WO2010073069A1 - Built-in self storing retractable vehicle cover - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle covering which rolls up, having fabric parts winded around a tubular roller with a built-in spring retarder; all these parts are installed inside a cylindrical housing, stored along the part of the space between the rear trunk lid and vertical double metal sheets, which is used as a built-in storage compartment (20), the housing (32) is secured to the inner side of the outer metal sheet (rotating gate). The fabric's front edge is connected to a guide-bar, connected to a pulling stick, if pulled, it unrolls the fabric to cover the whole vehicle top, and then its folded sides are pulled down and hanged, while if released, it will be pulled automatically over the vehicle through threads connected with the secondary spring retarder roller. When the top fabric is released, it is rolled back automatically with the fabric sides.

Description

Built-in Self Storing Retractable Vehicle Cover

Description of the Invention Technical Field of Invention

New vehicles became more developed in many aspects: paints, accessories, electronics, luxury upholstery (leathers linings), flexible plastic seals, and coated inner devices... since these expensive parts are exposed to direct heat and sunlight for hours in a day, if accumulated through the year or years it will be hazardous to the whole vehicle, the needs for a practical vehicle cover became a must.

Background Art

Normal vehicle cover is used since decades for the purpose of covering vehicle while parked for long periods, to achieve the protection of the vehicle from paint degradation, exterior body metal from corrosion, interior materials aging, all that can be achieved by using a cover to protect from sunlight, rays, dew, rain, snow, hot and sunny climates, dusts, abrasive windblown, sand airborne contaminates pebbles, chemicals, acid rains, birds droppings, cement, sleet, hail, smog, tree sap, pollens, snow, ice, frost, frozen precipitation and slight frictions with solid bodies causing slight scratches.

The importance of vehicle cover starts from the moment the vehicle gets out the gates of factory. Where the vehicle will be parked tell shipping, then it will be parked again in ports and later in distributor parking, through all these times which are ranging from days to months, the vehicle will be exposed to all different weather conditions, which will cause partial or whole damages in some parts of the vehicle, that will appear with time. Through experience with 6 dealers of vehicles in the gulf and middle east, it is found that the vehicles which were parked for long periods, either before delivery, or after, have more problems in their rubbers, paints, upholstery, electronics, these parts of vehicle are seriously affected by heat and sunrays.

The maintenance of these items causes many negative results, such as: money loss, customer low satisfaction in the product, more scrapped materials, more consumption of chemicals and power. To avoid part of that, manufacturers are fixing plastic sticky covers on the engine hood, roof and trunk Hd in addition to installing cloth covers on the front seats, these materials parts price and labor of installing and removing reaches around 40 $, it will be removed later as a waste and thrown into trash, but before vehicle delivery, still the vehicle need full body polish, because not all the body was covered, the body polish normally cost around 100 $, this means that around 140 $ is spent for each vehicle of the 40 million vehicles manufactured yearly, the total cost for all will equal 5.6 billion dollars yearly.

Further more, the vehicles even after sold need to stop for different periods of times, daily for employees, weakly for vehicles waiting repairs, monthly for vehicles on open shows or parked because their drivers are away.

This means that rough calculations for all of what results from the absence of permanent vehicle cover, means that the losses are great and variable, ranging from 10ths of billions of dollars, to billions of meters cubic of water, to environment hazards, to losses in energy, time and manpower.

Recently some new vehicle covers designs are developed, mostly depending on unrolling or unfolding automatically or semi automatically the fabric cover for use from a roller assembly manually or using a motor-driven means that is installed in a housing, container, bag secured over front, middle or rear of vehicle exterior body, inside the luggage compartment, or under the front or rear bumper. Examples of 'roll-up' car cover can be found in U.S Pat Nos. 1,918,423; 3,222,102; 3,992,053; 4,432,581; 4,519,644; 4,657,298; 4,720,135; 4,727,898; 4,732,421; 4,856,824; 5,056,839; 5,078,330; 5,086,988; 5,176, 421 and 5,597,196. Both complicated and non-complicated means aimed to solve the problems in the old design that mainly concentrated on five problems: a- The long time required for installing and removing the fabric cover, which is typically taking around 10 minutes to deploy or remove it b- The time it takes to restore it in its original bag. c- The shape and place of tools used to store the cover. d- Security and safety of the cover against being damaged by outside accidents, weather conditions, or being stolen by somebody. e- Ventilation. But as the newer designs tried to solve one or more of these problems, it created new problems that need to be solved, these includes the followings:

1- Non-convenient: some of it did not cover the vehicle whole body from A to Z. sometimes it cannot cover more man the vehicle top side.

2- Side covers: Those covers designed to cover also the sides of the vehicle, all of them did not show how to cover and uncover the sides of the vehicle in a practical, convenient, creative and fast way.

3- Unavailability of an unseen built-in compartment or box in the vehicle body; it is either fixed over the roof, on the rear trunk lid, taking a big space inside the luggage compartment, or installed under the bumpers, so it either affects the vehicle aerodynamics or takes a big space inside the luggage compartment, or placed in a place that is exposed to high probability of accidents.

