A motor-adjustable rear-view mirror has a housing, a mirror glass assembly, at least one mirror adjustment drive that effects alignment of the mirror adjustment drive to the reinforcement plate, in which the fastening device has at least one section for transmission of electrical energy and/or electrical signals to the mirror adjustment drive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
 1. Field of the Invention
 The invention relates to a motor-adjustable vehicle rear-view mirror, and
 more particularly to an arrangement that includes a housing that contains
 at least one mirror glass assembly, a mirror adjustment drive and a
 reinforcing plate, wherein the mirror adjustment drive acting on the
 alignment of the mirror glass assembly is mounted to the reinforcing plate
 by means of a fastening device.
 2. Discussion of Relevant Prior Art
 Vehicle rear-view mirrors that are motor-adjustable are well known in this
 field. The mirror adjustment drive is electrically connected to a power
 supply by very varied designs.
 For example, connecting leads can be soldered to the respective connecting
 terminals of the mirror adjustment drive. The other ends of the connecting
 leads are brought out of the mirror housing and are connected to the power
 supply by means of a connector. The necessary soldering process increases
 the number of time consuming work steps during the assembly of the mirror.
 Furthermore, when mounting of the mirror, there is a great danger that the
 electrical leads will be crushed during the fastening of the mirror
 adjustment drive to the reinforcing plate.
 In another embodiment according to the state of the art, the contacts are
 made by means of plug connectors that are arranged on the drive. Such plug
 connectors at this exposed place have to be made moisture-tight, which
 considerably increases their volume and makes mounting additionally
 difficult. Furthermore, the danger still exists that cables will be
 crushed, and in the worst case even parted, during mounting.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 The object of the invention is to provide a secure and simple structure for
 the electrical connection of electrical components within a vehicle
 rear-view mirror.
 This is effected surprisingly simply by a motor-adjustable rear view mirror
 having the following features:
 a housing, a mirror glass assembly, at least one mirror adjustment drive
 that effects alignment of the mirror glass assembly, a reinforcing plate,
 and a fastening device that fastens the mirror adjustment drive to the
 reinforcement plate, in which the fastening device has at least one
 section for transmission of electrical energy and/or electrical signals to
 the mirror adjustment drive.
 According to the present invention, the electrical energy and/or electrical
 signals to the mirror adjustment drive are conducted by means of at least
 a section of the fastening device that is made conductive. The
 conventionally necessary additional connection between the mirror
 adjustment drive and the wire harness is dispensed with. Crushing cables
 between the mirror adjustment drive and the reinforcing plate is avoided.
 Because an additional electrical connection is dispensed with, the work
 cost and the space requirement in the mirror housing during mounting are
 decreased.
 To securely seat the mirror adjustment drive on the reinforcing plate, the
 fastening device can include at least three connecting elements. If these
 connecting elements are themselves arranged to be electrically conductive
 and electrically insulated from each other, the three electrical
 connections that are usual at the present time can be completely effected
 by means of the fastening device. For electrical contacting, the
 connecting elements can be electrically connected in the vicinity of (i.e.
 at or the neighborhood of) a first end with the respective connecting
 leads of the motor, for example in the form of contact strips, and in the
 vicinity of a second end with the wiring harness that supplies power
 and/or data signals.
 In order to insure a compact construction, the at least sectionally
 conductive connecting elements extend in passage openings in the mirror
 adjustment drive.
 Many conventional connecting devices can be used as the connecting
 elements, and if necessary can be modified as regards their electrical
 conductivity. For example, the connecting element can include in a simple
 structure a screw with a nut that holds the mirror adjustment drive and
 the reinforcing plate in abutment between the screw head and the nut. To
 insure easy mounting, the connecting element can also consist of two
 parts, with interengaging sections of the two parts forming a rotary
 snap-on closure, and with at least the mirror adjustment drive and the
 reinforcing plate held in abutment between the two ends of the connecting
 element.
 The usual diecast parts, or else plastic parts, can be used as the
 reinforcing plate. Plastic reinforcing plates have the advantage, in
 contrast to diecast reinforcing plates, that no electrical insulation of
 the feedthroughs of the mirror adjustment drive, for example, in the form
 of sleeves introduced into the feedthroughs, is necessary.
