Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Attachments – Optical-member-attachable cleaner
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-26
2001-10-16
Graham, Gary K. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Attachments
Optical-member-attachable cleaner
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301741
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on a bearing part for the articulation of a wiper blade.
Known windshield wipers have a wiper arm which is constructed from a fastening part and, articulated thereon, a joint part with a wiper rod. Further, they have a wiper blade formed of a carrying clip system with a primary center clip and secondary intermediate clips connected with the latter in an articulated manner, as well as claw clips and a wiper strip. The wiper blade is articulated at the wiper arm in that a hook-shaped end of the wiper rod holds a bearing part which is arranged between two side cheeks of the center clip and engages an articulated pin of the center clip by a hub which is open along a circumferential area. The joint formed in this way guides the wiper blade during the swinging motion over the windshield, wherein the joint and the carrying clip system make it possible for the wiper strip to be adapted to a curvature of the windshield.
While the wiper arm is generally constructed in a vehicle-specific manner and, in practice, does not wear out over service life, the wiper blade wears especially at the joints and at the wiper strip, so that it must be changed more frequently during the life of the vehicle. In this connection, as a rule, not only the wiper strip, but the entire wiper blade which is commercially available is changed.
In order to reduce the quantity of wiper blade types, there are included in the packaged wiper blades bearing parts made of plastic which have different receiving devices for the wiper rod and which therefore make it possible to use the same wiper blade with wiper rods having different material thicknesses and widths as well as different bending radii and catch elements. The user chooses from the available bearing parts the appropriate bearing part for his vehicle and throws away the rest. The excess bearing parts increase the size of the wiper blade packaging and lead to increased waste. Further, the transport and storage volume is increased.
EP 0 234 525 B1 discloses a bearing part of the above-mentioned type which has a crosspiece which is offset in the longitudinal direction relative to the open hub and serves as means for fixing in the longitudinal direction when the bearing part is mounted at the hook-shaped end of the wiper rod. For this purpose, the crosspiece is at a distance from the axis of rotation of the hub, which distance corresponds to the outer bending radius of the hook-shaped end of the wiper rod. Therefore, the wiper rod does not need a catch hole for securing the bearing part longitudinally. The bearing part is accordingly suited for wiper rods with or without catch holes.
Further, a similar bearing part is known from EP 0 655 373 A1. This bearing part has two crosspieces arranged at an offset in the longitudinal direction relative to the hub and serve as means for longitudinally securing a hook-shaped end of a wiper rod; specifically, the crosspiece lying closest to the axis of rotation serves for a hook-shaped end with a smaller bending radius and the other crosspiece serves for a hook-shaped end with a greater bending radius. The hook-shaped end with a greater bending radius contacts, by its bent inner surface, a correspondingly shaped contact face of the first crosspiece. This bearing part is accordingly suitable for wiper rods whose hook-shaped ends have two different bending radii. In order to prevent rotation of the bearing part relative to the wiper rod, it has an additional crosspiece and a catch projection arranged at an offset relative to the hub. The wiper rod snaps in between the crosspiece and catch projection when assembled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, the bearing part has an elongated base body having two arms which are arranged diametrically opposite relative to the hub and is held in a holding clip so as to be rotatable coaxial to the hub. Accordingly, the base body can be swiveled relative to the holding clip and a hook-shaped end of a wiper rod can be drawn over an arm of the base body and then swiveled back into the initial position. Since the arms are constructed differently, the bearing part is suitable for at least two different hook-shaped ends of the wiper rods.
In order to be able to use hook-shaped ends with bending radii of different magnitudes, the arms of the base body have at least two parallel contact faces which extend in the longitudinal direction and are contacted by the legs of the hook-shaped end, wherein the distance of the contact faces from one another varies. In this respect, an arm can have a plurality of contact faces which are formed on the one hand by the circumferential contour of the arm and on the other hand by cutouts in the arm of the base body. The bearing part is accordingly suitable for wiper rods with more than two different hook-shaped ends.
The hook-shaped ends are guided in the bearing part lateral to the contact faces, e.g., through lateral guides at the side walls of the holding clip and/or through lateral guides at the base body. The lateral guides, to which are allocated two contact faces, can have different distances from one another, so that they are suitable for hook-shaped ends of different width.
The hook-shaped ends of the wiper rod can have conventional catch elements, e.g., a catch hole, which cooperates with a catch projection at the corresponding contact face. However, in order to be able to assemble wiper rods irrespective of the position or the existence of a catch hole, it is advantageous when the hook-shaped end is fixed in the longitudinal direction between a longitudinal stop at the base body and an axial stop at the holding clip. The distance between these stops is adapted to the associated hook-shaped end of the wiper rod in such a way that the outer bending area of the hook-shaped end contacts the axial stop of the holding clip when the wiper blade is assembled. The longitudinal stop at the base body can be formed by curved end pieces of the arms of the base body which contact the inner bending area of the hook-shaped end of the wiper rod or by stops at the end of a contact face contacted by the front side of the short leg of the hookshaped end.
The axial stop of the holding clip is formed in a simple manner by a crosspiece at the short side of the side walls. A catch tongue ensures that the hookshaped end locks in the assembled position. Since the base body is rotatable relative to the holding clip, one axial stop is generally sufficient. However, in order to reinforce the holding clip, a second axial stop in the form of a crosspiece at the opposite end is advantageous. In this case, if the axis of rotation of the bearing part is situated off-center with respect to the two crosspieces or axial stops of the holding clip, other variants of the hook-shaped ends of wiper rods, e.g., with respect to the material thickness, can be taken into consideration by means of the central offset.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5611103 (1997-03-01), Lee
patent: 3311303 (1983-10-01), None
patent: 259.823 (1988-09-01), None
patent: 234525 (1987-02-01), None
patent: 655373 (1995-05-01), None
Pollaris Eric
Strauss Andreas
Westermann Klaus-Juergen
Graham Gary K.
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Striker Michael J.
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