4- Costly devices: some covers use costly devices such as: Remote motor control, compressors, control modules, electrical motors, batteries... these will create higher costs of the cover, failures, then more costs of maintenance and repair.

5- Laborious: some of it need more than one person to handle it, or need the person to round around the vehicle more than one time when covering the vehicle or removing the fabric cover for storing.

6- Time-consuming: due to many steps and extra stages required for using the cover, removing and installing it, securing its tools, housings, and containers that supports its use.

7- Troublesome: since it was looking to solve the main problems, but it was not going in detail to solve every minor problem in every corner, which may make its handling practical partially or totally.

8- Breaking the aerodynamics requirement of vehicle, some of it is permanently installed in a housing that is installed on the vehicle body.

Such problems cause a lack in the widespread use of such coverings, because it created an inadequate balance of affordability, convenience, and performance to make them practical for daily use. What is required from a new design? An improved, easier to construct and use and subsequently inexpensive vehicle cover, needs also to achieve the followings:

1- Easy to handle.

2- Reduction in time consumed for installing, removing and storing it. (The old manual types require a time of around 20 min; the new must require around 1 min).

3- Compact, reachable and built in a suitable place of the vehicle body in a special small compartment, where it can be there safe, protected from accidents (damages), dirt and scratches. 4- Using simple tools and mechanisms in order to achieve less cost price, less costs of maintenance and less time of repair.

5- Special type of materials that can protect the vehicle in and out.

6- Multipurpose use: a- It can be used as tent in house garden, shores and deserts... b- Advertisements use.

7- Self-storing, retractable, with foldable side panels that can be arranged over the vehicle in a proper orientation and flat position. So that unwanted bunching of the fabric cover is prevented.

8- It may be built in the new vehicles as well as to be installed on the old one. Furthermore, it can be sold as secondhand.

9- Washable, waterproof, made from rigid or semi-rigid material that resist deformation, can achieve absorption or release of heat and solar radiation depending on its color, withstands moderate amounts of wind without being blown off the vehicle, attractive, ventilated, has transparent areas showing the plate numbers, windows, windscreens, and can have reflectors at its four edges, indicating the vehicle corners at night

The subject invention have overcome these and other similar problems of the prior art. Disclosure of Invention Brief Description

As the process of covering vehicle body requires covering mainly three extended parts of its body (up, right and left) we designed the new cover basically by rolling the three parts of the fabric cover around a main roller shaft (tubular shaft) with built-in spring retarder, the whole simple mechanism is installed along part of the space between tiie rear trunk lid vertical double metal sheets, which will be used as the built-in storing compartment of the cover apparatus.

When pulling the fabric cover forward using the pulling stick, it covers whole car top, where the front edge of fabric is hooked under the front bumper, to cover both sides of the vehicle, the right and left parts (sides) of the fabric cover which are folded over the top part are unfolded and pulled down and hooked under the vehicle bottom sides through hangers.

When we release the right and left sides of fabric from their hangers, they are pulled automatically up over vehicle through a net of threads passing through it to a secondary retarder roller, where the side fabrics are operating in the same way of roman curtains.

Then by releasing and pulling the fabric's front edge, the top part a long with both right and left sides of the fabric cover are retarded back automatically,

Brief Description of Drawings:

FIG. 1: Illustrates cover's built-in storing compartment and gate.

FIG.2: Illustrates cover's housing supported on the gate with fabric extending from it

FIG. 3: Illustrates cross sectional view of the main spring retarder roller and the secondary spring retarder roller with part of fabric extending out.

FIG. 4: Illustrates an actual two dimensional flat extension of the fabric top part and both folded sides.

FIG. 5: Illustrates the guide bar place in the cover's apparatus.

FIG. 6: Illustrates the telescopic pulling stick with its handle.

FIG. 7: Illustrates hinges that are supporting the gate to the trunk sides. FIG. 8: Illustrates double hanger with a cross sectional view of hanger hollow clamp.

FIG. 9: Illustrates single hanger with a cross sectional view of hanger hollow clamp.

FIG. 10: Illustrates the cover's housing facing the user with part of fabric pulled out.

FIG. 11: Illustrates the top fabric covering vehicle top, while side fabric are folded over it

FIG. 12: Illustrates how top fabric rear extension extending in reverse way of top fabric.

FIG. 13: Illustrates the vehicle top side and left side covered.

FIG. 14: Illustrates left side view of the vehicle while covered.

FIG. 15: Illustrates rear left side view of the vehicle while covered.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

In order to make it easy to carry out the invention, a detailed description of the parts of the invention supported with figures is provided here, where the figures of the main parts are arranged sequentially according to the importance of the part, each part has many features, since in the case here there are many pages of interfering parts drawings, we made it easy to read, by referring to each feature with a number included in the parts description text and in the parts numbering list, the numbering of parts features is indicated here by starting it sequentially from number 20, whenever a part feature appears in text, it will be directly assigned its required serial number. As example in FIG. 1, the parts features are arranged sequentially from number 20 to 21, 22, 23... 32 which include 13 features signs.

