RH/LH) rubber tube (6) gets slipped from switch lever and moves further along with steering wheel (5).
Steering wheel (5) after reaching to desired angle of rotation, starts rotating in reverse direction. Steering wheel (5) rotational angle is controlled by Real Time system (10). Change in direction of rotation is done by Forward-Reverse circuitry (7) which is again controlled by Real Time system (10). During reverse direction of rotation, when steering wheel (5) reaches to SC angle of combi switch (4) it deactivates DI function (RH/LH). With every de-activation cycle of DI function (RH/LH), respective counter present in Real Time system (10) gets incremented by one. De-activation of DI function (RH/LH) is done by SC mechanism in combi switch (4) in conjunction with Steering wheel (5) bottom cover design.
With every deactivation cycle of DI function (RH/LH) Real Time system (10) compares time required for deactivation of DI function (RH/LH) with set point. Set point is nothing but time required for DI function starting from activation of the same till deactivation of the same by SC function. If time required for deactivation of DI function (RH/LH) is more than set point, it is registered as a failure of respective SC function. For every failure of SC function, respective counter present in Real Time system (10) gets incremented by one.
Further, during targeted endurance test cycles, if either number of contact making cycles of DI function (RH and LH) or number of missing cycles of SC function (RH and LH) or both reaches to defined severity count, Real Time system (10) disconnects DC motor from DC power source (8) resulting into stopping of endurance test rig.

Advantages of Test Rig:
• With this test rig, endurance test of corabi switch DI function (RH/LH) and its SC function can be done simultaneously as in vehicle conditions.
• Facility to have separate counters to count number of endurance cycles of test rig (RH and LH), number of contact making cycles of DI function (RH and LH) and number of missing cycles of SC function (RH and LH). With this, we can easily identify failures in DI function (RH and LH) and SC function (RH and LH) during entire endurance test cycles.
• Due to automation, no need of continuous observation, thus resulting into saving of man power.
• Due to very simple set up and testing procedure, testing is very fast and saves lot of testing time, unlike in conventional test methods.
• This test rig can provide quick, fairly accurate results and require no special testing skills and/or high investments. Thus, effectively reduces overhead cost of testing.
• This test rig can be common for wide range of vehicles (in terms of performance level) without requiring any change except may be load cell capacity.
The foregoing description is a specific embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated that this embodiment is described for purpose of illustration only, and that numerous alterations and modifications may be practiced by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that all such modifications and alterations be included in, so far as they come within the scope of the invention as claimed or the equivalents thereof.

We claim
1. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self
Cancellation Function comprising:
- a Rigid frame to mount structures and fixed the same to ground,
- Steering column whose one end is coupled with a DC motor and on other end combi switch and steering wheel are being mounted as in vehicle conditions,

- a Forward-Reverse circuitry to rotate said DC motor in forward/reverse direction resulting into rotation of said steering wheel in Right Hand or Left Hand direction respectively,
- Flexible attachment fitted on said steering wheel to activate Direction Indication function and at least one Bulb load to simulate vehicle electrical loads,
- a Real time system to control steering wheel rotation angle and to control direction of rotation of DC motor through said Forward-Reverse circuitry.

2. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function as claimed in claim 1, wherein said DC motor derives power form a DC power source.
3. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function as claimed in claim l, wherein said flexible attachment is a rubber tube.
4. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function as claimed in claim 1, wherein said real time system is provided to count number of endurance cycles of said test rig, contact making cycles of Direction Indication function and missing cycles of Self Cancellation function.

5. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function as claimed in claim 2, wherein rotational speed of said steering wheel is controlled by changing voltage of said DC power source.
6. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function as claimed in claim 1 said flexible attachment gets slipped from switch lever and moves further along with steering wheel after activating Direction Indication function.
7. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function comprising:

- a Rigid frame to mount structures and fixed the same to ground,
- Steering column whose one end is coupled with a DC motor and on other end combi switch and steering wheel are being mounted as in vehicle conditions,

- a Forward-Reverse circuitry to rotate said DC motor in forward/reverse direction resulting into rotation of said steering wheel in Right Hand or Left Hand direction respectively,
- Rubber tube attachment fitted on said steering wheel to activate Direction Indication function and at least one Bulb load to simulate vehicle electrical loads,
- a Real time system to control steering wheel rotation angle and to control direction of rotation of DC motor through said Forward-Reverse circuitry,
- said real time system is provided to count number of endurance cycles of said test rig, contact making cycles of Direction Indication function and missing cycles of Self Cancellation function
- said DC motor derives power form a DC power source.

8. Integrated Endurance Test Rig for Combination Switch Direction Indication & Self Cancellation Function substantially as herein above described and as illustrated in accompanying drawings.