1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sun visors for vehicles and, more particularly, to a sun visor having a claim-shell foundation and a skate member that defines at least a portion of an edge of the sun visor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the past several decades, automobile designs have become safer in many respects, one of which relates to the interior compartment the driver and passengers occupy. Specifically, the design of dash boards, steering wheels, handles, control knobs and other interior components has become smoother and softer. Generally speaking, hard, protruding surfaces have been replaced with softer, rounded surfaces wherever possible. One interior component which has undergone such improvements is the sun visor.
One known sun visor design includes an outer cover assembly, which folds unto itself to define the shape of the sun visor assembly. The outer cover assembly is made of a cloth or vinyl upholstery covering, which is adhesively bonded to a semi-rigid foundation, typically formed of kraft paper. The upholstery cover is made larger than the foundation and thereby folds around the edges of the foundation. Thus, when the sun visor is folded in half, the outer edges of the cover assembly are sandwiched together and define the profile of the sun visor. A core member may be disposed between the foundation halves and connects to a rod, which in turn connects to the interior headliner of the vehicle.
A disadvantage associated with such known sun visor designs is that the two cover halves of the foldable foundation create an undesirable bifurcated edge when the halves are sandwiched together. This condition is unsatisfactory in vehicle applications that require contactable edges of a sun visor to exhibit a rounded edge. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved sun visor that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.
A sun visor assembly is provided that includes a foundation folded unto itself to form first and second foundation halves. A first skate member is secured to the first foundation half and includes a first rounded edge portion of predetermined radius. A second skate member is secured to the second foundation half and includes a second rounded edge portion of predetermined radius. The first and second rounded edge portions cooperatively define a rounded edge of predetermined radius. In an embodiment, one of the first and second skate members also includes a sun visor accessory support formation.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
Turning now to
Attached to each half of foundation 40 is a skate member section 50, 52. As shown in
With further reference to
As can be further appreciated from
Referring to
Since skate member sections 42, 44 may be molded from plastic or other moldable or formable material to create bulbous portions 72 and 74, skate member sections 42, 44 may also be readily formed with sun visor accessory support formations, such as a vanity mirror recess 80 for receiving vanity mirror 38 or an opening 82 within which a sun visor accessory 84, such as a remote garage door operating device, is received. Unlike some prior art sun visors that require the kraft paper foundation to be molded to accommodate a vanity mirror or other sun visor accessory, the use of skate member sections 42, 44 allows these features to be readily created during the manufacture of the skate member sections themselves. This feature eliminates the manufacturing step of molding kraft paper, which is required in the prior art.
As shown in
The production process of sun visor 20 is substantially the same as is known in the art, except that it includes the additional step of securing skate member sections 42 and 44 to foundation 40 before securing cover 30 to foundation 40 and skate member 54. As an optional step, desirable when vanity mirror 38 includes lighting as in the disclosed embodiment, apertures 90 (
After cover 48 is adhered to foundation 40 and skate member 54, the interior components of sun visor assembly 20 are positioned within foundation 40 and skate member 54. Track and slide-block arrangement 85 can be pre-assembled and then placed into foundation 40 so that feet 87 fit into slots 88 and pin section 32 is received in cut-out 94 (
Finally, the two halves 42, 50 and 44, 52 are folded and held together by locking members 62. As an alternative to using locking members 50 to secure foundation halves 42 and 44 together, an adhesive may be employed to adhere the two halves of the “clam-shell” visor together, thereby maintaining the sun visor in the assembled state shown in
The present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the foregoing embodiments, which are merely illustrative of the best modes for carrying out the invention. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention described herein may be employed in practicing the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims. It is intended that the following claims define the scope of the invention and that the method and apparatus within the scope of these claims and their equivalents be covered thereby. This description of the invention should be understood to include all novel and non-obvious combinations of elements described herein, and claims may be presented in this or a later application to any novel and non-obvious combination of these elements. Moreover, the foregoing embodiments are illustrative, and no single feature or element is essential to all possible combinations that may be claimed in this or a later application.
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