The present invention concerns a device for the bearing and signalling of the correct alignment between a datum line and a point, in particular for the bearing and the signalling of the correct alignment between the axis, or a line parallel to said axis, of a vehicle, or in general of a moving means, and an external point.

It is known that when manoeuvres are performed with vehiclces, it is often requested to align the axis of the vehicle with a point external to said vehicle, that may be a point to reach, e.g. for hooking a trolley or a tow, or for performing loading and unloading operations, or even that may show the most appropriate direction to follow for performing a difficult manoeuvre of getting in a small space. The difficulty is even greater if said manoeuvres are to be performed in reverse motion, if the driver is alone or even if the visibility is poor or obstructed by external conditions or by the shape of said vehicle.

At present, the driver must follow the directions of a person outside the vehicle for performing

said manoeuvres, or even he must get off from the vehicle many times for controlling his manoeuvres, or even he takes help from means like rear-view mirrors or with even more sophisticated equipments of experimental kind like telecameras or distance or direction signal tracer, comprising electromagnetic wave emitters and receivers.

Above mentioned solutions are bothersome or make use of delicate components which easlily break and are very expensive.

It is the aim of the present invention to eliminate above mentioned inconveniences.

In particular, the main aim of the device according to the present invention consists in directly signalling the driver of the vehicle, by means of an optical and/or acoustic adviser placed on the instrument panel, the directional move to the left or to the right that the vehicle must perform so that its axis gets aligned with the external point to be reached.

It is a further aim of a somewhat more complex version of the device according to the present invention is to signal the driver of the vehicle

also the residual distance between a point belonging to the vehicle and the external point to be reached.

In a variant of the device, that will be describer hereinbelow, said device may also be used fro signalling the direction perpendicular to a plane surface.

The aims set forth are reached by means of the device according to the present invention as it is claimed in the enclosed claims, which solves the problem of realizing a device for the bearing and the signalling of the correct alignment between a datum line and a point which, in a preferred embodiment, are shown by the axis of a vehicle and an external point, which furthermore can signal the driver the direction to follow so that said alignment is reached and maintained during the apporach manoeuvre, mainly comprising a direction signal tracer that may be applied to the vehicle in a determined point mainly consisting of a fixed base, a movable head and a potentiometer that bears the angular movement to the left or to the right with respect to a fix datum direction of the segment connecting the centre of said signal tracer and the external point to be reached; a

thin wire or thread for the mechanical connection between the head of said direction bearing and the external point to be reached, with the task of materializing said segment and making rotate said head; a winding device that may be applied in an unmovable manner to the point to be reached and that contains said connection thread; a central for working out the signal coming from said potentiometer, for the acoustic and/or visible signalling of the distance existing in each moment between the direction shown by the thread and the datum direction.

The advantages obtained by means of the device according to the present invention maily consist in that the elements composing said device are not necessarily applied in a fix manner to the outside of the vehicle and therefore are not subject to damages or wearing due to external environmental conditions; in that the direction to be followed is materialized, at any moment, by a thread connecting the two points that must get into contact at the end of the manoeuvre and therefore is not subject to collision caused by poor visibility due to fog, dust, darkness etc., to the cleaning of possible optic instruments or to the setting of electronic instruments; in that the

direction tracer may be applied to any part of the vehicle, so that it may signal from time to time, e.g., a point on the axis of the vehicle or the most projecting point on the side of the vehicle or of the load (in these last cases, the datum direction will be a line parallel to the axis of the vehicle); in that the winding device may be applied to any point to be reached; at last, in that a possible operator who holds the winding device in his hands, may directly signal the driver of the vehicle the direction to take by simply moving the position of the winding device without visual contacts or acoustic or verbal signals.

Further features and advantages of the device according to the present invention will be described more in detail hereinbelow relating to the enclosed drawings in which some embodiments are shown.

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the device for bearing and signalling the correct alignment between a datum line and a point, according to the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a vertical section of the direction tracer device.

Figure 3 shows a lateral view of a variant of the device according to the present invention, that provides the combination of the winding device with the direction tracer.

Figure 4 shows a lateral view of a further variant of the device according to the present invention, that provides the combination of the winding device with the working out central, and the signalling to the direction tracer.

Relating to the details shown in figures 1 and 2, the present invention consists of a device for bearing and signalling the correct alignment between a datum line, that coincides, e.g., with the axis of a vehicle, and an external point, that exploits - for signalling the driver the direction to take - the angular displacement to the right or to the left that occurs between a datum line and the segment obtained materially connecting a point on the vehicle and an external point - by means of a thread -, which will facilitate the performance of the manoeuvres, mainly comprising: - a direction tracer 1;

- a thin thread or wire 2;

- a winding device 3;

- a central 4.

