GB2488775A

GB2488775A - Towing mirror clamp assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2488775A
Application number: GB1103799.1A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Frederick Nigel Milbank
Original assignee: Milenco Ltd
Current assignee: Milenco Ltd
Priority date: 2011-03-05
Filing date: 2011-03-05
Publication date: 2012-09-12
Anticipated expiration: 2031-03-05
Also published as: GB2488775B; GB201103799D0

Abstract

The assembly comprises a mirror, an arm 14 connected to the mirror and at least one bracket 16 mounted on the arm 14. The bracket 16 comprises a clamp 18 for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror, the clamp 18 comprising a frame 26 and a movable clamping member. The frame 26 includes a concave lower surface 50. The frame 26 can pivot on a shaft about an axis perpendicular to the arm 14. The clamping member has an engaging portion for gripping a wing mirror between it and the frame surface 50; the engaging portion can have two mutually angled surfaces, is grooved and is of a flexible material, e.g. soft rubber.

Description

DESCRIPTION

TOWING MIRROR CLAMP

s This invention relates to apparatus including a mirror assembly. Such apparatus can be used by vehicle drivers, for example when the driver is towing a wide load and needs an extension to their conventional wing mirror.

If a vehicle driver is towing a wide load, such as a car with a caravan, io then it is advantageous, and in some jurisdictions a legal requirement, that the conventional vehicle wing mirror be extended, in order for the vehicle driver to be able to see behind and along the side of the wide load. To achieve this, it is known to provide apparatus, sometimes referred to as a towing mirror, which includes a mirror and a device for fixing that mirror to the conventional wing is mirror. However, as vehicle design becomes more complicated and elaborate, there is a difficulty providing a towing mirror that will fit all, or at least the vast majority, of wing mirror designs.

United Kingdom Patent GB 2444919 describes an apparatus comprising a mirror assembly, an arm connected to the mirror assembly, and at least one bracket mounted on the arm, the bracket comprising a clamp for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror, where the clamp is rotatable about an axis substantially perpendicular to the arm. The clamp has a movable clamping member with an engaging portion having a guiding element engaging in a slot in the frame. While the towing mirror described in this prior Patent has a number of fixing advantages in relation to the fixing of a towing mirror to a vehicle wing mirror, it does not provide a solution that is suitable for all shapes of wing mirrors.

It is therefore an object of the invention to improve upon the known art.

According to the present invention, there is provided apparatus comprising a mirror assembly, an arm connected to the mirror assembly, and a bracket mounted on the arm, the bracket comprising a clamp for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror, the clamp comprises a frame and a movable clamping member, wherein the frame includes a concave lower surface.

Owing to this aspect of the invention, it is possible to provide a clamp that will have a better fix to a wider range of wing mirror shapes and sizes, through the provision of a concave lower surface of the frame of the clamp.

This allows the clamp to fix to those wing mirrors that have a very tight gap between the vehicle wing mirror and the frame surrounding the wing mirror.

Preferably, the movable clamping member has an engaging portion with two distinct surfaces. The design of the lower surface of the engaging portion 0 of the clamp is such that the contact between the engaging portion of the clamp and a wing mirror is enhanced. The two surfaces are at an angle to each other, which make up the lower surface of the engaging portion, and provide a dual contact area with the vehicle wing mirror. This is advantageous as many wing mirrors have a top surface (where the clamp will be located) that is curved in cross-section, and the first and second surfaces of the lower surface of the engaging portion of the clamp provide a good method of clamping to the wing mirror. The two surfaces that make up the lower surface of the gripper pad are at an angle to each other, thereby providing a non-planar lower surface to the gripper pad. Each surface is substantially planar and the preferred angle between the two surfaces is 135 degrees, although a wide range of different obtuse angles can be used to make the functioning gripper pad. The gripper pad creates a better fitting with both curved and stepped designs of vehicle wing mirror.

Advantageously, the engaging portion of each clamp is formed of soft rubber (or equivalent man-made material) and provides a certain amount of flexibility in its contact with the wing mirror. As the user tightens a clamp onto a wing mirror, as the engaging portion contacts the exterior surface of the wing mirror, the soft material formation of the engaging portion undergoes a certain amount of deformation to match the external shape of the wing mirror, as the user tightens the clamping member. This provides an additional advantage over and above the improvement delivered by the dual contact area of the engaging portion. The two surfaces that make up the lower surface of the engaging portion are grooved to improve the contact of the lower surface with the wing mirror to which the clamp is being fixed. The grooves can be longitudinal and in parallel across the lower surface of the engaging portion.

