WIPER BLADE

Abstract

The present invention provides a wiper blade, by balacing the opposite characteristics between the ease of operation and the cleaning force, the overall shape of the wiper blade is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of the blade mounting means for ease of operation , and the contact portion of the wiper blade for performing the cleaning is capable of maintaining an angle close to a right angle with respect to the cleaning surface, so that the wiper blade is also excellent in cleaning force.

Claims

1. A wiper blade comprising: a mounting part which is mounted at a blade mounting mean; an angle maintaing bendable part continuously formed from the mounting part, and have one or more longitudinal internal cavity; and a contacting edge continuously formed from the angle maintaing bendable part and line contact to a cleaning surface (S) to clean the pollution (P) while angle to the mounting part is maintained by means of 4-bar linkage sturucture provided by the angle maintaing bendable part.

2. The wiper blade of claim 1, wherein the wiper blade is made of elastic material.

3. The wiper blade of claim 1, wherein the internal cavity has rectangular shape and has rounded subsidences at each corners of the rectangular shape.

4. The wiper blade of claim 1, wherein the outer surface of the contacting edge has the coating layer.

5. The wiper blade of claim 1, wherein the contacting edge is composed of low friction silicone rubber.

6. The wiper blade of claim 1, further comprising a porous sorption member installed to lower part of the contacting edge, and the porous sorption member temporarily absorb the pollution (P) and then discharge the pollution (P) again by pressing.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the problem of prior wiper blade.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a first embodiment of present invention.

[0017] FIG. 3 is the perspective view of the first embodiment of present invention.

[0018] FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a sencond embodiment of present invention.

[0019] FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the operation of the first embodiment of present invention.

[0020] FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a third embodiment of present invention.

[0021] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment of present invention.

[0022] FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing the operation of the fourth embodiment of present invention.

[0023] The reference numbers and characters for the drawings and the following description are provided below: [0024] S: cleaning surface [0025] P: pollution [0026] 10: blade mounting mean [0027] 100: wiper blade [0028] 110: mounting part [0029] 111: clamping member [0030] 120: angle maintaing bendable part [0031] 121: internal cavity [0032] 122: rounded subsidence [0033] 130: contacting edge [0034] 131: coating layer [0035] 140: bending neck [0036] 141: surporting protrusion [0037] 142: surporting arm [0038] 160: porous sorption member

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0039] According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a wiper blade 100 is made of an elastic material and comprises a mounting part 110, an angle maintaining bendable part 120 and a contacting edge 130 as shown in FIG. 2. The elastic material constituting the wiper blade 100 may be made of rubber (NR, CR, NCR, EPDM) or a silicone material.

[0040] As shown in FIG. 2, the mounting part 110 is mounted to the blade mounting means 10 and may be manufactured in various forms according to the structure and shape of the blade mounting means 10.

[0041] As shown in FIG. 2, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 is continuously formed from the mounting part 110, and has one or more longitudinal internal cavity 121.

[0042] According to the internal cavity 121, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structure similar to a 4-bar linkage structure that connects the mounting part 110 and the contacting edge 130. Therefor, having adequate strength due to elasticity, the relative angle of the mounting part 110 and the contacting edge 130 is limited and relatively well maintained as shown in FIG. 5. And the overall shape of the wiper blade 100 is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of the blade mounting means 10.

[0043] In order to the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structure similar to a 4-bar linkage structure, it is preferable that the the internal cavity 121 has a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 2. In order to the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structure more similar to a 4-bar linkage structure, it is preferable that the internal cavity 121 further has rounded subsidences 122 at each corners of the rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 4. According to the rounded subsidences 122 which has been formed at the portion corresponding to the connection between the links in the four-bar linkage structure, the portion corresponding to the connection between the links becomes more freely rotatable, therefor the angle maintaing bendable part 120 have an operating characteristic that is more similar to the 4-bar linkage structure.

[0044] Meanwhile, in order to make a structure similar to a four-bar link with an elastic material, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 may have suitable hardeness for both elasticity and to perform a function of a link arm. So, both side portions of that the internal cavity 121 are not excessively bent or pressed and contracted while having appropriate structural rigidity. To achieve that characteristics, the thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 may be in the range of 0.2 to 1.2 mm and the angle maintaing bendable part 120 may have the shore hardness A type of 40 to 90.

[0045] If the thickness t of the both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is thinner than said range of thickness or the hardness of the of the both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is smaller than said hardness, the structural strength of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is weakened and excessively bent or pressed to contract, So that the contact angle of the contacting edge 130 becomes small as in the case of the prior art. On the contrary to this, if the thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is thicker than said range of thickness or the hardness of the of the both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is larger than said hardness, the structural strength of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 becomes stronger than necessary, the operation of the connecting portions between the links can not be smoothly implemented.

