Mirror adjustment mechanism, in particular for a wing mirror for a motor vehicle

Abstract

A mirror adjustment mechanism, in particular for a wing mirror for a motor vehicle, having a base part with a mirror support arranged pivotally relative thereto, wherein between the base part and the mirror support a damper is arranged, the damper including a collar portion coupled to the mirror support, encompassing a ball portion, coupled to the base part, or vice versa, both constituting a ball joint arrangement. A slide element is slidingly engaged between the ball portion and the collar portion in such a way that it restrains movement of the collar portion relative to the ball portion, resulting from movement the mirror support relative to the base part, wherein the slide element is a spring ring slidingly abutting on contact surfaces of the ball portion and coupled to the collar portion.

Claims

1. A mirror adjustment mechanism, in particular for a wing mirror for a motor vehicle, having a base part with a mirror support arranged pivotally relative thereto, wherein between the base part and the minor support a damping means is arranged, the damping means comprising: a collar portion, coupled to the mirror support or the base part and encompassing a langball portion coupled to the other of the base part or the mirror support respectively, both constituting a ball joint arrangement: a slide element slidingly engaging the ball portion and the collar portion in such a way that it restricts movement of the collar portion relative to the ball portion when the minor support is moved relative to the base part, wherein the slide element is an elastic spring ring slidingly abutting on contact surfaces of the ball portion, coupled to the collar portion, and being attached onto the ball portion abutting to the contact surfaces and coupled with the collar portion in such a pretensioned way that the spring ring forces the ball portion and the collar portion against each other.

2. The minor adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is coupled and arranged in such way that it slides along the contact surfaces of the ball portion, when the minor support is pivoted relative to the base part.

3. The minor adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the collar portion is coupled to the spring ring in such a way that the collar portion has no direct contact to the ball portion.

4. The minor adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the collar portion is arranged and coupled to the spring ring in such a way that it forces at least part of the slide element against the contact surfaces of the ball portion.

5. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the ball portion at least partly has a spherical shape, with a base portion facing in a direction away from the collar portion and at least one curved side wall comprising at least one contact surface and extending in an opposite direction.

6. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the ball portion broadens in a direction away from the collar portion.

7. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1 wherein the collar portion has coupling element by which it is detachably coupled to the spring ring.

8. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is attached to the ball portion in a pre-tensioned manner having a stretched diameter abutting the contact surfaces in a pretensioned way when the base part and the mirror support are arranged in a neutral position without pivotation relative to each other.

9. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the contact surfaces are arranged in such a way that during a pivotation of the mirror support relative to the base part of 15 out of a neutral position, the spring ring abuts against at least one of the contact surfaces.

10. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the contact surfaces comprise a constant curvature in area the slide ring slides along during a pivotation of the mirror support relative to the base part of 15 out of a neutral position.

11. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is constructed in such a way that its ring diameter can be elastically increased.

12. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is manufactured from spring steel.

13. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is constructed as an elastically open ring element having free ends which can be elastically forced away from each other.

14. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is constructed as an element, flexibly prolongable along a diameter of the spring ring.

15. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is abutting against the ball portion with distinct abutment portions formed as embossments at the spring ring.

16. The mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the spring ring is attached to the collar portion, the collar portion having openings the spring ring extends through for abutting onto the ball portion.

17. A wing mirror unit for a motor vehicle, comprising a mirror cap provided with a mirror adjustment mechanism according to claim 1, and a mirror unit coupled with the mirror support of the mirror adjustment mechanism.

Description

(1) The invention will be elucidated on the basis of two exemplary embodiments which are represented in the drawings.

(2) In the drawing:

(3) FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the mirror adjustment mechanism,

(4) FIG. 2 shows a schematic perspective cross-section of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

(5) FIG. 3 shows another schematic perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

(6) FIG. 4 shows a schematic perspective view of a second embodiment of the mirror adjustment mechanism,

(7) FIG. 5 shows a schematic perspective cross-section of the embodiment of FIG. 4;

(8) FIG. 6 shows another schematic perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 4;

(9) FIGS. 7 to 10 show different embodiments of the spring ring.

(10) It is noted that the figures are only schematic representations of advantageous embodiments of the invention, which are given by way of non-limiting exemplary embodiments. In the figures, the same or corresponding parts are designated with the same reference numerals, wherein high indices may be used.

