The present invention relates to an anti-mosquito accessory for car windows, especially to an elastic mosquito net installed on a car front side window.
A car is a common type of transportation for modern people or families. They often use cars no matter going out for work, for leisure time, or for other uses. Sometimes drivers or passengers need to switch off the engine and keep the window open for good ventilation of the interior of the car based on different reasons. While taking a rest or a snap or playing and chatting in the car, turning-off the engine and opening the windows have different purposes such as energy saving and environmentally friendly, allowing users to breath fresh air outside the car and compliance with regulations.
However, in some occasions or locations the car is parked, mosquitoes and other insects are easily flying into the interior of the car through the open windows and causing great trouble to the driver or passengers in the car. In order to address the above issue, a ventilated mesh for car windows is revealed in Taiwanese Pat. Pub. No. 406642.
The ventilated mesh is made of flexible soft materials and providing good ventilation performance by a plurality of meshes thereof. The ventilated mesh is provided with a mounting opening having a rope on the periphery for covering outside a window frame of a front door of the car. By a through hole with a rope on the periphery and a cut located between the through hole and the mounting opening, a rear-view mirror in the window frame is inserted into the through hole through the open cut. Then the through hole is fitted on a neck part of the rear-view mirror by closing the cut. Thus an opening of the window is enclosed in the ventilated mesh when the window is rolled down and a sufficient degree of protection from mosquitoes is provided. The above cut can be a zipper or a touch fastener which is opened for installation and ventilation and then closed after the operation.
However, the design of the ventilated mesh has certain shortcomings. For example, the ventilated mesh made of flexible soft materials is elastic and able to be applied to window frames with different specifications and shapes. Thus it's easy to install and use. Yet the whole ventilated mesh is easy to have elastic expansion and irregular deformation after the installation so that the through hole is enlarged and deformed, and thus unable to be fitted closely to the neck part of the rear-view mirror.
Moreover, an obvious gap or slit is unavoidably generated between the enlarged or deformed through hole so that mosquitoes and other insects can still get into the car through the opening on top of the window and the gap. Thus the protection against mosquitoes is not as effective as expected. Although the issues vary in degrees depending on the elasticity of the ventilated mesh, the position of the through hole on the ventilation mesh with respect to the position of the rear-view mirror in the window frame and the fit difference between them, and the size and shape of the ventilated mesh relative to those of the window frame and the fit difference between them, the gap issue mentioned above still exists and further affects protection against mosquitoes.
It should be noted that even the periphery of the through hole of the ventilated mesh is provided with the rope for being pulled to tighten the through hole. But the rope is usually an elastic bandage or strap which is unable to withstand the pulling force generated after expansion and deformation of the ventilated bag during installation. Thus elastic deformation unavoidably occurs while being pulled and a larger gap/slit is generated between the through hole and the neck part of the rear-view mirror in the direction being pulled. Therefore, mosquitoes and other insects can fly into the car through the gap/slit, the inner wall of the ventilated mesh and an exterior side of a car door/or the front window, and the opening on top of the window. After being used for a period of time, the common rope/strap may have elastic fatigue and the gap issue mentioned above is getting worse.
The large gap issue mentioned above may be addressed to some degree by customization of the ventilated mesh or replacement of the mesh fabric for the ventilated mesh with non-elastic fabric. Yet there are different types and models of cars provided with front doors having various sizes and specifications. The customization of the ventilated mesh with non-elastic fabric puts a great burden on the product design and development, production and manufacturing, and the following process such as product classification, storage, product sales, etc. This leads to a significant increase in cost and the final price is also increased substantially. The final price set too high is hard for customers to accept.
Moreover, in order to ensure that the through hole of the ventilated mesh can expand elastically for allowing the rear-view mirror to pass through smoothly and the neck part closely fit to the through hole, the ventilated mesh needs to be made of elastic mesh fabric. But there is still a problem of insufficient tightening force caused by elastic fatigue and the problem leads to decrease in tightness/fit between the though hole and the neck portion and further affects the protection against mosquitoes. The ventilated mesh made of non-elastic mesh fabric can avoid the action of elastic fatigue yet the through hole without elasticity is not convenient for installation of the ventilated mesh on the rear-view mirror. An additional design/modification such as the cut mentioned above is required so that cost for material and production is increased and the installation processes are also more complicated. Other issues such as whether the tightness/close-fit of the cut can be maintained may be raised.
Furthermore, refer to Taiwanese Pat. Pub. No. M316822, a car sun shade with protection against mosquitoes is disclosed. The device features on that an extension belt is arranged at each of two sides on the bottom of the car sun shade and a fixing element is disposed on a distal end of the extension belt for fixing the car sun shade on a car door. However, a slot of the car sun shade also has the shortcoming of poor tightness/fit, the same as the through hole of the ventilated mesh mentioned above. The slot of the device is designed into a triangular shape in order to match the shape of the fixing base of the rear-view mirror. Such design is not for close-fit to the neck part of the rear-view mirror and it seems easier to have the gap/slit after installation. Therefore, mosquito protection is not as good as expected.
Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an elastic mosquito net for a car front side window in which users can operate a drawstring or a separable connecting member around the mounting hole to allow the mounting hole having sufficient shrinkage and tightening force. Thereby the mounting hole is wrapped around and fitted closely to a neck portion of a rear-view mirror of a car for preventing mosquitoes and other insects from passing through a gap between the mounting hole and the neck portion and an opening on top of the front side window and getting into the car. The protection against mosquito bites is achieved.
