WO2010073070A9 - Portable retractable vehicle cover - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle covering which rolls up, having fabric parts winded around a tubular roller with built- in spring retarders: all are installed inside a cylindrical housing (21). The fabric front edge is connected to a guide bar, connected to a pulling stick, if pulled, it unrolls and extends to cover the whole car top, and then its folded sides are pulled down and hanged. While if released, it will be pulled automatically over vehicle through threads connected with a secondary spring retarder roller built inside the main roller. When the top fabric is released, it is pulled back automatically with fabric sides by the main roller.

Description

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 things 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 lid 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 include the followings:

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

4- 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.

5- 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.

6- 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 unpractical partially or totally.

7- Breaking the aerodynamics requirement of vehicle, some of it is permanently installed in a housing 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, can be stored in luggage compartment when not in use, protected from accidents (damages), dirt and scratches ...

4- Using simple tools and mechanisms in order to achieve less cost price, costs of maintenance and 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 in a selected suitable place. 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

Since we are applying for new vehicles built-in self storing cover through another patent application, we designed this cover for old automobiles where we cannot make a built in-storing compartment in it, because built-in compartment can be made with new vehicles only during the manufacturing process.

As the process of covering vehicle body requires covering three extended parts of its body (up, right and left) we designed the new fabric cover basically by rolling the three parts of the fabric around a main roller shaft with built-in spring retarder, the whole simple mechanism is secured and locked when in use on a pair of supporting brackets installed over the upper edge of the rear bumper.

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 from 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 the Drawings:

FIG. 1: Illustrates cover's housing supported on the gate with fabric extending from it.

FIG.2: Illustrates a carrier of the two carriers supporting the cover's housing assembly over the rear bumper. 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 double hanger with a cross sectional view of hanger hollow clamp.

FIG. 8: Illustrates single hanger with a cross sectional view of hanger hollow clamp.

FIG. 9: Illustrates the cover's housing supported on the carriers with part of fabric pulled out.

FIG. 10: Illustrates the top fabric covering vehicle top, while side fabric are folded over it. Downside the fabric hooked to the hanger. FIG. 11 : Illustrates the vehicle top side and left side covered, while downside the view shows the overlapped fabrics hooked to the double hanger.

FIG. 12: Illustrates left side view of the vehicle while covered, while the side fabric hanger to the middle lower single hanger.

FIG. 13: 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... 26 which include 7 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 housing FIG. 1: The cover's fabric 20 housing 21 is having a cylindrical shape (Made of plastic or thin metal sheet). At its ends there is end caps 22, going through it supporting shafts 23, while along the middle of the housing 21 a slot 24 is cut for to be a passage of the fabric 20, at both edges of the slot 24 a double sponge strips 25 are installed, for the purpose of cleaning the fabric 20 while it is retarded back inside the housing 21, sponge strips 25 need to be designed carefully so as not to block the fabric 20 way, specially while retarded back. Further the housing 21 has two holes 26 in its bottom side for water drainage.

2- Carriers FIG. 2: The two carriers 27 are fixed to the rear bumper upper flat edge sides, either by sticking, gluing or any securing means, the carrier 27 is designed from a base 28 supporting a hollow circular holder 29, the holder 29 has at each of its hollow clamps 30 upper edges, two balls 31, each ball 31 is supported from its outer side on stoppers 32, while from inside the hollow clamp 30 it is supported on a spring 33 supported on a retaining plate 34, when the housing's 21 supporting shafts 23 are pressed on the two balls 31, which will press on the two springs 33 inside the clamps 30, the balls 31 will move to inside the hollow clamp 30, where the shafts 23 will slide in-between the balls 31 to set inside the hollow circular holder 29, at the same time the balls 31 will retard back locking on the shafts 23, so the housing 21 supporting shafts 23 will be carried on the carrier 27, while the housing 21 is hanged over the bumper upper flat edge.

