Land vehicles: wheels and axles – Wheel – With wheel cover
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-21
2001-06-19
Stormer, Russell D. (Department: 3617)
Land vehicles: wheels and axles
Wheel
With wheel cover
C301S037410
Reexamination Certificate
active
06247760
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wheel cover which is attached to an automobile wheel for ornamentation, and particularly relates to an attaching mechanism of the wheel cover to the automobile wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to improve the ornamentation of the automobile wheel, an aluminum wheel is generally utilized. However, since the ordinary aluminum wheel can not change its ornamental surface, a user can not enjoy a variety of designs with the aluminum wheel. Applicant of this application completed an invention for resolving the conventional problem, and filed its patent application (Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 9-193601).
FIG. 1
shows one embodiment in the above patent application. An aluminum wheel for automobile is comprised of a wheel body
10
made of aluminum and a cover
20
which is detachably fixed to the wheel body
10
. The wheel body
10
is intended for providing necessary and minimum strength to the wheel. In the above application, as examples of the attaching manner of the cover
20
to the wheel body
10
, utilizing a variety of clips or a planar fastener is disclosed. Other than those disclosed in the application, holding hooks
22
as shown in
FIG. 2
can also be utilized.
FIG. 2
shows a cross section along the line
2
—
2
in
FIG. 1
wherein the cover
20
is attached to the wheel body
10
. From a backside of a spoke
21
of the cover
20
, a pair of holding hooks
22
are projected in face to face relationship. Each hook portion
22
a
at the free end of the holding hook engages with a backside of the spoke
11
of the wheel body
10
, so that the cover
20
can be fixed to the wheel body
10
. With this construction, however, when the cover
20
as an ornament is detached from the wheel body
10
in order to be replaced with another one, the backside edge (holding edge)
11
a
of the spoke
11
made of aluminum bites into the root of the hook portion
22
a
of the holding hook
22
, and in an extreme case, the hook portion
22
a
is broken to spoil the holding hook
22
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wheel cover which is to be fixed to a wheel by making use of a holding hook, wherein the wheel cover can be easily and surely fixed to the wheel, and wherein possibility of the breakage of the holding hook is lowered upon detaching the wheel cover from the wheel.
In accomplishing this and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a wheel cover comprising:
a cover body; and
a plurality elastically deformable holding hooks which are projected from a backside of the cover body, each holding hook having a hook portion engaging with a wheel,
the hook portion having a first slide surface made of plastic and a second slide surface made of metal, and
the first slide surface being slidable on a surface of the wheel at time of attaching the wheel cover to the wheel, and the second slide surface being slidable on a holding edge of a backside of the wheel at time of detaching the wheel cover from the wheel.
In the wheel cover of the present invention constructed as above, when attaching the wheel cover to a wheel, the first slide surface, which is made of plastic and relatively softer than wheels made of steel or aluminum, of the holding hook is to slide on the wheel surface, so that wheel never be injured. Further, when detaching the wheel cover from the wheel, what slides on a holding edge of a backside of the wheel is the second slide surface made of metal rather than plastic, so that the holding hook can be protected from the acute holding edge of the backside of the wheel. Thus, it can be effectively prevented that the holding edge breaks the holding hook.
The wheel cover of the present invention can be attached to both of a steel wheel and an aluminum wheel. In the case that the wheel cover is attached to a wheel having a plurality of spokes extending radially (in many cases, such wheel is made of aluminum), it is preferable that, for each one of predetermined number of spokes selected from the spokes, a pair of holding hooks facing toward each other in circumferential direction is provided, and that the cover is attached to such wheel by engaging hook portions of the pair of holding hooks with each spoke, laterally. In this case, it is advantageous that each of the holding hooks is comprised of a plastic body having the first slide surface, and a metal piece which is connected to the plastic body and which has the second slide surface, and that two metal pieces of adjacent two holding hooks are integrally connected with each other into one single piece, and each holding hook deformed is biased into an original position by an elasticity of the one single piece.
With such construction, attachment stability during the wheel cover is attached to the wheel can be obtained from the connected construction of the one metal piece. Generally, in order to increase the attachment stability of a wheel cover, it is necessary that the recovering force into an original position of the elastically deformed holding hook must be increased, and therefore, the wheel cover body must be thicker. However, as above mentioned, two metal pieces are connected with each other into one integral piece, and with this one metal piece the holding hooks are biased into original position, whereby the recovering force of the holding hook can be increased without making the wheel cover body thicker. Thus, great advantage is brought by the present invention, in view of right weight and thinness of the wheel cover, and the degree of design freedom. Further, in case that a wheel cover is fixed to a wheel only with elastic recovering force of the plastic body of the holding hook, there is possibility that the attachment stability is lowered under a thermal deformation of the plastic body. On the other hand, such possibility can be lowered by obtaining the attachment stability with the one metal piece.
In that case, it is preferable that there are connected two metal pieces of a pair of the holding hooks which are associated with a same one spoke. However, there also can be connected two metal pieces of holding hooks which belong to different pairs associated with different spokes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1329935 (1920-02-01), Smith
patent: 3051276 (1962-08-01), Lyon
patent: 4027919 (1977-06-01), Foster et al.
patent: 5083841 (1992-01-01), Fleming
patent: 5141291 (1992-08-01), Roulinson
patent: 5803552 (1998-09-01), Kato et al.
patent: 2451071 (1976-04-01), None
patent: 2481197 (1981-10-01), None
patent: A9-193601 (1997-07-01), None
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho
Stormer Russell D.
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