According to the present invention, the direction tracer 1, that materializes a point of the vehicle belonging to the datum line, consists of a fix base 5 and of a movable head 6, connected to each other by a bearing 10 of known kind, that allows the reciprocal rotation around an axis perpendicular to said fix base 5.

Said base 5 may be permanently or movably applied, by means of elements 12 of known kind, like e.g. screws or magnets, directly to the external surface 7 of the vehicle or to a support previously fixed to said vehicle, so that the rotation axis is approximately vertical.

Inside the direction tracer 1 a potentiometer is provided, also consisting of two parts 8 and 9 that may reciprocally rotate with respect to an axis. A part 8 is blocked on the fix base 5 by means of known systems, the other part 9, on the other hand, is fixed to the movable head 6 so that the rotation axis of the potentiometer coincides with the one of the direction tracer, and the

angular displacement of the head 6 is transmitted to said potentiometer.

At last, said potentiometer is set so as to bear angular displacements to the right or to the left, approximately until 90° on each side, of said head 6, with respect to a datum direction imposed to the direction tracer during assemblying, which usually coincides with the axis of the vehicle to which said direction tracer is applied, or which in general is parallel to the same if the tracer is applied on a point of the vehicle that does not belong to its axis.

Furthermore, said head 6 is provided with a hooking means 11 for the end of the thread or thin wire 2, that advantageously may consist of a simple bayonet-joint of the known kind.

In this way the thread 2, stretched between the direction tracer 1 and the winding device 3, forces the head 6 of the tracer 1 to rotate and to get placed according to the direction materialized by said thread 2.

The potentiometer, connected on one hand to said base 5 and on the other hand to said head 6, is

also forced to rotate and may thus bear the angular displacement between the predetermined datum direction and the segment connecting the two points materialized by the ends of said thread 2.

The winding device 3, that finds the point outside the vehicle to be reached, mainly comprises a drum with a winding spring of the known kind, for housing said thread 2 and for its gradual recovery.

Said winding device may be applied in fix manner, by means of elements 13 of known kind - like magnets or others - to the external point of the vehicle to be reached.

At last, the direction tracer 1 is connected to the central 14 by means of an electric wire, and said central has the task of working out the signal coming from the potentiometer and to signal, by means of a plurality of optical and/or acoustic lights 15 and/or an alarm 16, preferably multi-sound, the angular displacement between the datum direction and the segment materialized by the thread connecting the direction tracer and the winding device.

8 PC /

10

The use of the device according to the present invention takes place applying the direction tracer 1 to the chosen point of the vehicle, and the winding device 3 to the external desired point, then hooking the free end of the thread to said tracer 1; following the visual and/or acoustic directions of the central during the manoeuvre, the driver will be sure that his vehicle will approach the determined point along a direction that coincides with or is parallel to the axis of said vehicle.

In a more complex variant of the device according to the present invention, the thread 2 consists of a multi-pole electric wire, that may be electrically or mechanicaly connected on one hand to said direction tracer 1, by means of a connector of known kind, and on the other hand to a revolution counter or sensor that may send to the central 4 a signal showing the residual distance between the tracer and the winding device, whereby said signal may be obtained, e.g., according to the number of revolutions performed by said drum or according to notches applied to the thread and read by said sensor.

In this latter case, the central 4 is provided with a metric scale with a continuous or moderate visual signalling of said distance so that the driver may know, beyond the alignment, also the distance between the two points.

Said variant is particularly suitable for allowing a soft contact between the point on the vehicle and the external one to be reached, or even for allowing a simple approaching between the two points until a predetermined distance.

In a further variant of the device according to the present invention, shown in figure 3, the distance tracer 1 is combined with the winding device 3, which may be provided or not with a revolution counter or with a sensor for the signalling of the residual distance between the points. In this latter variant, the thread 2 is provided, at its free end, with a mechanic or magnetic hooking system 17 to the external point to be reached, of the known kind.

This latter variant is particularly suitable if the device according to the present invention is not oftenly used, and therefore may be kept

protected and applied to the vehicle only in case of need.

In a last variant of the device according to the present invention, shown in figure 4, the direction tracer 1 is combined with the winding device 3 as well as with the central 4, with the relative visual and/or acoustic signal means.

In this case, the base 5 of the tracer is fixed to a plate or to a straight rod 18 parallel to the datum direction of the potentiometer.

This variant of the device according to the present invention is useful for finding the direction normal to a plane surface materialized by the straight line passing through the centre of the direction tracer 1 and through the free end of the thread 2. Said operation takes place leaning said plate or straight rod onto a plane surface, pulling the end of the thread and moving it along an arc of a circle with the help of a peg or a plumb-line, until the device for optic and/or acoustic signalling show that the direction materialized by the thread is aligned with the datum direction of the potentiometer.