Opening roof for a vehicle

Abstract: An opening roof assembly for a vehicle has a respective track (22) extending along each side of an opening in a fixed vehicle roof (10). Each track (22) has a slide (52). A front pivot lift arm (54, 132) supporting a front pivot (80) on its front end is coupled to the slide (52) by height adjusting means (68, 72). A panel (12) closes the opening in the fixed roof (10) and can first be pivoted about said front pivot (80) adjacent its front edge from its closed position to a position in which its rear edge is raised above the fixed vehicle roof (10) and then slide rearwardly above the fixed roof (10). A lift link (56) has its upper end pivotally connected to the panel (12) at a location (90) behind said front pivot (80) and its lower end pivotally coupled to a slot (70) in the slide (52). The lower end of the lift link (56) carries a lift link pivot pin (86) which engages in the slot (70) in the slide (52), movement of the lift link pivot pin (86) in said slot (70) is controlled by cam surfaces (88, 138) on the front pivot lift arm (54, 132).

Description: This invention relates to an opening roof assembly for a vehicle, comprising stationary guide means provided on a side of an opening in a fixed vehicle roof and extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, a slide being slidably guided in the stationary guide means and being adapted to be driven by drive means, a front pivot lift arm supporting front pivot means on its front end and coupled to the slide by height adjusting means, a panel closing the opening in the fixed roof in a closed position and being capable of being firstly pivoted about said front pivot means adjacent its front edge from its closed position to a position in which its rear edge is raised above the fixed vehicle roof and then being slidably movable rearwardly into positions above the fixed roof, and a lift link having its upper end pivotally connected to the panel at a location behind said front pivot means and its lower end pivotally coupled to a slot in the slide. EP-A-0296644 discloses an opening roof assembly of this type consisting of a large number of parts. It is an object of the present invention to provide a simpler mechanism. According to the invention, in an opening roof assembly of the type described above, the lower end of the lift link carries a lift link pivot pin which engages in said slot in the slide and movement of the lift link pivot pin in said slot is controlled by cam surfaces on the front pivot lift arm. Two embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the top of a motor car fitted with an opening roof of the type to which the invention relates; Figure 2 is a perspective view of part of the mechanism for an opening roof in accordance with the invention suitable for mounting on one side of the roof opening illustrated in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of a slide shoe forming part of the mechanism shown in Figure 2; Figure 4 is a side view of a pivot lift arm forming part of the mechanism shown in Figure 2; Figure 5 is a side view of a lift link forming part of the mechanism shown in Figure 2; Figure 6 is a side view of the mechanism shown in Figure 2 with the panel in the fully closed position; Figure 7 is a side view, similar to Figure 6, but with the mechanism in an unlocked position in which opening movement is about to commence; Figure 8 is a side view, similar to Figure 7, but with the rear edge of the panel slightly raised above the vehicle roof; Figure 9 is a side view, similar to Figure 8, with the rear edge of the panel in its fully raised position; Figure 10 is a side view, similar to Figure 9, but with the mechanism in a position in which the panel is free to slide rearwardly; Figure 11 is a side view, similar to Figure 10, but with the panel slid rearwardly and its rear half broken away; and Figures 12 to 21 are views similar to Figures 2 to 11 respectively of a second embodiment of the invention. Figure 1 shows the roof 10 of a motor car containing an opening which can be closed by a panel 12 and which is surrounded by a frame comprising a front member 14, a back member 16 and side members 18 and 20. When closed, the panel 12 is pressed against seals (not shown) on the four frame members 14 to 20. Figure 2 shows a guide track 22 which is secured to the underside of the side member 18 of the frame. A similar guide track (not shown) is secured to the underside of the other side member 20. As can be seen from Figure 2, the guide track 22 comprises a channel open on its upper side and having inwardly facing upper and lower grooves 24 and 26 in its outer side walls and similar upper and lower grooves 28 and 30 in its inner side walls, the terms "inner" and "outer" being with reference to the centre line of the vehicle. The outer side wall also carries an outwardly directed flange 32 which is secured to the underside of the rail 18 of the frame. The inner side wall carries an auxiliary guide channel 34 with a flange 36 which is secured to the underside