AU2020210236B2

AU2020210236B2 - Mud Flap and Method

Info

Publication number: AU2020210236B2
Application number: AU2020210236A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Stephen Clarence Langham
Original assignee: TRANSCOM IND Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Transcom Industries Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2019-08-05
Filing date: 2020-07-30
Publication date: 2023-12-21
Anticipated expiration: 2040-07-30
Also published as: AU2020210236A1

Abstract

A mudflap for a vehicle is disclosed. The mudflap (10) has a front face which is displayed rearwardly when said vehicle is in forward motion and is formed from an elastomeric material. There is at least one indicium (16) formed on the front 5 face from polyurethane (22). A method of fabricating a mudflap is also disclosed in which the mudflap is formed from elastomeric material, and at least one indicium (16) is formed on the front face (15) of the mudflap (10) from polyurethane (22). 10 ,) A)T%4_ATT Q 1/ 10 IG.12 18 11

Description

1/

10

18

11

IG.12

Mud Flap and Method

Field of the Invention The present invention relates to mudflaps for motor vehicles.

Background Art Mudflaps have been formed from a wide variety of elastomeric materials such as rubber or PVC and have traditionally been formed by means of moulding. Other fabrication techniques include extruding the mudflap, or CNC routing the mudflap from a master sheet of raw material. It is commercially desirable that parts of the mud flap should be coloured so as to brightly display trade marks and other indicia in a permanent fashion.

Genesis of the Invention The Genesis of the present invention is a desire to provide mudflaps with long wearing indicia.

Many fabrication techniques have been tried towards this end including the application of paints or ink, for example by silk screen printing. Another technique is to utilise a printed substrate which is adhered to the mudflap and then covered with a protective layer of varnish or the like. To date all these techniques have suffered from a lack of sufficient operating life, particularly where the mudflaps are used on vehicles such as trucks which are involved in the carting or quarrying of sand, gravel and like abrasive material. Mudflaps with indicia made by the above-mentioned techniques very quickly become scuffed and worn under these operating conditions.

Summary of the Invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a mudflap for a vehicle, said mudflap having a front face which is displayed rearwardly when said vehicle is in forward motion and being formed from an elastomeric material, wherein at least one indicium is fabricated in situ on said front face from liquid polyurethane poured into a recess shaped to correspond to said indicium, said recess being formed in said front face prior to pouring said liquid polyurethane.

C2')2IN4 ATT 1

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of fabricating a mudflap for a vehicle, said mudflap having a front face which is displayed rearwardly when said vehicle is in forward motion, said method comprising the steps of forming said mudflap from elastomeric material, and fabricating at least one indicium in situ on the front face of said mudflap from liquid polyurethane poured into a recess shaped to correspond to said indicium, said recess being formed in said front face prior to pouring said liquid polyurethane.

As will be explained hereafter, the at least one indicium can be formed in either a positive fashion within a well, or in a negative fashion within a moat.

Brief Description of the Drawings Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view from above of a schematic moulded mudflap prior to the colouring of the indicia or the background to the indicia, Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line I - I of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is the same cross-sectional view as Fig. 2 but after the application of the colouring polyurethane, Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II - II of Fig. 1, Fig. 5 is the same cross-sectional view as Fig. 4 but after the application of the colouring polyurethane, Fig 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III - III of Fig. 1, Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV - IV of Fig. 1, Fig. 8 is a schematic perspective view of the mudflap of Fig. 1 being coloured with polyurethane, Fig. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an alternative method of polyurethane application, and Fig. 10 is a partial cross-sectional through a moating arrangement of a further embodiment.

Detailed Description As seen in Figs. 1 - 7, a mudflap 10 is moulded from an elastomeric material, preferably PVC. The mudflap 10 is usually moulded or manufactured with a peripheral bead 12 but this is not always the case. The peripheral bead 12 is thicker Z)2I4 ATT along the upper edge of the mudflap 10 so as to provide a convenient fixing strip with apertures 13. This enables the mudflap 10 to be connected to a vehicle in known fashion by means of fasteners (not illustrated) passing through the apertures 13. The relative thickness of the bead 12 at the upper edge as opposed to the remaining edges can be seen from a comparison of Figs. 6 and 7.

