The invention relates to bumper panels and a method of displaying a design on a bumper panel utilizing an interchangeable design cover comprising one or more designs thereon.
Bumper panels are used to prevent damage from opening car doors. The opening car door can be damaged as well as the object hit by the opening car door, such as another car. Many people mount bumper panels in the garage, such as along the sides of the garage to prevent such damage. In addition, a bumper panel may be configured between cars parked in a garage to prevent damage, such as by being suspended or supported on a stand or support. Prior bumper panels are usually a solid color and are not very attractive.
The invention is directed to bumper panels and a method of displaying a design on a bumper panel utilizing an interchangeable design cover comprising one or more designs thereon. In an exemplary embodiment, a bumper panel comprises a rigid panel portion that is configured to absorb the impact of the opening car door and prevent damage both to the car door and to any object behind the bumper panel. An exemplary rigid panel portion comprises a rigid panel, such as a sheet of hard material and a resilient material configured thereon. The resilient material cushions the impact of the opening car door with the rigid panel to prevent damage. An exemplary design cover is configured to slip over the rigid panel portion and comprises a design that is exposed on an outside surface of at least one of the sides of the bumper panel. An exemplary design cover comprises an opening, such as along the bottom to enable the design cover to slide over the rigid panel portion. In addition, an exemplary design cover comprises one or more mount apertures that are configured to align with a mount fixture when the design cover is configured over the rigid panel portion. A design cover may have designs on a first and second side of the outside surface and may also have designs on the first and second sides on the inside surface, for a total of four designs. The design cover may be reversible, wherein it can be turned inside out, or inverted to display the designs formerly on the inside surfaces.
An exemplary bumper panel may be configured to be secured in a location by mount fixtures that extend from the top of the bumper panel. This or these mount fixtures may be hooks or loops that enable a cable, chain or rope, for example, to suspend the bumper panel. A hook as used herein includes a hook and an eye or loop fixture. A suspended bumper panel may be configured to be moved up and down as required and/or desired. For example, a bumper panel may be suspended between cars in a garage and may be lifted up out of the way to do work in the garage. The bumper panel may be lifted manually or may be coupled with a hoist or pully configured to lift and lower the bumper panel. In another embodiment, a bumper panel is mounted to a wall or other object by mount brackets. In this embodiment, the mount fixture may extend from a side of the bumper panel. In some embodiments the design cover comprises mount apertures that enable the mount fixture to extend through the design cover.
An exemplary mount fixture may be a clip, a hook, a loop such as an eye having a closed loop, a fixture with an aperture for receiving an extension, or a bracket. An exemplary bracket is a Z-brackets and a bumper panel may have two Z-bracket configured on one side to enable quick attachment to corresponding Z-brackets configured on a wall or object. A suitable bracket may be used to secure the bumper panel to an object.
An exemplary rigid panel is a planar rigid material that may be a sheet of plastic or metal. An exemplary rigid panel may have apertures to reduce the weight, and may be a honeycomb, or screen material. A rigid panel may resist compression through the thickness but may be flexible in the planar direction. A rigid panel may have a sufficient thickness to prevent damage being propagated therethrough by an opening door and may be about 2 mm thick or more, about 5 mm thick or more, about 7 mm thick or more, about 10 mm thick or more and any range between and including the thicknesses provided. An exemplary rigid panel portion, rigid panel and/or covered bumper panel may have a height and length suitable to prevent an opening car door from being damaged or causing damages to object that it may hit, and the height may be about 40 cm or more, about 50 cm or more, about 70 cm or more, about 80 cm or more and any range between and including the heights provided. The length may be larger in dimension than the height such as about 50 cm or more, about 75 cm or more, about 100 cm or more, about 160 cm or more and any range between and including the lengths provided.