of the front and rear transverse rails 14 and 16. A second smaller auxiliary groove 40 is formed in the upper edge of the outer side wall and serves as a guide for one edge of a plastics drive tape (not shown) having a row of rectangular slots formed along its length which can be engaged by the teeth of a drive sprocket (as described in EP-A-0106610). The outer side wall has a cut-out 42 adjacent to its front end which serves to receive an arcuate guide (not shown) for guiding the drive tape through a 90° turn into a guide track (not shown) extending across the front edge of the roof opening below the front member 14 (Figure 1). In the region of the cut-out 42, there are inclined slots 44 and 46 in the side walls of the guide track 22 extending between the upper and lower grooves 24 and 26 and between the upper and lower grooves 28 and 30 respectively. Figure 2 also shows a slide shoe assembly 50 consisting of a slide shoe 52, a pivot lift arm 54 and a lift link 56. As can be seen from Figures 2 and 3, the slide shoe 52 has laterally projecting lugs 58 on its inner and outer sides which engage in the bottom grooves 26 and 30 in the track 22. The slide shoe 52 consists of two side walls 60 and 62 interconnected at their bottom edges by two linking webs 64 and 66. The two side walls contain identical longitudinally extending front slots 68 and rear slots 70. The pivot lift arm 54 carries a pin 72 near its front end which is received in the slots 68 in the slide shoe 52, and has a slot 74 near its rear end which is of identical shape, but inverted relative to the slots 68 in the slide shoe 52 and which receives a second pin 76 which extends between the rear ends of the side walls 60 and 62. The effect of this is that movement of the slide shoe 52 relative to the pivot lift arm 54 longitudinally of the track 22, causes vertical linear movement of the pivot lift arm 54 but no angular movement thereof. The pivot lift arm 54 has an upwardly extending portion 78 at its front end which carries a pivot pin 80 for engagement with a support member 82 (see Figure 6) to which the panel 12 is secured. The pivot lift arm 54 also has a vertically extending slot 84 through which the lift link 56 projects. At its lower end, the lift link 56 carries a pivot pin 86 (see Figure 5) which is received in L-shaped slots 70 in the side walls 60 and 62 of the slide shoe and slots 88 in the sides of the pivot lift arm 54 bounding the slot 84. At its upper end, the lift link 56 carries a second pivot pin 90 which engages with the support member 82 (Figure 6). The slide shoe 52 has two spaced projections which extend outwardly from the side wall 60 over the auxiliary groove 40 in the track for engagement into adjacent slots in the above mentioned flexible plastics drive tape. The other side wall 62 carries a projection 96 which extends over the auxiliary guide channel 34 so that the front edge of the projection 96 can engage with a vertical projection 98 on a slide bar 100 which is slidably located in the auxiliary guide channel 34 and biased by a spring (not shown) in the rearward direction, i.e., to the right as viewed in Figure 6. The slide bar 100 has a second projection at its rear end with an inclined cam surface 104 positioned to engage with a complementary cam surface 106 on the rear end of the support member 82 so as to hold the rear edge of the panel 12 firmly in engagement with the seal (not shown) on the back frame member 16 when the panel 12 is in its closed position. The slide bar 100 also has a laterally projecting lug 108 (see Figure 6) near its rear end, and a corresponding lug 109 (see Figure 11) near its front end, which engage in a groove 111 (Figure 2) in one at the side walls of the auxiliary guide channel 34. Figure 6 shows the panel 12 in its fully closed position. When the panel 12 is to be opened, the drive tape (not shown) moves the slide shoe 52 rearwardly along the track 22, initially to the position shown in the Figure 7. Rearward displacement of the pivot lift arm 54 is prevented by engagement of the projecting ends of the pivot pin 72 in inclined slots 44 and 46 in the side walls of the guide track 22. Consequently, the slot 68 in the slide shoe 54 moves so that the pin 72 on the pivot link arm 54 is brought to the left hand end at a short horizontal section 110 which forms the right hand extremity of the slot 68, and the pin 76 in the slide shoe 52 travels along a corresponding horizontal section 112 at the left hand extremity of the slot 74 in the pivot lift arm 54, which remains stationary during this movement. The panel 12 remains stationary, with the result that the lift link 56 is displaced along the horizontal part of the L-shaped slot 70 in the slide shoe 52. At the same time, the slide bar 100 is allowed by the projection 96 on the slide shoe 52 to move to the right under the action of its above-mentioned spring (not shown), so as to disengage the cam surface 104 thereon from the cam surface 106 on the support amber 82. During the next phase of the opening movement, the