Sun visor and method for the manufacture thereof

The body of a sun visor is reinforced with a generally rectangular wire frame. At one corner of the frame is an injection-molded plastic mounting housing molded on the reinforcing frame and that housing receives the mounting shaft for supporting the visor in a vehicle. The wire frame has separated ends which extend past each other and this region of the frame is disposed in an injection molding cavity in which the mounting housing is to be molded. A U-shaped spring is also placed in the injection molding cavity and its side arms extend past the wire frame. A peg in the mounting housing extending through the spring defines the opening in the molded housing past the spring in which the mounting shaft for the visor is received. With the region of the frame and the spring in place in the injection mold for the mounting housing, moldable plastic is injected into the cavity of the mold and the mounting housing is directly molded to the reinforcing frame and the spring.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention relates to a sun visor, particularly for automotive vehicles, 
in which the sun visor body has a reinforcing insert embedded in it. The 
insert is comprised of a length of wire bent approximately into the shape 
of a rectangular frame. A mounting housing developed as a plastic 
injection molding is also embedded in the sun visor body and is connected 
to a corner region of the insert frame. The mounting housing is for 
receiving a sun visor supporting shaft in at least the corner region of 
the insert frame. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing 
this sun visor. 
Reinforcing inserts for stiffening sun visor bodies customarily are solid 
plastic frames with mounts developed on them (Federal Republic of Germany 
Pat. No. 26 33 002, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,579), or wire 
frames with sheet metal mounts welded or riveted on them (German 
Provisional Patent DE-AS No. 11 11 968), or wire frames with plastic 
mounts arranged on them (German Pat. No. 24 43 307). The object of the 
invention is to improve the last-mentioned type of insert. 
The sun visor shown in German Pat. No. 24 43 307 has a reinforcing insert 
in the form of a wire frame which is encased in the sun visor body. It has 
a mounting housing, referred to as the holding body, which is also encased 
in the sun visor body and is developed as a plastic injection molding. The 
mounting housing into which the sun visor shaft is inserted is connected 
in a relatively rigid fashion with the wire frame. In order to produce 
this connection, the mounting housing is developed with at least two frame 
wire receivers such that the wire can be applied to the mounting housing 
by a swinging motion. 
Although the sun visor of German Pat. No. 24 43 307 has proven excellent in 
practice, it might be made less expensive to manufacture. While the 
special development of the mounting housing facilitates the assembly of 
the wire frame which is to be fixed on the mounting housing, this 
advantage is counteracted, however, by the rather complicated development 
of the mounting housing which is required for this. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The primary object of the invention consists in simply connecting the 
mounting housing and the wire frame in a sun visor of the aforementioned 
type, with resultant reduced operating steps and a simplified development 
of the mounting housing. 
Another object of the invention is to connect the mounting housing of the 
sun visor with the reinforcing wire frame during formation of the mounting 
housing, and particularly to mold the mounting housing to the reinforcing 
frame. 
To achieve these objects, according to the invention, the mounting housing 
is molded direclty on the reinforcing frame, and the region of the frame 
which is connected with the mounting housing is preferably encased or 
embedded completely within the mounting housing. 
The mounting housing is comprised of moldable plastic. The frame is a thin 
and elongate strip, preferably a metal wire, and is bend approximately in 
the shape of a rectangular frame, and a mounting section is generally at 
one of the corner regions of the frame. 
The invention simplifies and saves expense in the manufacture of the sun 
visor. This is considered surprising since it would not be expected that 
lengthening the cycle time for the injection molding of the mounting 
housing, which results from the required insertion of the wire frame into 
the injection mold, could result in decreased cost. However, the 
simplified shaping of the mounting housing according to the invention 
requires no receiving channels, undercuts, clip-on projections, or the 
like, in order to hold the wire frame since the housing is now cast 
directly on the wire frame. This is combined with the elimination of the 
need for stocking separately produced mounting housings, and is further 
combined with elimination of the subsequent assembling of wire frame and 
mounting housing. All of this reduces the cost of manufacture to a 
significant extent. In view of the fact that sun visors of the type in 
question are mass produced articles, even slight savings in cost may be 
essential with respect to the ability to compete. 
In accordance with the invention, the ends of the strip or wire which forms 
the frame are preferably completely encased within the mounting housing. 
In this way, the ends of the wires are fastened to each other by the 
mounting housing, without requiring any welding, or the like. The 
reinforcing frame is in the form of a closed frame, e.g. a wire, and the 
frame has a separation along its length, creating two ends. In the 
mounting housing, the two ends of the frame are offset and pass each 
other, whereby when the mounting housing is formed over the ends of the 
frame, the two end regions of the frame help orient the mounting housing 
with respect to the frame. 
It is advantageous for the regions at the ends of the wire of the frame to 
overlap and have offset ends which are inserted in the mounting housing as 
this provides increased resistance to being pulled out. 
A U-shaped spring includes arms which are encased or embedded in the 
mounting housing. The spring is disposed in the mold along with the wire 
frame when the mounting housing is molded. More specifically, the ends of 
the arms of the spring are completely embedded in the mounting housing, 
while the upper portion of those arms, closer to the web of the spring, 
are only contacting the mounting housing on their interior facing sides, 
but are free of the mounting housing on their outward sides. The inward 
facing sides of the upper portions of the arms of the spring act on the 
support shaft of the sun visor for holding the sun visor body in every 
possible position of swing in all the sun visors mentioned at the start 
hereof. In known sun visors, the spring must be mounted in a step 
subsequent to formation of the mounting housings, in contradistinction to 
the present invention. Furthermore, springs which are used for known sun 
visors must have means for fastening them to the mounting housing. This 
makes their development more complicated and increases the cost of their 
manufacture. The spring of the invention can now have a relatively simple 
basic structure and need no longer be mounted subsequently. 
