Patent Application
20200086724
This invention relates generally to tonneau covers. Specifically, the present invention is directed to obtaining an improved load bearing tonneau cover by providing a simpler design for a multi-point mechanical attachment system for securing the tonneau cover to the bed of a vehicle.
A tonneau cover may describe a hard or soft cover used to protect unoccupied passenger seats in a convertible or roadster, or the cargo bed in a pickup truck. Hard tonneau covers may open by a hinging or folding mechanism while soft covers may open by rolling up.
A tonneau cover may be used to conceal cargo or protect cargo from the elements. When the tonneau cover is used, it may keep cargo out of the sun and provides extra security by keeping items out of sight.
Tonneau covers have been well documented in publications since their inception in the early 1900s as a means to cover or conceal cargo in a vehicle. Even though vehicles have evolved in design and function over the years, the design of marketable tonneau covers may have only evolved in terms of aesthetics rather than increased practical functionality.
The largest market for tonneau covers may be the pickup truck. It has been estimated that 98% of the tonneau covers made for this market serve the singular function of covering the cargo bed to compliment the look of the vehicle.
One style of tonneau cover is the soft cover. The soft tonneau cover may generally be made from fabrics or fabric composites that resist water and UV light damage. This may be the most common cover because of its low cost. This style may be made to retract or roll up or back into position. The soft tonneau cover may occupy the least amount of space and there are a variety of attachment and fastening methods that are employed to attach it to a pickup truck.
A second style of tonneau cover is the hard cover. The hard cover is typically made from fiberglass, hard plastic, rubber, aluminum or some combination of these or other materials. The tonneau covers made from fiberglass may be described as a single shell type cover that opens by a hinge at the cab portion of the bed. Because they are quite heavy, they may include pneumatically assisted cylinders for opening and closing. The hard tonneau covers are often made to order so that their color matches the color of the truck.
A variation of the hard tonneau cover is one that utilizes a series of foldable sections to cover the cargo portion of the bed. These sections can fold together from the rear to the front of the truck and stack near the cab to make use of the cargo portion of the truck bed. A variation of this design is to have a foldable section that opens from the side of the truck bed. The hard tonneau covers may either have locks located in the foldable panels or open from the inside of the bed. Typically, the covers that open from the inside of the bed rely on the factory locking tailgate to secure the bed contents. The hard tonneau cover is the next cost increment to not only cover the contents of the truck bed but to secure them as well with a lock system so that valuable items can be safely kept in the truck bed.
Both hard and soft tonneau covers may have a profile as low as possible with the top edge of the truck bed sides and tailgate for improved aesthetics. As a result, additional hardware may be needed to mount the tonneau cover to the inside walls of the truck bed.
One style of hard tonneau cover, fabricated from aluminum, has been developed to carry a load on the top while leaving the bed under the cover to carry additional items. This cover opens in a gull-wing manner with hinges secured across the middle of the truck bed allowing aluminum sections to open in the front behind the truck cab and at the tailgate. The utility is further increased by using boat style cleats for cargo tie downs. This style of tonneau cover is locked from the top of the cover and may have a protruding handle lock.
It is important to note that tonneau covers are aftermarket purchases that may need to be aesthetically pleasing to attract customers. Also, the owner may resist modifying a vehicle by making permanent changes such as drilling into the body or bed for attachment points.
There are some problems with existing tonneau covers. The soft tonneau covers may be limited to a covering function and cannot effectively be used for supporting objects. These tonneau covers may only protect the contents of the truck bed from weather. They may require multiple fasteners to be installed on the truck bed. It is a problem for many vehicle owners to drill holes in their vehicle for mounting these fasteners. In the event that it is desired to remove the cover altogether, the vehicle is left with exposed fasteners or if the fasteners are removed, permanent holes in the vehicle.
The single section hard tonneau cover, such as those made of fiberglass, may also require hardware mounted to the bed itself. This hardware may include hinges near the cab, gas struts on the sides and some sort of locking mechanism on the tailgate. In most cases, they are special ordered to be painted the color of the truck and a professional installer may need to be used for the installation.
There are several problems with this hard tonneau cover system. For example, the single section may only be opened as far as the gas struts allow. This means that nothing higher than the bed rails (if the cover is closed) could be put in the cargo section of the bed unless the hard tonneau cover itself is removed. If the hard tonneau cover is removed, it typically requires 2 people to undo hardware and lift the cover from the truck. This additional cost along with the yearly change in bed sizes for new truck models may make this a difficult and costly manufacturing/supply process.
