Abstract:
A window shade of the present invention can include a retractable window shade housed in a door of a vehicle, the window shade operable to extend over a window of the vehicle to be secured with a plurality of hooks located above the window. These hooks are specially designed to allow an improperly attached retractable window shade to detach and retract upon the application of a longitudinal force applied to the improperly attached retractable window shade.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to window shades, specifically to retractable window shades in a motor vehicle which secure with a hook and slot type mechanism. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Window shades, particularly window shades for a vehicle, are known. These window shades can be operable to block sunlight entering a window of the vehicle to help control the vehicle&#39;s cabin temperature, as well as reduce UV rays entering the vehicle, and provide a better environment for the vehicle passengers by reducing brightness, glare, etc. Window shades also come in multiple forms including built in window shades which can be retractable into a housing of some sort. 
         [0003]    Retractable window shades are typically housed within a portion of a vehicle door below the window in the door. The retractable window shade can be drawn up to extend over the window and attach to a plurality of hooks to hold the retractable window shade in place. When the retractable window shade is detached from the hooks, the retractable window shade can retract into the portion of the vehicle door below the window, typically with a spring type retraction mechanism. 
         [0004]    Retractable window shades are often utilized in rear doors, for example, a sliding door on a passenger compartment of a minivan. However, a problem can arise when a retractable window shade is not properly attached to the hooks, for example, when a driver reaches behind to pull up the retractable window shade and attaches the retractable window shade to the hooks without ensuring that all of the hooks are properly attached. This improper attachment can result in, for example, only a front hook of the window shade being attached. The retractable window shade in the sliding door which is attached using only the front hook may become damaged when the sliding door is opened if a rear of the retractable window shade which is unsecured becomes jammed or lodged in a body portion of the vehicle when the door is opened. As such, an improved retractable window shade hook mechanism is desired to help prevent damage to the retractable window shade upon operation of the sliding door. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    An assembly of covering a window of a vehicle includes a retractable window shade housed in a door of a vehicle below the window, the window shade operable to extend over a window of the vehicle to be secured with a plurality of hooks located above the window. The hooks are specially designed to allow an improperly attached retractable window shade, such as the retractable window shade being attached to only one of the hooks, to detach from the hook and retract into the housing beneath the window of the door upon the application of a longitudinal force applied to the improperly attached retractable window shade. 
         [0006]    The hook of the present invention has a bottom portion with a tapered profile which urges the improperly attached retractable window shade towards a lip portion of the hook when the longitudinal force is applied. The lip portion has a first arcuate profile when viewed from the front and a second arcuate profile when viewed from the side, the profiles urging the retractable window shade in an upward direction when the lateral force is applied. The urging provided by the bottom portion and the lip portion when a longitudinal force is applied to the retractable window shade causes the retractable shade to be displaced up and over the lip portion and allows the retraction of the retractable window shade into the door panel without damage thereto. It is appreciated that the first and second arcuate profiles could have other profiles which assist in urging the window shape towards release such as a bevel, taper, chamfer, etc. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  shows a perspective view of a vehicle having a sliding door; 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  shows a perspective view of an inner side of the sliding door; 
           [0009]      FIG. 3  shows a perspective view of the inside of the sliding door having a improperly attached retractable window shade; 
           [0010]      FIG. 4  shows a perspective of an enlarged view of the circled region labeled  4  in  FIG. 3 ; 
           [0011]      FIG. 5  shows a perspective view of a hook according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 6  shows a side view of the hook shown in  FIG. 5 ; 
           [0013]      FIG. 7  shows a top view of the hook shown in  FIG. 5 ; and 
           [0014]      FIG. 8  shows a front view of the hook shown in  FIG. 5 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0015]    Turning now to the figures,  FIG. 1  shows a vehicle  10  having a sliding door  15  and a window  20 . The vehicle  10  of the preferred embodiment is a minivan, however, other vehicles, such as a sedan, sport utility vehicle, full size van, bus, truck or any other vehicle known to those skilled in the art can be used. The sliding door  15  can be either manually opened with an effort provided by a user, or can be opened remotely with an electric motor, hydraulic actuator, or any other motor or actuator known to those skilled in the art. The motor or actuator can be activated by a user input such as a push button, switch or remote, or can be activated automatically by a sensor detecting motion, the presence of a RFID tag, and the like. 
         [0016]      FIG. 2  shows an inner side of the sliding door  15 , the sliding door  15  having a lower portion  18  which houses a retractable window shade  22 , the retractable window shade  22  is extendable over the window  20  to be received by a front hook  30  in a front hook receiving slot  24  and a back hook  32  in a back hook receiving slot  26 . It is appreciated that the retractable window shade  22  shown in  FIG. 2  is properly attached to both the front hook  30  and the back hook  32  with the relative front hook receiving slot  24  and back hook receiving slot  26 . 