The detailed description of operation which follows, will describe how the mentioned parts will work, when it is assembled. Parts drawings description:

1- Cover's storage compartment FIG. 1: The built-in storage compartment 20 is located in-between the trunk lid 21 double metal sheets 22, it is made by making a rectangular cut along the trunk lid 21 outer vertical metal sheet 23, which will be used as a gate 23; We made the opening and closing procedure of the sealed gate 23 simple and attractive, the gate 23 will be connected to two holes 24 in the trunk lid sides through two free rotating shafts 25 extending from two hinges 26 which are welded on both inner right and left sides of the gate 23, where in the middle of each hinge 26 there is bearing 27 surrounding the rotating shaft 25, also in the trunk 21 inner metal sheet hole 24 there is a bearing 28 in each side hole 24, where the shaft 25 is engaged, this will allow the gate 23 to rotate around its center (flip flop) 180 degrees when opened or closed. The gate 23 has also on it a lock 29 of any suitable type, two ring-holders 30 to carry the cover's housing 32.

Note that the place of the cover's storage compartment 20 depends on the location of the registration plate 31 on the rear trunk lid 21, if it is mounted on the top side, the compartment 20 will be in the lower side, and if it is in the lower side the compartment 20 will be in the upper side.- Cover's housing FIG. 2: The cover's housing 32 is having a cylindrical shape (Made of plastic or thin metal sheet), it is secured to the gate 23 inner side using a pair of right and left ring-holders 30, that is welded to the gate 23 inner surface and carrying the housing 32.

Note that the cover's housing 32 has a lower water drainage slot 33 along its bottom side, while it has along its slot 34 edges from both sides a replaceable sponge strip 35 mat is used to clean the fabric 36 during its retard back inside the housing 32, sponge strips 35 need to be designed carefully so as not to block the fabric 36 way, specially while retarded back. - The main spring retarder roller FIG. 3: It is a hollow (tubular) shaft 37, rolled around it the fabric 36, inside it located the main built-in spring retarder 38. FIG. 3 shows a cross sectional view of its inner parts, mis hollow shaft 37 is secured inside the cylindrical housing 32, by connecting and fixing both ends of it to the cylindrical housing 32 center ends through two solid shafts 39 FIG. 2,3 carried on bearings 40, the bearings 40 are mounted in the center ends of the main spring retarder hollow shaft 37, at the same time the spring 38 will be fixed from one of its sides to one of the shafts 39 ends, while the other side of it will be connected and fixed to the hollow shaft 37 inner end through any plastic connection 41 as in window sunshade rollers, this mean when pulling the rolled fabric 36 which is attached to the main roller hollow shaft 37, this roller hollow shaft 37 will rotate around the shafts 39, while the bearings 40 are in-between, inside, the spring 38 which is connected and fixed to the hollow shaft 37 end, will be twisted with each rotation of the hollow shaft 37, since the other side of the spring 38 connected to the shaft 39, and hence it is not free, the spring 38 will be twisted from one end while hold from the other end, when releasing the extended fabric 36, the torsion load stored in the spring 38, will let it retard to retrieve to its original shape, while the spring 38 retard back, it will rotate the hollow shaft 37 that is connected to it, so the hollow shaft 37 which is attached to the fabric 36, will roll back the fabric 36 with it

The spring retarder 38 roller 37 preferably designed like a common window shade. U.S. Pat No. 3,762,916, issued to Gossling on Oct 9, 1973, entitled Window Shade Motor describes a basic design for the spring- loaded rod 38 of the preferred embodiment The design includes a spring motor for tensioning the cover and retaining the cover when not held in an extended position. US. . No. 3,762,916 issued to Gossling on Oct 9, 1973, entitled Window Shade Motor, is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

U.S. Pat No. 4,427,050 issued to Toppen on Jan. 24, 1984, entitled Window Shade Clutch Assembly, describes an alternative embodiment of the spring-loaded rod 37-38, 42-43 of the present invention. This alternative aspect adds a clutch assembly for permitting the cover to be held in an extended position, One with skill in the art will easily be able to adapt the teaching in the window shade art to apply the preferred embodiment of the herein described vehicle cover mechanism for holding the three parts of the fabric 36 in their extended position while it is covering the vehicle. U.S. Pat No. 4,427,050 issued to Toppen on Jan. 24, 1984, entitled Window Shade Clutch Assembly, is hereby incorporated herein by reference. - Secondary spring retarder FIG. 3: it is installed inside the main spring retarder roller hollow shaft 37 near its center. This secondary tubular shaft 42 has a built in torsion spring 43, it is used to pull back both sides of fabric 36 that is covering the vehicle sides by pulling a net of threads 44 that is spread inside the fabric 36 and passing the main hollow shaft through a small hole 45 made in it The secondary spring 43 retarder tubular shaft 42 is supported to the main spring roller tubular housing 37 through two L-shape rods 46, bearings can be used in-between the secondary spring retarder ends and the L-shape rods.

