Roof construction for vehicles

A roof construction for vehicles, especially limousines, delivery trucks, mini buses, caravans or the like, with a roof aperture elongated in the vehicle traveling direction, and a multipart lid includes lid parts articulated with each other to form one half of the lid, wherein both lid parts can be opened in such a way that transversely to the vehicle traveling direction the respectively one outer lid part and the one inner lid part are located adjacently to each other and raised upwardly at both outer roof edges.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The invention deals with a roof construction for vehicles, including a main 
body having a roof aperture, a multipart lid assigned to the roof 
aperture, which lid is moved between a closed position that completely 
fills the roof aperture and an open position that exposes the roof 
aperture by pivoting the lid parts outwardly. The lid parts are 
essentially configured as elongated rectangles that are hinged to one 
another to form at least one pair so that when folded together upwardly 
the lid parts are displaceable parallel to oppositely located edges of the 
roof aperture, the lid parts being displaceably guided on guide rails by 
means of guide sockets articulated with the lid parts, which guide rails 
are oriented parallel to the other pair of oppositely located edges of the 
roof aperture, while being positioned beneath the lid parts being fastened 
to the main body of the vehicle roof. 
Such a vehicle roof is known from PS 639 479, in which the longer sides of 
the cover or lid part are oriented transversely to the longitudinal axis 
of the vehicle, so that the roof is open or closed by displacing the lid 
parts towards the rear or the front on rails extending in the direction of 
the longitudinal axis. There the lid parts fold to form a package 
transversely to the longitudinal axis and protruding upwardly, which 
package generates considerable air resistance when traveling. Furthermore, 
this package of folded lid part pairs has a number of gaps opened towards 
the top due to the spacing between the individual folded lid part, pairs, 
whereby air vortices and with this undesirable wind noises are caused. 
Because of the transverse arrangement of the lid parts, many lid parts, 
and long displacement travel of the lid parts linked to each other by 
articulated arms, are necessary in roof apertures having a considerable 
length. In addition, the known vehicle roof is to be actuated by pulling 
or pushing, which complicates the operation. Finally, a seal is provided 
at one of the lid parts for the purpose of sealing the lid part at each 
joint, so that sealing with the roof closed depends on the precise edge 
engagement of the overlapping lid parts and is already locked with a 
slight dislocation or misalignment of the lid parts to each other. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide roof 
construction of the above-mentioned type, where the wind resistance and 
flow noises caused by folding the lids or cover parts together are 
comparatively slight, where short displacement travels are made possible, 
and a reliable sealing at the joints of the lid parts is achieved. 
Pursuant to this object, and others which will become apparent hereafter, 
one aspect of the present invention resides in a roof lid made of lid 
parts with longer sides aligned parallel to the longitudinal axis of the 
vehicle, and a drive element for displacing the guide sockets on their 
guide rails, which element engages at least one of the guide sockets. 
Also, a flexible seating member bridges a gap between the hinged together 
edges of the lid parts over the entire length of the edges. 
In the roof construction pursuant to the invention, all movements of the 
lid parts occur transversely to the vehicle longitudinal axis, whereby 
roof parts when driven in an opening direction fold upwardly oriented in 
the vehicle longitudinal direction and therefore produce only a 
comparatively slight air resistance with only slight undesirable wind 
noises in actual traveling operation. The inventive roof construction 
makes possible the realization of a roof opening or aperture, whose length 
when viewed in the vehicle longitudinal direction is considerably greater 
than the width, wherein in spite of that only slight actuation travels are 
required for opening and closing the roof aperture because of the motion 
of the lid parts transversely to the vehicle longitudinal direction. If 
therefore a hand crank is used for moving the lid parts, the closing and 
opening movements are achievable with few crank revolutions. 
The elongated arrangement of the roof aperture and the lid parts assigned 
to it in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle renders the roof 
construction per the invention especially suitable for vehicles with 
correspondingly elongated roof surfaces, especially for so-called large 
capacity or stretch limousines, mini buses, caravans and the like. In such 
vehicles, the inventive roof construction permits opening the roof surface 
above the rare storage space or over additional seat rows, wherein an 
excellent ventilation and air evacuation is made possible also in vehicles 
of such a type. The sealing section closing the gap between the hinged 
edges of lid parts of a pair is fastened in a sealing manner at both 
edges, so that the gap is also reliably sealed and this is true in every 
relative position of the lid parts. 