The rear face of the mud flap 10, which is obscured in Fig. 1, is normally entirely flat and unembellished. However, the rear face can be ribbed or fitted with some form of anti-spray backing. The front face 15 of the mudflap 10 is recessed so as to provide a background for indicia 16 which have an outline formed by moulding. In the illustrated embodiment, the indicia 16 comprise a capital T and a capital U since these particular letters are easy to illustrate. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that typically the indicia 16 will comprise a trade mark such as a motor vehicle brand such as KENWORTH, MACK, VOLVO and the like, or a trade mark of an enterprise which owns the motor vehicle such as ARNOTTS, MCDONALDS, BOEING, and the like.

In respect of the T indicium it is intended that this letter be coloured and it is therefore formed as a well 17 within an upraised island 18 formed on the front face 15. In respect of the U indicium it is intended that the background to this letter be coloured and therefore this letter is formed as a mesa 19 within an enlarged moat 20.

As seen in Fig. 3, the well 17 is filled with polyurethane 22 which is preferably coloured so as to provide a contrast between the letter T and the colour of the island 18. Similarly, as seen in Fig. 5, the moat 20 is filled with polyurethane 22 which is again preferably coloured with a colour, possibly a different colour from the letter T, so as to provide a contrast between the colour of the island 18 and the background colour of the moat 20. In this connection, the colour of the elastomer from which the mudflap 10 is moulded will normally be either black or white, and thus the colour of the island 18 will be either black or white respectively. However, the elastomer from which the mudflap 10 is moulded can be any colour.

Turning now to Fig. 8, an indexing filling machine 25 used to fill the wells 17 and moats 20 is illustrated. The machine 25 has a frame 26 and a bed 27 which is movable in the X direction by means of a stepping motor 28. The frame 26 supports a cross C2A)T ATT 2 arm 31 on which is mounted a dispenser 32 which is movable in the Y direction by means of a stepping motor 34.

The dispenser 32 in this embodiment has a transparent body 36 through which an internal stirrer 37 is visible. The body 36 is supplied with the two liquid constituents of polyurethane via two corresponding conduits 41, 42. In addition, the body 36 is supplied with one or more colouring tints, in this case two tints, via two corresponding conduits 43, 44. In addition, just upstream of a dispensing nozzle 47 is a solenoid valve 48 which is able to turn the stream 50 of dispensed liquid polyurethane, on or off.

As seen in Fig. 8, the dispenser 32 is able to dispense a controlled volume of the stream 50 of liquid polyurethane with spatial accuracy so as to direct the stream only into the well 17 (or moat 20 as the case may be). A surprising property of liquid polyurethane is that it spreads evenly within such a well or moat, as best seen in Figs. 3 and 5. In addition polyurethane has a reverse meniscus effect which means that the polyurethane 22 sets into a slightly domed layer within the well or moat.

An alternative method of filling the wells or moats is illustrated in Fig. 9. Here a bed 57 similar to bed 27 is provided with a vacuum network 54 which leads through a valve 55 to a vacuum source. The arrangement enables the mudflap 10 to be held with the front face 15 against the bed 57. In this embodiment, the rear face 14 of the mudflap 10 is facing upwardly. Each of the wells 17 or moats 20 is provided with an opening 58 leading to the well or moat and through which the stream 50 of liquid polyurethane can be directed from the dispenser 32. Since the front face 15 is held against the bed 57 by the vacuum system, so the liquid polyurethane is able to cure within the well 17 or moat 20 and produce the desired colouring effect.

As seen in Fig. 10, in a further embodiment a mudflap 110 as seen prior to the application of polyurethane, can have wells 117, 127 of different depths, if desired. In this way, for example, if the polyurethane is to some extent translucent, then the cured polyurethane occupying the wells 117 and 127 will appear to have slightly different colours.

