Patent Publication Number: US-2004057133-A1

Title: Structural improvement of vehicular tail ground mirror

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] This invention relates to a structural improvement of the vehicular tail ground mirror mounted on the rear windshield. The mirror body is protected in the outer hood to maintain the mirror in clean condition and to render a neat landscape the mirror reflects.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] To give the driver a better vision in reverse driving, the manufacturers, even including the owners, are likely to equip the rear windshield of vans, coaches and buses of small or middle size with a tail ground mirror on the hanging shank. While the bus is running, the tail ground mirror vibrates vigorously. After years in operation, the preset reflection angle between the tail ground mirror and the hanging shank will be deteriorated to a great extent. It will no longer give the reflected vision of the landscape the mirror is designed to cover. In particular, in snowy or rainy days, the mirror becomes blurred, and lost its designed performance.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003] The key object of this invention is to provide a tail ground mirror steadfastly fixed on the rear windshield. The outer hood is secured firmly in place to maintain the reflection angle always as accurate as it is first regulated to reduce the vibration derived from the driving to the minimum. Even in the snowy and rainy days, the outer hood keeps the snow and raindrop away from the mirror, so it always gives the driver a very clean vision behind the bus to ensure a safe reverse driving.  
       [0004] Another object of this invention is to provide a flat pane surface and the curvature under the mirror pane. The flat pane gives a real space and distance behind and the curvature of the mirror pane intensifies the effect of wide angle vision.  
       [0005] The structure and traits of the tail ground mirror of this invention are explained in great details with the aid of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0006]FIG. 1 shows a stereo outlook of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0007]FIG. 2 shows a side view of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0008]FIG. 3 is a disassembly of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0009]FIG. 4 is a stereo outlook of the mirror body of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0010]FIG. 5 is a cross section of side view of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0011]FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of operation the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0012]FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the motor driven automatic control system for the mirror body of the tail ground mirror of this invention.  
     [0013]FIG. 8 shows a third brake lamp of the tail ground mirror of this invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0014] As shown in FIGS. 1 through 3, the vehicular tail ground mirror mainly comprises an outer hood  1 , mirror body  2 , a support bracket  3  and linkage system  4 , wherein the support bracket  3  is glued or bolted to the rear windshield, or integrated on the bus body. The outer hood  1  contains inside the mirror body  2  and a front opening. The outer hood  1  is bolted on the support bracket  2  by means of a lock pin  31 . The position between the outer hood  1  and the support bracket  3  can be adjusted by by fastening the arched adjusting slot  111  on the outer hood  1  to the bolt  32  on a side of the outer hood  1 . By moving the outer hood  1  forward or rearward to ensure the best vision of the rear view from the vehicular tail ground mirror.  
     [0015] The side plate  11  on the outer hood  1  has a rearward curvature  112  to broaden the lighting range of the mirror instead. There are a fixing rack  12  and a projected knob  13  on the outer hood  11 . There are two frames  23  and a pivot rack  22  disposed between two frames  23  on the back of the mirror body  2  which will be linked with the linkage system  4 . Two side plates and the lower part of the mirror pane  21  are in curved form and the central mirror  2  is of a flat surface as shown in FIG. 4. While in reverse driving, the flat surface of the mirror  2  will render a real space and distance in the landscape behind and the curve below the pane will intensify the effect of wide angular vision.  
     [0016] As shown in FIGS. 4 through 6, the linkage system constitutes a control rod  41 , a rotor  42 , a connecting rod  43 , two movable arms  44  and fastening strap  45 , where the control rod  41  penetrates out of and fastened to the fixing rack  12  on the outer hood  1 .The control rod  41  has the rotor  42  at the lower end. The control rod  41 , along with the rotor  42  and the fastening strap  45  is fastened to the fixing rack  12  on the outer hood  1 , where the rotor  42  is permitted to rotate in the round groove in the fixing rack  12 . When the control rod  41  is manipulated, it drives the rotor  42 , the connecting rod  43  and the movable arms  44  which make an upward, downward, leftward and rightward adjustment on the mirror body  2  to gain the best reflected vision behind.  
     [0017] As shown in FIG. 7, a motor  6  is mounted on the mirror body  2  to manipulate movement of two shafts  61  for automatically adjusting the right angle of tail ground mirror body  2  the driver desires without handling operation.  
     [0018] A third brake lamp  5  can be mounted on the outside of the outer hood  1  as shown in FIG. 8.