Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-02
2001-04-10
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213542
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention relates to a seal arrangement to retain a motor vehicle roof liner about a sunroof aperture of that vehicle's body.
BACKGROUND TO THE PRESENT INVENTION
Sunroofs are a popular feature within a motor vehicle to provide, in addition to extra visibility, a potential for greater ventilation. It will be appreciated that the sunroof aperture within a motor vehicle body must be appropriately sealed to the roof liner or head liner of that motor vehicle. Traditionally, the seal to secure the interface between the sunroof aperture and the head liner has been of a flocked flange or a specific injection-moulded plastic material part. These seals act as beading to grip the respective aperture edges and head liner edge and so secure them together.
It will be appreciated that the use of a dedicated flange seal or moulded part adds to component count and potentially to assembly problems. There are inherent geometric and subsequent vibrational problems within a motor vehicle. Thus, the method of securing the head liner about the sunroof aperture must be resilient whilst being relatively flexible for assembly purposes. It will be understood that a headliner within a motor vehicle is a relatively large panel. In such circumstances, specific alignment may be difficult to the desired degree of accuracy. These difficulties will be particularly apparent if apertures within the head liner and the body must be parallel with respect to edges aligned to accommodate a seal.
A typical prior sealing arrangement is depicted in the drawings under the reference title ‘Prior Art’. It will be noted that a motor vehicle body
1
includes a sunroof aperture edge
2
. A roof liner or head liner
3
is covered with a decorative fabric
4
which extends over a return edge of the liner
3
. The liner
3
, with fabric
4
, is secured about the aperture
2
using a bespoke seal element
5
including a tufted or flocked edge
6
. It will be appreciated that the liner
3
is retained about the aperture
2
under compression from the sealing element
5
. In terms of assembly, locating the liner
3
appropriately relative to the aperture
2
although not difficult may be inconvenient. Furthermore, the necessity of a separate sealing component
5
adds to assembly problems in terms of process staging and component parts count.
OJECTIVE OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a seal arrangement to retain a motor vehicle roof liner about a sunroof aperture of that vehicle's body which substantially avoids above-mentioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a seal arrangement to retain a motor vehicle roof liner about a sunroof aperture of that vehicle's body, the arrangement comprising flange edge means within said sunroof liner, said flange edge means being configured about said aperture and said flange edge means being adjacent one half of a hook and fleece coupling means whilst said other half of said coupling means is secured to said body about said aperture to retain said flange edge means in said configuration about said aperture to provide a proximity seal between said sunroof aperture and said roof liner.
The hook and fleece coupling may be that marketed under the trade mark Velcro.
The flange edge means may be configured to extend sufficiently beyond said aperture to provide location keying for said motor vehicle roof liner within the motor vehicle body and so facilitate assembly.
The hook and fleece coupling means may be located in a plane perpendicular to the sunroof aperture in order to provide a width of retention coupling for said roof liner within said aperture.
Said hook and fleece coupling means may be arranged such that at least a portion of said coupling means is in a direction perpendicular to said sunroof aperture in order to allow preliminary orientation of the flange edge means within said aperture and/or supplement the closeness of the proximity seal between said liner and said sunroof aperture.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4840339 (1989-06-01), Grogan
patent: 4840832 (1989-06-01), Weinle et al.
patent: 4923245 (1990-05-01), Kuwabara
patent: 5280991 (1994-01-01), Weiland
patent: 5516183 (1996-05-01), Gold
patent: 5667896 (1997-09-01), Carter
patent: 35 27 541 (1987-02-01), None
patent: 0 364 102 (1990-04-01), None
patent: 2 115 754 (1983-09-01), None
patent: 406166327 (1994-06-01), None
“VELCRO Fastening Systems”, Automotive Engineering, p. 64, Sep. 1976.
Davis and Bujold
Pedder Dennis H.
Rover Group Limited
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