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, two pairs of lid parts are 
provided in an approximately symmetrical arrangement. Herein the two pairs 
of lid parts are folded to both sides proceeding from the central vehicle 
longitudinal plane, whereby walls folded towards both sides of the roof 
aperture parallel to the vehicle longitudinal direction are formed which 
prevent the wind from entering from the side into the exposed roof 
aperture. In this way they act as side wind rejectors against air vortices 
occurring sideways of the vehicle body. The arrangement of the lid parts 
can alternately also occur in such a way, that they are folded in the 
direction from one side to the other side of the roof aperture, especially 
if a one-sided sideways entry of wind into the elongated aperture need not 
be apprehended or can be tolerated in view of the shape of the body. 
In another embodiment of the roof construction, an additional roof aperture 
can be provided. This additional roof opening or aperture is arranged, 
when viewed in the driving direction of the vehicle, upstream of the roof 
aperture located in the rear region of the vehicle roof area. A 
ventilation latch hinged in front so as to act in the usual wind 
deflecting manner, which can assume the action of a wind guard as far as 
the rear roof aperture is concerned, can be assigned to this additional 
roof aperture. Naturally this ventilation flap can be pivoted or swiveled 
independently of an actuation of the lid parts assigned to the rear roof 
aperture. 
In order to guide each pair of lid parts, a simple guide is only required 
for the lid part which is not articulated in the vicinity of the adjacent 
edge of the roof aperture. If the guide socket or the plurality of guide 
sockets provided for this purpose at the assigned guide rail or guide 
rails is or are displaced in the sense of a roof opening, then this 
displacement already causes the upward folding-together of the two lid 
parts. Accordingly, the guide sockets are especially suitable for the 
engagement of drive elements. 
The drive elements are two cables each with a helical thread, that are 
driven in opposite directions and guided at the guide rails in a positive 
action push-pull manner. A drive pinion engages the helical thread, and 
the cables respectively engage different guide sockets. 
An especially simple assembly of the roof construction which makes 
available integrated guides for the lid parts is achieved by using a guide 
frame which has the guide rails as components thereof. The guide frame 
completely surrounds the roof aperture and bearing blocks are articulated 
to the lid parts and fastened to the sides of the guide frame to provide 
pivoting support for the lid. The guide frame thus enables the complete 
preassembly of a functional roof design, its functional test prior to 
installation and its simple attachment at the edges of an appropriately 
prepared roof aperture. 
The alignment of the lift parts with the roof closed can be assured in a 
simple manner by providing stops on the tops of the bearing blocks. The 
alignment could possibly be also adjusted by attachment of adjustable 
stops. 
In another embodiment, the lid parts can be bent downwards at their edges 
adjacent to the edges of the roof aperture and are additionally bent 
outwardly at the edges articulated to the bearing blocks for the purpose 
of underpinning the adjacent roof aperture edges. The sealing member has a 
hat-shaped cross-section defining a downwardly open cavity which receives 
adjacent lid part edges and a hinge eye when the lid parts are folded 
together. 
In a further embodiment, the inner lid parts of the two pairs of lid parts 
have facing edges that are shaped to seal in a inter-engaging manner in 
the closed position with interposition of a profiled sealing strip that is 
continuous over the entire length of the facing edges. The profiled 
sealing strip is fastened at one of the edges that face one another, and 
is provided with a continuous side slot. The other facing edge is bent off 
in an L-shaped manner so that when the lid is in the closed position a 
projecting flange of the L-shaped edge engages into the slot. 
The last few features discussed serve for securely retaining and sealing 
the lid parts in the roof aperture when the roof is closed. 
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention 
are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, 
however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together 
with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood 
from the following description of specific embodiments when read in 
connection with the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The roof area of a delivery truck, a stretch limousine or the like shown in 
FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises in the rear region of the fixed vehicle roof 1 a 
roof aperture 2 in the form of a rectangle elongated in the traveling 
direction of the vehicle. A four-part lid 3 is assigned to this first 
aperture 2, which completely fills the roof aperture 2 in the closed 
position and essentially exposes the aperture in the open position of the 
four-part lid 3, as is seen in FIG. 2. The four lid parts of the lid 3 are 
subdivided into two essentially mirror-image pairs of lid parts 4, 5 and 6, 
In the front region of the vehicle roof 1 an additional roof aperture 8 is 
located that aligns transversely to the vehicle longitudinal axis. A 
ventilation slab 9 hinged in front and with its rear edge raisable is 
assigned to the additional aperture 8. The ventilation flap provides an 
additional ventilation possibility if the front of the motor vehicle and 
assumes simultaneously the function of a front wind guard or wind barrier 
for the rear roof aperture 2 if it is exposed. The arrangement of such a 
known ventilation flap is however an optional measure, which is not 
mandatory for the roof design described below. 