The operation and internal design of the secondary retarder roller 42 is nearly the same of the main roller 37, but for more high precision if required, the secondary retarder roller 42 can be designed of one tubular shaft 42 of multi-diameters, each connected to the suitable thread 44 length, where a hole 45 can be made in the main hollow shaft 37 for each thread 44. Note that the secondary spring 44 also connected from one of its edges to the secondary roller through a plastic connection 47, while it is fixed from its other side to the horizontal end of the L-shaped rod 46 end. - The fabric FIG. 4: this invention required the fabric 36 to be divided into three parts, FIG. 4 shows a two dimensional view of the fabric 36 actual extended flat shape, including the following main three parts: a- The fabric top part 48 is covering the rear trunk 21, rear windshield glass 49, roof 50, front windshield 51, engine hood 52, front bumper, lights and grilles 53, also this fabric 36 has part of it extending down 54 the cover's housing 32 to cover trunk lid 21 lower side and rear bumper. This fabric 48 rear extension 54 is moving in reverse way of the forward motion of the fabric 48, by revolving it around the main hollow shaft 37 in reverse direction, it will go out through the cover's housing lower drainage slot 33, Note here that both the front and rear edges of the top fabric 48 each has at its edges two holes 55 for hooking purposes.

B- Two side fabrics 56: these are making one piece with the top fabric 48 both right and left sides 56, but they are separated from it at the front and rear both fabric's 36 (vehicle's) corners 57, for purpose of pulling it down or lifting it up separately from the top fabric 48 at the vehicle four vertical corners 57, but regarding the dead uncovered areas at each of the two rear comers 57 of the vehicle, a rear side 56 fabric extension 58 is connected and folded over each side fabric 56 rear side using a thin double face sticky tape 59, for the purpose of rotating the fabric extension 58 to the direction of the vehicle rear side, to cover the uncovered area of the corner 57, by fixing it also using the sticky tape 59 to the top fabric rear extension 54.

Note here that each of the side fabrics 56 has three holes 60 for hooking purposes, one in the front lower corner, one in the lower middle and one in the corner of the rear side fabric 56 extension 58.

A double sticky tape may be used if necessary on the side fabrics 56 front middle edges, to attach it from both sides near the middle of top fabric 48 on its side that is covering the engine hood 52 front edge, this can help in pulling out fabric 36 from inside the fabric cover 32 housing 32.

The fabric 36 has many adjectives to achieve many objectives that include the followings: a- Material: It is made from a water proof, anti jam material, b- Color: For Sunny hot climates: its outer surface color is white or silver or beige, while its inner surface is black, the outer surface color will reflect hot harmful sunrays, while the inner surface will absorb heat from the vehicle body, which will be directed outwards, this will help relatively in cooling the vehicle. Further the whole cover may be used for advertising, by drawing on it shapes that resemble the manufacturer image, dealer or anybody else. c- Ventilation: The design of the fabric cover 36 can be done so that it has in some places of it gaps, that get the air in from one place and let it go out from other places, these gaps are designed in a way that no part of the body will be seen from outside. d- Transparency: The fabric 36 can have further addition by making it transparent in the windows, windshields, Plate No. side using v-cool shades. e- Threads guide lines: These fabric 36 tubular guidelines will be a net of paths 61 built-in inside the fabric 36 having a main path going in parallel with the vehicle top center line 62 going out of it branches 63 so that a net of threads 44 will be passing through it, to be used in pulling the side fabrics up 56 same as roman curtains, where here each side fabric 56 from its middle side can be bent along its length to get a sharp edge same roman curtains, this can be achieved using any means e.g.: sewing a longitudinal fold 64 with 0.5 cm width as part of fabric 36, so that the side fabric 56 can be folded into two pieces over each other, or more pieces according to the design measurements for suitable operation. The side fabric longitudinal folds 64 can be pulled up using a thread 44, by letting the thread 44 passes out the longitudinal fold 64 of the side fabric 56 for extra millimeters through a small hole 65, then making a knot 66 at the thread 44 end with a size larger than the hole 65, so that when pulling the thread 44 back, the knot 66 will stuck in the hole 65 and so the whole side fabric 56 longitudinal fold 64 will be pulled up. f- The fabric cover can be fabricated from a lightweight synthetic fiber, such as nylon. In hot weathers, it can be aluminized to give the fabric a reflective silver appearance thereby increasing its ability to reflect heat. g- For the right design of fabric 36, FIG. 15 can be used for designing a prototype model of the fabric 36 on vehicle first, where it will give a flat shape nearly same of that in FIG. 4, noting that special concern need to be taken about the longitudinal folds 64 which need to be designed on vehicle as in FIG. 15. - Guide-bar FIG. 5: The guide-bar 67 is made of wood or plastic, it is connected to the fabric 36 front edge which is extending out of the housing 32 through a slot 34, this guide-bar 67 has at its center a circular cleat 68 and a clamp 69 at its left side. - Pulling Stick FIG 5, 6: The pulling stick (telescopic stick) 70 is made of wood or plastic, it is normally fixed to the guide-bar 67 using a clamp 69 attached to the guide-bar 67, the pulling stick 70 has a hand holder 71 at its free edge, while it is connected through its other edge to the guide-bar 67 through a cleat 68. this pulling stick 70 will be used to pull the guide- bar 67 in a straight line over the top center of vehicle 62 and will help the user to pull the fabric cover 36 over vehicle top side while walking near the vehicle, it is necessary specially for high vehicles such as 4WD. which will require the user to be in direct touch with the vehicle body, or leaning on it, the thing which will make the user clothes get dirty or cause scratches on vehicle body from user's belt buckle. - Hinges FIG. 7: the two hinges 26 mentioned in item (1) are more clarified here in FIG. 7, where in the middle of each hinge 26 there is a bearing 27 surrounding the rotating shaft 25. - A set of Hangers FIG. 8, 9: These hangers will be distributed around the vehicle body bottom side, two hangers 72 FIG. 8 under the rear bumper, two hangers 72 under the front bumper, and one hanger (single hanger) 73 FIG. 9 under the middle of each side of vehicle body. The front and rear hangers 72 are made in a special way, where we need to make an overlapping of the fabric edges at the comers 57 of the vehicle, the hanger's base 74 at the vehicle corners 57 will carry at the same time two hangers 75, 76, so the hanger 72 will be called double hanger 72. For example if we consider the steering wheel as a reference of the vehicle left side. In the rear side, when the fabric rear edge extension 54 at the rear left side of vehicle is hanged in the upper left hanger 75, the rear left side fabric extension 58 is hanged in the lower right hanger 76 in a way it will overlap the fabric rear extension 54 edge. For the rear right double hanger 72, there will be upper right hanger 75 and lower left hanger 76 over the base 74, while at the vehicle front right, there will be a double hanger 72 having upper right hanger 75 and lower left hanger 76, finally at the front left corner 57 of the vehicle, the double hanger 72 will have upper left hanger 75 and lower right 76 hanger.