3- The main spring retarder roller FIG. 3: It is a hollow shaft 35, rolled and winded around it the fabric 20, inside it the main built-in spring retarder 36, this hollow shaft 35 is secured inside the cylindrical housing 21, by letting both inner ends of the supporting shafts 23 pass through the canters of the main spring retarder roller 35 end caps 37 FIG. 1,3, note that while the supporting shafts are fixed standstill to the centers of the cover's housing 21 end caps 22, the main spring retarder roller 35 is free to rotate around the fixed supporting shafts 23, further the main roller 35 is carried on bearings 38, mounted in the center ends of it. The tension spring 36 will be fixed from one of its sides to one of the shafts 23 ends, while the other side of it will be connected and fixed to the hollow shaft 35 end through any plastic connection 39 as in window sunshade rollers, this mean when pulling the rolled fabric 20 which is attached to the main roller hollow shaft 35, this roller hollow shaft 35 will rotate around the two shafts 23, while the bearings 38 are in-between, inside, the spring 36 which is connected and fixed to the hollow shaft 35 end, will be twisted with each rotation of the hollow shaft 35 since its other side is not free, meaning that the spring 36 will be twisted beginning from one end while hold from the other end, when releasing the extended fabric 20, the torsion load stored in the spring 36, will let it retard to retrieve its original shape, while the spring 36 retards back, it will rotate the hollow shaft 35 which is connected to it, the hollow shaft 35 which is attached to the fabric 20, will roll back the fabric 20.

The main spring retarder roller 35 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 36 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 36, 41 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 20 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 roller FIG. 3: it is installed inside the main spring retarder roller hollow shaft 35 near its center. This secondary tubular shaft 40 has a built in torsion spring 41, it is used to pull back both sides of fabric 20 that is covering the vehicle sides by pulling a net of threads 42 that is spread inside the fabric 20 and passing the main hollow shaft through a small hole 43 made in it. The secondary spring 41 retarder tubular shaft 40 is supported to the main spring roller tubular housing 35 through two L-shape rods 44, bearings can be used in- between the secondary spring retarder 41 ends and the L-shape rods 44.

The operation and internal design of the secondary retarder roller 40 is nearly the same of the main roller, where the secondary roller also require a clutch assembly as indicated in item 3, but for more high precision if required, the secondary retarder roller 35 can be designed of one tubular shaft 40 of multi-diameters, each connected to the suitable thread 45 length, where a hole can be made in the main hollow shaft 35 for each thread 45. Note that a plastic connection 46 is used to hold the secondary spring to the secondary roller inner end.

The fabric FIG. 4: this invention required the fabric 20 to be divided into three parts, FIG. 4 shows a two dimensional view of the fabric 20 actual extended flat shape, including the following main three parts:

a- The fabric top part 47 is covering the rear trunk 48, rear windshield glass and roof 49, front windshield 50, engine hood 51, front bumper, lights and grilles 52. Note here that both the front and rear edges of the top fabric 47 each has at its edges two holes 53 for hooking purposes. B- Two side fabrics 54: these are extending from the top fabric 47 both right and left sides, but they are separated from it at the front and rear both fabric's 20 (vehicle's) corners 55, for purpose of pulling it down or lifting it up separately from the top fabric 47 at the vehicle four vertical corners 55, the side fabrics 54 are designed in the same way of roman curtains.

Each of the side fabrics 54 has three holes 56 for hooking purposes, one in the front lower corner, one in the lower middle and one in the rear lower corner.

A double sticky tape may be used if necessary on the side fabrics 54 front middle edges, to attach it from both sides near the middle of top fabric 47 on its side that is covering the engine hood 51 front edge, this can help in pulling out fabric 20 from inside the fabric20 cover housing 21.

