JP4340979B2 - Handle cover - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a handle cover, and more particularly, to a handle cover that can be attached to a part of a wheel of a handle and can be made inconspicuous in appearance (displacement).

  Conventionally, various proposals have been made on the structure of a handle cover that covers the wheel of the handle (see, for example, Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3). It is also known to fit the ring of the steering wheel to the central hub via spokes, or to fit the ring formed on the surface of the steering wheel to the ring of the steering wheel in order to make the steering wheel look beautiful (For example, refer to Patent Document 4).

  By the way, the wheel of the steering wheel (steering wheel) is attached to the center hub via a spoke. Also, in recent automobiles, in order to protect the driver from collision accidents and the like, it is often equipped with an airbag that acts on the driver and exhibits a buffering effect. Is accommodated in an air bag accommodating portion provided at a central portion of the enclosed space, that is, a position where the center hub is provided. Furthermore, although the wheel size (ring diameter) may vary depending on the vehicle type and size, it is generally divided into three stages: large (L), medium (M), and small (S).

  Under such a background, as a material of the handle cover to be attached to the foil, cloth has recently become the mainstream, whereas the foil includes those made of wood or carbon.

  Of these, the cloth handle cover can be attached to and detached from the foil without changing the handle, and the handle is directly covered with the entire foil. However, since it is manufactured according to the difference in size such as large, medium, and small size of foil, one type of cloth handle cover can be used either large, medium or small. It is difficult to provide a pattern having a surface gloss (for example, a wood grain pattern) because it is made of cloth. However, some vinyl covers are also used as handle covers with a surface gloss pattern.

  On the other hand, wooden and carbon foils are usually equipped as standard on the handle during the manufacturing process of the handle manufacturer. For this reason, when it is desired to change the surface pattern of the foil to a different design, it is necessary to replace the foil itself, and it is not possible to meet the demand to easily change the surface pattern to a different design without replacing the foil.

JP 2006-15907 A Special table 2003-534199 gazette JP-A-9-183377 JP-A-10-297501

  The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and is based on manufacturing a handle cover with a resin molded body that easily imparts surface gloss, and directly on the foil regardless of the presence or absence of the airbag housing portion. In addition to being able to be attached to a circular arc portion selected from the entire foil, it is possible to make the deviation due to the displacement of the mounting position inconspicuous in appearance, and in operation It is an object of the present invention to provide a handle cover that can prevent the handle cover from being displaced.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a function of absorbing the difference in foil size so that one type of handle cover can be shared by large, medium and small size foils.

  A handle cover according to the present invention is a handle cover that is attached to a foil of a handle, and includes a main cover that is a circular arc when viewed from the front made of a resin molded body that is fitted to the foil, and the foil that is connected to the tip. The arc shape of the front view made of a resin molded body having the same shape and arc length that is fitted to the foil at the adjacent portion of the spoke and covers the respective end portions of the one side and the other side of the main cover. A pair of auxiliary covers, the main cover fitted in the foil, and a fixing means for fixing the auxiliary cover to the foil are provided.

  According to this invention, the handle cover is divided into the main cover and the auxiliary cover that are arc-shaped when viewed from the front, and both covers are partially fitted to the foil. Regardless of whether or not it is provided, it can be directly attached to the foil that has undergone the manufacturing process of the handle manufacturer. In addition, since the main cover and the auxiliary cover are made of a resin molded body, it is possible to determine their surface pattern relatively freely, and it is easy to give a grain pattern having surface gloss as the surface pattern.

  In particular, in the present invention, even if the position of the main cover attached to the foil is shifted and deviated, each end on one side and the other side of the main cover has the same shape and arc length. Because it is covered by a pair of arc-shaped auxiliary covers fitted to the foil at the adjacent portions of the spokes, the bias of the main cover will not be apparent and the foil can be easily and neatly decorated with the handle cover Is possible. In addition, since the situation in which the handle cover is displaced during operation due to the action of the fixing means is prevented in advance, even if the handle cover is attached, a situation in which driving safety is not reduced does not occur.

