Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Complementary to vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-26
2002-11-12
Young, Lee (Department: 3727)
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Complementary to vehicle
C160S035000, C160S036000, C220S345100, C224S281000, C224S555000, C224S556000, C224S571000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06478204
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a cover including a plurality of planar members, in accordance with the preamble of claim
1
, as well as an interior accessory part provided with a like cover.
Where a storage, retaining or keeping apace or the access opening thereof is to be made such that it may be opened and closed, one frequently encounters the problem how to design the cover usable for this purpose. An example where the generic covers may be used are interior accessory parts for vehicles for receiving and/or keeping objects. The like interior accessory parts or deposition receptacles may be arranged in vehicles, at a multiplicity of locations in the passenger cabin.
Thus it is known to arrange a deposition receptacle between the two front seats of a passenger car. Where these deposition receptacles formerly were simple trough-shaped receptions for simply inserting the objects to be deposited, it has in the past few years increasingly been adopted to design these deposition receptacles such that they may be closed with a cover. This is done for a number of reasons, i.a. to protect the inside of the deposition receptacle or objects located therein against dust, insolation, direct visibility eta. Apart from arrangement between the two front seats it is also known to provide deposition receptacles in the center console, the dashboard, the door linings, the roof liner, in a tiltable armrest an the rear bench, in the rear shelf etc. In addition to being arranged in passenger cars, correspondingly designed deposition receptacles can furthermore be encountered in buses, railway cars, airplanes and the like.
In accordance with the above explanation, it is at least desirable, even necessary in some cases, to provide the deposition receptacle with a cover whereby access to and/or view into the deposition receptacle may be precluded.
Thus it is known, for example, in the case of a deposition receptacle arranged between the front seats, to provide it with an upward tilting lid, with the top of this lid frequently being upholstered and usable as an armrest.
Moreover it is known for the case of deposition receptacles located, e.g., between the front seats of a passenger car, to provide a cover translatable in the longitudinal direction of the container and consisting of single, interconnected strips which extend crosswise with respect to the longitudinal extension, constituting the cover in their entirety, and laterally held in guide grooves. In order to open it, the cover is pushed in the opening direction, with the interconnected strips of the cover sliding along the guide grooves and being invisibly guided in a downward direction through 180° by the guide grooves and then being guided underneath the bottom surface of the deposition receptacle in a forward direction. This basic type of cover is also known from so-called sliding door cabinets.
From DE-PS 44 03 111 there is moreover known a deposition receptacle for vehicles, capable of being covered by some type of blind. The blind is laterally guided by its edges in guide grooves, with these grooves being formed by the very accessory part on the one hand and by a cover frame on the other hand.
In the case of a cover design of the upward tilting lid type, it is, among others, disadvantageous that—where desired or necessary—the deposition receptacle cannot readily be left open for a prolonged period of time, for the upwardly projecting lid will then either impede the driver and/or fall back from the opened position into the closing position during braking, accelerating or cornering.
In the case of a translatable cover composed of a plurality of interconnected strips which are arcuately guided downward/to the rear in the manner of a sliding door cabinet, there arises the problem that, owing to the reception space necessary for the cover in the opened position, quite considerable restrictions with respect to installation possibilities may exist.
It is a drawback of the deposition receptacle for vehicles, or of the cover therefor, in accordance with DE-PS 44 03 111 that a separate cover frame is required for concealing the lateral guide means of the blind. As a result, first of all the space requirement is increased owing to the additional component having the form of the cover frame. Moreover this space requirement for deflection of the blind in turn restricts versatility, i.e. variability of installation. In addition, the cover frame must be adapted to the deposition receptacle, or the lateral guide means thereof, which brings about an increase in production and mounting costs. The cover frame finally creates an additional separation line in the visual range, which is undesirable in terms of visual impression.
The invention is based on the object of designing a cover in accordance with the preamble of claim
1
in such a way that a sturdy, visually agreeable possibility of covering, e.g., deposition receptacles for vehicles at low space requirement, a small number of components and hence low production costs is furnished.
This object is achieved by the cover as defined in claim
1
comprising a plurality of planar members.
In accordance with the invention, each planar member is provided with at least two laterally protruding guide projections defining an axis of rotation, which are staggered with respect to the joint connection connecting two neighboring planar members. Owing to this measure, a turning moment is transmitted to the joint connection upon pivoting the foremost planar member of the cover when viewed in the opening direction, whereby the neighboring planar member in also taken into the pivoting position, and thus the zig-tag folding takes place automatically. I.e., rotation of the planar members takes place in a controlled manner through introduction of a force as a function of the translating force acting on the cover, so that the cover may be folded in a controlled manner. This structure according to the invention is thus, other than the prior art according to DE-PS 866 843, independent of gravity and may be implemented in any orientation (horizontal, vertical, oblique).
Although solutions for closing structural openings or roofs are known from CH 688 593 and DE 3 801 586, which provide a planar configuration of the planar members as a whole in their closing position, nevertheless costly technical means are required for the opening and closing displacement and for initiation of zig-zag folding, in particular for guiding the planar members, so that use of these covers, in contrast to the universal application made possible in the present invention, is restricted to special cases such as, for example, roofs.
Owing to the measure of forming at each end face of a planar member two guide projections received in a guide groove, every planar member of the cover may be kept in a planar orientation in the closing position, so that a level, planar cover is created. In this variant it is preferred to form a pair of guide projections having a smaller axial length than the other pair of guide projections, with the short guide projections being moved out from the guide groove in the opened state, so that the planar members are then only guided by the long guide projections.
Particularly compact folding is obtained if the planar members are connected to the neighboring planar members by means of a double-hinge connection having two 90° hinges on the one hand, and by means of a single-action hinge connection having one 180° hinge on the other hand.
Herein it is particularly advantageous if the guide projections remaining in the guide groove are formed in the immediate vicinity of the double-hinge connection in such a way that on the one hand, sufficient force may be transmitted to the hinge for pivoting, and on the other hand, in the pivoting state, the area defined by the two 90° hinges does not excessively project beyond the guide path in the viewing direction.
Preliminary experimentation has shown that owing to provision of a dead travel, a planar closing position of the planar members is ensured in the closed state of the cover, and t
Beier Herbert
Lange Carsten
Brevard Maerena W.
Young Lee
LandOfFree
Receptacle cover does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Receptacle cover, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Receptacle cover will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2964729