Claims
- 1. A rub-rail assembly, comprising:
a carrier having a back support, a first leg and a second leg, wherein the first leg and the second leg extend from the back support to form a cavity; an insert having a main body, a first leg and a second leg, the first leg adapted to provide an interference fit with the first leg of the carrier and the second leg adapted to provide an interference fit with the second leg of the carrier when the insert is installed in a seat position with the carrier; and the main body of the insert having a lumen extending lengthwise therethrough for receiving an elongated light source.
- 2. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 further comprising a slit that extends into the lumen of the insert.
- 3. The rub-rail assembly of claim 2 wherein the interference fit of the first leg of the insert and the first leg of the carrier, and the interference fit of the second leg of the insert and the second leg of the carrier provides a force that helps keep the slit in a closed position.
- 4. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the end of the first leg of the carrier and the end of the second leg of the carrier define a slot, and the main body of the insert is sized larger than the slot so that when the insert is installed into the seat position, the main body becomes at least partially deformed.
- 5. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the carrier includes one or more insert stops that extend from the back support of the carrier into the cavity.
- 6. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the carrier includes a first insert stop and a second insert stop both extending from the back support of the carrier and into the cavity, wherein the first insert stop and the second insert stop each include an angled surface.
- 7. The rub-rail assembly of claim 6 wherein the main body of the insert is adapted to engage the angled surface of the first insert stop and the angle surface of the second insert stop if a sufficiently large force is exerted on the insert toward the carrier.
- 8. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the main body includes a transparent or semi-transparent material that extends from the lumen to an outside surface of the main body.
- 9. The rub-rail assembly of claim 8 wherein the main body also includes a non-transparent material.
- 10. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the maximum dimension of the lumen is less than 20 mm.
- 11. The rub-rail assembly of claim 1 wherein the maximum dimension of the lumen is less than 10 mm.
- 12. A rub-rail assembly, comprising:
a carrier having a back support, a first leg and a second leg, wherein the first leg and the second leg extend from the back support to form a cavity, the carrier further having a light receiving cavity or lumen for receiving an elongated light source; and an insert having a main body, a first leg and a second leg, the first leg adapted to engage the first leg of the carrier and the second leg adapted engage the second leg of the carrier when the insert is installed into a seat position with the carrier.
- 13. The rub-rail assembly of claim 12 wherein the light receiving cavity or lumen of the carrier is positioned behind the insert when the insert is installed into the seat position with the carrier.
- 14. The rub-rail assembly of claim 13 wherein the insert includes at least one region that is transparent or semi-transparent that is adapted to allow at least some of the light emitted by a light source to escape therethrough.
- 15. An elongated bumper, comprising:
an elongated bumper member having a lumen extending lengthwise therethrough for receiving an elongated light source; and the lumen having a maximum dimension of 30 mm or less.
- 16. The elongated bumper of claim 15, wherein the lumen has a maximum dimension of 20 mm or less.
- 17. The elongated bumper of claim 15, wherein the lumen has a maximum dimension of 10 mm or less.
- 18. A method for making a bumper member, the method comprising the steps of:
providing one or more bumper materials; providing a glow-in-the-dark material; and co-extruding the one or more bumper material and the glow-in-the-dark material to form the bumper member.
- 19. The method of claim 18 wherein the co-extruding step results in the glow-in-the-dark material being visible in at least two separate regions of the bumper.
- 20. The method of claim 18 wherein the one or more bumper materials include a transparent or semi-transparent material and a non-transparent material.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/075,489, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/991,078, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/372,643, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Continuation in Parts (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10075489 |
Feb 2002 |
US |
Child |
10811670 |
Mar 2004 |
US |
Parent |
09991078 |
Nov 2001 |
US |
Child |
10075489 |
Feb 2002 |
US |
Parent |
09372643 |
Aug 1999 |
US |
Child |
09991078 |
Nov 2001 |
US |