  In the present invention, each of the main cover and the auxiliary cover has an expansion / contraction diameter having a fitting opening for the foil formed by a notch portion extending in the direction of the arcuate axis at one place around the arcuate axis. A cylindrical member that can be deformed in a direction and a bending direction, and the fixing means includes a double-sided adhesive tape affixed to the inner surface of the main cover and a double-sided adhesive tape affixed to the inner surface of the auxiliary cover. It is possible to adopt a configuration such as According to the present invention, the double-sided adhesive tape can be applied to the foil by performing such insertion work while the main cover and the auxiliary cover are inserted through the fitting openings and are expanded and contracted. The main cover and auxiliary cover are fixed to the foil. For this reason, the mounting operation of the handle cover can be easily performed only through the series of steps of the fitting operation described above. In addition, since the main cover and the auxiliary cover are made of cylindrical members that can be deformed in the bending direction, they have a function of absorbing the difference in the size of the foil, and the handle cover of one kind of size can be separated into large, medium and small. It becomes possible to share it with the foil of the size.

  In the present invention, at least the main cover of the main cover and the auxiliary cover may have a glossy surface. According to the present invention, since the surface gloss that cannot be expressed by the cloth handle cover described in the beginning can be obtained, it becomes easy to meet the needs of users who are tired of the cloth handle cover.

  In the present invention, an air bag accommodating portion that accommodates an air bag that acts on the driver and exhibits a buffering action is provided in the central portion of the surrounding space by the foil, and the spoke extends from the air bag accommodating portion. It may be out. As described, the handle cover according to the present invention can also be used for the wheel of such a handle.

  As described above, the handle cover according to the present invention can be directly attached to the foil regardless of the presence or absence of the airbag accommodating portion, so that the user can replace the handle without changing the handle and accommodate the airbag in the handle. Whether or not the part is equipped, the handle cover can be attached to improve the versatility. In addition, it can be attached to the circular arc part selected from the whole of the foil, but since the deviation due to the deviation of the attachment position can be made inconspicuous in appearance, the user can easily and clean the handle cover himself / herself It is possible to put on the foil so as not to move. In addition, since the handle cover according to the present invention has a function of absorbing the difference in the foil size, one type of handle cover can be shared by large, medium, and small size foils. . As a result, it is not necessary to select the size of the handle cover at the time of purchase, and even if the user does not know the wheel size of the car he owns, the purchased handle cover can be attached to the foil and finished beautifully. become able to.

  In particular, since the handle cover is made of a resin molded body that easily imparts surface gloss, it is possible to easily obtain surface gloss that cannot be obtained with a cloth handle cover, and foil with a glossy wood grain pattern etc. It is also easy to create a sense of quality by decorating.

  1 is a front view showing a use state of a handle cover according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line II-II in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. is there.

  The handle A shown in FIG. 1 is a so-called three-spoke type, and the left and right ends of the wheel 1 positioned at the neutral position in the rotation direction R are connected to two spokes 21 and 22 extending in the diameter direction. In addition, the lower end of the foil 1 is connected to a single spoke 23 extending in the radial direction. Therefore, in the foil 1 located in the neutral position in the rotation direction R, the long semicircular arc portion 12 is located in the upper half portion, and the short arc portions 13 and 13 are located symmetrically in the lower half portion. ing. Moreover, when the airbag accommodating part 3 is located in the center part of the surrounding space by the foil 1, ie, the location where the center hub is provided, and an accident occurs while the vehicle is running, the air that has jumped out of the airbag accommodating part 3 A bag (not shown) acts on the driver and exhibits a buffering action.

  In this embodiment, the handle cover B includes a main cover 5 having a circular arc when viewed from the front shown in FIG. 1 and an auxiliary cover 6 having a circular arc when viewed from the front combined with the main cover 5. An additional cover 7 having a circular arc in front view that is used in addition to the cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 is provided, and the configurations of these covers 5, 6 and 7 will be described below.

  4 is a front view of the main cover 5, FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line VV in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a side view of the main cover 5, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a front view of the auxiliary cover 6.

  As shown in FIGS. 4 and 7, the main cover 5 is a cylindrical member having a circular arc shape when viewed from the front, and the cylindrical member extends in a direction along the circular arc axis L1 at one location around the circular arc axis L1. A fitting port 51 formed by the removal portion is provided. Therefore, the main cover 5 has a cross-sectional shape of a circular shape as shown in FIG. Further, in the illustrated main cover 5, the fitting port 51 is positioned on the back side of the main cover 5, and the opening width of the fitting port 51 around the arcuate axis L <b> 1 is set to be 1/2 arc length. Is a little shorter.