The engaging portion can be formed as a single piece of plastics material, or s can be formed of more than one part, with the lower surface being formed as a single component that is fixed to the remainder of the body of the engaging portion to make the finished engaging portion.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of io example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a front view of an apparatus including a mirror assembly, Figures 2a and 2b are side views of different embodiments of the apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a partial front view of the apparatus of Figure 1, and is Figure 4 is a front view of the apparatus of Figure 1, in use.

Figure 1 shows the apparatus 10, which comprising a mirror assembly 12, an arm 14 connected to the mirror assembly 12, and two brackets 16 that are mounted on the arm 14. Each bracket 16 comprises a clamp 18 for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror (not shown in this Figure), and each clamp 18 is rotatable about an axis substantially perpendicular to the arm 14 and substantially perpendicular to the upright direction of the respective clamp 18.

The apparatus 10 is shown with two brackets 16, as a preferred embodiment, but the apparatus 10 could equally well be provided with only a single bracket 16 for fixing to the vehicle wing mirror.

Each bracket 16 also includes a fixing portion 20 for connecting the respective bracket 16 directly to the arm 14 of the apparatus 10, and a shaft for connecting the clamp 18 to the fixing portion 20. The clamp 18 is rotatable about the shaft. Each bracket 16 also includes a locking element 24 for preventing rotation of the clamp 20 about the arm 14 and for tightening the bracket 16 onto the arm 14. The shaft, with the locking element 24 fixably mounted thereto can be a screw-thread about which the clamp 18 will rotate.

The locking element 24 can be unscrewed to allow the clamp 18 to be rotated into position, and then the locking element 24 can be retightened to fix the clamp 18 in position, so that the clamp 18 can no longer move relative to the arm 14.

Since the apparatus 10 is designed as a towing mirror, a wide variety of different shapes of vehicle wing mirror can have the apparatus 10 fixed thereto. The provision of the rotation of the clamp 18 on each bracket 16 allows each clamp 18 to be positioned to best suit the local shape of the vehicle wing mirror to which the bracket 16 is being fixed. In particular, since io there are provided two brackets 16 in the embodiment of Figure 1, and both have clamps 18 that are rotatable independently of each other, a vehicle wing mirror with a varying shape can be connected to, without any impact on the performance of the towing mirror. Such a connection is relatively easy for a user to make themselves without any specialist assistance.

The apparatus 10 is designed to fit to a wing mirror of a vehicle such as a car. The apparatus 10 allows the driver of the car to be able to see behind them, by extending the mirror assembly 12 out and beyond a wide load, such as a caravan, that the car may be towing. The arm 14 of the apparatus 10 extends in the same plane as the mirror assembly 12, out to the side of the mirror assembly 12, and is at least twice the length of the mirror assembly 12.

The arm 14 is also at least twice as long as the brackets 16 are wide, so that it can support at least two brackets 16. The arm 14 is an elongate rod-like construction, which mounts the brackets 16 so that they are alongside the mirror assembly 12.

Each clamp 18 comprises a frame 26 and a movable clamping member 28, the clamping member 28 movable relative to the frame 26 of the clamp 18.

The clamping member 28 includes an engaging portion 36, which is shown in more detail in the two embodiments of Figures 2a and 2b. The engaging portion 36 is connected to a shaft 30 and is turnably mounted on the shaft 30.

The frame 26 includes a guiding slot 32, and the engaging portion 36 includes a guiding element 34 that engages in the guiding slot 32. The purpose of the guiding element 34 and the slot 32 is to assist in the locating and moving of the engaging portion 36.

Figure 2 shows two different embodiments of the engaging portion 36, in a side view of the apparatus 10 of Figure 1, with the mirror assembly 12 removed for clarity. The bracket 16 comprises the clamp 18, the fixing portion and the shaft 22. The clamp 18 can turn about the shaft 22, and the locking element 24 is used to tighten the clamp 18 against the fixing portion 20, when the correct position has been chosen by a user. The locking element 24 is rotated clockwise by the user and this causes the threaded shaft 22 to pass 0 through the fixing portion 20, which has a threaded hole therethrough, and tightens the locking element onto the clamp 18 squeezing it against the fixing portion 20.

The user turns the shaft 30 via the knob of the clamping member 28 and this motion raises and lowers the engaging portion 36, which is loosely is mounted on the shaft 30. This allows the engaging portion 36 to move in such away that the bottom surface 40 of the portion 36 is no longer horizontal. The guiding element 34 can be seen engaging with the slot 32 of the g-clamp 18.

