Clip for protecting coated surface

There is disclosed a clip structure insertable through an apertured work piece for protecting coated surfaces of the work piece comprising a main clip body including resilient clip means adapted to be snapped through the aperture and a protecting cap having a dome into which the clip means may be inserted and further having lateral window means through which the clip means may at least partially project when in assembled relationship.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to an improvement in clips which are used for 
attaching ornaments and/or other parts onto painted or coated surfaces 
such as a panel of an automobile body. 
The clip comprises a main body comprising a plate member on which an 
ornament, etc. is mounted, a supporting member which projects from the 
plate member, and clicks which are provided at the tip ends of the plate 
member at an angle extending toward the plate member, and a protective cap 
which is to be placed over the main body. 
The clicks of the main body are provided with projections at the inner end 
thereof or on the side of the supporting member so that the projection and 
the other edges of the clicks form jaw-like portions respectively. 
The protective cap is provided with a flange of a relatively large 
thickness extending outward from the edge of the opening while the 
peripheral walls of the cap member are bored windows which are necessary 
to allow at least the lower portions of said clicks to extend outward 
therethrough. Between the lower end of the windows and said flange define 
walls vertical to the flange. When the protective cap in this invention 
structure is placed over said clip main body, the clicks of the main body 
become exposed from the windows of the protective cap and the plane 
extending from said projection to the jaw become covered with said 
vertical wall of the protective cap. 
This invention clip is advantageous in that the clicks of the main body do 
not contact directly the hole which is provided on the main body for 
attaching parts, the edges of the hole is always protected with the 
vertical walls of the protecting cap, and yet the clip is secured with the 
clicks at least the lower portions of which are exposed outside from the 
protecting cap. 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION: 
(Background of the Invention) 
This invention relates to an improvement of a clip suitable for attaching 
various parts or ornaments on a coated or finished surface of a main body 
such as attaching exterior members like a piece of moulding on the 
automobile body. 
Problems often occur in the assembly line at automobile plants related to 
the process of attaching exterior parts on an automobile body after it is 
completely coated or painted. 
In attaching such an exterior part after the coating process is finished, 
methods are selectively chosen from among adhesion, welding, rivetting or 
caulking depending on whether or not the exterior part and the main body 
are materially adaptable when joined, the mechanical characteristics 
needed for attachment such as the required strength in fixing, or aethetic 
requirements such as to what extent appearances may be deteriorated by 
damages caused by attachment of parts. 
The use of clips in attaching such exterior parts on a finished body of a 
car has become increasingly popular in recent years as clips satisfy all 
the conditions such as that attaching process should not disturb the 
decorative coating and anti-corrosion processing applied on the main body 
prior to the attachment that the attaching work should be simple and yet 
should secure the attachment, that the mechanical characteristics of the 
attachment should be high, and that the attachment should allow 
modification or repair thereafter. 
Although the method of attaching exterior parts with such a clip does not 
disturb the decorative finish on the main body as welding method may do, 
and is simpler than rivetting, it still is not free of detriments such 
that the clip, when pushed in, often breaks the coated or painted surface 
or accelerates wear and tear if used continuously for a long time. 
In the prior art, clips are attached onto an exterior part in advance so 
that when attaching the exterior part onto a surface, clicks of the clip 
which are generally resilient are engaged with resilience into an opening 
bored in the main body of a car and are secured therein. 
When the clicks of the clip are being resiliently fitted into the opening, 
however, they often peel the coat from the surface or damage the coat 
around the hole to consequently expose the underlying metal. 
The clicks of the clip should have a strength sufficient to secure such 
exterior parts on the main body of a car and have a structure which can be 
closely and snugly attached into the hole on the main body. 
These features of the clicks often cause wear and tear around the hole when 
the part is subjected to vibration. 
In order to eliminate such detriments in the prior art, there has been 
proposed a clip shown in FIG. 11 wherein an inserting portion of the clip 
101 made of a hard material is covered with a cap 102 made of a softer 
material, and the clip 101 covered with the soft cap 102 is inserted into 
a hole 103a of the main body 103 of a car or the like. As a result, the 
clip 101 is prevented from directly contacting the coated surface of the 
main body 103 and yet the exterior part 104 can be secured onto the main 
body 103 of the automobile. 
The method proposed above, however, is detrimental in that the cap 102 
covers the inserting portion of the clip 101 fully to prevent complete 
attachment between the clip 101 and the main body 103 and moreover the 
clip cannot be firmly engaged stepwise with the edge of the hole 103a. 
Consequently the worker cannot be sure about the engagement as he does not 
feel or hear the clicking-in of the part to thereby often cause insecure 
attachment between the part 104 and the main body 102. 