  On the other hand, the auxiliary cover 6 shown in FIG. 8 is formed of a cylindrical member having an arc shape when viewed from the front, and the cylindrical member is in a direction along the arc-shaped axis L2 at one place around the arc-shaped axis L2. The insertion port 61 is formed with a cut-out portion extending in the shape of a cut-out circular cross section, and the insertion port 61 is located on the back side of the main cover 5. 61 is similar to the main cover 5 in that the opening width around the arcuate axis L2 is slightly shorter than the half arc length, but the arc length along the arcuate axis L2 is the main. It is shorter than the cover 5. That is, in the relationship between the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6, only the arc lengths along the arc-shaped axis lines L1 and L2 of the cylindrical members constituting the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are different. In addition, about the internal diameter of the cylindrical member used for each cover 5 and 6, the dimension which is the same as the thickness of the foil 1 (shaft diameter of the foil 1) or a little shorter than that is chosen, The outer diameter is They have the same dimensions.

  As can be inferred from FIG. 1, the main cover 5 has an arc length slightly shorter than the arc length along the arcuate axis L3 of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the upper half of the foil 1. Yes. On the other hand, the arc length of the auxiliary cover 6 is shorter than the arc length of the main cover 5, and the auxiliary cover 6 is in a state where the main cover 5 is attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 of the wheel 1 as shown in FIG. The auxiliary cover 6 has an arc length that overlaps with the end of the main cover 5 regardless of the mounting position of the main cover 5 when the one end of the auxiliary cover 6 is attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 by abutting the spokes 21 and 22 of the handle A. is doing. More specifically, the arc length of the main cover 5 is close to the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1, whereas the auxiliary cover 6 is about 1/5 to 1/4 of the main cover 5. The arc length is formed.

  Further, both the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are made of a hard resin molded body, and the surface thereof is treated to give the same level of gloss. A wood grain pattern with is selected. Giving the same degree of surface gloss to the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 or giving them a uniform grain pattern is because they are formed of a resin molded body. This is easily possible by using known surface treatment techniques.

  The additional cover 7 shown in FIG. 1 is formed by a cylindrical member having a cut-off circular cross-section with a cut-out portion, surface gloss is given, or a wood grain pattern is applied to the surface pattern. Main elements such as the above are the same as those of the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 described above. That is, with respect to the additional cover 7, the configuration other than the arc length is the same as that of the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6, but the arc length is the same as that of the foil 1 as seen in FIG. The arc length of each arc portion 13 in the lower half is set to a length slightly shorter than the arc length.

  By the way, since the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are constituted by arc-shaped cylindrical members formed of a hard resin molded body, the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 have their shapes and materials. Gives a unique elasticity. Specifically, the hard resin molded body forming the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 can easily have an arc shape along the arc-shaped axis line or a missing circle shape around the arc-shaped axis lines L1 and L2. Although it cannot be changed, it has a property that its arc shape and chip shape can be changed by applying a relatively large external force. Therefore, the cylindrical members forming these main cover 5 and auxiliary cover 6 can be deformed in the expansion / contraction diameter direction and the bending direction. This also applies to the additional cover 7.

  Next, an example of a procedure for attaching the handle cover B to the wheel 1 of the handle A will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is an explanatory view illustrating the procedure for attaching the handle cover B in an illustrative manner.

  The wheel 1 shown in FIG. 11 is shown as being mounted on the driver's seat side of the automobile, and the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are mounted on the wheel 1 that is already equipped.

  In the first stage, the main cover 5 is positioned on the front side of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the wheel 1 as indicated by an arrow a, and then the insertion port 51 of the main cover 5 is pressed against the surface side of the semicircular arc portion 12. Further, the insertion hole 51 of the main cover 5 is pushed into the semicircular arc portion 12 while being expanded against its elasticity. In this way, when the main cover 5 is fitted into the semicircular arc portion 12, the arc shape around the arc-shaped axis L1 (see FIG. 4) tends to return to the original initial shape due to elasticity. The main cover 5 is attached to the main cover 5 in a state of being wound around the semicircular arc portion 12. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the main cover 5 is attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 through this stage.

  In the next stage, the auxiliary cover 6 is positioned from the front side to the end of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the wheel 1 to which the main cover 5 is attached, as indicated by the arrow b in FIG. The fitting opening 61 is pressed against the semicircular arc portion 12 and the one end surface side of the main cover 5 attached to the semicircular arc portion 12, and the fitting opening 61 of the auxiliary cover 6 is expanded against its elasticity. It pushes in, making it fit in the semicircular arc part 12 and the main cover 5. FIG. In this way, when the auxiliary cover 6 is fitted to the end of the semicircular arc portion 12 or one end of the main cover 5, the arc shape around the arc-shaped axis L2 becomes the original initial shape due to elasticity. Since the auxiliary cover 6 is to be restored, the auxiliary cover 6 is mounted in a state of being wound around the end portion of the semicircular arc portion 12 or one end portion of the main cover 5. FIG. 3 shows a state where the auxiliary cover 6 is attached through this stage. Such a mounting operation of the auxiliary cover 6 is also performed on the other end side of the main cover 5 using another auxiliary cover 6.

