Abstract:
The invention structure of wheel rim cover includes: a cover body whose disc surface has a plurality of spokes separated by openings; many fasteners are set on an outer edge of a rearward end hole of each opening. The fasteners are grouped surrounding the end hole of a same opening, and are jointly supported by a spring ring. The whole cover body can make use of the fasteners to latch on the end hole of the opening of a targeted wheel rim to fasten the cover body on the wheel rim.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   This invention relates to a structure of wheel rim cover, especially for the wheel rim cover whose appearance is similar to the wheel rim outer surface and whose structure is suitable for covering on the outer surface of the wheel rim, positioned for mounting via on the wheel rim. 
   2. Description of the Related Art 
   The traditional steel rim for mounting car tires has been replaced by aluminum alloy rim gradually. Traditional steel rims normally have a convex-concave reinforcing design disc outer surface. However, aluminum alloy rims are usually made by pressing aluminum alloy material as a whole body, and processing the body to the designed shape. Normally, for saving aluminum alloy material, the outer surface would be formed with many esthetic spokes and openings between the spokes. For covering a bad-looking surface, a traditional steel rim would have many wheel cover designs for covering its surface. Normally, the wheel cover covered on the rim has different design from that of the rim. As shown on the  FIG. 1 , mainly, fasteners  11  which sit at the back side of the disc  1  and are supported by spring ring  12  are used to engage up the inner circumference edge  14  of a specific concave arc of the rim  13 . However, since an aluminum alloy wheel rim has its own esthetic features, a wheel cover would not normally be used. 
   Nevertheless, because an aluminum alloy wheel rim is made as a single body formed from aluminum alloy, after being hit by a flying stone run over by a speeding car, scrapes will make the rim lose its shiny appearance. The only solution is to replace the four aluminum alloy wheel rims. This is costly. The traditional wheel cover of a steel wheel rim is not suitable for being adopted on the aluminum alloy wheel rim, since there is no specific concave inner circumference edge for supporting the fasteners on the wheel cover. 
   One design of an overlay, called electroplate skin, has been adopted on the jeep or station wagon wheel rim, which is bigger and has a sunken surface, such as the case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,973, titled “Method for compensating for tolerance variations between an overlay and wheel assembly”. It is formed by plastic and electroplated with shiny surface covering material. By means of adhesive applied between covering material and the surface of a steel wheel rim or aluminum alloy wheel rim which is to be covered, the covering material can stick on the wheel rim and the electroplated surface of the covering material can decorate the wheel rim. This method is pretty ideal, but the processes needs professional techniques and equipment; general drivers cannot implement the job. Besides, after being treated with adhesive between covering material and the surface of wheel rim, when the covering material is scraped, the covering material would not be able to be disassembled. This means that only one time of replacement can be done. Hence, the practicability is not ideal. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The objective of this invention is to provide an improved structure of a wheel rim cover, that includes a cover body which has a disc surface and an outer rim edge formed on the circumference edge of the disc surface, and spokes or ribs defined by openings, the openings narrowing from a front of the rim cover rearward and forming a curved surface along the spoke edges. Each opening forms an end hole at the rear side of the cover body. Fasteners are disposed near the end hole of one or more of the openings, and a group of the fasteners are arranged on the rear side of the cover body surrounding the end hole one or more of the openings. The group of fasteners are jointly supported by a spring ring. By means of above structures, the whole cover body can make use of the fasteners which are jointly surrounding outside of the end hole of a same opening to latch on a corresponding end hole of the opening of the targeted wheel rim and fasten the whole cover body on the wheel rim. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a cross-section diagram of the well-known wheel rim fastening cover. 
       FIG. 2  is a cross-section diagram of the structure of a aluminum alloy wheel rim. 
       FIG. 3  is a backside structure diagram of the invention preferred embodiments. 
       FIG. 4  is a section diagram of section A-A of  FIG. 3  of the invention preferred embodiments. 
       FIG. 5  is a cross-section diagram of the invention preferred embodiments installed on the aluminum alloy wheel rim of  FIG. 2 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments, it should be noted that like elements are indicated by the same reference numerals throughout the disclosure. 
   Referring to  FIG. 2 , the invention preferred embodiments can be adopted on the wheel rim  2  shown on the figure. The invention preferred embodiment has an outer rim  21  for mounting a tire and openings  22  and disc  23 . Each opening  22  has specific shape and narrows from an outer point (front surface) of the wheel rim  2  toward an inner part (rear), and has an end hole  24  at the inner side of the wheel rim  2 . Latch edge  25  is formed at the outer circumference edge of the end hole  24 . Spokes or ribs  26  are formed between every two openings  22 . A mount seat  27  is formed at the outer circumference edge of the wheel rim  2 . Securing holes  28 , for accommodating bolts to mount the wheel rim  2  to a wheel hub, are set on the disc  23 . 