The roof aperture 2 is surrounded on all sides by a reinforcement frame 10, 
arranged beneath the fixed vehicle roof 1 and connected with a downwardly 
bent edge 11 with the also downwardly bent edge 12 of the fixed vehicle 
roof bounding the roof aperture 2, as can for instance be seen from FIGS. 
7 and 9. A peripheral edge cap seal 13 is placed from beneath upon the 
folded-down edges 11, 12. 
A single part guide frame 14, manufactured for instance from a continuously 
extruded section, is fastened on all sides from beneath to the 
reinforcement frame 10 by bolt connections 15. The four frame portions of 
the reinforcement frame 10 have an identical cross-section. The outer edge 
16 of the guide frame 14 is configured as an attachment flange through 
which the bolt connections 15 pass. A trough-shaped water conduit 18 
follows upon the attachment flange 16 through a web 17 pointing obliquely 
downwards. The other edge 19 of the water conduit comprises a U-shaped 
guide channel 20 that opens upwardly, upon which follow in the vicinity of 
its lower end at both sides cable ducts 21 for the positive push-pull 
guidance of actuation cables 22 or 23 (FIG. 5). The cable channels or 
ducts 21 are opened in a slot-shaped manner in the direction of the guide 
channel 20. The inner edge of the guide frame 14 comprises a groove 24 
that opens downwardly, in which the upwardly bent edge 25 of a roof lining 
26 is received, which surrounds the aperture 27 (FIG. 6) of the roof lining 
26 adjacent to the roof aperture 2. Water drainage or runoff tubes 28 
communicating with the water duct 18 are provided at the four corners of 
the guide rail 14 with the water drainage tube being shown in FIGS. 3 to 
5. 
The lid or cover 3 formed of four lid parts 4 is arranged within the roof 
aperture 2. Respectively two lid parts 4, 5 and 6, 7 articulated with each 
other form one half of the lid, wherein both lid parts can be opened in 
such a way that transversely to the vehicle traveling direction the 
respectively one outer lid part 4 or 7 and the one inner lid part 5 or 6 
are located adjacently to each other and raised upwardly at both outer 
roof edges. In the closed state the inner lid parts 5, 6 contact each 
other in such a way with interposition of a profiled sealing strip 29 
(FIG. 6), that the upper surfaces of all lid parts 4 to 7 follow the roof 
curvature. 
In the following description we will essentially deal with only one of the 
lid halves which are identical in a mirror-image like manner. Herein we 
mean by "outer lid part" respectively that lid part, which is arranged 
next to a roof aperture edge. The so designated "inner lid part" follows 
upon the outer lid part and is arranged pointing toward the roof center. 
The outer lid part 4 (7) is pivotably supported by two bearing fittings 30 
fastened thereon through pivot bolts 31 in bearing blocks 32, as it can be 
seen in FIG. 3 in connection with the FIGS. 6 to 9. The bearing points are 
in the vicinity of the roof opening edge 12. The bearing blocks 32 are 
arranged spaced from each other at the thickened edge 19 of the guide 
frame 14 and are fixed in a suitable manner. The cross-sectional profile 
of the bearing block 32 is adapted in such a way to the cross-sectional 
profile of the thickened edge 19, that the bearing block 32 can be slid 
from the edges of the guide frame 14 through (not shown) slot faced 
recesses upon the thickened edge 19 in a positively-locking manner and are 
displaced on said edge 19, until their distance corresponds to the distance 
or spacing of the bearing brackets 13 at the outer lid part 4 (7). 
A stop 33 configured as a mushroom-shaped damper is fastened on a upwardly 
pointing face of each bearing block 32, with the height of the stop to be 
dimensioned in such a way that when the outer lid portion comes to rest on 
it the outer surface of the lid lies flush with the roof transverse 
curvature. 
The edge 34 of the outer lid part 4 (7) adjacent to the roof aperture edge 
12 is bent off downward and outward in an L-shaped manner, so that it 
grips below the edge gap seals 13 with the lid 3 closed (FIG. 7). The 
inner lid part 5 (6) is fastened pivotably on hinges 35 at the other edge 
of the outer lid part 4 (7) so that the oppositely located edges form a 
gap 36 (FIG. 6), which is bridged over by a sealing section 37 across its 
entire length, which section is respectively fastened to the edges of the 
lid parts. The flexible sealing section 37, which is a hat-shape in 
cross-section comprises a cavity 38 open towards the bottom, which upon 
extension of the two lid parts 4, 5 (6, 7) receives their adjacent edges 
and the hinge eyes of the hinges 35. 