         [0017]    The retractable window shade  22  can be a mesh type material that allows light to pass through a plurality of open spaces, a semi-transparent material allowing a portion of light to pass through, or an opaque material blocking all light. The retractable window shade can be made of cotton, acrylic, a plastic laminar material, or any other material known to those skilled in the art. The front hook  30  and the back hook  32  can be made of plastic, wood, metal or any other material known to those skilled in the art. 
         [0018]      FIG. 3  shows the sliding door  15  of the vehicle  10  having an improperly attached retractable window shade  23  covering the window  20 , with the window shade  23  attached to the front hook  30  via the front hook receiving slot  24  while the back hook receiving slot  26  is not attached to the back hook  32 . 
         [0019]    When a longitudinal force is applied to the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  as illustrated by the arrow L in  FIG. 3 , for example, when the sliding door  15  is opened and an upper rear corner  34  of the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  comes in contact with the vehicle  10 , the front hook receiving slot  24  is detached from the front hook  30 . Once the front hook receiving slot  24  is detached from the front hook  30 , the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  retracts into the lower portion  18  of the sliding door  15 . 
         [0020]    Detachment of the front hook receiving slot  24  from the front hook  30  is accomplished by a back edge  36  of the front hook receiving slot  24  being pressed against a bottom portion  50  of the front hook  30  when the longitudinal force L is applied to the improperly attached retractable window shade  23 . The bottom portion  50  outwardly urges the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  and the front hook receiving slot  24  towards a lip portion  60  of the front hook  30 , and a top edge  38  of the front hook receiving slot  24  is urged up and over the lip portion  60 . 
         [0021]    Urging and detachment of the front hook receiving slot  24  of the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  is accomplished by the specially designed shape of the front hook  30  illustrated in  FIGS. 5-8 . The front hook  30  includes a body portion  70 , the bottom portion  50 , and the lip portion  60 . As shown in  FIG. 6 , the front hook  30  has a J-shaped profile when viewed from the side, the body portion  70  being the tallest vertical portion of the J, the bottom portion  50  being the bottom valley portion of the J, and the lip portion  60  being the short vertical section of the J. 
         [0022]    When viewed from the top, as shown in  FIG. 7 , the bottom portion  50  has a tapered profile  55 . The tapered profile  55  of the bottom portion  50 , extending from the body portion  70  to the lip portion  60 , provides the outward urging force to the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  when the back edge  36  of the front hook receiving slot  24  is pressed against the bottom portion  50  of the front hook  30 , for example by the longitudinal force L. The tapered profile  55  of the preferred embodiment is tapered between 20 and 70 degrees towards a center line  52  as illustrated by the angle θ in  FIG. 7 . It is appreciated that the tapered profile  55  need only be tapered on a side which comes in contact with the back edge  36  of the front hook receiving slot  24 ; however, providing the tapered profile  55  on both sides of the front hook  30  allows for a symmetrical part which could be interchangeable between both a right and left side of the vehicle  10 . 
         [0023]    In the preferred embodiment, the retractable window shade  22  is further enabled to release from the front hook  30  by the lip portion  60  when the lip portion  60  comes in contact with the back edge  36  and the top edge  38  of the front hook receiving slot  24 . The lip portion  60  has a first arcuate profile  65  when viewed from the front as seen in  FIG. 8 , and has a second arcuate profile  67  when viewed from the side as shown in  FIG. 6 . In addition,  FIG. 7  illustrates that the lip portion  60  has a tapered profile inwardly towards center line  52 . In the preferred embodiment, the tapered profile of the lip portion  60  can be tapered between 20 and 70 degrees towards a center line  52  as illustrated by the angle θ in  FIG. 7 . The first arcuate profile  65  and the second arcuate profile  67  of the lip portion  60  assists in urging the front hook receiving slot  24  up and over the lip portion  60  when the longitudinal force L is applied to the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  and thereby ultimately allowing the retraction of the improperly attached retractable window shade  23  into the lower door portion  18 . While the prefer embedment utilizes the first actuate profile  65  and second arcuate profile  67 , it is appreciated that other profiles may be used. For example the lip portion  60  could have front and side profiles that are tapered, beveled, chamfer, or any other shape known to those skilled in the art which provides a normal force that directs the retractable window shade up and over the lip portion  60 . 
         [0024]    It is appreciated that while the preferred embodiment uses the front hook  30  and the back hook  32  to secure the retractable window shade  22 , other hook arrangements could be used. For example, one or more hooks could be placed between the front hook  30  and the back hook  32 . These one or more hooks could have the special shape discussed above to allow detachment of a variably designed retractable window shade from the multiple hooks. 
         [0025]    It is understood and appreciated that the foregoing drawings, discussion, and description are illustrative of specific embodiments of the present invention but they are not meant to be limitations upon the practice thereof. Numerous modifications and variations of the invention will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art in view of the teaching presented herein. It is the claims including all equivalents which define the scope of the invention.