The mounting housing is molded with a hole extending through the mounting 
housing and through the "U" of the spring adjacent the web of the spring, 
and the legs of the U-shaped spring are so placed and the hole through the 
mounting housing is so sized that when the mounting shaft for the sun 
visor is passed through the hole in the mounting housing, the upper 
portions of the arms of the spring press against the side of the mounting 
shaft and brake its movement and hold it in any selected orientation. 
For helping to fasten the spring in the mounting housing, the spring arms 
have a hole through them, and the plastic material of the mounting housing 
extends through the hole, holding the spring to the mounting housing. 
The method of the invention includes placing the portion of the reinforcing 
frame which is to be secured to the mounting housing in a mold cavity, 
wherein the cavity is of such size that the frame is away from the walls 
of the mold cavity, inserting the spring in the cavity over the 
reinforcing frame, preferably inserting a removable peg through the spring 
for eventually defining the hole through the mounting housing through 
which the mounting shaft of the sun visor will pass, and then injecting 
plastic material into the mold, for the reinforcing frame and the spring 
to be molded in the mounting housing. 
Other objects and features of the invention will be described below with 
reference to the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
FIG. 1 shows a portion of a sun visor body 1 which has a reinforcing frame 
2 formed of an elongate length of a reinforcing material of thin width, 
e.g. a wire embedded in it and a mounting housing 3 which receives a 
mounting shaft 4 by which the visor body is supported in the vehicle. 
The reinforcing frame 2 has an approximately rectangular basic shape 
although only one of its rectangular corners is shown. The frame is 
embedded into the sun visor body 1 near the peripheral edge of the body. 
The reinforcing frame 2 is rigidly connected to the mounting housing 3, 
which comprises a plastic injection molding. The rigid connection between 
reinforcement frame 2 and mounting housing 3 is obtained, according to the 
invention, because the mounting housing 3 is molded directly onto the wire 
frame 2. The opposite end regions 5 of the bent wire which forms the frame 
2 overlap each other and are developed with bent end pieces 6 that are 
preferably encased within the mounting housing 3. Receivers are provided 
in the mounting housing 3 for the regions of the wire of the reinforcment 
frame 2 which are to be arranged in the housing. These receivers are 
automatically formed by the injection molding of the housing around those 
regions of the wire. Therefore, upon injection molding of the mounting 
housing 3, attention need be paid merely to accurate development of the 
mounting hole 7 which receives the mounting shaft 4 and to maintaining 
outer contour radii of at least 3.2 mm. for the housing, below which radii 
one should not drop for safety of the visor in use. 
A special feature of the invention is that the injection molding of the 
mounting housing 3 encases partial regions of the reinforcing frame 2 and 
also encases a torque spring 8 for braking the shaft 4. The spring 8 is a 
U-shaped leaf spring with sides 9 that extend down the sides of the 
housing 3. Each of the sides 9 has an inside surface which faces into the 
spring 8 and an opposite outside surface. A web 10 joins the sides 9. The 
web 10 has an outside surface which faces away from the mounting housing 
3. At approximately their central regions, the sides 9 have an inward 
offset 11 so that the free end regions of the sides 9 are a shorter 
parallel distance from each other than the upper regions directly adjacent 
the web 10. 
The free end regions of the sides 9 are completely embedded within the 
mounting housing 3. Holes 12 are provided in the free end regions 9 so 
that those regions are permeated by the plastic material. The rest of the 
spring 8 above the offsets 11 is free of plastic on the outside while its 
space between the sides 9 is filled with the plastic material of the 
mounting housing 3 only in the region between the sides 9 and the web 10, 
except that there is no filling at the mounting hole 7 for the mounting 
shaft 4. 
The distance between the regions of the side arms of the spring adjacent 
the web 10 is smaller than the diameter of the mounting hole 7. Since the 
spring 8 does not have any outer abutment or covering in this region, the 
sides 9 can move outward elastically upon the insertion of the mounting 
shaft 4, and press on the shaft. The spring 8 act as a friction brake on 
the shaft and also secures the mounting shaft 4 against being pulled out 
of the mounting hole 7. To aid in this, the spring rests against the 
shoulders (not shown) on the mounting shaft which is formed by flats on 
the mounting shaft. 
For the manufacture of the sun visor, a length of wire is first bent in a 
plane into the shape of an approximately rectangular frame. A region of 
this wire frame 2, preferably the region having the separated end 
sections, is inserted into the mold cavity of a plastic injection molding 
machine (not shown). The spring 8, which is a bent U-shaped strip of 
spring steel, is also inserted into the mold cavity and is held in a 
centered position by a peg 14 which is passed between the opposite sides 
of the mold and between the arms of the spring. The peg 14 also forms the 
mounting hole 7. After the mold cavity has been closed, the mounting 
housing 3 is injection-molded around the region of the frame present in 
the cavity and around the spring. The reinforcing frame 2, which is now 
supplemented by the mounting housing 3, is then provided with body padding 
in the customary manner for forming a completed sun visor body. 
Although the present invention has been described in connection with a 
preferred embodiment thereof, many variations and modifications will now 
become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, 
that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure 
herein, but only by the appended claims.