The fabric 20 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 20 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 20 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's 20 tubular guidelines 57 will be a net of paths 57 inside the fabric 20 having a main path going in parallel with the vehicle top center line 58 going out of it branches 59 so that a net of threads 42 will be passing through it, to be used in pulling the side fabrics 54 same as roman curtains, where here each side fabric 54 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 60 with 0.5 cm width as part of the side fabrics fabric 54, so that the side fabric 54 when pulled up can be folded into two pieces over each other, or more pieces according to the design measurements for suitable operation. The side fabric 54 longitudinal fold 60 can be pulled up using a thread 45, by letting the thread 45 passes out the longitudinal fold 60 of the side fabric 54 for extra millimeters through a small hole 61, then making a knot 62 at the thread's 45 end with a size larger than the hole 61, so that when pulling the thread 45 back, the knot 62 will stick in the hole 61 and so all knots will pull up the whole side fabric 54 longitudinal fold 60. 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 20, FIG. 13 can be used for designing a prototype model of the fabric 20 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 60 which need to be designed on vehicle as in FIG. 4.

Guide bar FIG. 5: The guide bar 63 is made of wood or plastic, it is connected to the fabric 20 front edge which is extending out of the housing 21 through a slot 24, where the guide bar is located at the outer entrance of the housing slot, this guide bar 63 has at its center a circular cleat 64 and a clamp 65 at its left side.

Pulling stick FIG. 5, 6: The pulling stick (telescopic stick) 66 is made of wood or plastic, it is normally fixed from one side to the guide bar 63 using a clamp 66, while attached to it from the other side to the cleat 64 the pulling stick 66 has a hand holder 67 at its free edge, this pulling stick 66 will be used to pull the guide bar 63 in a straight line over the top center of vehicle 58 and will help the user to pull the fabric 20 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.

- A set of Hangers FIG. 7, 8: These hangers will be distributed around the vehicle body bottom side, two hangers 68 under the front bumper, and two at each side 69 of the vehicle, distributed one under the body middle lower side and one at the lower rear side. The front hangers 68 are made in a special way, where we need to make an overlapping of the cover edges at the front corners 55 of the vehicle, the hanger's base 70 at the vehicle front corners 55 will carry at the same time two hangers 71, 72, so the hanger 68 will be called double hanger 68. For example at the vehicle front right, there will be a double hanger 68 under the front bumper right corner, it will have upper right hanger 71 and lower left hanger 72, while at the front left corner of the vehicle, under the bumper left corner the double hanger 68 will have upper left hanger 71 and lower right 72 hanger.

The hangers has at each of its two hollow holder clamp 73 edges a ball 74 loaded on a spring 75, where the spring 75 is loaded in a retaining plate 76, while the ball 74 is loaded from its outer side to a stopper 77 to prevent it from coming out, when the fabric 20 top part 47 front edge having the hole 53 is pressed on the two balls 74 of the upper hanger 71, the balls will press on the spring 75 which press on the retaining plate 76, and so the fabric edge will pass through the gap between the two balls 74, then balls 74 retard towards each other through the fabric hole 53, closing the gap in-between it and locking on the fabric 20. When the side fabric's 54 hole 56 is engaged in the hanger 72, the side fabric 54 edge will overlap the top fabric 47 at that corner, and so the corner is covered depending on one double hanger.

The Hangers base 70 has 4 holes to be used for screws or bolts if required to fasten it to the vehicle lower body or front bumper lower side, or the base can have a strong sticky material to stick it to the vehicle body.

Detailed Description of Operation

Method of operation :

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

Stages of operation 1- Unrolling the fabric 20, it includes three stages and takes 35 seconds:

First stage: (Removing cover housing 21 from inside luggage compartment) - (ten seconds)

The trunk lid 48 is opened, cover's housing 21 is removed, and right and left extending shafts 23 of the housing 21 are installed inside the carriers 27, trunk lid 48 closed FIG.9.

Second stage: (covering the vehicle top) - (ten seconds).

The user releases the pulling stick 66 from the clamp 65 of the guide bar 63, then start pulling the fabric 20 using the pulling stick 66 hand holder 67, the guide bar 63 will drag behind it the 3-layers of the fabric 20 FIG. 9, one of these 3-layers is only connected or attached to the main roller hollow shaft 35, it is the one that will cover the vehicle top side.