The hangers has at each of its two hollow holder clamp 77 edges a ball 78 loaded on a spring 79, where the spring 79 is loaded in a retaining plate 80, while the ball 78 is loaded from its other side to a stopper 81 to prevent it from coming out, when the fabric 36 edge having the hole 55 or 60 is pressed on the two balls 78, the balls move to inside the hollow holder clamps 77 pressing on the springs 79 which press on the retaining plates 80, when the fabric 36 edge passes to inside the hanger 72, 73, the balls 78 retard towards each other through the fabric 36 hole 55 or 60 closing the gap in-between it and locking on the fabric 36.

The Hangers base 74 has 4 holes to be used for screws or bolts if required to fasten it to the vehicle lower body, or the base will have a sticky material to stick it to the vehicle body.

Detailed Description of Operation Method of operation.-

The method of operation of the cover is easy, because the cover basically designed to be handled easily by one person, simply, sequentially, with the lowest effort and time, and with a little number of simple cheap parts. Stages of operation

1- Unrolling the fabric cover 36, it includes three stages and takes 40 seconds: First stage: (opening the gate 23 and pulling out the fabric 36) - (five seconds)

The opening starts when the user unlocks the gate 23 lock 29 and giving it a push to inside from its lower side, so the upper inner side of the gate 23 will appear to him/her rotating outwards and down, next he/she pushes the upper side part in its direction of rotation, tell the inner face of the gate 23 face him/her and be in parallel with the trunk lid 21 vertical side FIG. 10. Next he/she releases the pulling stick 70 from the clamp 69 on the guide-bar 67, then starts pulling the pulling stick 70 through its hand holder 71, which will pull the guide-bar 67, that will drag behind it the 3-layers of the fabric cover 36, one of these 3-layers is only connected or attached to the main roller hollow shaft 37, it is the vehicle top fabric 48. Using the pulling stick 70 the user start pulling (unrolling) the fabric 36 up, then he/she moves towards one of the vehicle rear left side. Second stage: (covering the vehicle top) - (10 seconds).

Holding the pulling stick 70 up, he/she moves towards the front of vehicle, while the stick 70 is pulling the fabric cover 36 from its middle side in parallel with the vehicle top center line 62, he/she walks till reaching the front of the vehicle FIG. 11, where he/she will stand facing the front of the vehicle, there, while he/she is holding by his/her right hand the pulling stick 70, he/she holds the guide-bar 67 by his/her left hand, and by his/her right hand push the pulling stick 70 towards the guide-bar's 67 clamp 69 and fix it, then takes it down under the front bumper, where he/she fixes the fabric cover 36 edge through its both front threaded holes 55 in the front right and left double hangers 72, starting from the right one and ending by the left one (where the steering wheel side is considered here as the reference of the left side position). In detail the right hole 55 of the fabric 36 front edge will be hanged in the right upper hanger 75 of the double hanger 72, while the left hole 55 will be hanged in the left upper 75 hanger of the double hanger 72.

