Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
Patent
1996-04-10
1998-02-10
Walczak, David J.
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
224309, 224325, 114364, B60R 904
Patent
active
057159815
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to a roof rail for vehicles and in particular to a roof rail where a spar is bent off at the ends to form feet and these feet are attached to the roof surface.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A roof rail has been known from DE-OS 40 04 829 or DE-OS 40 28 433. The spar and the two end-side feet of the roof rail are designed as individual parts. The spar consists of a hollow chamber section, while the two feet are designed as forged parts or castings. The feet can be screwed to the roof of the vehicle directly or via adapters. The prior-art arrangements have the drawback that the connection points between the spar and the feet raise problems in terms of tolerance, and gaps that may possibly be formed are undesirable for appearance reasons. The connection points also have only a limited load-bearing capacity despite the positive-locking guiding of the pins.
EP-A 0 580 023, which has just been recently published, describes a 1-piece roof rail including a hollow chamber section made of light metal with bent off feet.
It has been known from DE-U 91 11 655.4 a roof rack which describes a connecting pin which can be screwed down in cup-shaped depressions in the sheet metal of a roof frame. The part of the pin projecting over the roof has a conical taper, whose purpose is not described. A rail spar is represented schematically which is connected to the pin via a setscrew.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a more suitable design for a roof rail.
The roof rail according to the present invention is made in one piece with the spar and the two feet and it consists of a hollow chamber section throughout, which acquires the necessary shape and also strength due to a suitable deformation. The deformation is different in the foot area and in the spar area.
The foot is formed by a downwardly directed bent section of the hollow chamber section, which is cut off obliquely on the end side. As a result, the foot has an enlarged contact surface and also a downwardly open hollow space, into which a support part can be inserted. The support part can establish the connection to the vehicle roof directly or indirectly via an adapter. It is guided for this purpose in a positive-locking manner in the hollow space of the foot. In the case of a suitable shaping with a pointed beak, which engages a narrowed area at the transition of the foot into the spar, it is possible to establish a tensioned locking, which fixes the roof rail especially well and is also able to absorb tolerances. The permissible tolerance range can be even increased via a suitable wedge angle.
The deformation of the hollow section consists, besides the bending in the foot area, preferably also of an arching of the bottom directed toward the interior, which arching may also differ greatly over the length of the section. This deformation is located on the underside of the section and is invisible or hardly visible from the outside on the mounted roof rail. It does not affect the outer surfaces of the roof rail located in the range of vision, so that no structural changes occur here, and no finishing work is necessary. The narrowed area of the hollow space at the transition from the foot to the spar can be formed in a simple manner via the arching of the bottom. In addition, the width of the spar is set by shortening the side walls to the desired size. Furthermore, the arching of the bottom offers a favorable and almost invisible possibility of fastening for middle feet. As an alternative, the middle feet may also be made in one piece, with the spar by not providing any bottom arch in this area of the section.
The roof rail according to the present invention can be manufactured simply and at a favorable cost. The tolerance problems are markedly reduced compared with the state of the art. In addition, the roof rail according to the present invention has uniform material properties and a uniform appearance due to its one-piece design. It can also be subjected to su
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patent: 5016799 (1991-05-01), Stapleton
patent: 5069377 (1991-12-01), Baughman
patent: 5071050 (1991-12-01), Pudney et al.
patent: 5411196 (1995-05-01), Lee, Jr. et al.
Blomberg Harald
Poter Olaf
Scholl Alfred
Erbsloh AG
Vidovich Gregory M.
Walczak David J.
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