The user moves towards one of the vehicle rear right or left sides, and holding the pulling stick 66 up, he/she moves towards the front of vehicle, while the stick 66 is pulling the fabric cover 20 from its middle side in parallel with the vehicle top center line 58, he/she walks till reaching the front of the vehicle FIG. 10, 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 66, he/she hold the guide bar 63 by his left hand, and by his right hand push the pulling stick 66 towards the guide bar's 63 clamp 65 and fix it, then takes it down under the front bumper, where he/she fixes the top fabric 47 front edge through its both front threaded holes 53 in the front right and left double hangers 68, 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 53 of the top fabric 47 front edge will be hanged in the right upper hanger 71 of the front right double hanger 68, while the left hole 53 will be hanged in the left upper 71 hanger of the front left double hanger 68. Also note here that if a double sticky tape is used in-between the side fabrics 54 and the top fabric 47, located in the place over engine hood 52 front edge, both side fabrics 53 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) - (fifteen seconds)

The right and left folded side fabrics 54 are similar in design and operation, each side has three threaded side holes 53 in its lower edge, with same distance in-between, the two sides 54 appear to the user to be folded along the top fabric 47. When pulling as example the left side fabric 54 down, it will cover the vehicle left side, normally the user need to start pulling the side fabric 54 down from its middle side by both hands with a round a meter gap in-between, down side on the body middle bottom side there is a single hanger 69, where he/she can fix the side fabric's 54 edge their through the side threaded hole 56. Then the user will move forward to the front left corner, where he pull the side fabric 54 front left edge where the threaded hole 56 located, towards the front left double hanger at the corner 55, there he will fix the hole 56 in the lower right hanger 72 of the front left double hanger 68, so that the left side fabric 54 will overlap the top fabric 47 front left edge FIG. 11, then the user moves towards the rear left side of the vehicle where he install the rear left side fabric threaded hole in the rear left hanger under the rear bumper left corner FIG. 12. Since the top fabric has no holes to be hooked, the remaining part to be fixed of the fabric, will be the right side fabric 54, which will be installed in the same way of the left one, where the user will move from vehicle rear left side towards its middle right, pull down the side fabric, hook it in the middle single hanger, then moves to the front right and fix the side fabric to the front right double hanger, the final shape of the covering will appear as in FIG. 13.

2- Rolling or folding back the cover fabric 20, it consists of three stages, takes 40 seconds. Fourth stage: (Raising the side fabrics) - (twenty seconds)

All the fabric parts need to be released from the hangers 68, 69 sequentially, normally starting from the rear right and ending with the rear left. The right and left sides' fabrics 54 are raised in the same way. when both sides are released from the hangers 68, 69, both side fabrics 54 will stay hanging down, because when using a clutch mechanism in the secondary roller 40 spring retarder 41, the fabric will be hold extended, when we pull the last side fabric 54 that we released from hangers 68, 69, which is here the left one, the spring retarder 41 in the secondary roller 40 will be unlocked same in roman curtains, and it will pull the net of threads 42 through the net of paths 57 that are making a net inside the right and left sides of the side fabrics 54, that threads 45 will pull up at the same time both folded sides of fabric 54 tell they are raised and arranged over the top fabric 47 FIG. 10.

Fifth stage: (Rolling back the top and sides fabrics of the cover) - (seven seconds) After all the three parts of fabric cover 20 are arranged over the top of the vehicle, the top fabric 47 front edge is already released from the double hangers 68 under the front bumper, but it will stay hanging down, because when using a clutch mechanism in the main roller 35 spring retarder 36, the fabric will be hold extended. The next step now is to release the pulling stick 66 from the clamp 65 of the guide bar 63, then when the user push the guide bar 63 towards him, the main spring retarder 36 will unlock, and so the main spring roller 35 will start pulling the fabrics backwards, by holding the pulling stick 66 he/she will moves towards one of the sides of the vehicle, then moves towards the back of the vehicle holding the flexible pulling stick 66 up, pointing to direction of the vehicle center line 58, tell he/she reaches the back of the vehicle, where the fabric 20 is completely rolled on the main roller hollow shaft 35 inside the cover's housing 21, their he/she re-fix the flexible pulling stick 66 on the guide bar 63 FIG. 9.