Note that while the top side of fabric 48 is reaching the front of the car, a rear extension 54 of the top cover 48 is rolling on the main roller hollow shaft 37 in a reverse direction FIG. 12, this fabric extension 54 at a specified time before the top fabric 48 front edge reach the vehicle front area 53 start unrolling downwards the vehicle rear side through the cover's housing 32 lower slot 34, tell hanging over the lower portion of the trunk lid 21 and rear bumper. Also note here that if a double sticky tape is used in-between the side fabrics 56 and the top fabric 48, located in the place over engine hood 52 front edge, both side fabrics 56 can be released easily by pulling it up to the sides, while the user is standing in front of vehicle after finishing the former stage. Third stage: (Covering the vehicle sides and rear) - (Twenty five seconds)

The right and left sides 56 of fabric 36 are similar in design and operation, they are designed in same way of roman curtains, each side has three threaded holes in its edge 60, with same distance in-between, the two folded sides 56 of fabric 36 appear to the user to be folded along the top cover 48 FIG. 11, when pulling as example the left side down, it will cover the vehicle left side, normally the user need to start pulling the left folded side fabric 56 down from its middle side by both hands with a round a meter gap in-between, in the body middle bottom side, there is a side hangers 73. After fixing the hole 60 of the middle of the side fabric 56 to the middle hanger 73, the user need to move to the front left double hanger 72 at the corner 57 to fix the side fabric's 56 front left threaded hole 60 to the double hanger 72 right lower hanger 76, so as to make an overlapping of covering at the front left corner 57, where the front edge of the left side fabric 56 will overlap over the top fabric 48 left edge FIG. 13, 14. Then he/she moves directly towards the rear left corner 57 of the vehicle, where he pull by his/her left hand the rear left side fabric 56 extension 58 and moves towards the rear left corner 57, where he/she fix it through the double face sticky tape 59 other face to the fabric rear extension 54, then by his/her right hand fixes the top fabric 48 rear extending part 54 through its left hole 55 to the double hanger 72 left upper hanger 75, then directly he/she fixes by his left hand the side cover 56 rear extension 58 threaded hole 60 to the double hanger 72 right lower hanger 76 under the rear bumper, in result the left side fabric 56 rear extension 58 will overlap over the top fabric 48 rear extended part 54 FIG. 15, then he/she moves to the rear right side of the vehicle and fix the top fabric 48 right rear extending part 52 to the double hanger 72 right upper hanger 75, then moves towards the middle right of the vehicle pull down the right side fabric 56 and hang it in the same way for the left one 56...

2- Rolling or folding back the cover fabric 36, it consists of three stages, takes 30 seconds. Fourth stage: (Raising the side fabric 56) - (twenty seconds)

First the user releases the side fabrics 56 rear extensions 58 from the rear double hangers 72 and at the same time releases the top fabric 48 rear extension 54 from the double hangers 72, then returns the side fabrics 56 rear extensions 58 to its place on the side fabrics 56 rear side by fixing it through the double sticky tape 59, then releases the left side fabric 56 from the middle hanger 73, then releases the left side fabric 56 front edge and the top fabric 48 front left edge from the front left double hanger 72, then releases the top fabric 48 front right edge and the right side fabric 56 front edge from the front right double hanger 72. Now all fabric 36 holes are released, but all fabrics are still hanging down due to the locking of the retarder springs clutch mechanism which need to be designed in same way in that of sunshade rollers, when both side fabrics 56 are released, the user need to pull the last one that he/she released, the tension in the secondary spring retarder 43 will rotate back the secondary roller tubular shaft 42 which will start pulling the net of threads 44 that are making a net inside the right and left sides of the two side fabrics 56, that threads 44 will pull both side fabric 56 up, tell they are raised and arranged over the top fabric 48, which is already covering the vehicle top side FIG. 11.

Note here that if a double sticky tape is used in-between the side fabrics 56 and the top fabric 48, located in the place over engine hood 52 front edge, both side fabrics 56 can be attached easily to the top fabric, while the user standing in front of vehicle after finishing the former stage. Fifth stage: (Rolling back the top 48 and sides fabrics 56) - (seven seconds)

After all the fabrics 48, 56 are arranged over the top of the vehicle, the side fabrics 56 are symmetrically located over the vehicle in parallel with each other FIG. 11, the user now takes the guide-bar 67 from under the bumper out and takes it up, then while holding the guide-bar 67 pulls it forward to actuate the main spring retarder 38, which will start pulling the fabric 36 backwards, at that moment he/she releases the pulling stick 70 from the guide-bar 67, moves toward the left side of the vehicle, and then towards the back of the vehicle, holding the pulling stick 70 up pointing to the middle center of the vehicle top center line 62, tell reaching the rear of the vehicle FIG. 10, where the fabric 36 is completely rolled on the main roller hollow shaft 32, there re-fixes the pulling stick 70 on the guide-bar 67, note that the small rear cover extension 54 will be already rolled back on the main roller 37. Sixth stage: (closing the gate of the cover compartment) - (three seconds)

The user now pushes the gate 23 from its upper edge, rotates it 180 degrees to its other side and closes it Industrial Applicability

In addition to all mentioned reasons before about the important needs for automobile cover and the modes for carrying out it, the subject invention has the following benefits:

1- Easy usage: using simple tools and mechanism it minimizes time of installing and removing the vehicle cover, around 1 min for a person who practiced using it for around 5 times.

