Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-02
2002-06-25
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
C200S004000, C200S0050EA
Reexamination Certificate
active
06409261
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a switching element for actuating an openable motor vehicle roof in which at least one outer cover part can be actuated for closing or at least partially exposing a roof opening by means of a first drive and in which at least one inner cover part can be actuated by means of a second drive, actuation of the outer cover part being assigned to a first control and actuation of the inner cover part being assigned to a second control.
2. Description of Related Art
In a switching element of the type to which the present invention is directed that is known from published German Patent Application DE 195 13 971 A1, there are four separate controls via which the cover and the sliding inside roof lining are pushed or raised via the control circuit. Here, the difficulty of operation and relatively high costs due to use of a total of four separate controls are disadvantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of this prior art, a primary object of the present invention is to devise a motor vehicle roof of the initially mentioned type which has a simplified actuating capacity in terms of costs and ergonomic aspects.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention by the first control for actuating the outer cover part and the second control for actuating the inner cover part being combined in a single compact switching element. This action benefits operator control and ensures an economical implementation as compared to the switching element in the prior art with four separate controls.
According to a first advantageous aspect of the invention, a switching element is provided in which one control, preferably the second control, is located in a recess of the first control, the two controls preferably being made as rocker elements.
According to a second advantageous aspect of the invention, the first control and the second control are made as an integral control which preferably has the form of a rocker which, in addition to its rocking motion, can be pushed laterally in the direction of the rocker axis, in order to thus assume the function of the second control, the function of the first control being undertaken by the rocker.
According to a third advantageous aspect of this invention, there is a third control for purposes of controlling the raising/lowering motion of the outer cover part. This third control, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, is located either in the contour of the first or second control, or is located outside of the single switching element which comprises the first control and the second control. Preferably, the third control has the form of a pushbutton element or a pull-actuation element or combination thereof.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which, for purposes of illustration only, show several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4034176 (1977-07-01), Larson
patent: 4520240 (1985-05-01), Swindler
patent: 4629953 (1986-12-01), Inoue et al.
patent: 4975547 (1990-12-01), Nakayama et al.
patent: 5265716 (1993-11-01), Sawada et al.
patent: 5721405 (1998-02-01), Hamada
patent: 5749617 (1998-05-01), Weissrich et al.
patent: 5783787 (1998-07-01), Data
patent: 5923007 (1999-07-01), Emmert
patent: 5951100 (1999-09-01), Ewing et al.
patent: 44 11 388 (1995-05-01), None
patent: 195 13 971 (1995-10-01), None
patent: 0103826 (1990-04-01), None
Web page, “Limbind.com”, “switch product catalog”, Jan.10, 2001.
Lindinger Franz
Wätzig Frank
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Pedder Dennis H.
Safran David S.
Webasto Karosseriesysteme Gmbh
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