Trim and seal member

Details Trim and seal member Trim and seal member

2001-03-09

2003-11-18

Redman, Jerry (Department: 3634)

Movable or removable closures

Closure seal; e.g., striker gasket or weatherstrip

U-shaped member or portion mounts seal

Reexamination Certificate

active

06647667

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a trim for use in a seal member such as a weather strip of a vehicle or the like, or for use in a decorative part, a covering part for a flange in a vehicle body panel, or the like; and relates to a seal member including such a trim.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications Nos. 2000-96725, 2000-97657 and 2000-97658, which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As such a trim of this kind, for example, there is known a trim in which a trim body
101
is formed of a polymeric material such as rubber, resin into a substantially U-shape in section and an elongated shape in size, as shown in
FIG. 19. A
metal insert member
102
is embedded in the trim body
101
. In addition, a holding lip
105
is provided to project on an inner surface
103
of a car-interior-side (hereinafter, simply referred to as “interior) side wall of the trim body
101
so as to extend in the longitudinal direction of the trim body
101
while extending toward a bottom wall portion
104
of the trim body
101
. A plurality of holding protrusions
107
extending in the longitudinal direction of the trim body
101
is provided to project on an inner surface
106
of a car-exterior-side (hereinafter, simply referred to as “exterior) side wall of the trim body
101
opposite to the inner surface
103
.
When the trim body
101
is attached onto a flange
108
of a vehicle body panel of an opening portion of a vehicle or the like, the flange
108
is inserted between the holding lip
105
and the holding protrusions
107
. As a result, the holding lip
105
is elastically deformed so that the flange
108
is held between the holding lip
105
and the holding protrusions
107
.
On the other hand, as such a seal member including the trim body
101
, there is known an opening trim weather strip
110
(hereinafter referred to as “weather strip” simply) as shown in FIG.
19
. That is, a trim portion
111
constituted by the trim body
101
in the above-mentioned conventional configuration is provided, and a hollow seal portion
113
composed of, for example, sponge rubber or the like, is formed on an outer surface
112
of the exterior side wall of the trim portion
111
.
This weather strip
110
is attached to the flange
108
of an opening portion of a vehicle or the like through the trim portion
111
thereof. Then, the above-mentioned seal portion
113
comes into pressure contact against a door
114
for opening and closing of the opening portion while the door
114
being closed so that the seal portion
113
can be deformed elastically. Thus, the interior and exterior sides of the cabin of the vehicle are sealed off while the door
114
is closed.
However, in the flange
108
of the opening portion, the number of steel plates superimposed on one another varies in accordance with positions so that the thickness of the flange portion
108
has a large variation between positions. Therefore, the lapping quantity between the flange
108
and the holding lip
105
becomes excessive in the portion where the flange
108
is thick. Thus, the insertion load at the trim portion
111
of the weather strip
110
on the flange
108
increases so large that it may become difficult to attach the weather strip
110
.
To solve such a problem, in the weather strip
110
in the first conventional configuration, as shown by the two-dot chain line in
FIG. 19
, the portion of the holding lip
105
corresponding to the thick portion of the flange
108
is shortened by cutting off the holding lip
105
in accordance with the thickness of the flange
108
so that the insertion load is lowered. However, in the weather strip
110
in this conventional configuration, the step of cutting off the holding lip
105
is required. In addition, attachment has to be carried out while seeking out a portion to be cut off and positioning the holding lip
105
. Thus, there has been a problem that it takes much time to attach the weather strip
110
.
On the other hand, for example, British Patent No. GB 2,133,823 discloses a configuration in which the projecting length of the holding lip
105
from the inner surface
103
is varied in the longitudinal direction of the weather strip
110
when the weather strip
110
is extruded.
However, in this conventional configuration, it is inevitable that the rigidity in a base end portion
115
of a modified holding lip portion
105
a
which is the shortest section having the shortest projecting length increases due to the ratio of the projecting length to the thickness of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
. Thus, when the flange
108
is inserted, the modified holding lip portion
105
a
of the shortest section is elastically deformed solely in a tip end portion
116
thereof. As a result, freedom to set the insertion load and the pull-out load on the flange
108
is reduced in the modified holding lip portion
105
a
of the shortest section. In this second conventional configuration, therefore, there has been a problem that the yield of products is lowered and the manufacturing cost thereof increases.
Further, in the above British Patent, as shown by the two-dot chain line in
FIG. 19
, in the modified holding lip portion
105
a
in the shortest section in which the projecting length is shortest, the length Li′ of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
on the bottom wall portion
104
side of the trim portion
111
and the length Lo′ of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
on the opening portion
115
side of the trim portion
111
satisfy the following expression.
Li′/
2
<Lo′≦Li′
That is, the modified holding lip portion
105
a
of the shortest section has a sectional shape of a trapezoid close to a rectangle. Thus, the shorter the length of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
, the smaller the ratio of the length to the thickness. In such a modified holding lip portion
105
a
in the shortest section, the rigidity of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
as a whole increases so that it becomes difficult that the modified holding lip portion
105
a
is deformed. As a result, in the modified holding lip portion
105
a
in the shortest section, there has been a problem that the insertion load at the modified holding lip portion
105
a
is reduced only to little extent in accordance with reduction in the lapping quantity of the modified holding lip portion
105
a
over the flange
108
.
Besides, as shown in
FIG. 20
, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei. 10-6379 discloses a configuration in which the projecting angle of the whole of the holding lip
105
from an inner surface of an interior side wall portion
117
of the trim portion
111
is varied in the longitudinal direction of the weather strip
110
when the weather strip
110
is extruded. In this conventional configuration, the holding lip
105
is set so that a modified holding lip portion
105
b
corresponding to a thicker portion of the flange
108
has a larger projecting angle as a whole. To say other words, the holding lip
105
is formed so that the modified holding lip portion
105
b
corresponding to the thicker portion of the flange
108
projects as a whole in gentler inclination with respect to the interior side wall portion
117
. Accordingly, the modified holding lip portion
105
b
becomes easy to bend in the portion corresponding to the thicker portion of the flange
108
so that the insertion load on the flange
108
can be reduced.
However, when the projecting angle of the holding lip
105
is thus varied as a whole, the modified holding lip portion
105
b
corresponding to the thicker portion of the flange
108
also projects largely. As a result, there has been a problem that the amount of materials used increases in comparison with the case where the holding lip length is varied, so that the manufacturing cost of products increases. In addition, there has been a problem that the lapping quantity also increases so that the

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