  After attaching the pair of left and right auxiliary covers 6 and 6 to the foil 1 through the above-described steps, if necessary, the auxiliary covers 6 are slid along the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1 to form the auxiliary cover 6. One end part is butted against each of the spokes 21 and 22 extending left and right as shown in FIG. When the main cover 5 and the pair of left and right auxiliary covers 6 are thus attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1, the left and right auxiliary covers 6 and 6 attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1 are mounted as shown in FIG. One end portion and the other end portion of the main cover 5 overlap each other to cover and conceal each end portion, and the protruding length of the auxiliary cover 6 on one side (left side) from one spoke 21 and the length from the other spoke 22 Since the protruding length of the auxiliary cover 6 on the other side (right side) is the same, the exposed portion of the arc-shaped main cover 5 extending between the left and right auxiliary covers 6, 6 is the handle center line indicated by the alternate long and short dash line The shape is symmetrical with respect to L. That is, the exposed length C1 of the main cover 5 on the left side of the handle center line L and the exposed length C2 of the main cover 5 on the right side thereof are the same length. Therefore, the user can easily and cleanly attach the handle cover B to the foil 1 simply by pushing the main cover 5 and the pair of auxiliary covers 6 into the semicircular arc portion 12 of the wheel 1 and mounting them in the manner described above. Can be attached directly to. Moreover, there is an advantage that such mounting work can be performed regardless of the presence or absence of the airbag 3 regardless of whether or not the handle A has the airbag accommodating portion 3.

  Further, the above-described operation, that is, the exposed portion of the arc-shaped main cover 5 extending between the left and right auxiliary covers 6 and 6 has a symmetrical shape with the handle center line L shown in FIG. Is exhibited even when the mounting position of the main cover 5 is shifted to the left and right of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1. That is, FIG. 1 shows a state in which the main cover 5 is mounted in the center of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1 without being displaced, whereas FIG. 9 shows that the main cover 5 is a semicircular arc of the foil 1. A state is shown in which the position is shifted by δ from the center position of the portion 12 to the left side. Even in this case, as can be seen from FIG. 9, the exposed portion of the arc-shaped main cover 5 extending between the left and right auxiliary covers 6 and 6 has a symmetrical shape with the handle center line L shown in FIG. Thus, the exposed length C1 of the main cover 5 on the left side of the handle center line L and the exposed length C2 of the main cover 5 on the right side thereof are the same length. Therefore, it is possible to obtain an appearance that is as clean and uncomfortable as the case of FIG.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, in addition to the arc length of the main cover 5 being set to be slightly shorter than the arc length of the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1, the main cover 5 is resin-molded. It is formed by a cylindrical member made of a body and can be deformed in the expansion / contraction diameter direction and the bending direction. Therefore, even if the size of the foil 1 is different depending on the standard, such as large, medium and small, and the radius of curvature is different. As a result, even if the arc length of the semicircular arc portion 12 is short or long, the main cover is used. 5 can be attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1 without hindrance. Therefore, there is a convenience that one type of handle cover B can be shared by large, medium and small size foils by the function of absorbing the difference in foil size.

  The work of attaching the additional cover 7 to the arc portion 13 of the foil 1 is performed by fitting the additional cover 7 into the arc portion 13 in the same manner as the operation of attaching the main cover 5 to the semicircular arc portion 12. .

  As shown in FIG. 1, when the main cover 5, the pair of auxiliary covers 6, 6, and the pair of additional covers 7, 7 are attached to the wheel 1, they are given to the covers 5, 6, 7. A glossy wood grain pattern that cannot be realized by the cloth handle cover described at the beginning is given to the foil 1 of the handle A by the surface gloss and the wood grain pattern on the surface, and the foil 1 is given a sense of quality.

  By the way, in the above, since the main cover 5, the auxiliary cover 6, the additional cover 7 and the like are only fitted into the foil 1 and wound around the semicircular arc portion 12 and the arc portion 13 of the foil 1 by their elasticity, the handle A When the steering operation is performed, the covers 5, 6, and 7 may slip and be displaced with respect to the foil 1. Therefore, in this embodiment, a fixing means is provided to fix the main cover 5, the auxiliary cover 6, and the additional cover 7 to the foil 1 individually, and a double-sided adhesive tape is adopted as an example of the fixing means.

