US3282657A

US3282657A - Clip for straddling and gripping a supporting flange and blank therefor

Info

Publication number: US3282657A
Application number: US278858A
Authority: US
Inventors: Bright Robert Granville
Original assignee: Bright Manufacturing Co Ltd
Current assignee: Bright Manufacturing Co Ltd
Priority date: 1963-02-13
Filing date: 1963-05-08
Publication date: 1966-11-01
Anticipated expiration: 1983-11-01
Also published as: DE1430566C3; ES291834A1; GB1020025A; DE1430566B2; DE1430566A1

Description

Nov. 1, 1966 R. cs. BRIGHT 3,

CLIP FOR STRADDLING AND GRIPPING A SUPPORTING FLANGE AND BLANK THEREFOR Filed May 8, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VE N TOR BY 'Dsm FAmIsAHKv l /uurH ATTORNEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR 611mm: 73R m-HT' #:iscH

ATTORNEYQ R. G. BRIGHT Karisraf' BY DEAN FAIRBAMI Nov. 1, 1966 CLIP FOR STRADDLING AND GRIPPING A SUPPORTING FLANGE AND BLANK THEREFOR Filed May a, 1963 United States Patent Office 3,282,657 Patented Nov. 1, 1966 3,282,657 CLIP FOR STRADDLING AND GRIPPING A SUP- PORTING FLANGE AND BLANK THEREFOR Robert Granville Bright, Leamington Spa, England, as-

signor to Bright Manufacturing Company Limited, Coventry, England Filed May 8, 1963, Ser. No. 278,853 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Feb. 13, 1963, 5,870/ 63 13 Claims. (Cl. 29-1835) This invention relates to sealing or trimming strips intended either as draught or Weather excluders or as ornamental trimming strips for hiding an otherwise unsightly flange, such sealing or trimming strips being used on motor vehicles and attached to a supporting flange immediately surrounding a door or other closure member or in some cases surrounding the head lining of a motor vehicle.

The present invention is primarily concerned with a continuous clip for straddling and making frictional engagement with a supporting flange, the chief object of the invention being to provide an improved clip which can be cheaply and easily manufactured, which can be constructed satisfactorily from comparatively cheap material such as mild steel and at the same time will be capable of universal bending movement about curves of comparatively small radius without risk of the clip losing its effective grip.

A clip in accordance with the present invention is produced from strip or sheet material, the blank being formed with a series of transverse slots spaced apart throughout its length, the blank being bent along its longitudinal axis into substantially inverted U shape, the marginal edges of the blank being bent inwardly and upwardly to form resilient tongues which directly or indirectly engage opposite sides of the supporting flange.

The marginal edges of the blank may make linear engagement with the supporting flange but it is preferred that each edge shall be castellated or be of wavy or zigzag formation to provide a series of spaced flange engaging portions.

Furthermore it is preferred that the marginal edges of the blank shall be inclined upwardly and inwardly to the point where they engage the flange to provide a lead to facilitate pressing the clip into position on the flange and to more effectively resist its accidental displacement.

Referring to the accompanying drawings:

FIGURES 1 to 3 are perspective views of a portion of the blank in process of being bent into clip like form;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the completed clip;

FIGURES 5 and 6 are ide and end elevations thereof;

FIGURES 7, 8, 9 and 10 are sectional views illustrating the clip in association with four forms of draught excluding strips.

Referring in the first case to FIGURES 1 to 6 of the accompanying drawings which illustrate the formation of a continuous clip in accordance with the invention, the clip is produced from strip or sheet material for example mild steel or aluminum, the blank being formed with a series of transverse slots 1 alternating with transverse ribs 2 connected by marginal parts 3.

The flat blank shown in FIGURE 1 is bent transversely at

spaced points

4 and 5 near each marginal edge as in FIGURE 2 to form limbs 6 hereinafter referred to.

The limbs 6 are then folded inwardly in opposite directions at points 4 so that the blank has the formation shown in FIGURE 3.

