GB2099069A

GB2099069A - A device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle

Info

Publication number: GB2099069A
Application number: GB8213176A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: FRESE METALLWERK; METALLWERK FRESE GmbH
Current assignee: FRESE METALLWERK; METALLWERK FRESE GmbH
Priority date: 1981-05-06
Filing date: 1982-05-06
Publication date: 1982-12-01
Also published as: DE3117824A1

Abstract

The device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle, such as a car, comprises a supporting arm (6) holding the mirror (3) and a support (7) to be attached to the body of the vehicle. The base (8) has a seat (10) with an inwardly projecting and encirculating shoulder (14), in which a catch element (12) provided on the supporting arm is to be inserted in a detachable manner, so that the supporting arm (6) comes off under the impact of a certain minimum force. The catch element (12) has a groove (17) corresponding to the shoulder (14) of the seat and is designed, for example, as a disc body, so that the shoulder (14) engages in the groove (17) in order to hold the catch element in the seat. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle This invention relates to a device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle, such as a car, comprising a supporting arm holding the mirror and a base which is to be attached to the body of the vehicle and which has a seat with a constricted opening for the detachable insertion of a catch element provided on the supporting arm.

In a known device of this type (German Patent No. 1,755,514), the catch element provided on the supporting arm is a ball which may snap into an undercut spherical bearing in the base. In order to allow the spherical catch element to engage and disengage, upwardly open, slit-shaped recesses are made in the top of the base around the constricted bearing opening, which impart to the walls of the bearing an adequate and uniformly equal elasticity, so that the spherical catch element of the supporting arm is released from the bearing in any direction under the tilting moment critical for detachment, even when the base is made of hard elastic material However, a suspension device of this type is expensive to produce, which fact is particularly important economically, since internal rear mirrors for motor vehicles, such as cars, are massproduced, and even those cost increases which seem to be small are economically very significant. On the one hand, the production of the spherical catch element and the bearing opening for this element is expensive with the necessary precision. On the other hand, applying the recesses around the bearing opening is also expensive, because complex injection moulding dies are required for this purpose and the precise dimensioning are critical.

The object of the present invention is to improve the device of the initially mentioned type for the detachable suspension of an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle, such as a car, so that it is of a more robust design and is cheaper to produce.

This object is achieved according to the present invention in that the seat of the base has an inwardly projecting and encirculating shoulder, and the catch element of the supporting arm has a groove corresponding to the shoulder, in which the shoulder engages when the catch element is engaged. The catch element is preferably a disc body which is joined to the supporting arm by a hook-like undercut and which may have a bevelled external surface and thus may easily be pressed into the seat which is provided with a funnel- shaped opening. The inwardly projecting shoulder of the seat turns out approximately vertically to the surface of the base during the catchengagement and also when the catch element is disengaged, so that the thickness of the wall surrounding the seat is not critical.

The base is preferably provided with a covering cap which may be made of a more rigid or a stiffer material than the base itself and has an opening into which the foot of the supporting arm provided with the catch element may be inserted. The covering cap may be made of comparatively stiff or rigid plastics or metal, whereas the base is appropriately injected from plastics material which has an adequate elasticity to allow the encirculating shoulder which acts as a catch to turn out when the catch engages and disengages.

The supporting arm itself with the catch element moulded thereon may be made of metal, for example cast metal.

An embodiment of an adjustable internal rear view mirror for cars which is provided with the suspension device according to the present invention is described in detail below, by example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Fig. 2 is a side view, partly in section, on a natural scale, and Fig. 2 shows a cross section along line Il-Il in Fig. 1 on an enlarged scale.

An internal rear view mirror 1 with a housing 2 and a mirror disc 3 attached therein is suspended on a ball-joint 5 of a supporting arm 6 by a holding plate 4. The supporting arm 6 is held in a detachable manner on a support 7 which, for its part, is to be attached to a supporting part which is not shown, for example to the body of a vehicle.

As shown in particular in Fig. 2, the support 7 comprises two parts, namely a base 8 and a covering cap 9 accommodating this body.

In its centre, the base 8 has a dish-shaped recess 10 which acts as a seat for a catch element 12 provided on the head 11 of the supporting arm 6. The recess 10 which is open towards the top 1 3 of the base 8 of the catch element 7 has an inwardly projecting and encirculating shoulder 1 4 which is positioned below a frustoconically inwardly tapering side wall 1 5 of the opening.

The catch element 12 is designed in the shape of a disc and is joined to the head 11 of the supporting arm 6 via a short neck 16, the head 11 being formed with an encirculating groove 1 7 which is designed as a hook-shaped undercut. The catch element (12) has a frustoconical external surface 18, and the cone angle of this surface 1 8 corresponds to the cone angle of the side wall 1 5 of the opening of the recess 1 0 which is thus designed in the shape of a funnel.

The sides of the base 8 of the catch element are provided with countersunk screw holes 19 which are covered by the covering cap 9.

As shown in particular by Fig. 1 the lower side 20 of the complete support 7 is curved and is suitably adapted to the supporting surface on the body which is not shown.

The interior space 21 which acts as a seat for the catch element 1 2 is designed such that the element 1 2 is held in the seat merely by catching behind the encirculating shoulder 1 4. The catch element 1 2 is thus only in contact with the recess 10 via the shoulder 14.

The width of the groove 1 7 between the catch element 12 and the head 11 of the supporting arm 6 is selected to be slightly smaller than the thickness of the shoulder 14, so that the catch element 1 2 lies behind the shoulder 14 with a certain initial tension and accordingly, the head 11 of the supporting arm 6 is held firmly against the outside 1 3 of the base 8 of the support 7 and the supporting arm 6 is thus connected to the support 7 in a vibration free manner.

At its centre, the cap 9 has an opening 22 which is adapted to the shape of the head 11 of the supporting arm 6, so that the head 11 engages in the covering cap 9, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Due to the frustoconical side wall 1 5 of the opening of the recess 10 and to the similarly frustoconical external surface 1 8 of the catch element 12, this element may be pressed relatively easily into the opening 21. The shoulder 14 snaps into the groove 1 7 as soon as the catch element 12 has been pressed in far enough and the head 11 of the supporting arm 6 rests on the external surface 1 3 of the base 8. After positioning the supporting arm 6, or even before, the covering cap 9 may be attached onto the base 8 in its final position.

Claims

1. A device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle, such as a car, comprising a supporting arm holding the mirror and a base which is to be attached to the body of the vehicle and which has a seat with a constricted opening for the detachable insertion of a catch element provided on the supporting arm, wherein in that the seat has an inwardly projecting and encirculating shoulder, and the catch element has a groove corresponding to the shoulder.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein the catch element is a disc body which is joined to the supporting arm via the groove and the groove is in the form of a hook-like undercut.

3. A device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the width of the groove is slightly smaller than the thickness of the shoulder.

4. A device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the catch element has a frustoconical external surface.

5. A device according to one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the opening of the seat is designed in a funnel shape.

6. A device according to claim 5, wherein the opening of the seat has a frustoconical side wall with approximately the same cone angle as the external surface of the catch element.

7. A device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the base is provided with an attachable covering cap.

8. A device for suspending an internal rear view mirror in a vehicle substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.