Visor and method of manufacturing - Patent Review 5716092

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a vehicle visor and particularly to the visor body and mounting construction and its manufacturing method.

Visor bodies have been made utilizing a variety of materials including butterfly-shaped polypropylene cores which are upholstered and folded to complete a visor body, fiberboard cores of similar butterfly shape and foam core construction covered by upholstery. The solid foam core construction is difficult to upholster to obtain a visor configuration with an upholstered appearance that is sufficiently attractive to provide a commercial product. This results since, with a foam core, there are, unlike the butterfly core construction, no edges around which to tuck the upholstery fabric to provide a trim appearance. Further, the dated utilization of an upholstery bead and stitching is both excessively expensive and unattractive in today's modern vehicle interior designs.

In addition, visor cores made of a foam material are difficult to mount to a vehicle inasmuch as the foam material itself is not sufficiently structurally rigid to receive conventional pivot rod torque control and mounting structures. Typically, internal reinforcing members are required for foam core visors. Thus, although foam cores provide a relatively inexpensive and lightweight visor body, there is difficulty both in upholstering the visor in an attractive manner and in mounting such a visor core to the vehicle.

It is also desirable to manufacture visor cores of a recyclable material which is relatively inexpensive and is environmentally friendly. To this end, the present invention contemplates a visor construction which improves upon conventional foam core constructions and in some embodiments utilizes core material other than a polymeric foam.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Visors embodying the present invention, according to one embodiment, comprise a closed-cell, semi-rigid urethane foam material thermoformed from sheets into a visor core construction with a reinforced backbone mounted along an edge thereof for mounting the visor so formed to a vehicle. The visor is upholstered utilizing a laminate of adhesive and upholstery material to assure the outer upholstery material adheres smoothly to the visor core and provides a tear-seal edge which is trim in appearance.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a blend of kenaf and polymeric fibers are employed as the core material, which is laminated with upholstery material to complete the visor construction as in the first embodiment. In yet another embodiment of the invention, a butterfly-type core construction is made of a high density kenaf and polymeric fiber blend and upholstered in a manner employed with other butterfly visor core constructions.

With the visor of the present invention, therefore, a sleek, lightweight visor construction is achieved using either a urethane foam core or recycled material employed in the construction of the visor core to both reduce the visor cost and provide a lightweight attractive visor suitable for today's modern vehicle interior design.

These an other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description thereof together with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the interior of a vehicle including visors of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of one of the visors shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of one of the visors shown in FIG. 1 taken along section lines III--III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the encircled area IV in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary partly broken-away view of the laminated structure of the visor shown in FIGS. 1-4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the steps of the method of manufacturing the visor shown in FIGS. 1-5;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the present invention utilizing an alternate core material;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the steps of the method of manufacturing the visor shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a visor core manufactured according to an alternative process;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of a visor employing a core as shown in FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the steps of the method of manufacturing the visor shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring initially to FIG. 1 there is shown a vehicle 10, such as an automobile, having a pair of visor assemblies 20 and 30 mounted on the driver and passenger sides, respectively. The visors are mounted above the windshield 12 on opposite sides of the rearview mirror assembly 14 and are mounted to the roof structure 16 covered by an integrally molded headliner 18 having a surface fabric or upholstery which the visors are upholstered to match. The visors are conventionally mounted to the roof 16 of the vehicle utilizing pivot rod assemblies 22 and 32, respectively, which secures one end of each of the visors to the vehicle roof 16. Clips 24 and 34, respectively, mounted above the windshield to the vehicle roof releasably engage visor pins 48 to allow the visors to swing from the front windshield position shown to either the driver side window 11 or the passenger side window 13.

Visors 20 and 30 are substantially identical in construction, although the mounting arrangement is reversed for the driver and passenger sides. Visor 20 is shown in a lowered sun-blocking position for use also of a vanity mirror 26 mounted therein, as described in greater detail below in connection with FIGS. 2-5. Visor 30 is shown in a raised stored position against the vehicle headliner in which a map or other flat item storage clip 36 is shown. Each of the visors 20 and 30 integral include a vanity mirror assembly 26 and a map storage clip 36, which, in turn, are integral with the mounting assemblies 40 for attachment of the pivot rod assemblies 22, 32 to the respective visor. The construction of visor 30 is shown in greater detail now with reference to FIGS. 2-5, it being understood that visor 20 is of identical but mirror image construction.

The body 75 of visor 30 is laminated in a sequential process (as described in connection with FIG. 6 below) of the structure shown in the fragmentary, broken-away cross sections of FIGS. 3-5. Referring initially to FIG. 5, there is shown the core 70 of the visor which is formed from sheets of closed-cell, semi-rigid urethane material having a density of about 2.0 pounds per cubic foot, which is thermoformed together with the remaining structure to form the laminated visor body 75, which is subsequently mounted to the backbone assembly 40 and to the vehicle by the pivot rod assembly 22. The visor body 75, thus, includes a central core 70 bound on either side by layers of hot-melt glue 72 and 74 over which there is placed layers of scrim material 76 and 78. Subsequently, the outer fabric upholstery layers 80 and 82 are placed thereon. During this assembly method, the hot-melt glue sheets 72, 74 melt and extend through the scrim material, bonding the typically foam-backed layers of upholstery material 80, 82 directly to the urethane foam core 70 during the final pressing of the visor body 75 in a visor configuration as seen in FIG. 2.

The core so-formed is employed in the visor 30, which includes a pivot rod assembly 32 having a pivot rod 21 (FIG. 2) which extends into a torque c