An exemplary resilient material is sufficiently resilient to recover from the compression caused by an opening car door, and may return substantially to an original, uncompressed thickness, after removal of a compressive load. An exemplary resilient material is a sheet of foam, such as urethane foam, or may comprise an elastomer, such as urethane, silicone or rubber, for example. An exemplary resilient material or layer has a thickness to prevent damage to the opening car door from impacting the rigid panel and may be about 5 mm thick or more, about 10 mm thick or more, about 15 mm thick or more, about 20 mm thick or more and any range between and including the thicknesses provided.
An exemplary design cover is sufficiently durable to withstand the impact of opening car doors without damage and may comprise a woven or non-woven fabric or a sheet of material, such as plastic. In some embodiments the fabric is woven material with a design such as a flag design. In an exemplary embodiment, the design cover is a coated fabric, comprising a fabric and a layer of plastic thereon. The one or more designs may be printed or otherwise formed on the surface of the design cover, including being woven therein, such as by embroidery, for example. An exemplary design cover is thin and supple and may have a thickness of about 1 mm thick or more, about 2 mm thick or more, about 4 mm thick or more, about 6 mm thick or more and any range between and including the thicknesses provided.
An exemplary method of displaying a design or a solid color on a bumper panel comprises providing a detachably attachable design cover having at least one design on an outside surface of one of the sides of the design cover. As described herein, the design cover comprises an opening, such as along the bottom of the design cover and a mount aperture to enable a mount fixture to extend from the rigid panel portion through the design cover. The cover may include plastic around the mount aperture to prevent damage to the cover from contact with the mount fixture. The plastic around the mount aperture may be reinforcement nylon patches with a cut through the patches for the mount aperture, and may be applied on the cover around the mount apertures. The method comprises providing a rigid panel portion that may comprise a rigid panel with resilient material coupled to at least one side of the rigid panel. The method includes the step of configuring the opening, such as the open bottom of the design cover, over the bumper panel top, and then sliding the design cover over the bumper panel to produce a covered bumper panel. The method further comprises the step of orienting the mount aperture around the mount fixture to expose the mount fixture through the design cover and finally, mounting the covered bumper panel by securing the mount fixture to a mount bracket. A design on the design cover is displayed on at least one of the outside surfaces. A design may be displayed on a first side and on a second side of the design cover. The design cover may comprise designs on the inside surface or surfaces and this or these inside designs may be displayed by removing the design cover from the rigid panel portion and reversing, or inverting the design cover and then re-configuring the design cover over the rigid panel portion.
The summary of the invention is provided as a general introduction to some of the embodiments of the invention, and is not intended to be limiting. Additional example embodiments including variations and alternative configurations of the invention are provided herein.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the figures. The figures represent an illustration of some of the embodiments of the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner. Further, the figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Also, use of “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components described herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the scope of the invention. This description should be read to include one or at least one, and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.
Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described herein and are illustrated in the accompanying figures. The embodiments described are only for purposes of illustrating the present invention and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention. Other embodiments of the invention, and certain modifications, combinations and improvements of the described embodiments, will occur to those skilled in the art and all such alternate embodiments, combinations, modifications, improvements are within the scope of the present invention.
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Referring now to
When a bumper panel is configured with a mount fixture at the top, a total of four display sides are possible, a first display side 22 having a first design 21, a second display side 23 having a second design 29, a third display side on the interior of the design cover on the first display side having a third design 31 and a fourth display side on the interior of the design cover having a fourth design 39. This configuration enables the design cover to be reversed wherein the design cover is inverted to expose the former interior or inside surface to the exposed surface. The design cover may also be flipped when the mount fixtures are symmetric as shown in
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In some embodiments rigid panel 51 is a metal sheet. The metal sheet may be an aluminum composite material with a honeycomb center also known as ACP material.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention. Specific embodiments, features and elements described herein may be modified, and/or combined in any suitable manner. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications, combinations and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
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Amazon Best Sellers: Best Garage Wall Guards; https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Automotive-Garage-Wall-Guards/zgbs/automotive/15707911; downloaded Aug. 3, 2018. |