The above method is further detrimental in that when the clip covered with 
the resilient cap 102 is pressed into a hole 103a, the cap 102 often 
becomes expanded by the clip 101. As a result, the clip with the expanded 
cap 102 becomes engaged with the body 103 through the hole 103a to leave 
considerable repulsive stress in the cap 102 after attachment. The clip 
101 consequently is subjected to the stress exerted in the direction to 
pull it out of the hole and sometimes is actually pulled out of the hole 
inconveniently. 
(Object of this Invention) 
This invention relates to an improvement of the conventional clips. 
An object of this invention is to prevent damages, wear and tear of the 
surface which has been processed for corrosion resistance or for 
decorative purposes which might otherwise be damaged by a clip when an 
ornament or a part is attached onto the main body of an automobile with 
the clip. 
Another object of this invention is to provide a clip which has a structure 
to protect the coated surface and yet can secure the attachment of an 
ornament or other part with the main body. 
Still another object of this invention is to provide a clip which will not 
become loosened from the main body even if it is used under vibration for 
a long time by interposing a part of a protective cap between the clip and 
the main body in assembled state so that the clip can be engaged with the 
main body in a manner to absorb impacts of vibration.

(Preferred Embodiments) 
The clip for protecting coated surfaces according to this invention will 
now be described referring to preferred embodiments. 
The clip for protecting coated surfaces shown in FIGS. 1 through 7 is 
constructed as described below. 
The main body of a clip is denoted by a symbol A. A clip main body A is 
made of polyacetal or the like which has a relatively high hardness and 
sufficient impact resilience, and comprises a base plate 11 which can be 
fit in attaching grooves 41 of an exterior part D such as a moulding part, 
a supporting member 12 in the form of a plate erected on the base plate 
11, and clicks 13 which are provided symmetrically on both sides of the 
supporting member 12. 
A click 13 comprises a top portion 13a which extends horizontally from the 
top end of the supporting member 12, sloped portions 13b which extend 
downward at an angle from the ends of the top portion 13a toward the lower 
side of the supporting member 12 and thick portions 13d at the lower side 
of the sloped portions 13b. The thick portions 13d respectively have 
projected edges 13c extending therefrom internally or toward the side of 
the supporting member 12 to form jaws 13e between the projected edges 13c 
and the lower outer edges 13b' of the sloped portions. 
The projected edges 13c are structured to have a sufficient length so that 
when the clicks 13 are pushed inside. There will be a sufficient space 
from the base plate 11. 
The supporting member 12 may be in the form of a plate or a rod. When it is 
in the form of a plate, in particular, reinforcing walls 12a, 12a are 
erected on said base plate 11 to oppose each other on both sides of the 
supporting member so as to prevent the member 12 from deflecting. 
Projections 12b, 12b are provided for guiding the protective cap B on both 
sides of the supporting member 12. 
The base plate 11 is structured in such a manner as to be inserted into the 
grooves 41 of an exterior part D such as a moulding. The base plate is 
prepared in various shapes suitable to be fit with exterior parts of 
various shapes, materials and properties, and structured to have side 
portions of a less thickness 11a, 11a and warped portions on the surfaces 
to accommodate with the exterior part D, the recess being equivalent to 
the length y. 
The protective cap B is made of a material such as polyester elastomer 
which is relatively soft, highly elastic and corrosion resistant. The 
protective cap 21 is formed as a dome having the dimension sufficient to 
cap over the supporting member 12 and the clicks 13 of the main body A. 
The protective cap 21 is provided with a flange 22 of a relatively large 
thickness extending outward from the opening edges 21a, is bored with 
windows 23, 23 on opposing walls from the top portion toward the flange 22 
so that the sloped portions 13b of the clicks 13 may be exposed outside 
therethrough when capped. The portions between the lower edges of the 
windows and the flange 22 form walls 24 vertical to the flange 22. 
The opposing peripheral walls on the sides having no windows are provided 
with slits 25, 25 extending from the top to the flange 22. The projections 
12b, 12b are to be engaged within the slits or grooves 25, 25 when the 
clip main body A is covered with the cap B. 
The main body C of an automobile or the like is provided with a hole 31 in 
which the clicks 13, 13 of the clip main body A are forced into in such a 
manner as to press the clicks 13, 13 inward. The base plate 11 of the main 
body A comes to contact with the surface surrounding the hole 31, and the 
jaw 13e of a click 13 comes to stop at the edge of the hole 31. 
The second embodiment of this invention clip will now be described. As is 
obvious from FIG. 8, the second embodiment is illustrated only for the 
clip main body A. The protecting cap B may be arbitrarily chosen so far as 
it accommodates to the shape of the clip main body A. The second 
embodiment is characterized in that the main body A is provided with only 
one click 13 at only one side of the supporting member 12. The embodiment 
is particularly advantageous when the depth of the hole 31 of the body C 
is limited. 