The blank shown in FIGURE 3 is then bent transversely intermediate points 4 so that it assumes the substantially inverted U shape as in FIGURES 4 and 6 wherein the limbs 6 project upwardly in spaced relationship within the clip and constitute resilient tongues for directly or indirectly engaging a supporting flange on which the clip is placed.

It is preferred that the edges of the marginal parts 3 shall be castellated as at 7 or of wavy or zig-zag formation to form a series of spaced flange engaging pressure points. These pressure points may in fact be com-para tively sharp particularly if it i desired that they shall perforate the usual clip covering material and thus directly engage the supporting flange.

As will be seen clearly in FIGURE 6, the upper ends of the limbs 6 are inclined upwardly and inwardly to provide a lead to facilitate pressing the clip into position on the flange and to more effectively resist its accidental displacement.

The limbs 6 constituting the resilient tongues may be of any suitable length but are preferably such that the flange engaging parts are situated substantially midway of the depth of the clip when the latter is bent into its final shape, the two marginal connecting parts 3 constituting a central duplex spine together forming a neutral longitudinal axis about which bending movement of the clip will take place when the clip is bent into curved shape in any plane or planes.

It will be appreciated that the limbs 6 can flex about the bending points 4 and also possibly to a certain extent throughout their length to resiliently grip the supporting flange and also accommodate themselves to flanges of diflerent thickness.

When intended for use as a trimming strip it is merely necessary to apply a strip 8 of woven fabric, plastic or other covering material to the clip as in FIGURE 7, but without the sealing section shown, the longitudinal edges 9 of the covering strip being turned inwardly and upwardly around the lower edges of the limbs 6 of the Clip and secured in position by adhesive, by sewing or in any other suitable manner.

The width of the covering strip is preferably such that its marginal edges lying within the clip project upwardly just short of the castellated flange engaging parts 3 but it is within the scope of the invention to extend the edges of the covering material upwardly so that the edges will be gripped between the castellated parts and the flange in which case the flange engaging parts may be formed as comparatively sharp tangs in which case the edges of the covering material may be actually perforated by the tangs, thereby in either case maintaining the covering material in position without it is thought the necessity to employ an adhesive or sewing to hold the strip in position.

When employing sewing to hold the covering strip in position cardboard or other suitable packing strip 10 may be introduced into the bend of the limbs 6 as in FIG- URES '8 and 9, the lines of stitching 11 passing through the longitudinal edges of the covering material, the slots 1 and the packing strips 10.

These packing pieces may if desired be composed of rubber to improve the resiliency of the flange engaging parts of the clip.

In FIGURES 7 to 9 is shown a sealing section 12 composed of sponge rubber or other suitable resilient material which is intended to make sealing engagement with a door or other closure member and also make good sealing engagement with a part 13 with which the flange 14 is associated and thus prevent entry of water or moisture into the interior of the clip and onto the supporting flange.

In FIGURE 7 the sealing section 12 is intended to be adhesively secured to the covering material 8 and to make sealing engagement with the flange 14 and part 13 at

points

15 and 16.

In FIGURE 8 the covering material is of narrower Width, the sealing section being stitched at 17 to the covering material whilst the sealing section is stitched to the clip at 18.

In FIGURE 9 the covering material is again of narrow width and is adhesively secured to a comparatively cheap lining material 19 such as hessian. The comparatively cheap lining material extends into the interior of the clip, the edges of the lining being gripped between the castellated parts and the flange. The part of the lining 19 which contacts the sealing section may be adhesively secured or stitched thereto. It will be appreciated therefore that none of the lining material will be visible when the section is in position upon the supporting flange.

If the sealing section 12 in FIGURE 9 is not required the covering material 8 will be of greater width but not so wide as is the case in FIGURE 7, the left hand side of the covering being continued downwardly an amount corresponding with the part of the covering on the right side of FIGURE 9. p

In FIGURE 10 the clip is of a slightly different crosssectional shape to the clips previously illustrated in that the lower right hand edge 20 of the clip is bent inwardly to actually indirectly engage the supporting flange, thus preventing any tendency for the clip to rock on the flange in a clockwise direction and cause the edge 15 of the sealing section to move out of sealing engagement with the flange. In this case the sealing section is stitched to the covering strip at 11, the opposite edge of the covering strip extending upwardly sufliciently to be gripped between the parts 6 of the clip and the flange.

