Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-01
2001-08-14
Vidovich, Gregory M. (Department: 3727)
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
C224S331000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273311
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to a carrier for a motor-vehicle roof, of the type comprising:
a bar, having end portions and a longitudinal guide rail provided at least along each of said end portions,
two bar supporting legs, which are to be supported on a roof of a motor-vehicle with the bar arranged transversally to the longitudinal direction of the motor-vehicle, each of said legs being slidably mounted within said guide rail,
control means associated with said bar for controlling a movement of each of said legs along said guide rail,
wherein said legs are to be mounted on two longitudinal guides secured to the motor-vehicle roof and are made in form of outer clamping jaws adapted to engage the outer lateral surfaces of said longitudinal guides, said carrier further comprising a pair of inner clamping jaws respectively cooperating with said outer jaws and adapted to engage the inner lateral surfaces of said longitudinal guides, so as to lock the bar on said longitudinal guides.
Carriers of the above indicated type are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,570 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,042 (
FIGS. 7
,
8
) and in WO-A-96 25 306 (FIGS.
7
-
10
).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is that of providing a carrier of the above indicated type in which the operation for mounting the carrier on said longitudinal guides which are secured to the motor-vehicle roof, as well as the operation for removing the carrier from the roof, can be carried out rapidly and in an extremely easy manner by the user, the carrier also having a relatively simple and inexpensive structure, and being further able to adapt itself automatically to various shapes and dimensions of the cross section of the longitudinal guides.
In view of achieving this object, the invention provides a carrier having all the above indicated features and further characterized in that:
each inner jaw is pivotally mounted to the respective outer jaw between an opened position and a clamping closed position,
between each outer jaw and the respective inner jaw there are interposed spring means tending to hold the inner jaw in its opened position,
said control means comprises an actuating member associated with each end portion of the bar, which is slidably mounted within said guide rail and is adapted to press against the respective outer jaw when it is moved towards the respective end of the bar, and against a portion of the respective inner jaw when it is moved towards the center of the bar.
In this manner, when the actuating member is moved towards the respective end of the bar, it trails therewith the respective outer jaw and hence also the inner jaw connected thereto, which is held opened by said spring means, whereas when said actuating member is moved towards the center of the bar it trails both said inner jaw and the associated outer jaw therewith, until the outer jaw comes in contact with the respect longitudinal guide secured to the motor-vehicle roof, whereupon the further movement of the actuating member towards the center of the bar takes place substantially without any further movement of the outer jaw and with a closing movement of the inner jaw.
Preferably, the above mentioned control means includes a screw-and-nut coupling.
According to a further preferred feature, the above mentioned screw-and-nut control means are adapted to simultaneously control two actuating members associated with the two end portions of the bar, so as to cause a synchronous and symmetrical movement of the two outer jaws acting as supporting legs for the bar. Typically, the above mentioned screw-and-nut control means are controlled by a control member located at one end of the bar and preferably provided with a security lock. Due to the above mentioned feature, the assembling and disassembling of the carrier according to the invention can be further simplified, since the user must simply arrange the bar transversally above the two longitudinal guides secured to the motor-vehicle roof, with the outer jaws arranged at the outside of the two longitudinal guides. Starting from this condition, the user shall simply use the control member located at one end of the bar to cause the simultaneous and symmetrical movement of the two outer jaws towards the longitudinal guides, until a contact is obtained between the two outer jaws and the outer lateral surfaces of the two longitudinal guides at a first time, and a clamping of the inner jaws over the longitudinal guides occurs at a second time.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2480353 (1949-08-01), Bjork
patent: 4757929 (1988-07-01), Nelson
patent: 4809943 (1989-03-01), Taschero
patent: 5226570 (1993-07-01), Pedrini
patent: 5419479 (1995-05-01), Evels et al.
patent: 5730343 (1998-03-01), Settelmayer
patent: 5758810 (1998-06-01), Stapleton
patent: 5806735 (1998-09-01), Christiansson et al.
patent: 5931359 (1999-08-01), Zona
patent: 3626479 (1988-02-01), None
patent: 0 623 490 (1994-11-01), None
patent: WO 96 24509 (1996-08-01), None
patent: WO 98 04436 (1998-02-01), None
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
Vidovich Gregory M.
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