GB2146590A - Arrangements of vehicles wiping apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The bodywork of a vehicle incorporates a bristle curtain 15 of material which is so positioned as to mask the screen-wiping-arm pivots 13, 14 and at least the pivot-adjacent portion of the arm itself when the arm is at rest, and which is flexible enough and resilient enough for the arm to push past the curtain in each direction as the arm first rises to sweep the screen and then subsequently returns to its at-rest position on or below the screen edge. The bristles may constitute substantially the entire curtain; or may occupy only that portion of the curtain in which the arm moves; or may occupy only the arm-pushed edge region of said portion. Alternatively a plastics member with a 'feathered' edge (Fig 7) may be used, or two strips of relatively stiff plastic material (Fig 4). The arrangement may be applied to bodywork adjacent a car windscreen; a car rear screen; a car side screen; and a car headlamp. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in body work The invention relates to vehicle bodywork and is particularly concerned with that region of the bodywork in which a screen wiping arm or arms may be mounted.

The conventional screen wiping arms of, for example, of a road going saloon car are mounted on drive spindles which project from the scuttle, i.e., the region of the vehicle bodywork below the bottom edge of the screen. These drive spindles each define the respective pivots about which the arms move repeatedly back and forth over the screen in use. As least one of the drive spindles is commonly the spindle of the electric motor which drives the screen wiping arms in unison. The other spindle is synchronized with the motor spindle by a driving linkage.

Attempts have been made to recess the driving spindles by sinking them beneath the screenadjacent edge of the car bonnet. There are a number of reasons for this. It is safer if a pedestrian is accidently caught on the bonnet, it is aerodynamically better, and perhaps most important it looks rather more pleasing than the conventional arrangement outlined above.

These so called recessed wipers require a large and rather unsightly gap between the screenadjacent edge of the car bonnet and the region below the bottom edge of the screen itself. The gap, which accommodate the wiping arm spindles and some if not all of the arms and blades when the wipers are "parked" (i.e. not in use) is a feature of such currently available saloon cars such as the Rover SD1 and the Mercedes S-class saloons. Each of these have twin wiping arms.

Some, although relatively few, currently available cars have only a single large wiping arm mounted centrally along the bottom edge region of the screen.

One example of a car which has this single-wiper arrangement, and which sinks the wiper below the screen-adjacent bonnet edge is the Lotus Esprit.

The unsightly gap between the bonnet edge and the screen has hitherto been left uncovered because the wiper arms have to rise out of it and fall back into it again in use. For that reason it is not possible to cover the gap completely with conventional materials used for car body work. The invention takes as its starting point this known acceptance of the wiper-housing gap.

According to the invention, the bodywork of a vehicle incorporates a curtain of material which is so positioned as to mask both the screen-wiping-arm pivot and at least the pivot-adjacent portion of the arm itself when the arm is at rest, and which is flexible enough and resilient enough for the arm to push past the curtain in each direction as the arm first rises to sweep the screen and then subsequently returns to its at-rest position on or below the screen edge.

Such a curtain may be a relatively stiff curtain which can thus project, for example, generally horizontally from the screen-adjacent edge of a car bonnet to fill the wiper-arm-accommodating gap between that edge and the bottom edge region of the screen.

Advantageously the curtain may incorporate bristles, past which the arm pushes. The bristles may constitute substantially the entire curtain; or may occupy only that portion of the curtain in which the arm moves; or may occupy only the arm-pushed edge region of said portion.

Bristles have the advantage, amongst other things, that any water from the screen can readily drain through them and into the now-hidden scuttle gap beneath them. The conventional sheet scuttle, by contrast, either sheds the water over its surface or alternatively must be louvred for the water to drain through the louvres and out beneath the scuttle.

The term "a vehicle" in this specification is intended to embrace ground-travelling vehicles; waterborne vehicles such as boats or hovercraft; and airborne vehicles. It is clear that the invention is equally applicable to all these whenever they incorporate a screen and a screen-wiping arm.

Similarly the term "screen" includes windscreens; so-called "rearwindows" (i.e., rearscreens); side windows; and headlamp-covering glasses.

Several embodiments of the invention are shown, by way of example only, in the accompanying drawings. They constitute the best ways currently known to the applicant of putting the invention into practise. In the drawings: Figure 1 shows in perspective the bonnet-edge and screen region of a saloon car whose bodywork incorporates the invention; Figures2to 7are each diagrammatic perspective views showing respectively different forms the curtain might take; Figure 8 shows the invention applied to the rear screen of a vehicle; Figure 9 shows the invention applied to the front side window of a vehicle and, like Figure 8, is a perspective sketch; Figures 10 and 11 show respectively in perspective and in sectioned side elevation the invention embodied in a rear screen "spoiler" and windscreen wiping arrangement;; Figure 12 is a perspective sketch showing the invention embodied in a headlamp glass wiping arrangement.

