Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-04
2002-04-09
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
active
06367871
ABSTRACT:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The invention concerns a roof module for motor vehicles.
Such modular, prefabricated, ready to be installed vehicle roofs are finished separately from the vehicle body and are only joined to the vehicle body on the assembly line in the factory. Particularly because they crucially reduce assembly times on the assembly line, such vehicle roof modules are enjoying increasing significance.
Particularly advantageous in this respect are those roof modules, the functional elements of which are pre-assembled on the inner shell of the roof module. In a known vehicle roof (DE 197 09 016 A1), the bendable down lower layer of the inner shell is furnished with pre-assembled functional elements, for example sun visors and handholds, at suitable positions. Here the bearing elements for the sun visors and the handholds are each designed as swivel fixed pivot brackets which are locked in place in the corresponding grooves in the lower layer and, where applicable, through the grooves in the interior roof lining material, thereby facilitating pre-assembly of the sun visors and the handholds on the inner shell of the roof module.
After supporting the roof module on the upper layer of the inner shell and securing the upper layer to the body framework using adhesive (DE 197 09 016 A1,
FIG. 3
) and/or fixing screws (DE 197 09 016 A1, FIG.
5
), the body framework is lined with the lower layer of the inner shell, whereupon fixing screws are screwed into the front cross rail and the side rails of the body framework through the swivel fixed pivot brackets, thereby securing the sun visors and/or the handholds and the lower layer of the inner shell in the vicinity of the sun visors and the handholds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to further improve and simplify both the pre-assembly options for the sun visors and the handholds on the inner shell and assembly of the roof module on the body framework.
According to the present invention, there is provided a roof module for a vehicle body of a motor vehicle, of sandwich beam construction, the roof module having an inner shell which is molded out of plastic foam to form an interior roof lining, manufactured separately from the vehicle body, and having outer edges which can be supported on the framework of the vehicle body and be securely fixed to this, the vehicle body framework having a front cross rail and side rails, where the inner shell is divided into two layers in the vicinity of the outer edges intended to be supported on the body framework, of which an upper layer can be supported on the bodywork framework, whilst a lower layer of which can be bent down and is designed to line the body framework, whereby the lower layer is further furnished with pre-assembled sun visors in the vicinity of the front cross rail of the vehicle body framework and pre-assembled handholds in the vicinity of the side rails of the vehicle body framework; where in the sun visors and the handholds are pivoted on bearing elements which are connected to the lower layer of the two layers, whereby fixing screws can be fed through the bearing elements to catch in the front cross rail and/or the side rails of the body framework and which secure the bearing elements and the lower layer on the vehicle body framework and wherein both the upper layer of the inner shell, and thus the roof module as a whole, can be securely fixed to the bodywork frame using just the fixing screws for the sun visors and the handholds.
By using the fixing screws for the sun visors and the handholds to secure not only the said functional elements and the lower layer of the inner shell to the body framework, but to secure at the same time the entire roof module to the body framework, according to the invention, assembly of the roof module on the assembly line in the factory is crucially further simplified and assembly times crucially reduced.
Pre-assembly of the roof module can be even more far-reaching if captive fixing screws too are pre-assembled on the pre-assembled bearing elements. This opens up the possibility of pre-mounting as many different screws as are used on each of the bearing elements during manufacture of the roof module so that they can in fact simply be twisted and/or screwed in during later assembly of the roof module on the vehicle body, yet ensuring that they cannot fall out of the bearing elements in an axial direction.
By expanding sleeve bushes into the lower layer of the inner shell at the points where the fixing screws are fed through during the foam process for producing the inner shell of the roof module, the mounting positions for the sun visors and the handholds and, following assembly of the roof module on the body framework, the distance between the bearing elements and the rails of the body framework are set. When tightening the fixing screws, by taking up the power of reaction produced by the tensile force of the screws, the sleeve bushes ensure that the lower layer of the inner shell does not become deformed at the mounting positions of the bearing elements for the sun visors and the handholds.
For pre-assembly of the handholds, bendable, elastic snap-in elements are mounted on the pivoted bearing elements supporting the handholds which can be simply and quickly locked in place in the expanded sleeve bushes, all bearing elements each havin a device to captivate the fixing screws already fed through. Pre-mounting of the fixing screws is advantageous here in that devices are immediately available on the bearing elements.
For pre-assembly of the sun visors, the expanded sleeve bushes are furnished with devices to secure the fixing screws. For their part, the fixing screws guided through the bearing elements of the sun visors hereby hold the pre-assembled bearing elements of the swivelling sun visors mounted thereon.
The devices used to captivate the pre-assembled fixing screws are suitably simple penetration holes located in the bearing elements of the handholds and/or on the sleeve bushes for the bearing elements of the sun visors. Such penetration holes have a diameter which is less than the outer diameter of the thread of each of the fixing screws, ensuring that the fixing screws pushed or screwed tight into the penetration holes cannot fall out.
Fixing elements can be expanded into the upper layer of the inner shell at the positions of the fixing screws. The fixing screws can be screwed into such fixing elements during assembly of the roof module on the body framework after being guided through the corresponding perfect-fit holes arranged in the rails of the body framework.
The sleeve bush for the sun visor expanded into the lower layer of the inner shell can be designed as a pivot bearing, whereby this bearing is favourably already formed during the foam process for producing the inner shell. Here, a bearing bore in the sleeve bush takes a pivot bearing pin to which the sun visor, hinged outside of the pivot bearing, is connected. The design of the other, detachable, drag bearing on each sun visor does not come under the scope of the present invention. In any case, the elements of this detachable drag bearing are also secured to the lower layer of the inner shell, ensuring that each sun visor can be swivelled in the direction of the adjacent side panel of the vehicle body using the pivot bearing, after first detaching it from the drag bearing.
In an advantageous, yet invisible to the naked eye, manner, electrically conductive slip rings securely fixed around the perimeter of the bearing screw are connected to electric conductors to which the lighting equipment of a vanity mirror located on the sun visor is connected whereby, after mounting the bearing screw, the slip rings in the pivot bearing remain in contact with sliding-action contact pieces which extend into the bearing bore of the pivot bearing and the electric feeds of which are expanded into the inner shell. The pivot bearing and the bearing pin thus allow the illuminated vanity mirrors mounted on the sun visors to be connected to an electricity supply.
Böhm Horst
Grimm Rainer
Carlson & Gaskey & Olds
Meritor Automotive GmbH
Pedder Dennis H.
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