(11) FIGS. 1-3 show a mirror adjustment mechanism 1 for a wing mirror for a motor vehicle. The mirror adjustment mechanism 1 comprises a base part 2 with a mirror support 3 arranged pivotably relative thereto. In this embodiment, the pivotable arrangement is realized by means of a cross piece, not shown, with which a cardan joint between base part 2 and mirror support 3 is realized. The crosspiece can pivot about a first axis, for instance the x-axis, relative to the base part 2. The mirror support 3 is subsequently pivotable about a second axis, for instance the y-axis, connected with the cross piece. This manner of connecting the base part 2, which is here formed by the actuator housing, is generally known and is used inter alia in the product Mirror Actuator model 960 of Eaton Automotive B.V. and is described more in detail in the Dutch patent application 7905806.

(12) Arranged between the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 is a damping means 4. In this exemplary embodiment, the damping means comprises a collar portion 6, which is coupled to the mirror support 3 and which encompasses a ball portion 8, wherein said ball portion 8 is coupled to the base part 2. Of course, this arrangement could be provided vice versa, which means that the collar portion is coupled to the base part and the ball portion is coupled to the mirror support, respectively.

(13) The coupling of the before mentioned portions 6, 8 to the mirror support 3 and the base part 2, respectively, could be provided in multiple ways, e.g. as an integral connection, a detachable connection or as an assembly detachable or non-detachable etc.

(14) The collar portion 6 encompasses the ball portion 8 in such a way that they both constitute a ball joint arrangement. This means that the two portions 6, 8 are pivotably arranged relative to each other. Starting from a non-pivoted state, which is a neutral state as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the relative pivoting of the two portions 6, 8 is 15 and preferably 12.5 as indicated by reference sign in FIG. 2.

(15) As can be seen with FIGS. 2 and 3, a slide element 10 is slidingly engaged between the ball portion 8 and the collar portion 6 in such a way that it restrains movement of the collar portion 6 relative to the ball portion 8, resulting from movement of the mirror support 3 relative to the base part 2, wherein the slide element 10 is a spring ring 10 slidingly abutting on contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8 and which is further coupled to the collar portion 6.

(16) As can be seen in FIG. 2, the spring ring 10 is constructed as a separate part, preferably a separate part which is detachably mounted. This is also depicted in FIG. 3, wherein here all related parts of the adjustment mechanism except for the spring ring 10 are drawn translucent to enable a perspective view of the spring ring 10.

(17) As further can be seen with FIG. 2, the spring ring 10 is coupled and arranged in such a way that it slides along the contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8, when the mirror support 3 is pivoted relative to the base part 2 (resulting in a deflection). Here the respective contact surfaces 12 are arranged distinct from each other separated by recess portions 13. These recess portions 13 are here used for assembling the different parts of the base part 2.

(18) Further it can be seen that in this particular embodiment the collar portion 6 is preferably coupled to the spring ring 10 in such a way that it has no direct contact to the ball portion 8 and furthermore no direct contact to the respective contact surfaces 12. That means that the collar portion 6 is distant from the ball portion 8 and the contact surfaces 12, respectively, especially in the area where the spring ring 10 is arranged.

(19) The collar portion 6 is preferably arranged and coupled to the spring ring 10 in such a way that it forces at least part of the spring ring 10 against the contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8. Here the collar portion 6 forces the spring ring 10 against the contact surfaces of the ball portion in two axis, namely along an axis A.sub.P parallel to a distal direction D.sub.D and along an axis A.sub.V vertical to said direction D.sub.D (see FIGS. 1 and 2).

(20) In this particular embodiment the collar portion 8 preferably has at least one hook or similar coupling element 7 by which it is detachably hooked or similarly coupled to the spring ring 10. Preferably said hook element 7 comprises a first flank 7.1 hooking against the spring ring 10 in such a way that when the collar portion 6 is forced relative to the base part 2 in a distal direction D.sub.D (i.e. forced away from the base portion, see FIG. 1) a force is initiated on the spring ring 10 also acting in this distal direction D.sub.D. Further the hook element 7 comprises a second flank 7.2 which is arranged in such a way that it forces at least part of the spring ring 10 against the contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion in a direction perpendicular to the before mentioned distal direction D.sub.D.

(21) As can be seen in FIGS. 1 to 3, the corresponding contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8 are inclined relative to this distal direction D.sub.D so that the before mentioned forces initiated by the first flank 7.1 and the second flank 7.2 result in an elastic deflection of the spring ring 10 increasing its ring diameter d.sub.R (see FIG. 7) against the spring forces of the spring 10.

