Abstract:
A vehicle glass includes an outer surface and an inner surface opposing the outer surface. A circumferential edge joins the inner and outer surfaces. The edge has at least, in part, a generally planar portion connected to the outer surface by an outer corner and connected to the inner surface by an inner corner. The planar portion is disposed at an acute angle with respect to the outer surface. Furthermore, the outer corner also has a radius less than one half the thickness of the vehicle glass.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention is directed to glass for use in a vehicle, such as an automobile, a sport utility vehicle, a van or mini-van, or one of a multitude of other types of vehicles. The vehicle glass of the instant invention is intended to be fixed to the vehicle or a window frame in a vehicle, as opposed to a door glass which rolls up and down. The invention is more particularly directed to a vehicle glass having an edge angled back toward an inner surface of the glass. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In prior art vehicles, glass used in windows for rear quarter windows or rear windshield (backlight) applications were considered to be fixed windows, for example, in a station wagon or sport utility vehicle, the rear quarter window is fixed and does not open. In station wagons and sport utility vehicles, the rear windshield is part of the rear hatch. In this case, the rear windshield is either fixed to the hatch itself, and is not openable separate from the hatch, or is fixed to a frame inside the hatch to enable it to open separately from the hatch. In any of the above cases, the window is at least fixed to a frame. This is to be distinguished from windows in a door of a vehicle which roll up and down along a track. In the above type of fixed window, the edge of the window glass is typical ground to a rounded edge, having a radius equal to one half of the thickness of the window glass. Thus, in such a type of fixed window glass, which does not have a molding surrounding the edge, a large grinding area is visible along the edge, and additionally a large glass-to-body gap is presented. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the above-described disadvantages of the vehicle glass used in a fixed window of a vehicle, the instant invention provides a vehicle glass with an angled edge which overcomes such deficiencies. More specifically, the vehicle glass in accordance with the instant invention has an edge which is angled from the front or outer surface to the back or inner surface. In other words, the edge is angled rearwardly and inwardly (toward the center of the glass) in order to provide an outer surface which has less visible grinding area along the edge (since the grinding radius is smaller than in the prior art) and also reduces the glass-to-body gap to improve the edge finish and the appearance of the vehicle glass. 
     Thus, a vehicle glass with an angled edge, in accordance with the instant invention, is able to have a smaller glass-to-body gap, because of the smaller radius on the outer corner near the outer surface of the glass. Thus, a vehicle glass fabricated in accordance with the instant invention provides for a significantly improved appearance of the edge of the glass itself, and of the glass/body combination, when compared with the prior art edge. 
     A vehicle glass in accordance with the instant invention has an outer surface and an inner surface opposing the outer surface and generally parallel therewith. A circumferential edge joins the inner or outer surfaces wherein the edge has at least, in part, a generally planar portion connected to outer surface by an outer corner and connected to the inner surface by an inner corner. Furthermore, the planar portion is disposed in an acute angle with respect to the outer surface. 
     Furthermore, another vehicle glass in accordance with the instant invention includes an outer surface and an inner surface opposing the outer surface and generally parallel therewith. A circumferential edge joins the inner and outer surfaces, wherein the edge has at least, in part, a generally planar portion connected to the outer surface by an outer corner and connected to an inner surface by an inner corner. Furthermore, the outer corner has a radius less than one half of the thickness of the glass and the planar portion extends rearwardly, toward the inner surface, and inwardly, toward a center of the glass. 
     Additionally, still another vehicle glass in accordance with the instant invention has an outer surface, and an inner surface opposing the outer surface and generally parallel therewith. A circumferential edge joins the inner or outer surfaces, wherein the edge includes an outer corner connecting the edge to the outer surface and an inner corner connecting the edge to the inner surface. The outer corner has a radius less than half of the thickness of the glass, and the edge extends rearwardly, toward the inner surface, and inwardly, toward a center of the glass. 