The edge of the inner lid parts 5 that is closest to the central roof 
longitudinal axis is bent off downwardly and fixably connected with a 
receiving strip 39 into which a profiled sealing member 29 is slid. The 
profiled sealing member 29 comprises a slot 40 (FIG. 12) continuous in 
length, into which, when the lid closed, the inner lid portion 6 lying 
opposite to the profiled sealing member 29 engages with an edge bent off 
in an L-shaped manner which for this purpose comprises a projecting flange 
T-shaped bearing blocks 42 (FIG. 13) are fastened to the lid parts 5 and 6 
in such a way that their free ends point downward and are connected in a 
positively mobile manner by a bearing trunnion 43 with a guide socket 44. 
The T-shaped bearing blocks 42 are respectively located at the inner lid 
parts 5 and 6 and actually at its front and rear ends viewed in the 
vehicle traveling direction. The bearing blocks 42 are arranged at each 
inner lid part 5 and 6 in the vicinity of the longitudinal edges of each 
inner lid part lying opposite one another (FIG. 12). 
The guide sockets 44 are displaceably guided at the rear and front 
transverse parts of the guide frame 14. The lower ends of the guide 
sockets 44 are designed in such a way, that they protrude with two guide 
webs 45 into the obliquely extending opening slots of the cable channels 
21 of the thickened edge 19 of the guide frame 14 (FIG. 13). The guide 
webs 45 have a different length. One of the two guide webs 45 protrudes 
with its free end into one cable channel 21 and is there fixedly connected 
with the end of an actuation cable 22 or 23 similar to a driver or 
entrainment means. The other guide web ends in front of the other cable 
channel 21, is at its free end does not come into contact with the other 
actuation cable 23 or 22. 
The guide sockets 44 are placed in the transverse portion of the guide 
plate 14 in such a way that, with the lid closed, they are spaced opposite 
each other in the vicinity of the lid longitudinal center, as is shown in 
FIG. 12. Herein the guide webs 45 connected with the ends of the actuation 
cable 22, 23 are located respectively in cable channels 21 located opposite 
each other, as the position of the cables in FIG. 5 illustrates. 
The actuation cables 22, 23 are respectively connected at both ends with 
guide sockets 44 in the manner which has been previously described. Both 
actuation cables 22, 23 extend proceeding from the front transverse 
version of the guide frame 10 respectively across the longitudinal part 
thereof up to approximately the center of the rear transverse portion. The 
guide sockets 44 of each respective cable are located on different sides 
referred to the central longitudinal axis of the lid 3, meaning the two 
drive cables engage respectively with one end at a guide socket of the one 
inner lid portion and with the other end at the guide socket located 
diagonally opposite of the other inner lid portion. In the front 
transverse portion of the guide frame 14 the actuation cables 22, 23 lie 
opposite each other. A gear pinion 46 (FIG. 5, 15), which forms the power 
output element of an electrical gear motor 48 (FIG. 15) or a manual drive 
unit (not shown here), engages at this point into helical threads or 
windings 47 (FIG. 14) of the two actuation cables 22 and 23. The geared 
motor or the manual drive unit is fixedly connected with the guide frame 
14 to form a single installation unit. 
Depending upon the direction of rotation of the pinion 46 the actuation 
cables 22, 23 are displaced in opposite directions so that during the 
opening phase of the lid 3 the guide sockets 44 are moved outwardly and 
during the closing phase inwardly towards the roof center. During the lid 
opening process the inner lid parts 5 and 6 are displaced in opposite 
directions to one another by the bearing blocks 42 articulated with the 
guide sockets 44 and they abut by means of the hinges 35 at the outer lid 
parts 4 or 7 which in turn abut by means of the bearing blocks 32 at the 
pivot bolts 31 fixed to the guide frame 14. In this way the lid parts are 
raised upwardly in pairs in a roof-shaped manner, until the lid part pairs 
are positioned at the end of the opening process lying next to each other 
and directed at the respectively outer roof edges. The closing process 
runs in reverse sequence. 
While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a 
roof construction for a vehicle, it is not intended to be limited to the 
details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be 
made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present 
invention. 
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of 
the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, 
readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, 
from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential 
characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.