Safety steering column assembly for automobiles

Claim 1

A safety steering column assembly for automotive vehicles, arranged to shorten under the effect of a predetermined force exerted during an impact accident, comprising an axially extending steering column, a safety sleeve forming a part of and extending in the axial direction of said steering column, said safety sleeve is a grid tube, wherein the improvement comprises that said grid tube is formed separately from and is coaxially connected to said steering column, said guide tube comprises a member formed of fiber reinforced plastics material made up of separate grid strands each formed of a plurality of plastics material impregnated fiber strands with each of said grid strands located outwardly from and extending angularly of and wound around the axis of said steering column, said grid strands including a first group and a second group of separate and individual said grid strands with said grid strands of said first group extending angularly across said grid strands of said second group and disposed in contact therewith, each said grid strand comprises a plurality of said fiber strands arranged in separate superposed layers and at the intersecting locations of said grid strands of said first and second groups said superposed layers of fiber strands of said first and second groups are disposed in alternating and interleaved relation relative to the axis of said steering column so that each said layer of fiber strands in each of said first and second groups is in contact with at least one said layer in the other said group.