     It is an object to this invention to provide a vehicle glass to be used in a fixed application, such as a rear quarter glass or rear windshield glass, in which the visible grinding area on the edge of the glass is reduced, and also in which the glass-to-body gap is reduced, with regard to the prior art. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vehicle employing a vehicle glass in accordance with the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of an edge of a prior art vehicle glass; 
     FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of an edge of the vehicle glass in accordance with the invention, as mounted in the vehicle body; 
     FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view of an edge of the vehicle glass; 
     FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of an edge of the vehicle glass having an edge angle different than in FIG. 4; and 
     FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross sectional view of an edge of the vehicle glass having a different profile than in FIGS.  4  and  5 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 illustrates a vehicle employing the vehicle glass in accordance with the instant invention in the rear quarter window and/or rear windshield (or backlight). Specifically, vehicle  10  illustrates a vehicle with certain fixed glass panels. The vehicle may be a sport utility vehicle, as illustrated in FIG. 1, a station wagon, a van, a mini-van, or any other type of vehicle which uses fixed glass panels. In FIG. 1, vehicle  10  has a vehicle body  12  having side windows  16 , a rear quarter window  18  and a rear windshield  20 . As mentioned above, rear quarter window  18  and rear windshield  20  are fixed windows, with respect to the side windows  16  which roll up and down. A front windshield may also be considered to be a fixed window. Furthermore, as noted above, even though tailgate  22  opens, rear windshield  20  is fixed to the tailgate. In certain instances, rear windshield  20  may be independently openable with respect to the tailgate, and is thus fixed to the frame which is openable with respect to the tailgate. It is contemplated that many other types of windows in a vehicle or a motor vehicle may be considered to be fixed windows, as described above, and as distinguished from side windows  16  which roll up and down. 
     FIG. 2 illustrates the prior art vehicle glass  30 . Specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the vehicle body  12  has a window recess  14 , in which inner surface  26  is recessed inwardly from the outer surface  44  of vehicle body  12 . The prior art vehicle glass  30  is secured to window recess  14  by adhesive bead  24  which adheres prior art vehicle glass  30  to inner surface  26  of window recess  14 . Prior art vehicle glass  30  has a rounded edge  42  having a radius R 1 , which is substantially one-half of the thickness T of the prior art vehicle glass  30 . 
     FIG. 2 illustrates the large visible grinding area on the edge of the prior art vehicle glass  30 . Specifically, distance A presents the visible grinding area on the edge. Furthermore, the distance B in FIG. 2 illustrates the glass-to-body gap of the prior art vehicle glass  30  together with window recess  14  of vehicle body  12 . 
     FIG. 3 illustrates a cross sectional view of a portion of the vehicle glass, in accordance with the invention, as mounted in a vehicle body. In FIG. 3, elements of the vehicle body retain similar reference numerals as in FIG.  2 . As in FIG. 2, in FIG. 3, vehicle body  12  has a window recess  14  with an inner surface  26 . Vehicle glass  40  is fixed to vehicle body  12  by way of adhesive bead  24 . As best illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, vehicle glass  40  has a glass outer surface  46  and a glass inner surface  48 . Outer surface  46  and inner surface  48  are substantially parallel to one another. Vehicle glass  40  has a circumferential edge generally indicated by reference numeral  50 . Edge  50  includes a generally planar portion  52 , and inner corner  56  connecting planar portion  52  with inner surface  48  and an outer corner  54  connecting planar portion  52  with outer surface  46 . While circumferential edge  50  would generally have planar portion  52  around the entire circumference of vehicle glass  40 , it is possible that planar portion  52  may extend only partly along the edge  50  of vehicle glass  40 . It is also possible that edge  50  may have a non-planar portion  58  illustrated by the dotted lines in FIG.  4 . Whether edge  50  has planar portion  52  or non-planar portion  58 , edge  50 , in both cases, extends rearwardly, that is, toward inner surface  48  and inwardly, that is, toward a center of the glass which would be toward the top of the drawing illustrated in FIG.  4 . 
     As noted, FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged views of vehicle glass  40  with edge  50 . In FIGS. 4 and 5, edge angle α represents the angle between the planar portion  52  of edge  50  and outer surface  46 . Similarly, in both FIGS. 4 and 5, angle β represents the angle between planar portion  52  and inner surface  48 . Since inner surface  48  and outer surface  46  are substantially parallel to one another, edge angle α and angle β will always be the same. Thus, in referring to the angle of the planar portion  52 , the edge angle α will be referred to. 
