GB2046198A

GB2046198A - Sun visor for a motor vehicle

Info

Publication number: GB2046198A
Application number: GB8009792A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: ZIPPERLE W
Current assignee: ZIPPERLE W
Priority date: 1979-03-23
Filing date: 1980-03-24
Publication date: 1980-11-12
Also published as: FR2451838A1; DE2911464A1; FR2451838B1; GB2046198B; DE2911464C2

Abstract

A vehicle sun visor (Fig. 1) has a flap (1) pivotally mounted on a tubular arm (5) and has a mirror (15) illuminated by lamps (22, 22) connected by leads passing through the tubular arm to the vehicle electrical system. A switch (4', 13) supplies the lamps at least over part of the range of pivotal movement of the visor about the arm. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sun visor for a motor vehicle This invention relates to a sun visor for a motor vehicle having a pivotally mounted visor flap with a mirror and an electrical lamp, the flap being mounted on a supporting arm attached to the vehicle body.

In a known sun visor with an illuminated mirror (German Specification No. 2,703,447), the lamp is connected to the vehicle electrical system through a first part of the arm which is separate from a second part connected to a mounting foot on the vehicle body, which first part normally fits in a detachable manner into a bearing bracket fixed to the body. That part of the swivel arm which is attached to the foot is solid. To supply current through the other, second part of the swivel arm via the bracket entails considerable cost because the arm must then consist of two parts insulated from each other, one of which must be contacted by a contact element in the body of the visor and a contact element in the bearing bracket.Moreover, the contact with the contact elements of the bracket is liable to be imperfect because the contact surfaces tend to get dirty as well as being exposed to other deleterious influences. Another difficulty is that the light illuminating the mirror does not operate when the visor is detached from the bracket and swivelled about the mounting foot to one side.

It is an object of this invention to provide a sun visor with illuminated mirror in which the connection between the lighting means and the vehicle electrical system is relatively simple and reliable.

According to one apsect of this invention, a sun visor for a motor vehicle comprises a visor flap mounted on a supporting arm, which arm is attached at one of its ends to a base or foot for mounting the arm on the vehicle body, the flap having a mirror and an electrical lamp associated with the mirror, wherein the arm is tubular and the lamp is connected to an electrical power supply lead which passes through the arm for connection to the vehicle electrical system.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a sun visor for a motor vehicle pivotally mounted in the region of its top edge about an arm extending at least substantially parallel to this region, which arm is formed at least partially by a metal rod ending inside the body of the visor, one end section of which rod is connected to a foot designed to be attached to the body of the vehicle, said visor carrying a mirror with which is associated at least on incandescent lamp capable of being connected to the current supply circuit of the vehicle by leads, wherein the rod is in the form of a tube through which both leads pass or only that lead which carries a voltage relative to earth, and in the latter case that end section of the tube which is connected to the foot is contacted by a part designed to be connected in an electrically conductive manner to the car body, and a contact element constituting the earth connection for the lamp bears against a portion of the tube situated inside the visor body, at least over part of the range of swing of the visor body.

If both connecting leads are passed through the tube, then no contact need be made with the tube.

This variation is therefore particularly simple and inexpensive. In the other variation, on the other hand, the wall thickness of the tube may be increased without increasing the external diameter of the tube so that the necessary mechanical strength can be obtained even with a tube of small external diameter. Since, moreover, the areas in which the tube is contacted are not exposed, good contact remains established over long periods.

The cost for this is minimal since all that is required is contacting of the tube in the region of the foot and in the interior of the visor body, and this can be achieved with simple means.

For example, if the tube is not already electrically connected to the car body through being mounted in the foot, that part of the foot which contacts the tube may be provided in the form of a contact plate which bears against the rear surface of the flange part of the foot, facing the car body, and through which the tube extends.

The foot may be made of a plastics material except for the contact plate.

Even for contacting the tube inside the body of the visor it is sufficient to use a simple contact element which, in a preferred embodiment, consists of a U-shaped contact spring gripping over the tube. This contact spring may be mounted on an arm of a plastics bearing body, said arm forming a bearing shell which receives a bare section of the tube and is covered by the contact spring. This is a simple arrangement ensuring constant conditions for providing contact. Moreover, there is no risk of deformation of the contact spring such as could occur if the tube were not kept in a constant position relative to the contact spring by the manner in which it is mounted in the region of the spring.

