Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Attachments – Optical-member-attachable cleaner
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-14
2003-05-20
Graham, Gary K. (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Attachments
Optical-member-attachable cleaner
C074S051000, C074S043000, C015S250300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06564419
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-20835 filed on Jan. 29, 2001.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiper apparatus for wiping a windshield or the like of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Besides a conventional wiper apparatus having a wiper arm that swings about a single stationary axis to wipe a windshield or the like of a vehicle with a wiper blade attached to a distal end of the wiper arm, there has been proposed a wiper apparatus that uses a four-bar linkage mechanism to provide a wider wiping range on the windshield, as shown in FIG.
8
. Such a wiper apparatus includes first to third levers
51
-
53
. A base end portion of the first lever
51
is secured to an upper end portion of a first support shaft
54
that is rotatably supported by a vehicle body (not shown). A base end portion of the second lever
52
is secured to an upper end portion of a second support shaft
55
that is rotatably supported by the vehicle body (not shown). The third lever
53
constitutes an arm head of a wiper arm. A base end portion of the third lever
53
is rotatably connected to a first connection
51
a
arranged at a distal end portion of the first lever
51
. A middle portion of the third lever
53
is rotatably connected to a second connection
52
a
that is arranged at a distal end portion of the second lever
52
and is spaced away from the first connection
51
a
by a predetermined distance.
The wiper blade (not shown) for wiping the windshield is connected to a distal end portion of the third lever
53
through a retainer (not shown) of the wiper arm.
A swing lever
56
is connected to a lower end portion of the first support shaft
54
. The swing lever
56
reciprocally swings within a predetermined angular range when it is driven by a driving force of a motor
60
transmitted through a rod
57
.
In this wiper apparatus having the four-bar linkage mechanism, when the first lever
51
swings together with the swing lever
56
due to the driving force of the motor
60
, the second and third levers
52
,
53
also swing while keeping the predetermined space between the first connection
51
a
and the second connection
52
a
. During this operation, the base end portion (the first connection
51
a
) of the third lever
53
reciprocally swings about the first support shaft
54
along an arcuate path. Also, the entire third lever
53
swings about the first connection
51
a
in a direction different from a direction of the reciprocal movement of the base end portion of the third lever
53
. With reference to
FIG. 8
, while the wiper apparatus is stopped or rested, a distance between the first support shaft
54
and the second connection
52
a
becomes a length “C”. On the other hand, during the wiping operation of the wiper apparatus, the distance between the first support shaft
54
and the second connection
52
a
becomes equal to a sum of a length “a” and a length “b” (here, the length “a” is the length between the first connection
51
a
and the second connection
52
a
, and the length “b” is the length between the first support shaft
54
and the first connection
51
a
). As a result, the wiping range of the wiper blade of the above wiper apparatus is increased in comparison to the conventional wiper apparatus that has the wiper arm that swings about the single stationary axis.
The above-described wiper apparatus having the four-bar linkage mechanism is generally arranged at a lower end side of the windshield. More specifically, a cowl louver is arranged at the lower end side of the windshield, and middle portions of the first and second support shafts
54
,
55
are received in through holes
58
,
59
(each depicted with a dot-dot-dash line in
FIG. 8
) of the cowl louver, respectively. That is, the swing lever
56
, the rod
57
and the motor
60
are arranged below the cowl louver.
On the other hand, the first to third levers
51
-
53
(four-bar linkage mechanism) are disposed above (outside) of the cowl louver, so that a cover for protecting the first to third levers
51
-
53
(four-bar linkage mechanism) from snow, twigs or other obstacles needs to be provided. This will generally result in an increase in the number of the components and hence an increase in a manufacturing cost of the wiper apparatus. Furthermore, since the first to third levers
51
-
53
are disposed outside of the cowl louver, an appearance of the vehicle having them is disadvantageously deteriorated.
To address this disadvantage, in place of the above wiper apparatus that uses the third lever
53
as the arm head of the wiper arm, it is conceivable to provide a wiper apparatus that has an arm support shaft projected upwardly from the base end of the third lever
53
(the first connection
51
a
). In this wiper apparatus, an arm head of a wiper arm is secured to the arm support shaft, and the components located below the arm support shaft are placed below the cowl louver. In this way, the four-bar linkage mechanism is not disposed above (outside) the cowl louver, so that there is no need to provide the cover or the like to protect the four-bar linkage mechanism. However, in this case, the arm support shaft supported at the first connection
51
a
reciprocally moves along a simple arcuate path about the first support shaft
54
, and this simple arcuate path has a relatively large extent in a fore-aft direction of the vehicle. Thus, a corresponding simple arcuate through hole, which corresponds to the simple arcuate path of the arm support shaft, needs to be formed in the cowl louver in order to receive the arm support shaft and also in order to allow the movement of the arm support shaft therethrough. Such an arcuate through hole, which has the relatively large extent in the fore-aft direction of the vehicle, imposes various limitations in designing the structure for achieving the predetermined wiping range, a size of the four-bar linkage mechanism, and an accommodating space for accommodating the four-bar linkage mechanism. Thus, layout of the vehicle components is undesirably limited. Particularly, when it is desired to position the first support shaft
54
adjacent to the windshield, the arcuate through hole needs to be extended to the windshield. Because of this, it is not possible to position the first support shaft
54
adjacent to the windshield.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the above disadvantages. Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a wiper apparatus of a vehicle capable of achieving a wide wiping range, an improved vehicle appearance, easy component layout and elimination of a dedicated cover for protecting components of the wiper apparatus from snow, twigs or any other undesirable obstacles.
To achieve the objective of the present invention, there is provided a wiper apparatus for wiping a wiping surface of a vehicle. The wiper apparatus includes a drive source, a first swing element, a second swing element, a connecting swing element, a wiper arm and a wiper blade. The first swing element is rotatably supported by a first support element that is connected to a vehicle body of the vehicle. The first swing element has a first connection spaced away from the first support element. The first swing element is reciprocally swung about the first support element by a driving force transmitted from the drive source. The second swing element is rotatably supported by a second support element that is connected to the vehicle body and is spaced away from the first support element. The second swing element has a second connection spaced away from the second support element. The connecting swing element is rotatably connected to the first connection of the first swing element and is also rotatably connected to the second connection of the second swing element in such a manner that the first connection is spaced away from the second connection. The connecting swing element has an arm suppor
Kawaguchi Tomohide
Matsumoto Hiroshi
Umeno Takashi
Asmo Co. Ltd.
Graham Gary K.
Posz & Bethards, PLC
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