Injection molded protective passageway for automotive wiring and the like and method of making same
AssigneeYazaki North America, Inc.
InventorsDouglas Lipp, Jeremy King
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved bridge-shaped molded plastic passageway to carry an automotive wiring harness over a driveshaft tunnel in an automobile chassis is disclosed. The passageway comprises conforming base and cover components joined by two parallel hinged connectors. The base and cover are molded in a co-oriented condition so the cover is right-side-up relative to the base in both the open and closed conditions. Closing the passageway is accomplished by rectilinear movement of the cover relative to the base and the connector elements are concealed within the passageway when closed. Mold height and draw are dramatically reduced by this design.
Claims12
An accessible protective passageway for automotive wiring and the like having opposite open ends and comprising:
- a base having a bottom and sides;
- a cover having a top conforming to the base;
- fastener means complementally located on said base and cover to selectively join the cover to the base and form a continuous passageway between the open ends thereof;
- and
- at least one connector integral with and extending between the base and cover, said connector being hinged to a side of the base and having a dimension substantially equal to the width of the cover to permit rectilinear displacement of the cover from a first position parallel and adjacent to the base to a second position conformingly joined to the base thereby to close the passageway and substantially conceal the connector.
A method of injection molding a bridge-shaped protective passageway for automotive wiring comprising the steps of:
- connecting a source of fluid plastic to first and second parallel and adjacent mold cavities, the first cavity defining a bridge-shaped passageway base having a bottom and sides and the second cavity defining a cover for said base having a top conforming to said base, the mold cavities being such that the curvatures of the bridge-shaped base and cover are co-oriented in space and are joined by a third cavity defining a connector which is flow coupled with and extending between the base cavity and the cover cavity such that the resulting article molded by said connector cavity is integrally hinged to a side of the base and an edge of the cover and has a dimension substantially equal to the width of the cover;
- and
- injecting fluid plastic into the cavities;
- and
- removing the molded passageway from the cavities.
A selectively closable receptacle made of plastic comprising:
- a tray-like base having a bottom and opposite side walls, a center portion and opposite end portions;
- a cover conforming to the base;
- latch means complementally disposed on and between said base and cover to selectively join them together;
- and
- a connector integrally and hingedly joining the cover to the center section of the base to permit the cover to move rectilinearly from an open position beside and co-oriented with the base to a closed position over and co-oriented with the base.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.