 The invention can also be applied to the newer vehicle rear-view mirrors
 that use intelligent electronics in the mirror glass housing, with analog
 and/or digital control.
 The printed circuit board that receives the electronics can be directly or
 indirectly seated on the reinforcing plate, and the connecting elements
 can be connected with contact places on the printed circuit board. The
 contact places can be electrically connected to the wiring harness that
 provides the current supply and/or the digital data signals. In this
 manner, a digitally controllable mirror adjustment drive, which requires
 two digital signal leads (digital signal/ground) and two leads for the
 voltage supply (analog plus/ground) can be connected according to the
 invention by means of four conductive connecting elements. Furthermore, by
 combining the digital and analog ground, there is the possibility of
 working with only three connecting elements, which according to the
 invention simultaneously serve as electrical connections.
 In order to produce a contact of the at least sectionally electrically
 conductive screw to the printed circuit board, an electrically conductive
 nut, for example a rivet nut, can be arranged in the printed circuit
 board, and the screw is screwed or turned onto it, while the electrically
 conductive rivet nut is connected on the printed circuit board to the
 corresponding lead of the wiring harness.
 The provision of a printed circuit board seated on the reinforcing plate
 furthermore offers the possibility of contacting the heating leads of the
 mirror glass through the mirror adjustment drive in a similar manner to
 the connecting elements. In this case also, the mounting of an additional
 cable pair is dispensed with, and the risk of crushing an electrical
 connection during assembly is avoided.
 For this purpose, two spring contact pins project through the mirror
 adjustment drive from the printed circuit board, and press on associated
 contacts of the heating system on the back side of the mirror glass
 carrier.
 To protect the electrical contacts or the electronics against moisture, and
 in particular against corrosion-promoting salt water, the printed circuit
 board can be protected in the vehicle exterior mirror. The usual processes
 for sealing electronic components, as regards the dimensions of the
 sheathing structure, the setting time, and the setting temperature, do not
 satisfy the requirements to be placed on components in a vehicle outer
 mirror. Various processes for the sealing of electronic assemblies are
 known in the state of the art, such as molding and casting. However, this
 does not hold for the specific application to the exterior mirror region
 of motor vehicles. According to the invention, an effective protection,
 particularly also against vibration, can be provided by molding around the
 printed circuit board, for example with an elastic material, applied by an
 injection molding process and sheathing and sealing the printed circuit
 board. A melt adhesive can be used as the material, for example. The
 advantage of such a material also consists in that it is easy to process,
 requires only a short setting time and low setting temperature, and can be
 applied in a sufficient thickness. An effective and permanent sealing of
 the electronic components is thereby also insured.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
 FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the invention in an exploded diagram.
 According to this embodiment, the motor-adjustable vehicle rear-view
 mirror according to the invention includes a housing 1 that receives a
 mirror glass assembly, a mirror adjustment drive 3 that acts on the
 alignment of the mirror glass assembly, and a reinforcing plate 4 to which
 the mirror adjustment drive 3 is attached by means of a fastening device.
 The mirror glass assembly includes a mirror glass carrier 10 with a mirror
 glass 11 fitted onto it and a casing 17. The fastening device at least
 sectionally conducts electrical energy to the mirror adjustment drive. In
 the embodiment shown, the fastening device includes three elements, of
 which only two are shown in the diagram, for the sake of clarity. These
 fastening elements in the form of screws 5 are inserted through
 corresponding openings in the mirror adjustment drive. The mirror
 adjustment drive 3 and the reinforcing plate 4 are brought into mutual
 abutment, and the screws 5 are turned through openings in the reinforcing
 plate 4 into nuts 7 placed behind the openings. The screws and the nuts
 are made of a conductive metal, copper in the present example. The
 reinforcement plate 4 is produced from an impact-resistant, non-conductive
 plastic and thus insures the electrical insulation of the three nuts 7. In
 another arrangement the reinforcing plate 4 includes a diecast aluminum
 part, insulators being interposed between the diecast aluminum part and
 the screws, and between the diecast part and the nuts 7 positioned against
 it, in order to prevent short circuits.