For switching the mirror light on and off, it is generally sufficient to provided a switch having a manually operated actuating element, but in the sun visor according to the invention, the tilting movement from its inoperative to its operative position may easily be utilised for switching the light on and off. This can be achieved simply by removing the jacket of the tube over a part of its circumference in the annular zone contacted by the contact element or coating it with an electrically insulating material in this part. Both devices ensure that the tube will not be contacted by the contact element when the visor is not in use. In order that the light need not be constantly switched on when the visor is in the operative position, the switch which is equipped with the aforesaid actuating element may be connected in series with this contact arrangement which serves as switch.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to examples illustrated in the drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a top plan view, partially in section, of a first embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a section on the iine 1I--II of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a section passing through the foot in a section plane rotated through 900 in relation to Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line Il-Il of a second embodiment in the inoperative position of the visor body, and Fig. 5 is a section corresponding to Fig. 4 of a third exemplary embodiment in the inoperative position of the visor body.

Fig. 1 shows the visor body 1 of a visor for motor vehicles. It is in the form of a substantially rectangular plate of polyurethane foam, and as shown in Fig. 1, it has a plastics bearing body indicated generally by the reference numeral 2 embedded in the region of one of its long sides.

The foam body may contain an amplifier installation (not shown).

At a certain distance from one of the short sides of the visor body, the bearing body 2 forms a bearing shell 3 for a tube 4 which is made of an electrically conductive metal covered over part of its length with a layer 5 of plastics. According to Fig. 1 , the tube 4 emerges from the visor body 1 at a point between the bearing shell 3 and the adjacent short side of the body 1 and relatively close to the said shell 3; at this point, it is bent at an angle of 900.

That portion of the tube 4 which is situated inside the visor body 1 forms part of the swivel arm of the visor body and is therefore placed at least approximately parallel to the adjacent edge of the visor body.

The other part of the swivel arm is formed by a rod which is an extension of the bearing body 2 and extends almost to the other short side of the visor body 1. At a certain distance from this short side, it has an exposed section 6 which may be removably inserted in a bearing bracket (not shown) forming a clamp-like bearing socket which is fixed to the car body.

A plastics foot 7 forming a socket bearing for a ball 8 is also designed to be fixed to the car body.

The ball 8 is the continuation of the plastics sheath 5 on the tube 4 and made of the same material, and covers the exposed end section of a tube 4 which follows on the bend in the tube. The socket bearing contains more than half of the ball 8 so that the ball is positively connected to the foot 7. As shown in Fig. 1, the socket part of the foot 7 is followed by a channel through which extends the uncovered part of the tube 4, which projects above the ball 8 and slightly above the back of the foot 7. A contact plate 9 bears resiliently against this projecting part of the tube 4. This plate 9 also lies in contact with the back of the foot facing the car body and is therefore in contact with the car body when the foot 7 is attached to the car body. The contact plate 9 thus connects the tube 4 to earth.The ball bearing and the contact plate 9 enable that portion of the tube which extends through the foot 7 to rotate about its longitudinal axis, a movement which is sufficient to swing the visor body 1 from the front windscreen to the adjacent side window.

Accidental pivoting of the visor body 1 about that axis which is defined by the portion of tube 4 inside the bearing body 2 and that portion 6 of the extension of the bearing body which is in alignment with said portion of the tube 4 is prevented by a strip of spring steel forming a stop spring 10 which is prestressed against the cover 5 of the tube 4 in the region of the bearing 3.

According to Fig. 1 , tube 4 extends beyond the bearing shell 3 towards the beginnning of the extension of the bearing body but stops short of this beginning. The cover 5 of tube 4 stops short of this end of the tube so that the tube has a bare end section 4'.

This end section 4' lies in an approximately semi-cylindrical plastics bearing shell 11 which is carried by and forms an etension of the arm 12 of the bearing body 2 which extends towards the tube 4 at right angles to its longitudinal axis.

According to Fig. 2, the two arms of a U-shaped contact spring 1 3 bear against the upper and under surface of the arm 1 2. This contact spring 1 3 also touches the external surface of the bearing shell 1 while on the open side of the shell 11 it is prestressed against the bare end section 4' of the tube 4. Electrically conductive connection is therefore constantly established between the tube 4 and the contact spring 13 regardless of the angular position of the bearing body 2 relative to the tube 4, since the two arms of said spring 13 are firmly connected to the arm 1 2.

On the side of the visor facing the roof of the car when the visor is tilted up, the visor body 1 contains, as shown in Fig. 1, a plastics rectangular mirror casing 14 which is open on the side facing the passengers when the visor is in use and the raised edge of which is flush with the surface of the visor body 1. Mounted on the mirror casing 14 is a removable transparent illuminating frame 1 5 carrying a mirror 16, the frame 15 and mirror 1 6 together closing the mirror casing 14.