2- Workable: the right place for installing it in newly manufactured vehicle in a vacant place, the trunk lid has double vertical metal sheets with empty space in-between with no use, it can be used for storing the vehicle cover apparatus.

3- The rectangular outer metal sheet that we cut from the trunk lid from side to side can be used again as a gate and carrier of the cover housing.

4- Compact, built-in, safe, attractive design.

5- If used at a wide range it will save billion of $, billions of water cubic meters, energy, chemicals, manpower, damaged parts in unprotected vehicles, body paint polish...

Parts Drawings Index:

20 Storage compartment

21 Trunk lid.

22 Double metal sheets.

23 Outer metal sheet (Gate, carrier).

24 Two holes in the trunk sides.

25 Rotating shaft.

26 Hinges.

27 Bearing

28 Bearing.

29 Lock.

30 Ring-holder.

31 Registration plate.

32 Cover's housing.

33 Drainage longitudinal slot.

34 Slot

35 Sponge cleaning strip.

36 Fabric cover.

37 Main Roller hollow (tubular) shaft.

38 Main built in spring retarder.

39 Two solid shafts.

40 Bearing.

41 Plastic connection.

42 Secondary Retarder roller.

43 Secondary (retarder) torsion spring.

44 Net of threads. Hollow shaft thread hole. L-shaped rod. Plastic connection. Top part of cover fabric. Rear windshield glass Roof. Front windshield. Engine hood. Front bumper, lights and grilles. Fabric rear extending part Fabric edge hole. Fabric both sides. Corner. Side Fabric rear extension. Double face sticky tape. Side fabric hole. Net of guidelines. Vehicle top center line. Thread branch. Longitudinal fold. Thread hole. Knot Guide-bar. Circular cleat. Clamp. Pulling stick. Hand holder. 72 Double Hanger.

73 Single hanger.

74 Base.

75 Double hanger-Upper hanger part

76 Double hanger-Lower hanger part

77 Hollow holder clamp.

78 Ball.

79 Spring.

80 Retaining plate.

81 Stopper.

Citations

Patent Number Title Issue date

1567095 Self-winding means fob Dec 1925 1905973 Automobile cover Apr 1933 2646097 Automobile cover Ju1 1953 3050075 Retractable vehicle covering device Aug 21 , 1962 3563594 Retractable flexible car body protector Feb 1971 4432581 Portable automatic carport Feb 21, 1984 4519644 Foldable vehicle cover storable on the vehicle May 28, 1985 4764998 Retractable cover Aug 23, 1988 4834446 Packing and storing device for a flexible May 30, 1989 cover of a road vehicle

4848823 Remote control power-assisted vehicle cover Ju1 18, 1989 4856842 Self-storing retractable automobile cover Aug 15, 1989 4901895 Truck rear bumper storage compartment Feb 20, 1990

Assembly with facility for sheet material storage and dispensing, such as truck bed cover tarpaulins, tents and the like

4925234 Length adjustable, trunk stowable May 15, 1990 protective car cover apparatus 4929016 Bi-directional roof mounted car protective May 29, 1990 device 4958881 Theft proof protective covering for parked Sep 25, 1990 vehicle

4991612 Storage mechanism for vehicle covering Feb 12, 1991 5015029 Vehicle with integral cover May 14, 1991 5029933 Car cover JuI 9, 1991 5056839 Automobile cover assembly Oct 15, 1991 5161849 Protective cover for an automotive vehicle Nov 10, 1992 D338439 Retractable vehicle cover unit Aug 17, 1993 5364156 Weighted foldable vehicle cover Nov 15, 1994 5516181 Roll-up environmental elements protector May 14, 1996 for a motor cover 5597196 Automobile cover deployment and storage Jan 28, 1997 system

5820200 Retractable motorcycle covering system Oct 13, 1998 5941593 aerodynamic vehicle covering system Aug 24, 1999 6012759 Retractable vehicle cover Jun 11, 2000 6070629 Protective vehicle cover Jun 6, 2000 6412851 Retractable cover for small vehicles JuI 2, 2002 6513858 Roll-up car cover Feb 4, 2003 6672743 Retractable vehicle cover Jan 6, 2004 6672643 Retractable vehicle cover Jun 6, 2004 6682123 Retractable cover for small vehicles Jun 27, 2004 6935674 Retractable vehicle cover Aug 30, 2005 6955383 Retractable object protective barrier Oct 18, 2005 6964446 Retractable car cover Nov 15, 2005 6981509 Protective cover for a vehicle Jun 3, 2006 7086684 Extendable protective awning and motor Aug 8, 2006 vehicle having a protective awning

