IL47289A - Protective and decorative rail for affixing to vehicles - Google Patents

Description

PROTECTIVE AND DECORATIVE RAIL FOR The present invention relates to decorative and protective attachments for motor cars.

Motor cars are generally protected at the rear and front thereof by the bumpers which extend across the width of the car and frequently include! strips of rubber like material. It has been suggested also to protect the side wall of the car, including the door by providing thereon strips of material which may be struck by another vehicle which meets the first vehicle at right angles thereto. It is also known to provide decorative highly polished rails of material along the sides of the car. These latter fulfil decorative purposes only.

It appears that the protective rails or strips referred to above and intended to be applied to the side of the car are not employed generally which is probably due to the fact that they offer a certain degree of protection only if the car is struck at right angles t0 its longitudinal extension. In cases where two cars meet and "rub along" one another* the strip instead of serving to protect paint and coachwork is shorn off and in case it is fixedly attached to the car frequently damages the coach work by being forcibly torn off it.! The present invention has the object of providing a protective combination of strips and rails at the sides of the car which at the same time serves as a decorative means * in the same way as the metal rails previously affixed to the side of the car.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a rail or strip which offers protection against a car being hit sideways and also whenever the car is moving in contact with another car travelling in the same or opposite direction.

According to the invention the new means is composed of three parts : a) a first member being a plastics (including rubber) channel member which is affixed to the side of the car by whatever conventional means * being cemented thereto or afixed thereto by means of screws* the said channel member being wider at the bottom of the channel then at its upper end so as to present an undercut profile b) a second member being a metal rail - preferably highly polished and being a channel member with its side walls bent over towards the longitudinal median line of the member* c) a third member be ng a rubber strip adapted to be held in the said second member which latter is inserted and held in the plastic channel member attached to the car.

The invention will now be described with reference to the annexed drawings* which show in Fig* 1 schematically a car provided with the new protective means* Fig* 2 is a sectional view of the new means.

Turning first to Fig.' 1, the new protective means indicated as a whole by the numeral 1 is affixed to the side of the car and extends preferably from near the front to near the rear thereof as can be seen in Fig. 1.

According to Fig. 2 the new means comprises as a first member a channel 2 which is made of plastics or rubber* but which may also be made of metal* if desired.' The member 2 is a channel with undercut side walls 3* thus affording an elongated recess into which is slid a metal rail 4 which has a flat botton 4' * and bent over side walls 4"·' Into the elongated cavity of the rail 4 is slid the outermost* third member indicated by the numberal 5* which member has a wide base and a rounded upper part; a groove 5' extending along each side of the½ member 5 intermediate its bottom and top part. When the member 5 is slid into the rail 4 the edges of the bent over walls of the rail engage in the groove 5'.

The member 5 is held with its wider part in the cavity of the rail 4 in a twofold manner: first by being restricted within the space defined by the bent over walls and secondly* the said walls engaging with their edges the grooves 5 'as can be seen in the drawing. The member 5 which is made of impact bsorbing material* say rubber* does not rest at its bottom side on the bottom of the channel 4, on the contrary it is distant therefrom and furthermore in its lower most side is provided a longitudinally extending semi circular groove 5" for a purpose to be described.

The channel member 2 having been affixed to the side of the car* the metal channel or rail 4 is slipped into it and need not be affixed thereto. Finally the member 5 is slipped into position into the rail 4* as described above.

As has been stated the member 5 is of impact absorbing material* thus whenever it is struck sidewise by another vehicle the material of strip 5 will absorb the greater part of the impact and since the member 5 can yield to the impact towards the bottom of the metal rail 4 this effect is even increased. The member 5 is made more resilient by the cavity 5" in its interior.

In case that a car is contacted by another vehicle either travelling in the same direction or opposite direction and rubbing along the car fitted with the new protective means the member 5 which is the only one coming into the contact with the other car will be pushed out of the rail 4 and almost no damage will be done to the coach work and the paint.

It is obvious that a ter such an occurrence the member 5 can ^' again be slipped into the rail 4 as it was the caee before the collision. While it is not necessary to provide stops at the ends of the member 5 to prevent it from unintentional sliding out* such stops of any conventional kind may be provided e.g. wedges inserted between the bottom of the rail 4 and the underside of member 5. However* such stops should not hold the member 5 in too a rigid manner* since otherwise it will not yield and slide out of its emplacement whenever another vehicle rubs along the car.

Claims (1)

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A combined protective ahddecorative attachment intended to be affixed to the sides of motor cars, comprising in combination: a) a first member being a plastics (including rubber) channel member which is affixed to the side of the car by whatever conventional means, such as being cemented thereto or affixed thereto by means of screws, the said channel member being wider at the bottom of the channel that at its top side so as to present an undercut profile b) a second member being a metal rail - preferably highly polished and being a channel member with its side walls bent over towards the longitudinal median line of the member c) a third member being a rubber strip adapted to be laid in the said second member which latter is inserted and held in the plastic channel member attached to the car. 2, Motor cars whenever equipped with the means claimed in Claim 1. Attorneys for Applicant