Another problem with this hard tonneau cover design is the use of screws to attach hardware to the truck bed. A truck may experience extreme vibration during work and recreational use, especially if it is driven off road. Over a short amount of time, the thin sheet metal surrounding the screws may tend to wear, deform and enlarge leaving a heavy tonneau cover improperly secured to the vehicle.
Hard tonneau covers with folding sections may add the element of utility by folding back and allowing objects taller than the sides of the bed to be transported in the bed without removing the hard tonneau cover. Unfortunately, most of the designs for hard tonneau covers have a significant number of parts required for construction to achieve this design objective. This construction may include rails that must be attached to the inside of the bed rails and each foldable section must fit uniformly and rest on these rails.
If the inside measurement across the width of the truck bed at the tailgate is 2 to 4 inches less than the inside measurement taken across the bed at the cab (both measurements taken at rail height) as in many trucks, each folding section may need to be trapezoidal in shape for proper fit up with the bed rails. This taper varies with make, model and year, and is a tremendous difficulty and expense for manufacturers to deal with for the multitude of trapezoidal shaped folding sections.
Another matter that must be discussed is a latching mechanism that needs to be used to prevent the embodiments of the invention from moving during braking or acceleration of a vehicle. It seems that there are an infinite number of latch styles and types for many applications. They range from typical door latches used in homes to specialty latches found in the automotive and aerospace applications. The majority of these applications utilize latches that restrict one degree of freedom of each side of a hinged device. Simply stated, they are used to keep two components on a hinge from opening. The next most common hinge restricts 2 degrees of freedom and is used to maintain the closure of 2 components but resists lateral sliding along the hinge axis. The most common of these latches is a buckle latch. Buckle latches are common to travel trunks that need to resist the top and bottom sections from sliding apart at the closure plane. These latches are used when the hinge is not rigid enough to prevent an extra degree of freedom.
It is interesting to note that assembly engineering design convention typically utilizes latches that resist one degree of freedom for the use of the assembly. In other words, hinges are designed to resist load conditions except for the movement of opening and closing said hinged components. This latch style resists one degree of freedom, the motion to open the hinged components. There are many design opportunities where the hinge is compliant and cannot resist all of the degrees of freedom of the hinged assembly. One example of this case is the load bearing foldable tonneau cover. Compliant hinges may be used to join at least 2 load bearing sections of this foldable tonneau cover. Since the hinges are compliant, the forces of the load secured to the top of the cover and the tonneau cover itself must be reacted against the truck bed in some fashion. This latch system must react 3 degrees of freedom, 1) the force to lift the cover upwards, 2) the force to prevent the cover and load from sliding forwards when the truck brakes are suddenly applied, and 3) the force applied when the truck quickly accelerates. Each section of the tonneau cover that has an attached load must be able to react the forces to the bed of the truck. In addition, the latch system must be low profile and still allow each cover to fold on itself.
There are many other examples of assemblies and compliantly hinged components that could benefit from a latch solution that would eliminate at least 2 degrees of freedom.
When addressing the issue of a latching mechanism, common fastening and joining methods utilize screws, bolts, pins, anchors, staples etc. These mechanisms are then used to support the need for quick open and close systems commonly referred to as latch systems. Because economics play such a predominant roll in designing latch systems, most designers rely on mass produced latches to economically solve their design needs. These mass produced latches include draw locks, bolting latches, cam latches, swing latches, turn latches, gate latches, etc.
Unfortunately, these latch systems only perform well in mechanical designs that are simple and include a single degree of freedom, i.e. open or close along the same axis. They also become unsightly, costly and cumbersome when multiple latches are used in configurations that require multiple attachment points. To unlock multiple latches individually is time consuming and very frustrating. They are frustrating because it is very easy to forget to unlatch one of the many latches which in turn can cause damage to the components being latched. This leaves the designer with no choice but to design a custom latch solution that is simple for the end user yet versatile enough to perform multiple functions.
It would be an improvement over the prior art to provide a tonneau cover with a latch system that locks multiple components in place in different configurations. This system will be illustrated to show how a folding tonneau cover is attached to a pickup truck bed.
It is to be understood that the following description is only exemplary of the principles of the present invention and should not be viewed as narrowing the claims which follow.
The present invention is a system and method for providing a latch system assembly, the latch system assembly coupled to both sides of the bed of a vehicle, the latch system assembly including stationary rails and sliding rails, wherein the stationary rails are coupled to the vehicle bed rails and the sliding rails are able to slide and either lock or unlock portions of a tonneau cover to the bed rails, wherein the sliding rails may lock all sections of the tonneau cover, lock one section and unlock all others, or unlock one section and lock all others through simple sliding movement of the sliding portion.
These and other embodiments of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description taken in combination with the accompanying drawings.
