Heavy-duty flat wiper blade assembly
AssigneeFederal-Mogul World Wide, Inc.
InventorLarry A. Wilson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heavy-duty flat wiper blade assembly has a wiper element and an extruded metallic frame. The frame has a bottom channel with a slot traversing its length in which the wiper element is maintained. The wiper element extends through the slot and outwardly from the bottom channel to make contact with a surface to be wiped. The frame has a closed upper channel that may include a fluid inlet opening for receiving wiper fluid into the channel and a fluid outlet opening for discharging the wiper fluid from the upper channel onto a surface to be wiped.
Claims26
A flat wiper blade assembly, comprising:
- a resilient wiper element extending longitudinally and having a crown, a neck and a body;
- and
- an extruded rigid metallic frame extending longitudinally between opposite ends, said frame including an open bottom channel having a pair of laterally spaced side walls and a bottom wall, said bottom wall formed with a longitudinally extending slot, said crown of said wiper element being disposed in said bottom channel, said neck extending through said slot and said body extending below said frame;
- said frame including an upper channel having a partition wall separating said upper chamber from said lower chamber, a pair of laterally spaced side walls of said upper chamber extending upwardly from said partition wall, and a top wall extending between said side walls and spaced from said partition wall to enclose said upper channel.
A flat wiper blade assembly, comprising:
- a wiper element;
- and
- an extruded metallic frame having a bottom channel in which said wiper element is disposed, said frame having a closed upper channel provided with a fluid inlet for receiving wiper fluid into said upper channel and a fluid outlet for discharging wiper fluid from said upper channel.
A method of manufacturing a flat wiper blade assembly, comprising:
- providing a wiper element;
- extruding a metallic frame having a generally closed upper channel and a bottom channel with a slot traversing through a wall spanning the length of the bottom channel to receive the wiper element;
- slidably inserting the wiper element into the bottom channel of the frame so that the wiper element depends from the bottom channel and through the slot to make wiping contact with a surface to be wiped;
- and
- staking a wall of the bottom channel to fix the wiper element within the bottom channel of the frame.
A method of manufacturing a flat wiper blade assembly, comprising:
- forming a wiper element;
- extruding a metallic frame having a generally closed upper channel and an open bottom channel with a slot traversing through a wall spanning the length of the bottom channel to receive the wiper element;
- slidably inserting the wiper element into the bottom channel of the frame so that the wiper element depends from the bottom channel and through the slot to make wiping contact with a surface to be wiped;
- and
- installing a pair of end plugs into an opening at each end of the upper channel and across least a portion of the bottom channel to releasably maintain the wiper element within the bottom channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.