At the two opposite ends of the mirror 1 6, inserted in the gap between the mirror and the bottom of the mirror casing 14, are two strip lights 22 each inserted in a contact pair consisting of two springy tongues fixed to the bottom of the mirror casing 14. One tongue of each pair is connected to a first lead 1 7 which is electrically connected to the contact spring 13. The two other tongues are connected by a second lead 1 8 to one terminal of a single pole switch 19 which is inserted in the mirror casing 14 and has an actuating element 20 in the form of a slide which extends through an opening in the illuminating frame 1 5 and projects over the external surface of the latter by the required amount. Connected to the other terminal of the switch 1 9 is one end of a third lead 21 which passes through the tube 4 and is connected by its other end to a terminal of the current supply device, which terminal carries a voltage in relation to the car body. When the switch 1 9 is closed, the two strip lights 22 light up the illuminating frame 1 5 from which light then falls on the user of the mirror. Tilting of the visor has no effect on the functional efficiency of the mirror lighting. The visor may therefore also be tilted, for example sideways towards the side window, while the lighting is switched on.

Since the mirror lighting is not required when the visor is in its inoperative position, the tilting movement from the inoperative to the operative position and conversely can easily be utiiised for switching the mirror lighting on and off if the contact spring 1 3 is prevented from making contact with the tube 4 when the visor is in the inoperative position. Two exemplary embodiments in which this arrangement is provided are illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5.

In the example according to Fig, 4, which is otherwise the same as the examples of Figs. 1 to 3, the jacket of tube 104 corresponding to tube 4 has been removed over part of its circumference in the region of its exposed end section 104'. When the visor is in the inoperative position, contact spring 113, corresponding to contact spring 13, is therefore situated at some distance from the end section 104', as shown in Fig. 4, and does not come into contact with the external surface of this section 104' until the visor has been tilted down through an angle of at least about 300 towards its operative position.

In the embodiment of Fig. 5, the end section 204' of the tube 204 is coated with an electrically insulating material over a part of its circumference. In the inoperative position illustrated in Fig. 5, this insulating material keeps the contact spring 21 3 away from the external surface of the end section 204. The visor must be tilted towards the operative position in the same way as in Fig. 4, i.e. clockwise in Fig. 5, through an angle of at least ca. 300 in order to establish contact between the contact spring 213 and the end section 204'.

A manually operated switch is preferably provided even if the circuit for the mirror lighting is automatically opened when the visor is not in use, so that the light may be switched off when the visor is in use. In the examples according to Figs. 1 to 3, this switch, which may be similar to switch 19, is connected into the energy supply circuit of the lighting system, i.e. in series with the contact spring and with the end section of the tube designed to be contacted by the spring.

Claims

1. A sun visor for a motor vehicle, comprising a visor flap mounted on a supporting arm, which arm is attached at one of its ends to a base or foot for mounting the arm on the vehicle body, the flap having a mirror and an electrical lamp associated with the mirror, wherein the arm is tubular and the lamp is connected to an electrical power supply lead which passes through the arm for connection to the vehicle electrical system.

2. Sun visor for a motor vehicle pivotally mounted in the region of its top edge about an arm extending at least substantially parallel to this region, which arm is formed at least partially by a metal rod ending inside the body of the visor, one end section of which rod is connected to a foot designed to be attached to the body of the vehicle, said visor carrying a mirror with which is associated at least one incandescent lamp capable of being connected to the current supply circuit of the vehicle by leads, wherein the rod is in the form of a tube through which both leads pass or only that lead which carries a voltage relative to earth, and in the latter case that end section of the tube which is connected to the foot is contacted by a part designed to be connected in an electrically conductive manner to the car body, and a contact element constituting the earth connection for the lamp bears against a portion of the tube situated inside the visor body, at least over part of the range of swing of the visor body.

3. A visor according to claim 2, wherein that part of the foot which makes contact with the tube is in the form of a contact plate which bears against the back surface, facing the vehicle body, of the plastics flange part of the foot, through which the tube extends.

4. A visor according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the contact element is a U-shaped contact spring fitted over the tube.

5. A visor according to claim 4, wherein the contact spring is carried by an arm of a plastics bearing body, the arm forming a bearing shell which receives an exposed section of the tube and is covered by the contact spring.

6. A visor according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein, in the annular zone which can be contacted by the contact element, the tube is coated with an electrically insulating material in that area of its external surface with which the contact element is in contact when the body of the visor is in the inoperative poSition.

7. A visor according to claim 4, or claim 5, wherein the jacket of the tube, within that annular zone which is capable of being contacted by the contact element, is removed over that part of its circumference with which the contact element is in alignment when the body of the visor is not in use.

8. A visor according to any of claims 2 to 7, wherein a switch with an actuating element for the lamp is inserted in the visor body and connected to the supply lead to the lamp.

9. A sun visor for a motor vehicle, comprising a visor flap pivotally mounted in the region of one of its edges on a supporting arm, which arm has an end portion housed in a mounting base for mounting the visor on the vehicle body, the visor flap having a mirror and, associated with the mirror, an electrical lamp which is connectable to the electrical system of the vehicle via switching means which makes contact only when the flap is in part of its pivoting range.

1 0. A sun visor constructed and arranged substantially as herein described and shown in the drawings.