Reference will now be made to the drawings in which the various embodiments of the present invention will be given numerical designations and in which the embodiments will be discussed so as to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention. It is to be understood that the following description illustrates embodiments of the present invention and should not be viewed as narrowing the claims which follow.
A diagram of this tonneau cover 10 is shown in
While
This figure shows the underside of the tonneau cover 20, a partial bed rail 18, a stationary latch rail 26, a slide latch handle 22 which is coupled to a slide latch rail 24 that is behind the stationary latch rail and now yet shown, a spring lock plunger 26 and a torsion bar assembly 28.
Specific features of the slide lock assembly 40 may include four locking points: a tail section locking point 42, a midsection locking point 44, a folding section locking point 46 and a cab section locking point 48, assuming that the tonneau cover is shown with three folding sections 8 and one cab section 10.
The four locking points 42, 44, 46, 48 are partial holes through the slide latch rail 24. Thus, each of the four locking points 42, 44, 46, 48 has a finger 60 that extends partially over each of the locking points, with an opening 54 or 56 at each one of the locking points on a top edge 52 of the slide latch rail 24.
The stationary latch rail 26 is also shown partially visible through slide latch rail 24. The slide latch handle 22 is also shown coupled to the slide latch rail 24. Centered in each of the lock positions 42, 44, 46, 48 is shown a tonneau cover attachment pin 58. Each tonneau cover attachment pin 50 is coupled to a section of the tonneau cover 20 and keeps the tonneau cover 20 locked with the tonneau cover attachment pins 50 are engaged in a locked position.
It is noted that three of the locking points 42, 44, 46 have an opening 54 on one end which is opposite the opening 56 on the fourth locking point 48. This makes it possible to unlock either three tonneau cover sections while keeping one section locked, unlocking a single tonneau cover section while keeping the other three locked, or simultaneously locking all of them at the same time.
Operation of each of the slide lock assemblies 40 is as follows. The slide latch rail 24 is capable of sliding engagement with the stationary latch rail 26. As shown in
The slide latch rail 24 may be disposed in one of three positions relative to the stationary latch rail 26. The first position is a middle or locked position where all four of the tonneau cover attachment pins 58 are engaged such that all of the sections 8, 10 of the tonneau cover 20 are locked to the bed rails 18 of the truck. This locked position is shown in
Next, the top edge 64 of the stationary latch rail 26 includes notches 66 in which the tonneau cover attachment pins 58 are able to rest when all the sections 8, 10 of the tonneau cover 20 are laying flat on the bed rails 18. By providing a notch 66, the tonneau cover 20 is prevented from sliding when it is resting on the bed rails 18 of the truck.
This figure shows the torsion bar 70, a chain mounting block 72, a chain 74, a spur gear 76, the stationary latch rail 26 and a partial view of the slide latch rail 24. Using this torsion bar assembly 28, pulling or pushing on the slide latch rail 24 using the slide latch handle 22 may cause the torsion bar 70 to translate the linear motion of the slide latch rail 24 into rotation of the torsion bar and then back into linear motion of the side latch rail 24 on the other bed rail 18.
In summary, the system of the first embodiment includes a slide latch assembly for selectively locking sections of a tonneau cover to a bed of a vehicle, said slide latch assembly comprised of a first stationary latch rail coupled to a first bed rail of a vehicle, wherein the first stationary latch rail includes a plurality of notches in a top edge thereof, a first slide latch rail that is disposed parallel to and in slidingly engagement with the first stationary latch rail, wherein the first slide latch rail may be moved forward or backward a predetermined distance relative to the first stationary latch rail, wherein a plurality of locking points are disposed in a top edge of the first slide latch rail, wherein the plurality of notches in the first stationary latch rail are aligned with the plurality of locking points in the first slide latch rail, a plurality of tonneau cover attachment pins, wherein each of the plurality of tonneau cover attachment pins is coupled to a different section of a hinged and folding tonneau cover, wherein the plurality of tonneau cover pins rests in the plurality of notches of the first stationary latch rail when the tonneau cover is unfolded on the bed rails of the vehicle, and wherein the locking points of the first slide latch rail are either positioned to secure the plurality of tonneau cover pins in the plurality of notches or are positioned to expose the plurality of tonneau cover pins, by sliding the first slide latch rail forward or backward relative to the first stationary latch rail.
The same is accomplished on the opposite bed rail with a slide latch assembly mounted on the opposite bed rail.
Although only a few example embodiments have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the example embodiments without materially departing from this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the following claims. It is the express intention of the applicant not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112, paragraph 6 for any limitations of any of the claims herein, except for those in which the claim expressly uses the words ‘means for’ together with an associated function.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62731531 | Sep 2018 | US |