mechanism moves from the position shown in Figure 7 to the position shown in Figure 8, the pin 72 moving along an inclined part 118 of the slot 68 and the pin 76 moving along a correspondingly inclined part 120 of the slot 74, thus raising the pivot lift arm 54. This raises the pivot pin 80 supporting the front end of the support member 82 to which the panel 12 is attached, thus raising the front edge of the panel 12 clear of the seal (not shown) on the front member 14 of the frame. At the same time, the open-ended slot 88 in the pivot lift arm 54 causes the pivot pin 86 at the bottom of the lift link 56 to continue to move along the horizontal part of the L-shaped slot 70, thus keeping the panel 12 parallel to the car roof 10 until its front edge is clear of the above-mentioned seal. When the pivot pin 86 reaches the front end of the horizontal part of the L-shaped slot 70, it is allowed by the open-ended slot 88 to travel to the bottom of the vertical section of the L-shaped slot 70. The lift link 56 then starts to pivot in a counter-clockwise direction about the pivot pin 86. When the mechanism has reached the position shown in Figure 8, the pivot lift arm 54 has been raised to such an extent that the pivot pin 86 is clear of the bottom of the openended slot 88. The slide bar 100 has moved into abutment with the back frame member 16. As the mechanism continues to move from the position shown in Figure 8 to the position shown in Figure 9, the lift link 56 continues its anti-clockwise movement to a substantially vertical position. At the same time, the pivot pin 72 travels along a second horizontal portion 122 of the slot 68 while the pivot pin 76 travels along a similar horizontal portion 124 of the slot 74. The pivot pin 86 at the bottom of the lift link 56 is retained at the bottom end of the vertical part of the L-shaped slot 70 by a cam surface 126 on the bottom face of the pivot lift arm 54. The rear edge of the panel 12 is now in its fully raised position but is prevented by sliding rearwardly over the roof of the vehicle 10 behind the roof opening by continued engagement of the ends of the pivot pin 72 in the inclined slots 44 and 46 in the track 22 (Figure 2). Continued rearward movement of the slide shoe 52 causes the pivot pin 72 to move along a short inclined section at the front end of the slot 68 and the pivot pin 76 to move along a corresponding inclined section at the rear end of the slot 74, thereby raising the pivot lift arm 54 sufficiently to disengage the ends of the pivot pin 72 from the slots 44 and 46 in the track 22. The cam surface 126 on the bottom of the pivot lift arm 54 has an inclined portion 128 which ensures that the pivot pin 86 continues to be held at the bottom of the vertical part of the L-shaped slot 70. The slide shoe 52 is now free to slide along the full length of the track 22, moving the panel 12 to its fully open position as illustrated in Figure 11. The panel 12 is retained in its raised position by engagement of the ends of the pivot pin 72 in the slots 24 and 28. When the panel 12 is to be closed, the shoe 52 is slid forwardly to bring the ends of the pivot pin 72 into alignment with the slots 44 and 46, permitting the panel 12 to be lowered. The above described sequence of movements is then reversed, the front edge of the open-ended slot 88 lifting the pivot pin 86 as the mechanism moves from the position shown in Figure 8 to the position shown in Figure 7. Figures 12-21 illustrate a modified embodiment of the invention for use with the same track 22 as illustrated in Figure 2 and using an identical lift link 56. This embodiment has a guide shoe 130 (see Figure 13) which is identical with the guide shoe 52 except that it does not have a pivot pin 76 at its rear end and is, therefore, somewhat shorter. Its remaining parts are identical with the corresponding parts of the slide shoe 52 and are denoted with the same reference numerals. The embodiment illustrated in Figures 12-21 also has a pivot lift arm 132 (Figure 14), the front part 78 of which carries pivot pins 72 and 80, similar to the correspondingly numbered parts of the pivot lift arm 54 shown in Figure 4. The pivot lift arm 132 also has a vertically extending slot 84 for the lift link 56 but, in place of the slot 74 of Figure 4, it has two integral pivot formations 134 and 136 which engage in the lower groove 26 and 30 of the track 22. In the course of operation, as the mechanism moves from the position shown in Figure 16 to the position shown in Figure 21, the pivot lift arm 132 pivots about the formations 134 and 136 instead of remaining parallel to the track 122 and consequently the open-ended slot 88 of Figure 4 is replaced by a straight slot 138 as shown in Figure 14. In addition, the cam surface 140 for holding down the pivot pin 80 at the bottom of the L-shaped slot 70 is of a different shape to the corresponding surfaces 126 and 128 of Figure 4. Otherwise, the manner of operation is the same as that described with reference to Figures 6-11 and will not be described in detail.