 The electrical contact of the mirror adjustment drive 3 to the side of the
 screw head, and the electrical contact to a power supply on the side of
 the nuts 7 behind the reinforcing plate, is shown in FIG. 2 for the screw
 connection of the first embodiment. This screw connection holds the mirror
 adjustment drive 3 in abutment on the reinforcing plate 4 and passes
 through the mirror adjustment drive 3. A contact strip 14 is brought into
 direct abutment with the electrically conductive screw 5, to produce the
 associated electrical contact to the drive. In this embodiment according
 to the invention, the screw 5 passes through the flat contact strip 14
 and, with the screw head, presses the contact strip 14 against the mirror
 adjustment drive, so that electrical contact is produced at the same time
 between the contact strip 14 and the screw 5. The respective contact strip
 furthermore leads to the corresponding drive connection, which is not
 shown.
 On the other side of the connection, a thin metal plate 18 is arranged
 between the electrically conductive nut 7 and the reinforcing plate 4, and
 produces an electrical contact to the corresponding lead of the wiring
 harness. In a further arrangement of the invention, the sections of the
 reinforcing plate with which the nuts are in contact are coated with a
 conductive material, and the associated leads of the wiring harness are
 electrically connected to the respective sections.
 After the mounting of the mirror adjustment drive 3 on the reinforcing
 plate 4, and the production of the necessary connections, the mirror glass
 assembly is clipped onto the mirror adjustment drive 3. For this purpose,
 the glass carrier plate 10 to which the mirror glass 11 is adhered
 includes clip elements in the form of fingers 13 that are brought into
 engagement with the edge of the mirror adjustment drive 3, an optical
 casing 17 being furthermore arranged between the mirror adjustment drive 3
 and the glass carrier plate 10.
 In another arrangement of the invention, instead of a screw and a nut, the
 connecting element used is two connecting parts with interengaging
 sections, which together form a bayonet closure.
 FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the invention, in an exploded view;
 here, in contrast to the first-described embodiment, a printed circuit
 board 8 is arranged on the back side of the reinforcing plate 4. The
 electrical contact to the wiring harness is made by fitting on the printed
 circuit board 8 a socket into which the plug of the wiring harness can be
 inserted. According to this embodiment of the invention, the leads are
 electrically connected to the printed circuit board 8 either directly with
 the fastening nuts 7, or after first passing through electrical switching
 circuits on the printed circuit board. In the latter case, two leads
 insure the power supply of the vehicle rear-view mirror, while the third
 lead is used as the digital signal lead for controlling and adjusting the
 mirror adjustment drive 3, the digital ground of the control lead being
 combined with the analog ground.
 In a further arrangement of the invention, the digital ground is provided
 to the mirror adjustment drive 3 separately from the analog ground. In
 this case, instead of three connecting elements in the form of
 electrically conductive fastening screws 5, four screws pass through the
 mirror adjustment drive 3 and simultaneously serve to fasten the mirror
 adjustment drive 3 to the reinforcing plate 4 and to place the four
 connections of the mirror adjustment drive 3 in contact with the
 associated connections on the printed circuit board 8.
 FIG. 4 shows in a detail the electrical contact of a fastening screw 5 to
 the printed circuit board 8 via a nut 7. To produce the electrical
 contact, and to fasten the drive 3, the screw 5 is screwed into a nut 7,
 which is riveted into the printed circuit board 8. In order to insulate
 the screw from the metallic reinforcing plate 4, an insulating sleeve 9
 through which the screw 5 extends is arranged in the through-opening of
 the metallic reinforcing plate 4.
 The embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 3 has a mirror glass heating
 system 12. This is adhered to the back side of the mirror glass 11 between
 the mirror glass and the mirror glass carrier 10. Heating contacts 16 are
 passed through the glass carrier 10 to its back side.
 The electrical connection to the mirror heating 12 is provided by two
 contact pins 15, which extend from the printed circuit board 8, to the
 associated contacts 16 on the glass carrier plate 10. These contact pins
 15 are designed to be resilient, and after mounting press on the
 associated contacts 16.
 According to this embodiment of the invention, a permanently elastic
 material, for example, a melt adhesive, is injected around the whole
 printed circuit board or partial regions of it. For this, the printed
 circuit board is placed in an aluminum mold and the melt adhesive is
 injected into the mold by means of compressed air at a pressure of up to 4
 bar and a temperature of about 120.degree. C.