(22) Due to the above the spring ring 10 attached to the ball portion 8 and its contact surfaces 12 restrains movement of the collar portion 6 relative to the ball portion 8. This means that if the mirror support 3 is pivoted relative to the base part 2, the resulting movement in the damping spring 4, namely the movement of the collar portion 6 and the ball portion 8, is restrained. This applies to deflections resulting for example from the adaption of a mirror angle, but also from vibrations and micro vibrations the mirror adjustment mechanism is subjected to, for example during car driving etc.

(23) With this embodiment the ball portion 8 comprises a cup or similar spherical shape, wherein a base portion 14 of this cup shape is facing in a proximal direction D.sub.P (see FIG. 1), i.e. away from the collar portion 6, and wherein at least one inclined or similarly curved side wall 16 which comprises the contact surfaces 12 is extending in an opposite direction, namely in the distal direction D.sub.D. The ball portion 8 with this embodiment broadens in its distal direction D.sub.D and preferably in the area of its contact surfaces 12 and more preferably in the area where the collar portion 6 encompasses the ball portion 8.

(24) In general and especially because of this cup-shaped arrangement of the ball portion 8 the spring ring 10 is preferably attached onto the ball portion 8 abutting to the contact surfaces 12 and coupled with the collar element 6 in such a pretensioned way that it forces the ball portion 8 and the collar portion 6 against each other.

(25) Further the spring ring 10 is preferably attached to the ball portion 8 abutting the contact surfaces 12 in a pretensioned way, which is resulting in an increased ring diameter of the spring ring 10. With this embodiment this is the case especially when the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 are arranged in a neutral position without pivotation relative to each other (=0, see FIG. 2). Because of said pretensioning, play between the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 is reliably limited. Due to the arrangement of the inclined or curved contact surfaces 12 and the abutting spring ring 10 coupled to the collar portion 6, the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 are prestressed against each other, wherein especially by use of a respective counter bearings (not shown) a snug fit of the two parts 2, 3 is guaranteed.

(26) Especially when a user presses against the mirror support 3 or a mirror attached to it and especially in the proximal direction D.sub.P (see FIG. 1), for example if he tries to adapt the mirror angle, no play occurs, despite an easy and smooth pivotability between the base part 2 and the mirror support 3.

(27) As can be seen in FIG. 2, the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 are arranged relative to each other in a neutral position, where a pivotation angle a is zero. The contact surfaces 12 are, however, arranged in such a way that during a pivotation of the mirror support 3 relative to the base part 2 of basically =15 and preferably basically 12.5 the spring ring 10 preferably continuously abuts against at least one of the contact surfaces 12 and in detail slides along the same. In more detail here the contact surfaces 12 preferably comprise a constant curvature in an area the spring ring 10 slides along during the before mentioned pivotation of the mirror support 3 relative to the base part 2 of basically 15, preferably basically 12.5.

(28) With regard to the abutment of the spring ring 10 to the contact surfaces 12 it can be seen especially in FIGS. 1 and 3 that the spring ring only abuts to the ball portion 8 in individual contact surfaces 12 which are separated from each other by the recesses 13. Here all different separation elements known from the art could be used for separation of the contact surfaces. Furthermore, the punctual abutment of the spring ring 12 in multiple abutment portions (this are the portions in contact with the contact surfaces 12) furthermore guarantees a smooth sliding along the ball portion 8 and its contact surfaces 12.

(29) By reducing the abutment areas were the spring ring 10 abuts against the ball portion 8, i.a. impact on the friction forces due to moisture, temperature and dirt entering the adjustment mechanism can be reduced. Therefore preferably the spring ring 10 comprises distinct abutment portions which are preferably formed as projections or similar embossments, wherein of course it is also possible that these abutment portions are generated by the separation of multiple distinct contact surfaces on the ball portion 8 as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3.

(30) With this embodiment the spring ring 10 is constructed in such a way that its ring diameter can be elastically increased. In more detail the spring ring 10 is preferably manufactured from metal and here from spring steel and furthermore as an elastically open ring element. Instead of such an open ring element also a spring ring 10 could be used which is constructed as an element, flexibly prolongable along its longitudinal axis, and preferably as a closed ring element. Such a spring ring 10 could for example be a spring ring made from a helical or coil spring or having a zigzag arrangement constructed from an elastic material. Different embodiments of the spring ring 10 are going to be explained further below.