[0046] The structural strength of both side portions of the internal cavity 121, which functions as two link arms connecting the upper side and the lower side, has a significant influence on the length in the vertical direction (that is, the vertical height of the internal cavity 121). If the vertical height of the internal cavity 121 becomes larger than necessary and the ratio of the height of the internal cavity 121 to the thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 becomes large, the structural strength of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is relatively weakened, so that the wiper blade 100 is excessively bent or pressed to be contracted, so that the contact angle of the contacting edge 130 is reduced, as in the prior conventional wiper blade. On the contrary to this, if the vertical height of the internal cavity 121 is smaller than necessary and the ratio of the height of the internal cavity 121 to the thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 becomes small, the structural strengths of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 are strengthened more than necessary, there is a high possibility that the operation of the connection portion between the links in the four-linkage structure can not be smoothly implemented. Therefore, when the thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is in the range of 0.2 to 1.2 mm, the height of the internal cavity 121 preferably ranges from 2.0 to 6.0 mm.

[0047] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 may have a plurality of the internal cavity 121 as shown in FIG. 6.

[0048] By plurality of the internal cavity 121, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structure similar to mulitiple 4-bar linkage structure. Therefor having adequate strength due to elasticity, the relative angle of the mounting part 110 and the contacting edge 130 is limited better and relatively well maintained and the overall shape of the wiper blade 100 is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of the blade mounting means 10.

[0049] The contacting edge 130 is continuously formed from the angle maintaing bendable part 120 as shown in FIG. 2, and line contact to a cleaning surface (S) to clean the pollution (P) as shown in FIG. 5. As discrived above, while angle to the mounting part (110) is maintained by means of 4-bar linkage sturucture provided by the angle maintaing bendable part (120), the contacting edge 130 can make a line contact with the cleaning surface S with a relatively large angle θ2. Therefore, the contact area where the contacting edge 130 contacts the cleaning surface S is kept small, so that the frictional force due to the operation is reduced, and the pressing force against the cleaning surface (S) becomes rather strong thus the cleaning force for wiping the pollution P become excellent. Meanwhile, the cross section of the contacting edge 130 can be a shape of part of a polygon or a shape of double or triple blades.

[0050] As shown in FIG. 6, the outer surface of the contacting edge 130 may have the coating layer 131 to increase the strength while reducing friction. As the material of the coating layer 131, it is possible to select one of various synthetic resins or silicone. In one embodiment, it is preferable that the coating layer 131 is made of a silicone material or a Teflon material having a low frictional force. The coating layer 131 may be formed by bonding a high-strength film.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 2, unlike the mounting part 110 and the angle maintaing bendable part 120, the contacting edge 130 may made of a low friction silicone material. In this case, it is preferable that the wiper blade 100 is manufactured such that the wiper blade 100 is extrusion-molded and then cutt. Moreover, the mounting part 110 and the angle maintaing bendable part 120 are extrusion-molded simultaneously with the contacting edge 130 which consist of another characteristic silicone material.

[0052] It is preferable that the wiper blade 100 is inclined at a predetermined angle in accordance with the operation of the reciprocating wiper so that the wiper can operate more smoothly. For this purpose, a bending neck 140 may be formed between the mounting part 110 and the angle maintaing bendable 120 as shown in FIG. 4. Moreover, the predetermined angle may be in a range of about 5 to 30 degrees so that the angle θ2 at which the contacting edge 130 contacts the cleaning surface S can be maintained at a relatively large angle. In the pursuit of this purpose a supporting arm 142 is further formed at the lower end of the mounting part 110 and a supporting protrusion 141 is further formed at the upper end of the angle maintaing bendable 120 as shown in FIG. 4.

[0053] Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, when the bending neck 140 is bent at the predetermined angle according to the operation of the wiper, the surporting protrusion 141 is contacted with the supporting arm 142 and prevent more bending, thus the angle θ2 at which the contacting edge 130 contacts the cleaning surface S is limited to be maintained at a relatively large angle, while the wiper blade 100 is being inclined by a predetermined angle corresponding to the operating direction.

[0054] As shown in FIG. 7, the porous sorption member 160 installed to lower part of the contacting edge 130, and the porous sorption member 160 is made of porous sorption material, temporarily absorb the remaining pollution P which can not be removed by th contacting edge 130, and then discharge the pollution (P) again by pressing when the direction of operation is changing.

[0055] The porous sorption member 160 may be formed in various sizes and shapes depending on its operating characteristics. When the porous sorption member 160 is emphasized to maintain the state where the porous sorption member 160 is firmly mounted on the contact part 130, the porous sorption member 160 is inserted to lower part of the contacting edge 130 by a predetermined depth (d) as shown in FIG. 7. The predetermined depth d may be less than half the vertical height of the porous sorption member 160 in order to ensure a sufficient compression effect so that the pollution absorbed by the porous sorption member 160 can be efficiently discharged again by compression.

[0056] When the porous sorption member 160 focuses on the operating characteristic in order to enhance the effect of absorbing the residual pollution, the porous sorption member 160 has narrow width and a long length.