It will be appreciated that the resilient tongues will flex from their flange engaging parts to the lower edges of the clip and consequently they will frictionally grip the flange even though the flange may be abnormally thick as in the case of a flange composed of three thicknesses of sheet metal as compared with the more usual flange composed of two pieces of metal secured together by welding.

I claim:

1. A clip for straddling and gripping a supporting flange, said clip comprising a series of juxtaposed inverted substantially U-shaped ribs, connector portions integral with said ribs retaining the latter in spaced relationship, said connector portions being situated adjacent to the longitudinal axis of the clip about which bending movement of the clip will take place, said longitudinal axis being substantially midway of the depth of the clip. 2. A clip as claimed in claim 1 wherein the free ends of the legs of the U-shaped ribs are bent inwardly and upwardly into the interior of the clip and form resilient limbs for gripping such supporting flange.

3. A clip for straddling and gripping an elongated supporting flange, said clip comprising a series of juxtaposed inverted substantially U-shaped ribs each having a pair of resilient legs, the lower end of each leg being bent inwardly and upwardly into the interior of the clip, a connecting portion integral with the clip and extending longitudinally thereof between the extremities of said inwardly bent ends of the ribs to form two spaced connected rows of legs, said rows extending parallel to and being slightly spaced from the longitudinal axis of said clip, said longitudinal axis being substantially midway of the depth of the clip and midway between the inwardly bent ends of the rows of legs.

4. A clip as claimed in claim 3 in which a portion of the free ends of the legs at the extremities thereof are inclined inwardly to provide a lead to facilitate pressing the clip into position on the flange and more effectively to resist accidental displacement of the clip.

5. A clip as claimed in claim 3 wherein the resilient flange engaging legs have a length such that their extremities lie at a position substantially midway of the depth of the clip.

6. A clip as claimed in claim 3 wherein the resilient legs are spaced from the inner surface of the clip throughout their full length.

'7. A clip assembly as claimed in claim 3 wherein said ribs have a covering strip thereon.

8. A clip assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the longitudinal edges of the-covering strip are turned inwardly and upwardly into the interior of the clip.

9. A clip assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the covering strip is secured to a lining strip having a width greater than the covering strip, the longitudinal edges of the lining only being turned inwardly and upwardly into the interior of the clip.

10. A clip assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the covering strip carries a sealing section of resilient material.

11. A clip assembly as claimed in claim 10 wherein the covering strip and sealing section is secured by being sewn to the clip and the clip incorporates'packing strips in the bends of the resilient limbs of the clip to locate the stitches.

12. A blank for forming a clip for straddling and gripping a supporting flange, said blank comprising an elongated substantially rectangular strip of sheet material having a plurality of spaced parallel transverse slots between the longitudinal edges thereof, thereby providing a plurality of spaced parallel ribs connected at their extremities by the longitudinal edge portions of the strip.

13. The blank as claimed in claim 12 in which the longitudinal edges of the strip are serrated to define a plurality of outwardly extending gripping portions aligned with an associated rib.

DAVID L. RECK, Primary Examiner.

HYLAND BIZOT, Examiner.

R. O. DEAN, Assistant Examiner.

Claims

1. A CLIP FOR STRADDING AND GRIPPING A SUPPORTING FLANGE, SAID CLIP COMPRISING A SERIES OF JUXTAPOSED INVERTED SUBSTANTIALLY U-SHAPED RIBS, CONNECTOR PORTIONS INTEGRAL WITH SAID RIBS RETAINING THE LATER IN SPACED RELATIONSHIP, SAID CONNECTOR PORTIONS BEING SITUATED ADJACENT TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF THE CLIP ABOUT WHICH BENDING MOVEMENT OF THE CLIP WILL TAKE PLACE, SAID LONGITUDINAL AXIS BEING SUBSTANTIALLY MIDWAY OF THE DEPTH OF THE CLIP.