In Figure 1 a curtain of closely adjacent bristles fills the relatively large gap between the region below the edge of the windscreen 11 of a vehicle and the upturned screen-adjacent edge 12 of the vehicle bonnet. The bristles are each relatively long and resilient but are stiff enough to project horizontally from the bonnet edge 12 and effectively mask the screen wiping arm pivots 13, 14 which pierce the scuttle (i.e. the region below the bottom edge of the screen 11). In this first embodiment, the wiper arm spindles 13, 14 and the pivot-adjacent regions of the arms are masked by the bristle curtain 15. The greater portion of the length of each arm rises through the curtain of bristles and is permanently visible as shown in Figure 1.

In use, as the screen wiping arms move repeatedly back and forth over the screen 11, they push past the bristle edges. The resiliant yet relatively stiff nature of the bristle curtain allows them to do this whilst keeping the gap between the bonnet edge 12 and the scuttle still substantially closed at all times.

The bristles in practical embodiments will most probably be sythetic plastics bristles and can be coloured either to match the adjacent bodywork or to contrast pleasingly with it. They may for example be coloured matt black or matt grey in accordance with current fashions for saloon car bodywork.

In Figure 2 the whole of the screen wiping arm and blade lies beneath the bristle curtain when the screen wiping arm is at rest. The arm and blade rise from beneath the curtain, and push through it when they are brought into use. They push back through the curtain, to be completely covered again by it, when their use is over.

In Figure 3 there are two bristle curtains, one projecting from the bonnet edge 12, the other projecting from the scuttle 11. The two curtains meet to define a line along which the screen wiping arm can part the bristles as it moves back and forth over the screen.

In Figure4there are again two curtains butthis time the curtains are each of a relatively thin yet stiff plastics material.

In Figure 5 a single curtain of plastics material is secured to the bonnet edge 12 and is flexible enough for the arm to push past the edge of the curtain as it moves back and forth over the screen.

In Figure 6 the bristles are sythetic plastics bristles and occupy only that portion of the curtain in which the screen wiping arm moves. The rest of the curtain is a non-bristle sheet of plastics material.

In Figure 7 a sheet of plastics material is cut along one edge, in the region where the screen wiping arm moves to give a bristle effect enabling the edge to be more easily pushed past by the wiper arm.

In Figure 8 the invention is applied to the substantially vertical tail gate of an estate car. The rear windows of such cars notoriously accumulate mud thrown up from the back of the car during wet weather, and are frequently fitted as standard equipmentwith a rear screen wiper and screen wash. In Figure 8 a panel 16 of the tail gate is so shaped and styled as to leave a gap between the screen-adjacent top edge of the panel and the bottom edge 11 of the screen itself. The gap is filled with a bristle curtain 15 which projects from the panel 16 towards the screen 11. The wiper and wiping arm 14 normally rest completely out of sight below the curtain 15.

In Figure 9 the invention is shown applied to the front side window of a saloon car. An outer panel 16 is so shaped and styled as to leave a gap between the top edge i.e., the window-adjacent edge, of that panel and the window 11 itself. The gap is filled with a bristle curtain 15 which projects from the panel 16 to the window. The wiping arm and wiper 14 are mounted in the gap below the bristle curtain.

In Figures 10 and 11 a so called "rear spoiler", of the kind currently fashionable for certain high performance cars, has a wiping arm 14 and electic drive motor 17 incorporated into it. The blade of the wiper sweeps the rear screen 11 of the vehicle. A bristle curtain 15 projects from the spoiler body 18 to cover the spindle and the spindle-surrounding portion of the wiper unit.

Finally in Figure 12 a bristle curtain 15 projects from the bumper edge 12 of a motor car to fill the gap between that edge 12 and a glass screen 11 covering a twin headlamp unit. The headlamp screen wiping arm and blade 14 normally lies out of sight below the bristle curtain 15.

Claims (11)

1. In or for the bodywork of a vehicle having one or more pivoting screen-wiping arms, a curtain of material which in use is so positioned as to mask both the screen-wiping-arm pivot and at least the pivot-adjacent portion of the arm itself when the arm is at rest, the curtain being flexible enough and resilient enough for the arm to push past the curtain in each direction as the arm first rises to sweep the screen and then subsequently returns to its at-rest position on or below the screen edge.

2. The invention of claim 1 and in which the curtain is stiff enough to project, in use, the screenadjacent edge of the vehicle bodywork and fill the wiper-arm-accommodating gap between that edge and the bottom edge region of the screen.

3. The invention of claim 1 or claim 2 and in which the curtain incorporates bristles past which the arm pushes as it sweeps the screen.

4. The invention of claim 3 and in which the bristles constitute substantially the entire curtain.

5. The invention of claim 3 and in Which the bristles constitute only that portion of the curtain in which the arm moves.

6. The invention of claim 5 and in which the bristles constitute the arm-pushed edge region of said portion of the curtain.

7. The invention defined in any of the preceding claims and in which the bristles are coloured to match the adjacent bodywork.

8. A vehicle tailgate and rear screen wiper incorporating a curtain in accordance with any of the preceding claims.

9. A vehicle whose headlamp wiping arm or arms push past a curtain in accordance with any of claims 1 to 7.

10. A vehicle rear spoiler incorporating a curtain in accordance with any of claims 1 to 7.

11. A curtain-and-wiper-arm arrangement substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in any one of Figures 1 to 9; or Figures 10 and 11; or Figure 12 of the accompanying drawings.