7185920 Retractable wheel and track covers May 6, 2007 7213868 Easy deployment and storage automobile May 8, 2007 protection cover

Application No. 10/446,459 Self coiling roll-up car cover Filing date: May 28, 2003

Application No.: 11/343,566 Retractable roll-up cover Filing date: Jan 31, 2006

Claims

Claims

1. A built-in self storing retractable vehicle cover apparatus for covering a vehicle having sides, the apparatus comprising: cover apparatus storing compartment located in the space in-between the trunk lid longitudinal vertical metal sheets, over or beyond the plate number; an outer metal sheet of compartment used as compartment gate; an elongated cylindrical housing for the fabric and the winding mechanism made of plastic; cylindrical housing is having a side slot along the length of its body for passing the fabric cover; cylindrical housing is having a lower slot along its bottom for water drainage and as a passage of top fabric rear extending part cylindrical housing supported on the sealed gate inner surface; a design of a fabric cover made mainly from three parts: top part, two side parts; fabric cover engaging winding mechanism such that cover is removable between an extended position hooked to a set of hangers and a retracted position inside the cylindrical housing.

2. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the gate has a lock.

3. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the gate has a 180° flip flop motion.

4. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cylindrical housing is carried by the gate using ring holder welded to the gate inner surface.

5. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cylindrical housing longitudinal slot has a replaceable wet double sponge strips, used for cleaning cover both sides.

6. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the gate is supported to the trunk sides through hinges, rotating shafts and bearings.

7. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 5, wherein hinges are welded on the middle of the gate inner edges.

8. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 6, wherein rotating shaft is setting in bearing mounted inside the hinge body.

9. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 7, wherein the rotating shafts other ends is setting in bearings embedded inside holes in trunk sides.

10. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein cover winding mechanism is compromised of a main spring retarder roller mounted to the cylindrical housing center ends through supporting shafts.

11. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein the main roller has inside it a built-in secondary spring retarder roller used for retarding side fabric threads.

12. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein fabric cover is attached from one end to the main tubular roller and from another side to a guide-bar which is located over or out of the fabric cylindrical housing slot.

13. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 12, wherein the guide-bar is made of plastic or wood and having at its center a cleat to be connected to the adjustable pulling stick.

14. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 13, wherein the guide-bar cleat is connected to adjustable pulling stick, which is used to pull the fabric.

15. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the top fabric has a rear extension and four threaded holes at its front and rear edges corners for hooking purposes.

16. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein each side fabric is made of two layers having a net of threads ending with knots and passing vertically through its upper half tell reaching the holes in its longitudinal middle fabric fold.

17. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 16, wherein the net of threads are rolled around the secondary retarder roller and passing through a hole in the main roller and distributed through the fabric parts through a net of tubular guide lines.

18. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the side fabrics has three holes at each lower edge of it and a rear extending part of it for covering rear corner.

19. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 18, wherein the rear extending part of the side fabric is fixed to it through and to the top fabric rear extending part using double sticky tape.

20. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein a set of hangers used around the vehicle under body, for hooking fabrics lower edges.

21. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 20, wherein two single hangers used under the middle of vehicle body lower sides, and four double hangers used under the front and rear bumpers lower corners for overlapping the fabrics.

22. The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 21, wherein each hanger has a base and a two symmetrical hollow clamps facing each other, at each end of it a ball supported from outside by a stopper, and from inside the hollow part, supported by a spring, loaded over a retaining plate.

23. A method of covering an automobile quickly comprising the steps of: opening the cover compartment gate by rotating it 180°; grasping the handle of the pulling stick to extract fabric from inside the cover housing; pulling the fabric parts and walking forward along one side of the vehicle to correctly position the fabric over the vehicle; securing the top fabric front edge threaded holes to the double hangers under the front bumper; pulling down side fabrics, making side fabrics overlap top fabric front edges by securing side fabrics front edges to the front double hangers; securing side fabrics middle lower edges to the single hangers under vehicle body middle side; securing top fabric rear extension to the rear double hangers; making side fabrics overlap top fabric rear extension by securing side fabrics rear extending part to the rear double hangers.

24. A method of uncovering an automobile quickly comprising the steps of: disengaging all fabrics threaded holes from all hangers; pulling one of the side fabrics away from vehicle so that secondary spring retarder actuated; both side fabrics will be pulled up automatically by the net of threads to be arranged over the top fabric part; releasing the pulling stick from the guide bar to guide the fabrics roll back; pulling the top fabric front edge, so that the main spring retarder is activated; the main roller will pull back all fabrics towards the cover housing; fixing the pulling stick to the guide bar; rotating the gate and closing or locking it