   Referring to  FIGS. 3-4 , a wheel rim cover of a preferred embodiment includes: 
   a cover body having a disc  31 . A peripheral edge  32  is formed at the circumference edge of disc  31 ; a plurality of ribs or spokes  33  are provided and separated by openings  34  formed between every two of the spokes  33 . Each opening  34  has specific shape and is narrows from an outer or front part of the cover body toward an inner or rear part of the cover body. Each opening  34  forms an end hole  35  at the inside of the cover body  3 ; the shape of each spoke  33  and opening  34  is similar to the shape of each spoke  26  and opening  22  of the targeted wheel rim  2 . Openings  34  form a hole edge  36  of the spokes  33  having a curved surface. Fasteners  37  are disposed near end hole  35  around the outer side of hole edge  36 ; two fasteners  37  are grouped around at the hole edge  36  of the end hole  35  of the same opening  34 . Each end of the fasteners of a same group of fasteners  37  facing the end hole  35  is provided with a concave groove  371 , and each fastener  37  has a stem with suitable length between the hole edge  36  and the groove  371 . The fastener  37  is integrally formed with the cover body  3 ; each fastener can have different setting up position, interval and amount, relying on the different shape of opening  34  and end hole  35 . In the case of the invention preferred embodiment, since end hole  35  is, roughly, a rectangle, fasteners  37  would be set up at hole edge  36  sit at both sides of end hole  35 . A protrusion  373  is formed at a side of each fastener  37 , in opposition to groove  371 . 
   Spring rings  4 , which are made of steel thread and encircled to be a specific annularity, matching the shape of above mentioned end hole  35  of the opening  34  of the cover body  3 , can be inserted into groove  371  of a group of the fasteners  37  corresponding to end hole  35 , and can offer a force to outwardly urge the protrusion  373  of fastener  37 . The spring rings  4  are set in the fasteners  37  firmly. The shape of the other part of the spring ring  4  follows the shape of end hole  35  of the opening  34  of the cover body  3 , but is slightly bigger. 
   Painting or electroplating can be performed on the disc  31  of the cover body  3  for polishing the surface. In assembly, each spring ring  4  can be inserted in the grooves  371  of the fasteners of a same group of fasteners  37  in advance; then, as shown in  FIG. 5 , the cover body  3  is attached onto surface of wheel rim  2  to set cover body  3  peripheral edge  32  inclining to seat  27  of the wheel rim  2  outer rim and make spokes  33  on the cover body  3  cap the spokes  26  of the wheel rim  2 . In addition, each group of fasteners  37 , inserted with a spring ring  4 , on cover body  3  is inserted through end hole  24  of opening  22  of wheel rim so that the protrusions  373 , urged outward by spring rings  4 , of each group of fasteners  37  engage and latch to the latch edge  25  of end hole  24  of each opening  22  of wheel rim  2  to complete the processes for attaching cover body  3  on wheel rim  2 . 
   According to a preferred embodiment, the projection  373  on each of the fasteners  37  has enough capacity for latching the latch edge  25  of end hole  24  of each opening  22  of wheel rim  2  to fix cover body  3  in position. Hence, each spring ring  4 , inserted in each group of fasteners  37  to increase the latching function of each group of fasteners  37  on the latch edge  25  of the end hole  24  of each opening  22  of the wheel rim  2 , is only for increasing the latching strength. 
   According to another preferred embodiment, each group of fasteners  37  set on the outer hole edge  36  of the near end hole  35  of each opening  34  of cover body  3  is arranged for making the spring ring  4 , inserted in the grooves  371  of the fasteners of each group of fasteners  37 , be bigger than end hole  35  of each opening  34  of cover body  3  to avoid the spring ring  4  being visible in the end hole  35  of engraved hole  34 . In the meanwhile, when each group of fasteners  37  is set on the hole edge  36  of the opening  34 , this can offer each fastener  37  a suitable-length stem  372  from the hole edge  36  to the groove  371  set with spring ring  4  to increase the flexibility of spring ring  4 . 
   According to another preferred embodiment, 2 fasteners  37  form a group to surround the same outer hole edge  36  of end hole  35  of an opening  34  and accommodate a same spring ring  4 . The end hole  35  can also be shaped to set more than 2 fasteners as a group for surrounding on the same outer hole edge  36  of end hole  35  of opening  34  and jointly accommodating the same spring ring  4 . Referring to the invention preferred embodiments, the latching processes, for latching each group of fasteners  37  of cover body  3  in the latch edge  25  of end hole  24  of openings  22  of wheel rim  2 , can be selective. This means that it is not necessary that every outer hole edge  36  of near end hole  35  of every opening  34  of cover body  3  has a group of fasteners, for example: if there are 5 openings  34  on cover body  3 , a triangle configuration of 3 openings may be provided with fasteners  37  to be configured for latching. Of course, all openings  34  may be provided with fasteners  37  to be configured for latching. Assembly is an easy operation and no professional knowledge or device is needed. Every driver can complete it easily. The processes of latching cover body  3  on an aluminum alloy wheel rim without applying any adhesive would affect nothing, if an old cover body  3  is removed for replacement with a new one. 
   While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretations and equivalent arrangements.