Ornamental grill for a motor vehicle body

An ornamental molding or grill for a motor vehicle body, especially for the front section of the driver's cab of a truck, which grill is provided with a ribbed surface having air passages therethrough and extending at least over the major portion of the width of the vehicle body. The air passages are provided in substantially horizontally extending flanks of the ribs, and the space between the ribs serves as channel for the impacting air.

The present invention relates to an ornamental molding or grill for a motor 
vehicle body, especially for the front section of a driver's cab of 
trucks, having a grilled or ribbed surface substantially extending over 
the width of the vehicle. 
Generally ornamental grills are used to cover openings in a vehicle body, 
such as radiator or motor space openings. In this connection the 
ornamental grills must be provided with openings to permit the passage of 
combustion and cooling air. For this reason the ornamental grills have air 
inlet openings in the grill surfaces extending substantially parallel to 
the front section of the driver's cab. In view of these air inlet 
openings, however, the grill surface is interrupted to such an extent that 
the motor space behind the grill will become visible from the outside. 
This in turn, interferes with the proper purpose of the ornamental grill. 
Moreover, by such an interrupted grill the closed appearance of the 
vehicle body surface as well as the overall appearance are impaired. 
Furthermore, this type of ornamental grill cannot be used as air deviating 
device because the air impacting upon the grill is almost exclusively 
passed into the motor space. 
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention so to improve the 
heretofore known ornamental grills or moldings above referred to that the 
above outlined drawbacks will be avoided.

The ornamental grill or molding for a vehicle body, which extends over the 
width of the vehicle is in conformity with the present invention provided 
with a ribbed or grilled surface having air inlet openings, and is 
characterized primarily in that the air inlet openings are arranged in 
downwardly pointing flanks of the ribs or the ribbed surface while the 
voids located between the ribs serve as passages for the impacting air. 
In order to obtain as large air passages as possible, it is expedient that 
the air inlet openings in the ribs are spaced from the bottom of the ribs. 
If the ornamental grill is arranged in the front section of a driver's 
cab, it will suffice when the air inlet openings are preferably provided 
only in the central area of the grill. 
In order to prevent that air swirls or eddies form in the air passages, it 
is advantageous to design the voids between the ribs in the form of 
rounded concave sections. 
To avoid the collection of water on the individual ribs of the grill, it is 
suggested that the ribs, when viewed in vertical section, have a 
sawtooth-shaped profile or Z-shaped cross section. 
Referring now to the drawing in detail, the driver's cab 1 is provided with 
a steep front section 2 which above the bumper 3 has an opening for the 
motor space located therebehind. The opening of the motor space is covered 
up by an ornamental grill 4 which is connected to the front section 2 so 
as to be able to be removed therefrom or to be pivoted to one side. Within 
the region of the two corner posts 5 the cab is provided with air passages 
6 which are located within the vehicle body wall and in which the air 
which impacts upon the front section 2 of the vehicle is deviated and in 
the form of an air stream is passed along the two side walls 7 of the 
vehicle. 
The ornamental grill 4 according to FIG. 2 has a plurality of ribs 8 
extending in transverse direction with the flanks 9 substantially 
extending in horizontal direction. The flanks 9 are provided with inlet 
openings 10 through which the air can pass from the outside into the motor 
space. The air inlet openings 10 arranged in this way are practically 
invisible from the outside inasmuch as, on the one hand, they are covered 
up by the respective upper flanks 11 and, on the other hand, have their 
opening cross sections located in a horizontal plane. Due to the 
arrangement of the air inlet openings 10 in the flanks 9 of the ribs 8, 
the rear surfaces 13 located within the corners remain closed in 
themselves and thus serve as impact or deviating surfaces for the oncoming 
air. Thus a portion of the corners 12 formed between the flanks 9 and 11 
of the ribs 8 represents longitudinal passages 14 by means of which a 
portion of the impacting air flow is directed toward the air passages 6, 
the other portion of the impacting air passing through the openings 10. To 
attain passages 14 with a relatively large cross section, the air inlet 
openings 10 are spaced from the rear ribs 8a. 
As will be seen from FIG. 2, the ribs 8 have a sawtooth-shaped profile or a 
multi-Z-shaped cross section including a third arm at an incline 
interconnecting first and second arms parallel to each other with the 
lower flanks 9 extending substantially horizontally and with the upper 
flanks 11 extending at an incline. Due to this design of the grill, on the 
one hand, rain water hitting the upper flanks 11 can entirely flow off 
downwardly and, on the other hand, a portion of the impacting air flow is 
deviated by the flanks 11 to a major extent in a substantially swirl-free 
manner and is passed to the air inlet openings 10. 
As will be seen from the above, the improvement in the ornamental grill 
according to the present invention results in the advantage that the space 
behind the grill, as for instance a motor space, is no longer visible from 
the outside while nevertheless air can pass through the grill into the 
motor space. 
A further advantage of the grill according to the invention is seen in the 
fact that the channels defined by the rear ribs 8a are closed and thus 
serve as impact surfaces and air guiding passages for the impacting air. 
Consequently, compared to heretofore known ornamental grills, with the 
grill of the present invention a larger quantity of air can flow off 
toward both sides of the front section of the cab so that with a cab 
provided with lateral air deviating devices 6, even when driving slowly, 
the sides of the driver's cab will hardly be soiled at all. 
It is, of course, to be understood that the present invention is by no 
means limited to the specific showing in the drawing but also comprises 
any modifications within the scope of the appended claims.