Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Glare screen or visor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-11
2003-10-28
Patel, Kiran (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Glare screen or visor
C296S097500, C296S097900, C362S492000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06637799
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular sun visor and a method of assembling a sun visor.
2. Background Art
The use of sun visors in vehicles is well known. Attached to the vehicle roof adjacent to the windshield, sun visors are made in various sizes and are made from a variety of materials. Typical sun visors comprise a stiff inner core, often made of a rigid polymer, surrounded by a cloth covering. Because of the wide variation in the size of vehicles, many different sizes of sun visors are necessary to accommodate the needs of vehicle manufacturers. In a standard manufacturing process, each different size of sun visor may require different tooling, which adds to production costs. In addition, inventory costs can increase as the many different sizes of sun visors are warehoused.
One attempt to make a sun visor more modular, and therefore increase the number of components common to different sizes of sun visors, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,985 issued to Twietmeyer et al. on Oct. 17, 2000. Twietmeyer et al. describes a sun visor with a variety of modular core components covered with an outer covering. The core components can be assembled such that they can be used in visor assemblies for a number of different makes and models of vehicles. However, in order to accommodate different sizes of outer coverings, the core component assemblies must themselves be manufactured in different lengths. Hence, at least some of the shortcomings of prior art sun visors remains.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a modular sun visor that overcomes the shortcomings of prior art sun visors by further reducing the number of differently sized components that are required to produce sun visors of different sizes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a modular sun visor that can be used on a wide variety of vehicle makes and models.
It is another aspect of the invention to provide a modular sun visor that reduces tooling changes and production setup time for the sun visor manufacturer.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a modular sun visor that reduces production and inventory costs.
Accordingly, a sun visor assembly for use in a vehicle is provided that comprises an elbow rod subassembly configured to be attached to the vehicle. A visor bezel having a support structure is pivotally and slidingly attached to the elbow rod subassembly. Also included in the sun visor assembly is a visor blade, which is attached to the visor bezel.
Another aspect of the invention provides a system of modular sun visors that comprises a plurality of visor bezels, each of which includes a support structure. The system also includes a plurality of visor blades, each one differing from the others by at least one dimension. Each of the visor blades is configured for attachment to any one of the visor bezels.
A further aspect of the invention provides a method of assembling a sun visor for a vehicle that comprises providing a visor bezel having a support structure. The visor bezel is configured to be attached to any visor blade chosen from an inventory of differently sized visor blades. A visor blade is chosen from the inventory of differently sized visor blades, and is then attached to the visor bezel.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2057009 (1936-10-01), Chadwick
patent: 2901038 (1959-08-01), Herr et al.
patent: 3193323 (1965-07-01), Herr et al.
patent: 3405969 (1968-10-01), Creel
patent: 3827748 (1974-08-01), Herr et al.
patent: 4174864 (1979-11-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 4458938 (1984-07-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 4477116 (1984-10-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 4491899 (1985-01-01), Fleming
patent: 4500131 (1985-02-01), Fleming
patent: 4623188 (1986-11-01), Juraschek et al.
patent: 4626019 (1986-12-01), Tung et al.
patent: 4989911 (1991-02-01), Van Order
patent: 5011211 (1991-04-01), Svensson
patent: 5056853 (1991-10-01), Van Order
patent: 5244244 (1993-09-01), Gute et al.
patent: 5267090 (1993-11-01), Dowd et al.
patent: 5278736 (1994-01-01), Falcoff et al.
patent: 5308137 (1994-05-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 5314227 (1994-05-01), Weiland et al.
patent: 5374097 (1994-12-01), George et al.
patent: 5556154 (1996-09-01), Vaxelaire
patent: 5727837 (1998-03-01), Viertel
patent: 5823503 (1998-10-01), Wasserman
patent: 5823603 (1998-10-01), Crotty, III
patent: 5895087 (1999-04-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 6007136 (1999-12-01), Zittwitz et al.
patent: 6024399 (2000-02-01), Viertel et al.
patent: 6033005 (2000-03-01), Crotty, III
patent: 6076947 (2000-06-01), Miller
patent: 6131985 (2000-10-01), Twietmeyer et al.
patent: 6220644 (2001-04-01), Tiesler et al.
patent: 6234558 (2001-05-01), Curtindale
patent: 6264352 (2001-07-01), Zapinski
patent: 6302467 (2001-10-01), Crotty, III et al.
patent: 6325527 (2001-12-01), Lee
patent: 6347824 (2002-02-01), Akouri et al.
patent: 6499868 (2002-12-01), Kerul, Jr.
patent: 6543832 (2003-04-01), Bogdanski et al.
patent: 59014516 (1984-01-01), None
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/083,244, Tiesler et al., filed Feb. 25, 2002.
LandOfFree
Modular sun visor and method of assembling same does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Modular sun visor and method of assembling same, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Modular sun visor and method of assembling same will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3159153