The third embodiment of this invention will now be described. As is seen 
from FIG. 9, the main body of the clip A is provided with four independent 
clicks 13 in the four directions in respect of the supporting member 12. 
The clicks are paired in a manner that two of which are symmetrical in 
respect of the supporting member 12 while the other two are symmetrical in 
respect of the member 12. The clip main body A is more secured with the 
body C with a resistance sufficient to counteract against any force 
exerted from outside on the exterior part D. 
(Operational Effects) 
As is clear from the above descriptions, this invention clip for protecting 
coated surfaces is advantageous in the following points. 
In attaching an exterior part D with the clip, the base plate 11 of the 
clip main body A is inserted into the grooves 41 of the part D. Due to the 
warped shape by the length y of the base plate 11, the clip main body A 
can be attached with the part D resiliently. The protective cap B is then 
placed lightly over the main body A as shown in FIG. 5, and the assembled 
body and cap are forced into the hole 31 of the main body C. 
In forcing the body with cap into the hole, the edge of the hole is covered 
with the vertical walls 24 and the flange of the cap B so that when the 
clip main body A is further pressed into the hole, as shown in FIG. 6, the 
slope portions 13b of the clicks 13 slide over the edge of the hole 31 to 
be pushed inside and finally to make the jaws 13e of the clicks positioned 
deeper than the inner edge. 
When the jaws 13e enter inside of the inner edge of the hole 31 of the body 
C, the clicks 13 are released from the pressure applied when it goes 
through the hole edge and are extended outward so that projections 13c 
which are positioned inside the jaws 13e come to abut against the hole 
edge. 
All through the pressing-in process of the clip main body A, the hole edge 
of the hole 31 is constantly protected by the flange 22 and the vertical 
walls 24 of the cap B. This protection continues even after the clip main 
body A has sufficiently been pressed in. 
In pressing the main body into the hole, the protective cap B is engaged 
with the main body A by engaging the projections 12b, 12b of the body A 
within the slits or grooves 25, 25 thereof, the cap B is accurately and 
smoothly inserted into the hole 31 of the body C together with the clip 
main body A without being twisted horizontally. As a result, the edge of 
the hole 31 of the body C is held securedly between the vertical walls 24 
and the flange 22 of the cap B while the clip main body A is being pressed 
into the hole 31 of the body C. This can effectively prevent the main body 
A of the clip from directly contacting the edge of the hole 31 of the body 
C. 
The attachment of the clip for protecting coated surfaces according to this 
invention may be achieved by inserting the protective cap B into the hole 
31 of the main body C in advance and further pressing the clip main body A 
while the edge of the hole 31 of the body C being protected with the 
vertical walls 24 and the flange 22 of the protective cap B. 
As is obvious from the above description, when sufficiently pressed into 
the hole 31 of the main body C, the clip main body A is released from the 
pressure exerted by the edge on the clicks 13 to extend the clicks 13 
outward so that the clicks 13 are exposed outside through the windows on 
the cap B. This can secure extension of the clicks 13 which might 
otherwise be disturbed by the protective cap B. The clicks can fully 
extend outward with the projections 13c on the lower edges thereof abutted 
against the edge of the hole 31. 
As a result, the jaws 13e of the clicks 13 become the plates completely 
abutted against the inner edge of the hole 31. As the protective cap B is 
provided with windows 23 in this invention clip and as the edge of the 
hole 31 on the main body C is protected with the vertical walls 24 at the 
lower ends of the windows 23, the impact resilience can be efficiently 
prevented from acting on the vertical walls 24 in the direction the clip A 
is pulled out after it is assembled. (Since the windows section the 
peripheral walls of the cap B.) 
The vertical walls 24 preferably have a width sufficient to cover the areas 
extending from the jaws 13e of the clicks 13 to the base plate 11 of the 
main body A of the clip, and are preferably made thin so as to enhance the 
engagement force with clicks 13. 
This invention clip for protecting coated surfaces is adapted to protect 
the edge of a hole 31 of the body C with the vertical walls 24 and the 
flange 22 of the protecting cap B, thereby preventing damages on the coat 
which might otherwise be caused by the clip main body A. Consequently, 
corrosion and rust arising out of such damages can be effectively 
prevented. This invention clip can prevent looseness in engagement at 
attachment. The attachment of exterior parts D is simple and effective, 
and attached parts can be easily repaired if necessary. When making such 
repairment, the outer surface is prevented from becoming damaged or 
soiled. 
This invention clip having aforementioned advantageous features is most 
appropriate as the means for attaching moulding parts on an automobile 
which are subjected to severe conditions and should be maximally protected 
from corrosion.