Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Auxiliary article compartments
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-25
2001-11-06
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Auxiliary article compartments
C296S037100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06312036
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention generally relates to cargo space coverings and rear storage shelf assemblies (or hat holding pieces) for automobiles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In compact passenger cars that have the form of small station wagons the hat holding piece extends from the rear edge of the rear seat back to the rear hatch. In order to facilitate the access of the cargo space underneath the hat holding piece, the hat holding piece is hinged beside the rear seat back in the automobile body. By reason of this hinge the hat holding piece can be moved from a horizontal position in which it rests on lateral supports, into an upright position. This takes place automatically in the opening of the rear hatch with the aid of pull cords or other coupling elements that connect the rear hatch with the hat holding piece in the vicinity of its rear edge.
In modern automobiles the body that forms the roof section is relatively strongly drawn in, which leads to the result that the rear hatch opening and the clear space between the side walls or side windowpanes the in upward direction, is correspondingly strongly tapered. The tapering of the rear window opening is further reinforced if the automobile body is strongly rounded in the zone of the C-pillars, as corresponds to the modern trend. Since simultaneously the rear hatch opening runs obliquely, the swung-up hat holding piece emerges with its rear edge zone out of the cargo space opening.
So that the swung-up hat holding piece will not collide with the side windowpanes or C-pillars, it must be made correspondingly narrow. This in turn demands filling pieces be included inside the automobile body laterally underneath the rear side windowpanes. The filling pieces on their part impair the free loading volume when, for the enlargement of the cargo space, the hat holding piece is taken out and the rear seat back is reversed.
Essentially similar relations are present in the case of station wagons when their cargo space is closed with a cargo space covering. The cargo space covering has in connection to the roller curtain a rigid contour or molded part, the outer edge of which roughly follows a girdle or equatorial line which is defined by an imaginary section line. The section is defined by an imaginary horizontal plane through the extended roller curtain and the inside of the cargo-space or rear hatch lining.
It is a known practice, for example from DE-A-37 25 545, to swing the cargo space covering obliquely upward simultaneously with the opening of the rear hatch, in order to save the user from the necessity of having to let the cargo space covering run back into the roller housing.
The contour part in the known arrangement is a table shaped surface structure which, if its width is greater than the rear hatch opening, cannot be drawn out by the rear hatch as it is lifted. Hereby there arise considerable restrictions, and the coupling between the rear hatch and the cargo space covering is complicated, because it is not possible to fasten the rear edge of the loading space covering to the rear hatch simply with the aid of pull cords, in the manner that is known from small compact passenger cars for the raising of the hat holding piece. Also cargo space covers for this reason require as a rule filler pieces underneath the rear side windows in order to restrict the width of the roller curtain, inclusive of the contour part, to a measure such that collisions are prevented between the contour part and the edge of the cargo space opening in the drawing-out of the contour part from the cargo space openings.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, a general object of the present invention is to provide a hat holding piece (i.e. a rear storage shelf) or cargo space covering for an automobile having a width which is not limited by the width of the rear hatch opening of the automobile.
The present invention provides these and other advantages and overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art by providing a rear storage shelf assembly (i.e. hat holding piece) or cargo space covering having pivotable corner pieces.
The new hat holding piece covers the space between the straight edge of the rear seat back and the inner contour of the rear hatch as well as the zones bounding thereon.
The hat holding piece consists of three parts, namely a middle piece that is borne directly swingably in the vehicle, as well as two side or corner pieces which are joined with the middle part over an appertaining hinge. By swinging the end pieces with respect to the middle part, the effective width of the middle part becomes smaller, so that with horizontally swung end pieces the middle piece can no longer become jammed between the side windows or the side walls, or collide with the edges of the rear hatch opening if from the opening of the hat holding piece a piece emerges far out of the rear hatch opening.
For example, the two corner pieces, which are preferably symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, are hinged in such manner that they fold downward as the hat holding piece is raised. This downward folding can take place either by reason of their own weight if the hat holding piece is raised by corresponding car body-fast supports, or as the corner pieces collide with the edges of the rear opening and these edges press the corner pieces downward during further lifting. In the latter case, the corner pieces are prestressed by corresponding prestressing arrangements into a position in which they extend about at the level of the middle piece.
In the case of extremely rigid middle pieces, it can be expedient to provide the pieces with a desired bending zone which extends transversely to the vehicle longitudinal axis. Hereby, in the event of a rear impact, clipping of the front passengers by the middle piece can be prevented.
A particularly aesthetically attractive upper side of the hat holding piece is yielded if it has a continuous covering at least on the upper side of the middle piece. This covering can be, for example, a floor carpet, or a felt covering, or the like.
The corner piece can consist of two surface-type (flat) molded parts. In this case, the hinge has hinge bolts. These can be integral with molded parts at the ends of the middle piece.
If the hinge over which the respective cover piece is jointed with the middle piece is a film hinge, then the covering can be used directly.
The direction of the hinge axis is oriented essentially on the car body. Thus, the hinge axis can lie parallel to the vehicle longitudinal axis or it can run obliquely with respect to the vehicle longitudinal axis. In the latter case, the corner pieces have a roughly triangular shape with rounded outside lying corners corresponding to the car body.
The prestressing means for the upward pivoting of the corner pieces suitably comprise, in each case, suitably a leaf spring. This is to be accommodated in a space-saving manner and it only inappreciably increases the weight of the molded part means. Furthermore a prestressing means formed in this way does not appreciably increase the density of the molded part means. These could also be formed by a leg spring that is provided in the end piece.
In order to prevent the respective corner piece from being swung upward beyond a position in which this corner piece lies in a plane with the middle piece, stop means are provided. These stop means comprise in the simplest case two hooks gripping into one another that come into engagement with one another when the desired end position is reached. So that the hooks, in the swinging down of the end piece, will not hamper its movement, the hook mounted on the middle piece is set back in the direction toward the center of that middle piece.
The new cargo space covering has a housing means to be anchored in the motor vehicle. The housing can be a largely closed housing with only one outlet slot, or it can be restricted to two end caps joined with one another over a rod, which are anchored in the vehicle. In any case the housing means serve for
Ehrenberger Marina
Walter Herbert
BOS GmbH & Co. KG
Coletta Lori L.
Leydig , Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Pape Joseph D.
LandOfFree
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