Claims: An opening roof assembly for a vehicle, comprising stationary guide means (22) provided on a side of an opening in a fixed vehicle roof (10) and extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, a slide (52) being slidably guided in the stationary guide means (22) and being adapted to be driven by drive means, a front pivot lift arm (54, 132) supporting front pivot means (80) on its front end and coupled to the slide (52) by height adjusting means (68, 72), a panel (12) closing the opening in the fixed roof (10) in a closed position and being capable of being firstly pivoted about said front pivot means (80) adjacent its front edge from its closed position to a position in which its rear edge is raised above the fixed vehicle roof (10) and then being slidably movable rearwardly into positions above the fixed roof (10), and a lift link (56) having its upper end pivotally connected to the panel (12) at a location (90) behind said front pivot means (80) and its lower end pivotally coupled to a slot (70) in the slide (52), characterised in that the lower end of the lift link (56) carries a lift link pivot pin (86) which engages in said slot (70) in the slide (52), movement of the lift link pivot pin (86) in said slot (70) is controlled by cam surfaces (88, 138) on the front pivot lift arm (54, 132). An opening roof assembly according to claim 1, wherein the lift link pivot pin (86) directly engages in said slot (70) in the slide (52). An opening roof assembly according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the slot (70) is L-shaped, having a substantially horizontal part and a substantially vertical part, and the cam surfaces include an open-ended slot (88, 138) inclined at respective acute angles to both the horizontal part and the vertical part of the L-shaped slot (70) so that horizontal movement of the slide (52) relative to the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) causes movement of the lift link pivot pin (86) away from an end of the horizontal part of the slot (70) during an initial phase of movement from the closed position. An opening roof assembly according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the cam surfaces include an edge (126, 140) arranged to retain the lift link pivot pin (86) at an end of the vertical part of the slot (70) during a subsequent phase of movement. An opening roof assembly according to any preceding claim, wherein the height adjusting means comprises a front lift pivot pin (72) fast with the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) and engaging in an inclined slot (68) in the slide (52) so arranged that rearward movement of the slide (52) relative to the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) causes upward movement of the front pivot means (80), a projection (72) on the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) engaging with a slot (44, 46) in the stationary guide means (22) so as to restrict horizontal movement of the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) when the front lift pivot pin (72) is displaced from the upper end of the inclined slot (68) and to restrict downward movement of the front pivot means (80) when the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) is displaced from its foremost position in the stationary guide means (22). An opening roof assembly according to claim 5, wherein said projection on the front pivot lift arm (54, 132) comprises a projecting end of the front lift pivot pin (72). An opening roof assembly according to claim 5 or 6, wherein a slide bar (100) is slidably located in the stationary guide means (22) so that an upwardly projecting rearwardly facing latch formation (104) thereon is movable into and out of engagement with a downwardly projecting forwardly facing latch formation (106) secured adjacent to the rear edge of the panel (12), and releasable coupling means (96, 98) are arranged to connect the slide bar (100) for simultaneous movement with the slide (52) as the front lift pivot pin (72) moves along a first section (110) of the inclined slot (68). An opening roof assembly according to any preceding claim, wherein a second front lift pivot pin (76) in the rear end of the slide (52) engages in a slot (74) in the rear end of the front pivot lift arm (54), the slot (74) being of the same shape and dimensions as the inclined slot (68) in the slide (52) and inverted with respect thereto. An opening roof assembly according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the rear end of the front pivot lift arm (132) has a pivot formation (134, 136) which engages in a groove (26, 30) of the stationary guide means (22).

Inventors: SCOTT PAUL GEOFFREY, SCOTT, PAUL GEOFFREY
Applicants: BRITAX WEATHERSHIELDS, BRITAX WEATHERSHIELDS LIMITED
Application year: 1993
Main classification: B60J7
IPC codes: B60J7