Since the engaging portion 36 is moveable on the end of the shaft 30, the guiding arrangement assists the user in the locating of the bracket 16 on the vehicle wing mirror. The gap 38 in Figure 2 shows where a vehicle wing mirror would be secured by the clamp 18. The clamp 18 forms part of the bracket 16, the bracket 16 being for connecting the mirror assembly 12 to a vehicle wing mirror.

In Figure 2a, the bottom surface 40 of the engaging portion 36 is composed of two different surfaces that are at an acute angle to each other.

This assists the clamping of the engaging portion 36 onto a wing mirror that has a cross-section that is non-uniform, such as a curved or stepped appearance. Figure 2b shows the bottom surface 40 of the engaging portion 36 which is a single flat horizontal surface that will clamp onto the wing mirror of a vehicle. Which surface 40 is preferred will depend upon the model of vehicle to which the apparatus 10 is being affixed.

More detail of the clamps 18 can be seen in Figure 3. The frame 26 of each clamp 18 has a lower surface 50 that is concave. The lower surface 50 of the frame 26 of the clamp 18 is curved inwards in order to provide a concave surface 50. The purpose behind the surface 50 being concave is that this will fit better to vehicle wing mirrors, when compared to a straight edge along the lower surface 50 of the frame 26 of each clamp 16 of a bracket 16. The concave nature of the lower surface 50 of the frame 26 reduces the tolerance required between the vehicle wing mirror and the outer frame of the vehicle wing mirror for the towing mirror assembly 10 to be able to be fitted.

Figure 4 shows the towing mirror apparatus 10 fixed to a vehicle wing mirror 42. Each of the clamps 18 of the two brackets 16 mounted on the arm 14 have been rotated about their respective axis, in opposite directions relative to each other. This rotation facilitates the fastening of the apparatus 10 to the wing mirror 42, since the shape of the wing mirror 42 is substantially oval. The is lip of the mirror 42 is fixed between the respective engaging portions 36 of each clamp 18, and the user tightens the clamping member 28 to fasten the towing mirror apparatus 10 in place on the wing mirror 42.

The shape of the lower surface 40 of the engaging portion 36 of each clamp 18 is such that the contact between the engaging portions 36 and the wing mirror 42 is enhanced. The lower surface 40 of the engaging portion 36 is preferably formed of two distinct surfaces at an angle to each other that make up the lower surface of the engaging portion 36, thereby providing a dual contact area with the wing mirror 42. This is advantageous as many wing mirrors 42 have a top surface (where the clamps 18 will be located) that is curved in cross-section, and the two contact surfaces of the lower surfaces 40 of the engaging portions 36 of each clamp 18 provide a good method of clamping to the wing mirror 42.

The engaging portion 36 of each clamp 18 is formed of soft rubber (or equivalent man-made material) and provides a certain amount of flexibility in its contact with the wing mirror 42. As the user tightens an individual clamp 18 onto the wing mirror 42, then as the engaging portion 36 contacts the exterior surface of the wing mirror 42, the soft material formation of the engaging portion 36 undergoes a certain amount of deformation to match the external shape of the wing mirror 42, as the user tightens the clamping member 28.

This provides an additional advantage over and above the improvement delivered by the dual contact area of the engaging portion 36.

Claims

CLAIMS1. Apparatus comprising o a mirror assembly (12), o an arm (14) connected to the mirror assembly (12), and o a bracket (16) mounted on the arm (14), the bracket (16) comprising a clamp (18) for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror (42), the clamp (18) comprises a frame (26) and a movable clamping member (28), wherein the frame (26) includes a concave lower surface (50).
2 Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bracket (16) includes a fixing portion (20) for connecting to the arm (14) and a shaft (22) connecting the clamp (18) to the fixing portion (20).
3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the clamp (18) is rotatable about the shaft (22).
4. Apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the bracket (16) includes a locking element (24) for preventing rotation of the clamp (18).
5. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the clamp (18) is rotatable about an axis (A) substantially perpendicular to the arm (14).
6. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the movable clamping member (28) includes an engaging portion (36) connected to a shaft (30) and turnably mounted on the shaft (30).
7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein one of the frame (26) and the engaging portion (36) includes a guiding slot (32), and the other of the frame (26) and the engaging portion (36) includes a guiding element (34) engaging in the guiding slot (32).
8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the lower surface (40) of the engaging portion (36) is provided with grooves.
9. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, and further comprising a second bracket (16) mounted on the arm (14), the second bracket (16) comprising a clamp (18) for connecting to a vehicle wing mirror (40).
10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the clamp (18) of the second bracket (16) comprises a frame (26) and a movable clamping member (28), wherein the frame (26) of the second bracket (16) includes a concave lower surface (50).