Glass run channel assembly
AssigneeTokai Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTatsuya Tamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A glass run channel assembly is provided. In the glass run channel assembly, after being mounted, an elastic force is generated in a vertical side portion which contacts a vertical frame of a door frame, and an elastic force is generated in an upper side portion which contacts an upper frame of the door frame. Here, the cross-sectional shapes of the upper side portion and the vertical side portion are adjusted such that the frictional force per unit length obtained by multiplying a coefficient of static friction of the upper side portion with the upper frame by the elastic force is larger than a frictional force per unit length obtained by multiplying the coefficient of static friction of the vertical side portion with the vertical frame by the elastic force.
Claims15
A long glass run channel assembly which is made of an elastic polymeric material, and which is capable of being continuously mounted along an inside of a groove of a door frame, the groove being formed between an interior side wall and an exterior side wall arranged substantially parallel to each other in a width direction of a car, the door frame comprising a vertical frame which is arranged in a vertical direction along a center pillar of the car, an upper frame which includes an inclination frame extending obliquely downward along a front pillar or a rear pillar, and a corner frame which integrally connects an upper end of the vertical frame and an end of the upper frame at a side of the center pillar while being made to intersect each other at a predetermined intersection angle, the glass run channel assembly being configured to guide a windowpane which moves up and down within a door when mounted to the inside of the groove, the glass run channel assembly comprising:
- a long upper side portion made of a vulcanized elastic rubber whose coefficient of static friction with the door frame is μ1, and mounted along the upper frame of the door frame;
- a long vertical side portion made of an olefin system thermoplastic elastomer whose coefficient of static friction with the door frame is μ2 larger than μ1, and mounted along the vertical frame of the door frame;
- and
- a corner portion made of a thermoplastic elastomer and mounted along the corner frame of the door frame,
- wherein each of the upper side portion and the vertical side portion comprises:
- a bottom wall at a position to face an outer peripheral end face of the windowpane;
- an interior side wall portion protruding from an interior end of the bottom wall in the width direction via a bent interior connection;
- and
- an exterior side wall portion protruding from an exterior end of the bottom wall in the width direction via a bent exterior connection,
- wherein each of the upper side portion and the vertical side portion is formed by extrusion-molding to have a substantially U-shape constant cross-section with the bottom wall and both the interior and exterior side wall portions in a state before being mounted to the door frame,
- wherein each of the interior side wall portion and the exterior side wall portion has an interior seal lip and an exterior seal lip, each extending in a folded-back shape toward the bottom wall integrally from a protruding tip thereof while holding a space to the side wall portions,
- wherein, when mounted to the door frame, both the upper side portion and the vertical side portion are changed to a shape in which an expansion degree of the U-shape between the interior side wall portion and the exterior side wall portion before mounting is reduced by the elastic deformation of the bent connections,
- wherein after mounting, an elastic force f2 is generated at a portion of the vertical side portion which contacts the vertical frame of the door frame, and an elastic force f1 is generated at a portion of the upper side portion which contacts the upper frame of the door frame, and
- wherein the cross-sectional shapes of the upper side portion and the vertical side portion are adjusted such that the frictional force per unit length obtained by multiplying the coefficient μ1 of static friction of the upper side portion with the upper frame by the elastic force f1 is larger than a frictional force per unit length obtained by multiplying the coefficient μ2 of static friction of the vertical side portion with the vertical frame by the elastic force f2.
A long glass run channel assembly which is made of an elastic polymeric material, and which is capable of being continuously mounted along an inside of a groove of a door frame, the groove being formed between an interior side wall and an exterior side wall arranged substantially parallel to each other in a width direction of a car, the door frame comprising a vertical frame which is arranged in a vertical direction along a center pillar of the car, an upper frame which includes an inclination frame extending obliquely downward along a front pillar or a rear pillar, and a corner frame which integrally connects an upper end of the vertical frame and an end of the upper frame at a side of the center pillar while being made to intersect each other at a predetermined intersection angle, the glass run channel assembly being configured to guide a windowpane which moves up and down within a door when mounted to the inside of the groove, the glass run channel assembly comprising:
- a long upper side portion made of a vulcanized elastic rubber and mounted along the upper frame of the door frame;
- a long vertical side portion made of an olefin system thermoplastic elastomer and mounted along the vertical frame of the door frame;
- and
- a corner portion made of a thermoplastic elastomer and mounted along the corner frame of the door frame,
- wherein each of the upper side portion, the vertical side portion and the corner portion comprises:
- a bottom wall;
- an interior side wall portion protruding from an interior end of the bottom wall in a direction intersecting the bottom wall by a first angle;
- and
- an exterior side wall portion protruding from an exterior end of the bottom wall in a direction intersecting the bottom wall by a second angle,
- wherein the side wall portions of the upper side portion are continuously connected to the side wall portions of the vertical side portion via the side wall portions of the corner portion, respectively,
- wherein a sum of the first angle and the second angle in the upper side portion is larger than a sum of the first angle and the second angle in the vertical side portion, and a sum of the first angle and the second angle in the corner portion varies gradually.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.