Optical: systems and elements – Mirror – With support
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-10
2004-08-10
Cherry, Euncha (Department: 2872)
Optical: systems and elements
Mirror
With support
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773124
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an anti-glare rear view mirror for vehicles, and more particularly, to a method for enabling an efficient assembling of an anti-glare rearview mirror for vehicles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An automobile is generally equipped with an anti-glare rearview mirror in the driver's compartment so that good visibility of the driver is ensured by adjusting its reflectivity even if the driver is dazzled by the light of the following car. Most of the anti-glare rearview mirrors have a prismatic mirror whose front face and rear face are different in reflectivity, and the rearview mirror is movable between normal position and anti-glare position by turning the prismatic mirror at a certain angle while providing the driver with the same visual field.
The following mechanism for turning a mirror of anti-glare rearview mirror is known as a conventional rearview mirror for vehicles. An anti-glare rearview mirror consists of a mirror, a mirror housing, a rectangular bracket, a control lever, and a fixing stay. The bracket has a turning axle that is projecting outwardly from both ends of one side, and on the opposite side of its turning axle, the bracket has an engaging portion. This bracket is pivotally mounted to the mirror housing to which the prismatic mirror is fixed. The control lever, for controlling movement of the mirror between normal and anti-glare position, consists of a stick-shaped body and a flat handle provided along and at the mid-point of the body. Also, an engaging portion is formed on one side of the stick-shaped body. This control lever is also pivotally mounted to the mirror housing with its engaging portion meshed with the engaging portion of the bracket. This rearview mirror is fixed to the vehicle body by a fixing stay that connects the bracket with the vehicle body through an aperture of the mirror housing.
In this mechanism, turning the control lever with an operation of the handle allows the bracket to turn slightly to change a relative angle between the bracket and the mirror housing. As described above, since the bracket is fixed to the vehicle body by the fixing stay, the operation of turning the control lever does not change the position of the bracket but changes the angle of the mirror instead, so that the reflection on the prismatic mirror switches between the front and rear face of the mirror.
The bracket and the control lever of this anti-glare mirror are molded together in one die for reducing the cost of the die as well as saving the time for molding. Therefore, as illustrated in
FIG. 6
or
FIG. 7
, the bracket and the control lever are molded integrally and connected by runners.
In
FIG. 6A
, a bracket
101
and a control lever
102
respectively have an engaging portion
101
a
,
102
a
which are to be engaged each other. The bracket
101
and the control lever
102
are molded together in such a manner that a sub runner
106
vertically branched from a main runner
105
connects the engaging portions
101
a
,
102
a
with said engaging portions
101
a
,
102
a
faced each other. When the bracket
101
and the control lever
102
are assembled, the assembler cuts off the sub runner
106
, brings the bracket
101
and the lever
102
close to each other while retaining the facing posture, engages the engaging portions
101
a
,
102
a
, and places the assembly into a mirror housing (FIG.
6
B).
In
FIG. 7A
, a bracket
111
and a control lever
112
respectively have an engaging portion
111
a
,
112
a
which are to be engaged each other. The bracket
111
and the control lever
112
are molded together in such a manner that two U-shaped runners
116
connect both ends of a turning pivot
118
of the control lever
112
and the side parts
117
of the bracket
111
, with said engaging portions
111
a
,
112
a
faced each other.
However, the aforementioned conventional anti-glare mirror shown in
FIG. 6A
has a drawback if the bracket
101
and the control lever
102
are separated at the runner
106
and assembled together into the anti-glare mirror without removing remaining parts or burrs of the runner
106
. The drawback is that the remaining parts interfere each other upon operating the control lever
102
, as illustrated in
FIG. 6B
, resulting defective operation of the control lever
102
or rapping sounds during the operation. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the remaining parts of the runner
106
from the bracket
101
and the control lever
102
respectively with use of nippers and the like.
As shown in
FIG. 7B
, the aforementioned conventional anti-glare mirror has a similar drawback in that if the bracket
111
and the control lever
112
are separated at the runners
116
and assembled together without removing remaining parts or burrs of the runners
116
, as illustrated in
FIG. 7B
, the remaining parts interfere each other.
Meanwhile, it is time-consuming if a worker removes all remaining parts in the assembly line during assembling operation. For this reason, the bracket and the control lever have to be separated in advance with the remaining parts of the runner removed. Therefore, an additional operation and extra stock space are required.
Moreover, it is troublesome for the worker to pick up the bracket and the control lever from different cases and assemble them.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to rectify these problems, the object of this invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an anti-glare rearview mirror without requiring removal of runners and so facilitates efficient assembly.
In light of this object, the first aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an anti-glare rearview mirror. The rearview mirror as a workpiece of the manufacture includes a mirror, a mirror housing for fixing the mirror, a bracket pivotally mounted to the mirror housing, and a control lever pivotally mounted to the mirror housing and engaged with the bracket. The relative angle between the bracket and the mirror housing is varied by a turning operation of the control lever relative to the mirror housing. In manufacturing this rearview mirror, the bracket and the control lever are molded integrally in such a manner that a runner connects the bracket and that the control lever does not interfere the movement of the bracket or the control lever if these parts are assembled to an anti-glare rearview mirror. Further, the bracket and the control lever is separated at the runner, and these parts are assembled to the mirror housing without removing a remaining part of the runner.
According to this method, the runner is formed so as not to interfere the movement of the bracket or the control lever if the bracket and the control lever are assembled into the anti-glare rearview mirror, so that a worker can separate the control lever from the bracket and assemble the bracket and the control lever into the mirror housing without cutting off the remaining part of the runner. Therefore, efficient assembly of the anti-glare rearview mirror for vehicles is achieved by leaving out the step of removing the runner. Moreover, the separated bracket and the separated control lever are available for assembling without additional process. This allows leaving out space for keeping these parts in each case and the brackets and the controls lever may be stocked in a single case and kept as an integrated body.
Meanwhile, it is preferable that the runner for connecting the bracket with the control lever is connected to inconspicuous part, for example, the surface of the engaging portion or the turning pivot to ensure its function, or the surface of the control lever to keep its external view.
The second aspect of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing an anti-glare rearview mirror. The rearview mirror as a workpiece of the manufacture includes a mirror, a mirror housing for fixing the mirror, a bracket pivotally mounted to the mirror housing, and a control lever pivotally mounted to the mirror housing and engaged with the bracke
Marusawa Masahiko
Tsutsumi Noriyuki
Cherry Euncha
Murakami Corporation
LandOfFree
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