  That is, the main cover 5 is attached with an arc-like long double-sided tape 81 over almost the entire inner surface thereof as shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 7, and the auxiliary cover 6 is shown in FIG. Further, an elongated double-sided tape 82 is attached to two locations on the inner surface. Thus, when the double-sided adhesive tapes 81 and 82 are employed as the fixing means, when the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are fitted into the semicircular arc portion 12 of the foil 1 in the above-described mounting operation, The double-sided adhesive tapes 81 and 82 attached to the covers 5 and 6 are automatically attached to the semicircular arc portion 12 so that the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are fixed so as not to move to the semicircular arc portion 12. For this reason, it is not necessary to perform the operation | work which fixes the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 to the foil 1 specially. Further, when the steering wheel A is steered, there is no possibility that the covers 5 and 6 slip relative to the wheel 1 and are displaced. The same applies to the additional cover 7.

  Although the handle cover B used for the three-spoke type handle A shown in FIG. 1 has been described above, the handle cover B can also be used for a so-called four-spoke type handle. Shown in FIG. 10 is a front view showing a use state of the handle cover according to the present invention.

  The handle A shown in FIG. 10 is a four-spoke type, and the left and right ends of the wheel 1 positioned at the neutral position in the rotational direction are connected to two spokes 21 and 22 extending in the diameter direction. At the same time, the laterally symmetrical position on the lower side of the foil 1 is connected to two spokes 24 and 25 extending obliquely downward. Therefore, in the foil 1 located at the neutral position in the rotational direction, the long semicircular arc portion 12 is located in the upper half portion, and the short three arc portions 14 are located symmetrically in the lower half portion. Yes. Moreover, the airbag accommodating part 3 is located in the center part of the enclosure space by the foil 1, ie, the deployment location of the center hub. For the wheel 1 of the handle A, the main cover 5 and the auxiliary cover 6 are mounted in the same state on the upper semicircular arc portion 12, and the additional cover 7 is attached to the lower central arc portion 14. It is installed.

  In this embodiment, the main cover 5, the auxiliary cover 6, and the additional cover 7 are each given a surface gloss and a wood grain pattern is given as a surface pattern. Is not limited to the embodiment.

It is the front view which showed the use condition of the handle cover which concerns on this invention. It is an expanded sectional view which follows the II-II line of FIG. It is an expanded sectional view which follows the III-III line of FIG. It is a front view of a main cover. It is an expanded sectional view which follows the VV line of FIG. It is a side view of a main cover. It is a back view of a main cover. It is a front view of an auxiliary cover. It is the front view which showed the state in which the main cover was mounted | worn with position shift. It is the front view which showed the other use condition of the handlebar cover which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing which illustrated the attachment procedure of the handle cover.

Explanation of symbols

A Handle B Handle cover 1 Foil 3 Airbag housing part 5 Main cover 6 Auxiliary cover 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 Spoke 51, 61 Insertion opening 81, 82 Double-sided adhesive tape (fixing means)

Claims (4)

A handle cover to be attached to the wheel of the handle,
A main cover having a circular arc when viewed from the front made of a resin molded body fitted to the foil, and one side and the other side of the main cover fitted to the foil at adjacent portions of the spoke having the foil connected to the tip. A pair of arcuate auxiliary covers made of a resin molded body having the same shape and arc length covering each of the side ends separately, and the main cover and the auxiliary cover fitted in the foil A handle cover comprising: fixing means for fixing to the foil. Each of the main cover and the auxiliary cover has an expansion / contraction diameter direction and a bending direction having a fitting opening for the foil formed by a notch portion extending in the arcuate axis direction at one place around the arcuate axis line. 2. The cylindrical member that can be deformed into a plurality of shapes, wherein the fixing means includes a double-sided adhesive tape affixed to the inner surface of the main cover and a double-sided adhesive tape affixed to the inner surface of the auxiliary cover. Handle cover. The handle cover according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least a main cover of the main cover and the auxiliary cover has a glossy surface. An airbag accommodating portion accommodating an airbag that acts on a driver and exhibits a buffering action is provided in a central portion of the surrounding space by the foil, and the spoke extends from the airbag accommodating portion. Item 3. The handle cover according to Item 3.

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