Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Door or window with specified vehicle feature
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-22
2002-05-14
Patel, Ken (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Door or window with specified vehicle feature
C296S093000, C049S498100, C049S479100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06386619
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a weather strip attached to a door panel of an automobile by an attaching means except for a retainer. The present invention also relates to a weather strip fixed to a door panel of an automobile by a clip, and having a waterproof sponge member, which is attached to the base bottom portion, for ensuring watertightness of the door panel at the base bottom portion. The present invention also relates to a weather strip which is attached to a door panel of an automobile by an attaching means except for a retainer and on the lower face of the base portion of which a seal member closely coming into contact with the door panel is arranged.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Referring to
FIGS. 4 and 5
(or FIGS.
8
and
9
), a conventional technique is explained below. A door weather strip
170
(
260
) for automobile use is mostly attached by a retainer
171
(
221
) mounted on a door panel
130
(
220
). However, in this case, in order to ensure the sealability between the retainer
171
(
221
) and the door panel
130
(
220
), a connecting portion to connect the retainer
171
(
221
) with the door panel
130
(
220
) is coated with sealant
172
(
222
). Accordingly, the weather strip
170
(
260
) and the sealant
172
(
222
) interfere with each other. Therefore, the conventional technique has a problem that the sealability of this connecting portion can not be stabilized. Further, at an end portion of the retainer
171
(
221
), a step portion is created between the retainer
171
(
221
) and the door panel
130
(
220
) corresponding to the thickness of the retainer
171
(
221
). Accordingly, the sealability of this portion is deteriorated. For the above reasons, when importance is placed upon maintaining the sealability of the connecting portion to connect the door panel
130
(
220
) with the weather strip
170
(
260
), it is not necessarily required to provide the retainer
171
(
221
).
Instead of a retainer, it is possible to use an adhesive double-coated tape or a clip as a means for attaching a weather strip to a door panel.
As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, there have been provided a conventional weather strip
70
which include: a base bottom portion
72
attached to a door panel
20
; a hollow seal portion
73
to seal between the door panel
20
and the body panel
30
; and a seal lip portion
74
. This conventional weather strip
70
is fixed to the door panel
20
by not a retainer but a clip
40
. In order to enhance the watertightness with respect to the door panel
20
, there is provided a waterproof seal
78
, which is a water expansion material and contains a corrosion inhibitor for preventing corrosion of metal, all over the attaching base bottom portion
72
as disclosed in Japanese Examined Utility Model Publication No. 6-42920. However, since the water expansion material containing the corrosion inhibitor is a solid material, it is impossible to put a seal upon the door panel
20
sufficiently.
In order to solve the above problems, it can be considered to take countermeasure that a sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
is attached to the entire lower surface of the base bottom portion. However, in the case where the weather strip is attached to the door panel with a clip, waves are created in the direction of length of the weather strip because only the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
located close to the clip is compressed and deformed. That is, a portion of the weather strip
70
in which the clip
40
is located is attached to the door panel
20
by a stronger force than other portions. Therefore, the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
is strongly compressed and the height is reduced. A portion in which the clip
40
is not located is attached to the door panel
20
by a weak force and the height of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
becomes larger. As a result, the entire shape of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
becomes wave-like.
The thus formed waves of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
are greatly affected by a reaction force of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
. That is, in a state in which the weather strip
70
is fixed to the door panel
20
with the clip
40
, it is preferable that the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
is interposed between the lower face of the base bottom portion
72
of the weather strip
70
and the upper face of the door panel
20
, and that the wall thickness of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
is equally contracted over the entire length. However, the reaction force of the sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
acts, and the portion in which the clip
40
is located is greatly elastically contracted and deformed because the reaction force is weaker than the attaching force of the clip
40
. However, the portion in which the clip
40
is not located is not contracted and deformed so much by the attaching force of the clip
40
. Therefore, the base bottom portion
72
of the weather strip
70
is pushed up by the reaction force. As a result, waves are created on the weather strip
70
.
Since this conventional sponge-like waterproof seal member
79
is arranged between the base bottom portion
72
of the weather strip
70
and the door panel
20
, the wall thickness of the seal member
79
is set at a small value. Therefore, a quantity of elastic deformation of contraction is small. Accordingly, when a force, the intensity of which is higher than a predetermined value, is given, a strong reaction force is generated, and waves tend to be created on the weather strip
70
. As a result, watertightness between the weather strip
70
and the door panel
20
is deteriorated and further appearance is deteriorated.
On the other hand, in order to attach the weather strip
170
(
260
), to the door panel
130
(
220
) by the above means, it is necessary to stabilize the sealability between the lower face of a base portion (
261
) and the door panel
130
(
220
).
From the above viewpoints, a technique by which a highly expanded sponge member is arranged on a lower face of a base portion of a weather strip has been proposed. In the extrusion-molded portion of the weather strip, this highly expanded sponge member is integrally molded by extrusion at the cutout step portion formed on the lower face of the base portion of the extrusion-molded portion. In the die-molded portion, a separate highly expanded sponge member is made to adhere to the lower face of the flat base portion by a post-processing. The specific gravity of the highly expanded sponge member, which is integrally formed by extrusion molding, is usually 0.1 to 0.3, and the specific gravity of the highly expanded sponge member, which is formed separately and made to adhere to the die-molded portion, is usually 0.05 to 0.2.
However, in the die-molded portion, the separate highly expanded sponge member is made to adhere to the lower face of the base portion, which is a flat face. Therefore, it is impossible to set the thickness of the highly expanded sponge member at a high value. Since elasticity of a thin highly expanded sponge member is low, it tends to be plastically deformed, and it is impossible to stably keep the sealability over a long period of time. As a result, in one weather strip, the sealability is high in the extrusion-molded portion, however, the sealability is low in the die-molded portion, that is, it is impossible to exhibit a high sealability over the entire weather strip.
Since the lower face of the base portion of the die-molded portion and the separate highly expanded sponge member are made to adhere to each other on their flat faces, the area of adhesion is not necessarily sufficiently large. When the door is repeatedly opened and closed over a long period of time, the separate highly expanded sponge member slips out from the predetermined position and the sealability is lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is to solve the above-described problems.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a r
Nishikawa Rubber Co. Ltd.
Patel Ken
LandOfFree
Retainerless weather strip does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Retainerless weather strip, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Retainerless weather strip will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2834237