(31) FIGS. 4 to 6 disclose a second embodiment of the mirror adjustment mechanism 1 in principle comprising the same parts as the first embodiment described before. Again a base part 2 is pivotally arranged relative to a mirror support 3, wherein between the base part 2 and the mirror support 3 a damping means 4 is arranged comprising a collar portion 6 coupled to the mirror support 3, encompassing a ball portion 8, coupled to the base part 2. Again this arrangement could be provided vice versa. Further a slide element 10 is slidingly engaged between the ball portion 8 and the collar portion 6 in such a way that it restrains movement of the collar portion 6 relative to the ball portion 8 resulting from movement of the mirror support 3 relative to the base part 2, wherein the slide element is a spring ring 10 slidingly abutting on contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8 and coupled to the collar portion 6. Therefore, all the before mentioned features of first embodiment are also applicable to said second embodiment of a mirror adjustment mechanism and are not mentioned here for redundancy reasons.

(32) However, as can be seen in FIGS. 4 to 5, the spring ring 10 is here abutting against the ball portion 8 and respective contact surfaces 12 with distinct abutment portions 16 which are here preferably formed as projections or similar embossments. These abutment portions 16 are extending through recesses or similar openings 18 provided in the collar portion 6.

(33) In detail with this embodiment the spring ring 10 is attached on the outside of the collar portion 6, i.e. on the outer side of flap elements arranged at the collar portions, extending through the recesses 18 in the collar portion 6 in such a way that the abutment portions 16 are abutting against the contact surfaces 12. By such an arrangement the spring ring 10 is reliably positioned and the adjustment mechanism 1 easy to assemble. Furthermore, due to the reduction of the contact areas, i.e. the areas where the spring ring 10 abuts against the contact surfaces 12 of the ball portion 8, impact of moisture, dirt and temperature can be reduced.

(34) FIGS. 7 to 10 are schematically showing different embodiments of the spring ring 10.

(35) FIG. 7 discloses one embodiment where the spring ring 10 is provided as an open ring element having free endings 17, wherein the spring ring 10 is made from an elastic material and preferably from spring steel. By bending the free endings 17 away from each other the diameter d.sub.R of the spring ring 10 can be increased thereby pretensioning the spring ring. Such a spring ring 10 is e.g. provided with the embodiment shown with FIGS. 1 to 3.

(36) FIG. 8 discloses a further embodiment of the spring ring 10 provided with the abutment portions 16, as explained with regard to the second embodiment of FIGS. 4 to 6. Also this spring ring 10 is constructed as an open ring element which diameter d.sub.R could be elastically increased and/or reduced.

(37) FIG. 9 discloses a spring ring 10 which is provided as a closed ring element comprising zigzag or similar bended portions which could be deflected and/or stretched even along the longitudinal axis of the spring ring 10, shown with reference signs A.sub.L. Such a spring ring 10 is preferably manufactured from metal or a similar flexible plastic and preferably from spring steel.

(38) A similar embodiment is disclosed with FIG. 10, wherein the spring ring 10 is provided as a coil spring ring element which diameter can be increased by elongation the ring along the longitudinal axis A.sub.L.

(39) A closed spring ring can also be constructed from an elastic material and preferably from a material which is flexibly prolongable along its longitudinal axis, preferably from a thermoplastic rubber. With this embodiment the above bended portions can be omitted.

(40) It will be clear that the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment described here. Many variations are possible. Thus, one or more damping springs can extend between the mirror support and the mirror cap, and the pivotable arrangement of the mirror support can for instance be realized by means of a ball hinge or a cup hinge.

(41) Such variants will be clear to those skilled in the art and are understood to fall within the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.

(42) In this description words like substantially, about or generally are preferably to be interpreted as meaning at least including deviations of a dimension of 10% or less, preferably 5% or less or deviations from a shape of form which would still be considered by a person skilled in the art as falling with the definition referred to.

(43) Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described above, in part with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these embodiments. Variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims Reference throughout this specification to one embodiment or an embodiment means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrases in one embodiment or in an embodiment in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, it is noted that particular features, structures, or characteristics of one or more embodiments may be combined in any suitable manner to form new, not explicitly described embodiments. The word comprising does not exclude the presence of other features or steps then those listed in a claim. Furthermore, the words a and an shall not be construed as limited to only one, but instead are used to mean at least one, and do not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.