     In FIG. 4, the radius R 2  is the radius of the outer corner  54 . Radius F 2  is less than one half of the thickness of vehicle glass  40 . If radius R 2  were equal to one half the thickness of vehicle glass  40 , then outer corner  54  would essentially extend from outer surface  46  to inner surface  48 . In FIG. 5, please note that the radius of outer corner  54  is indicated as R 3 . In the example shown in FIG. 4, the angle α is approximately 60°. Radius R 2  is less than one half the thickness of vehicle glass  40 , which is also less than radius R 1  (see FIG. 2) of the prior art vehicle glass  30 . The example in FIG. 5 illustrates the situation where the angle α is approximately 45°. In both FIGS. 4 and 5, edge angle α is an acute angle, that is, an angle less than 90°. Referring back to FIG. 5, since edge angle α is 45°, which is less than the 60° edge angle of FIG. 4, radius R 3  is correspondingly smaller than radius R 2  of FIG.  4 . Thus, in comparing the edge  50  of vehicle glass  40  of FIGS. 4 and 5 to the prior art of FIG. 2, it can be seen that the following relationship is clearly established: 
     
       
           R 1&gt; R 2&gt; R 3. 
       
     
     Referring back to FIG. 3, the specific shape of edge  50  of vehicle glass  40  illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 can be used in the vehicle glass  40  of FIG.  3 . As noted in FIG. 3, the visible grinding area is indicated by the distance A′. Correspondingly, in FIG. 3, the glass-to-body gap is illustrated as distance B′. It can be clearly seen that in FIG. 3, the distance A′ is less than the distance A in FIG.  2 . Clearly, the visible grinding area of the edge  50  in accordance with the instant invention is less than that of the prior art. Similarly, the glass-to-body gap B′ of FIG. 3 is less than the glass-to-body gap B in the prior art of FIG.  2 . 
     In considering the examples of FIGS. 4 and 5 where the edge angle α is 60° and 45°, respectively, the radius R 2  (when α equals 60°) is approximately 52% of the length of the radius R 1  of the prior art of FIG.  3 . In the example of FIG. 5, where the edge angle α equals 45°, the radius R 3  of outer corner  54  is approximately 45% of the length of radius R 1  of the prior art of FIG.  2 . It can be seen that the visible grinding area, represented by the distance A′, is substantially less than that of the distance A of FIG.  2 . While any range less than 90° for the edge angle α could be used, it is considered that a range between 90° and 20° is preferable. More preferably, a range between 40° and 65° could be used. Angles of 45°, 60° or any angle therebetween would be even more highly preferable. 
     FIG. 6 illustrates an enlarged cross sectional view of an edge of the vehicle glass having a different profile than that of FIGS. 4 and 5. Specifically, in FIG. 6, outer surface  46  and inner surface  48  are the same as in FIGS. 4 and 5. Edge  50 , has a non-planar portion  58  similar to that illustrated in FIG.  4 . More specifically, non-planar portion  58  is joined to outer surface  46  by way of outer corner  54  and to inner surface  48  by way of inner corner  56 . As seen in FIG. 6, the radius of outer corner  54  is indicated by reference R 4 . The radius of inner corner  56  is indicated by reference R 6 . The radius of non-planar portion  58  is indicated by reference R 5 . In the profile of FIG. 6, there is no planar portion  52  as in FIGS. 4 and 5. However, radius R 5  of the non-planar portion  58  is generally large. Radius R 4  of outer corner  54  is generally small with regard to radius R 5 . Furthermore, radius R 6  of inner corner  56  is generally smaller than radius R 5  and larger than radius R 4 . In fact, it is possible that inner corner  56  and non-planar portion  58  may form a single smooth arc in which radius R 5  is equal to radius R 6 . As described above, edge  50  in FIG. 6 extends rearwardly, toward inner surface  48 , and inwardly, toward a center of vehicle glass  40  (that is, toward the top of the sheet of FIG.  6 ). 
     The edge, as seen in FIG. 6, is convex, meaning that it has no concave portions. 
     Thus, by employing the instant invention, an improved appearance may be obtained for fixed window glass, such as a rear quarter window or a rear windshield by employing an angle type of cut or grinding on the glass edge in order to reduce the glass-to-body gap and further in order to reduce the visible grinding area on the edge of the glass. 
     Although a specific form of embodiment of the instant invention has been described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in order to be more clearly understood, the above description is made by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the instant invention. It is contemplated that various modifications apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art could be made without departing from the scope of the invention which is to be determined by the following claims.