Sixth stage: (Returning cover housing 21 to luggage compartment) - (thirteen seconds)

Trunk lid is opened 48; cover's housing 21 is pulled up and hence removed from carriers 27, then the cover's housing 21 is put inside the luggage compartment and trunk lid 48 is closed.

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: Minimizes time of installing and removing, around 1 min for a person who practiced using it for around 5 times.

2- Workable: solved the side fabrics handling problem by using roman curtains style.

3- Compact and attractive design.

4- 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 Fabric cover.

21 Housing.

22 End caps.

23 Supporting shafts.

24 Longitudinal slot.

25 Double sponge strip.

26 Drainage holes.

27 Carrier.

28 Base.

29 Hollow circular hanger.

30 Clamp.

31 Ball.

32 Stopper.

33 Spring.

34 Retaining plate.

35 Main tubular (hollow) shaft (roller).

36 Main spring retarder.

37 End caps.

38 Bearing.

39 Plastic connection.

40 Secondary tubular (hollow) shaft (roller). Torsion spring.

Net of Threads.

Small hole in main shaft.

L shape rods.

Thread.

Plastic connection.

Fabric top cover.

Trunk and rear windshield.

Roof.

Front windshield.

Engine hood.

Front bumper, lights and grilles. Top fabric front edge holes. Side fabric.

Front corner.

Side fabric holes.

Net of paths.

Top center line.

Branch.

Longitudinal fold.

Thread's hole.

Knot. 63 Guide bar.

64 Circular cleat.

65 Clamp.

66 Pulling stick.

67 Hand holder.

68 Double Hanger.

69 Single (side) hanger.

70 Base.

71 Double hanger-Upper hanger part.

72 Double hanger-Lower hanger part.

73 Hollow holder clamp.

74 Ball.

75 Spring.

76 Retaining spring.

77 Stopper.

Citations

Patent Number Title Issue date

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storage and dispensing, such as truck bed

cover tarpaulins, tents and the like

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4929016 Bi-directional roof mounted car protective May 29, 1990 device

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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:

an elongated cylindrical housing for the fabric and the winding mechanism made of plastic, having an upper slot along the length of its body for passing the fabric cover;

cylindrical housing supported on the rear bumper upper flat edge using two carriers;

a design of a fabric cover made mainly from three parts: top part and two side parts; a fabric cover which covers the top and sides of the vehicle; fabric cover engaging winding mechanism such that cover is removable between an extended position hooked to a set of hangers and a retracted position to inside the cylindrical housing.

2- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the carriers has a base and a double facing symmetrical hollow clamps, each of it has inside its clamp hollow end a ball supported from outside to stoppers and from inside setting on a spring supported on a retaining plate.

3- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the housing has end caps at the middle of each of it, supporting shafts are mounting and passing from inside to outside to be supported on the carriers.

4- 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.

5- 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. 6- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 5, wherein the main roller has inside it a built-in secondary spring retarder roller used for retarding side fabrics threads.

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

8- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 7, 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.

9- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 8, wherein the guide-bar cleat is connected to adjustable pulling stick which is used to pull the fabric.

10- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the top fabric has two threaded holes at its front edge corners for hooking purposes.

11- 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.

12- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 11, 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.

13- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 1, wherein the side fabrics has three holes at each lower edge of it for hooking purposes.

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

15- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 15, wherein four single side hangers used under the middle of vehicle body lower sides and both rear lower corners, while two double hangers used under the front bumper lower corners for overlapping the fabrics.

16- The cover apparatus in accordance with claim 16, 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.

17- A method of covering an automobile quickly comprising the steps of: opening luggage compartment, taking the cover cylindrical housing and fixing it to the carriers; 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 and rear side lower corners.

18- 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;

trunk lid is opened and cover's housing is pulled up and hence removed from carriers;

the cover's housing is put inside the luggage compartment and trunk lid is closed.