Z)2')TA4 ATT A

The foregoing describes only some embodiments of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the mudflap arts, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the wells 17 or moat 20 can be painted, or sprayed with ink, or be provided with an insert layer, prior to the application of the stream 50 of liquid polyurethane. Under these circumstances the polyurethane 22 is transparent so as to permit the paint, ink, etc. to be seen.

In addition, the well 17 or moat 20 is preferably cold without any preparation from the moulding procedure, at the time of application of the stream 50. However, preparations such as heating, abrading or priming the well 17 or moat 20 can be carried out.

The polyurethane 22 can also be provided with known "glow" additives in order to make the polyurethane fluorescent or luminous which has a safety benefit in night travelling.

Similarly, the elastomer from which the mudflap 10 is preferably moulded can be selected from a wide class of materials including PVC, rubber, polypropylene, polyethylene and polyurethane.

In addition, the dispenser 32 can be moved relative to the cross arm 31. Alternatively, the dispenser 32 can be stationary and the bed 27, 57 moved relative to the stationary dispenser.

It will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that the term front face, in relation to a mudflap, means the face of the mudflap which can be seen from the rear of the vehicle to which the mudflap is attached when the vehicle is travelling in the normal forward direction of the vehicle. Similarly, the rear face of the mudflap is the face of the mudflap closer to the adjacent wheel of the vehicle.

The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of "including" or "having" and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'.

C2A)T ATT 1

Claims

1. A mudflap for a vehicle, said mudflap having a front face which is displayed rearwardly when said vehicle is in forward motion and being formed from an elastomeric material, wherein at least one indicium is fabricated in situ on said front face from liquid polyurethane poured into a recess shaped to correspond to said indicium, said recess being formed in said front face prior to pouring said liquid polyurethane.

2. The mudflap as claimed in claim 1 and moulded from said elastomeric material.

3. The mudflap as claimed in claim 2 wherein said mudflap is moulded with at least one well or moat to define said indicium forming recess.

4. The mudflap as claimed in claim 3 wherein said well or moat is filled with said liquid polyurethane which cures in situ.

5. The mudflap as claimed in claim 4 wherein said well or moat is filled from the front face of said mudflap.

6. The mudflap as claimed in claim 4 wherein said well or moat is filled from a rear face of said mudflap.

7. The mudflap as claimed in any one of claims 4-6 wherein said mudflap is located on a movable bed during the filling procedure.

8. The mudflap as claimed in any one of claims 1-7 wherein said at least one indicium has a colour which is different from the colour of said elastomeric material.

9. The mudflap as claimed in claim 8 and having a plurality of indicia which are coloured with a plurality of colours.

10. A method of fabricating a mudflap for a vehicle, said mudflap having a front face which is displayed rearwardly when said vehicle is in forward motion, C2A)T ATT said method comprising the steps of forming said mudflap from elastomeric material, and fabricating at least one indicium in situ on the front face of said mudflap from liquid polyurethane poured into a recess shaped to correspond to said indicium, said recess being formed in said front face prior to pouring said liquid polyurethane.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 including the step of moulding said mudflap from said elastomeric material.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said indicium is formed by moulding at least one well or moat to define said indicium forming recess.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 including the step of filling said well or moat with said liquid polyurethane and curing same in situ.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the step of filling said well or moat from the front face of said mudflap.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the step of filling said well or moat from a rear face of said mudflap.

16. The method as claimed in any one of claims 13-15 including the step of locating said mudflap on a movable bed during the filling procedure.

17. The method as claimed in any one of claims 10-16 including the step of forming said at least one indicium to have a colour which is different from the colour of said elastomeric material.

18. The method as claimed in claims 17 including the step of forming a plurality of indicia which are coloured with a plurality of colours.

Dated this 4 th day of December 2023 Transcom Industries Pty Ltd By FRASER OLD & SOHN Patent Attorneys for the Applicant 2A)T% ATT '7