In order to achieve the above object, an elastic mosquito net for a car front side window according to the present invention is made of elastic mesh fabric and installed on a window frame of a front door of a car. A mounting hole is arranged at an outer fabric surface of the elastic mosquito at the position corresponding to a rear-view mirror for allowing a neck portion of the rear-view mirror to be inserted through. The mounting hole is provided with a drawstring by which users can operate and adjust to make the mounting hole completely wrap around and closely fit to the neck portion. Moreover, the drawstring can be replaced by a separable connecting member which allows users to adjust a length/area of the separable connecting member being connected to make the mounting hole fit closely to the neck portion.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Refer to
The main improvement of the present elastic mosquito net 10 is that the outer fabric surface 11 of the elastic mosquito net 10 is provided with a mounting hole 15 at the position corresponding to the rear-view mirror 6. As shown in
Moreover, the size of the mounting hole 15 can be modified freely according to the actual size of the rear-view mirror 6 and the neck portion 6a for being tightened. Thus the mounting hole 15 is wrapped around and fitted closely to an outer wall of the neck portion 6a and maintained at the closely-fit state mentioned above, without being affected by the position or size of the neck portion 6a. Thus the mounting hole 15 is not easy to have gradually reduced tightness caused by elastic fatigue after being used for a period of time as the conventional design has. By free adjustment and operation of the mounting hole 15, sufficient tightening of the drawstring 16 and the mounting hole 15 are provided to ensure close fit between the mounting hole 15 and the neck portion 6a, without generating any gap therebetween. Thereby the expected protection against mosquito bites is achieved.
As shown in
In this embodiment, a cord lock 18 is arranged at the outer string portion 16b. By pushing in the cord lock 18, the cord lock 18 is adjusted and positioned at the outer string portion 16b to hold the outer string portion 16b in place. Thereby easy and fast adjustment, maintaining the size and tightening of the mounting hole 15 are achieved.
It should be point out that the cord lock 18 is a common accessory for users to push in to tighten or loosen cords/strings. When users push a toggle 181 of the cord lock 18 in, the outer string portion 16b run through the cord lock 18 is released and the cord lock 18 can be moved and adjusted freely up and down the outer string portion 16b. Along with the adjustment of the position of the cord lock 18, the size of the mounting hole 15 is also adjusted and controlled to be tightened or loosened. After the adjustment of the position of the cord lock 18, users only need to release the toggle 181 so that the outer string portion 16b is engaged and held by the cord lock 18 automatically due to restoring force of elastic components inside the cord lock 18 such as springs. Thereby both the size and the tightening of the mounting hole 15 are retained well.
In this embodiment, the outer string portion 16b includes two separate free ends 161 at the outside of the cord lock 18. It should be easy to understand that the outer string portion 16b is formed by two strings with preset length as a part of the drawstring 16 and exposed outside the string passage 171 and the free end 161 is formed on each of the above string.
As shown in
As shown in
It is well known that users usually need to pull and bind the free ends 162 for allowing the mounting hole 15 to fit the neck portion 6a closely before formation of the knot 163. Then the mounting hole 15 is effectively maintained at the above close-fit and tightening state by the knot 163. Consumers know how to tie the knot 163 well and there are many different ways available to tie the knot 163 now. It should be understood that the knot 163 can be used as long as it provides expected tight and close-fit, no matter the knot 163 is a dead knot or a slip one.
As shown in
As shown in
It should be easily understood that the separable connecting member 19 has a plurality of embodiments. In a preferred embodiment, the separable connecting member 19 includes a hook fastener 191 and a loop fastener 192 attached and fastened to each other and users can adjust an area where the hook fastener 191 and the loop fastener 192 are in contact with each other.
To put it simple, the hook fastener 191 and the loop fastener 192 can be fixed on the periphery of the mounting hole 15 by sewing or other ways and arranged at two sides corresponding to each other. Then the hook fastener 191 and the loop fastener 192 originally connected are peeled apart by users to adjust and enlarge the size of the mounting hole 15. On the other hand, the mounting hole 15 can be adjusted and shrunk when the hook fastener 191 and the loop fastener 192 are attached to each other to a greater extent or in a larger area by the user. Thereby the tight and close fit which is quite close or similar to the above embodiments is provided, although to a different extent.
As shown in
The difference between the above two embodiments is in that one is connected by hooks caught in loops while the other is connected by magnetic attraction. Moreover, a long and flexible magnetic strip is enclosed and fixed in each of two corresponding positions on the periphery of the mounting hole 15 to form the first magnetic member 193 and the second magnetic member 194. When the two magnetic strips are getting closer to each other, sufficient magnetic attraction is generated to connect them and then the expected tight and close fit is achieved. The degree of close-fit is associated with the magnetic force of the magnetic strip itself in some degree so that the magnetic strip with suitable magnetic force should be selected during the design process.
As shown in
Refer to
In addition, a conventional elastic strap 141 is disposed on the periphery of the mounting opening 14 of the respective embodiments mentioned above to enhance elastic compression force of the mounting opening 14 for being attached to an outer surface of the exterior side 3 more closely.
In summary, the present elastic mosquito net 10 has the following features and functions:
Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details, and representative devices shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalent.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
109213035 | Oct 2020 | TW | national |