Patent ID: 7572018

Claim:
A folding mechanism for exterior rear-view mirrors in an automotive vehicle comprising a housing integral with a mirror-carrying casing comprising said housing drive means coupled to a ring acting as an axis of rotation of the mentioned casing with respect to a support chassis fixed to the vehicle, said mirror-carrying casing being able to be moved from a driving position to a folded position, said ring being provided with first positional fixing means susceptible to coupling the mentioned ring to the support chassis and with second ring-shaped positional fixing means made up of recesses alternated with projections which, in collaboration with a stop element, integral with the housing and loaded by an elastic member, limit the rotation of the mentioned casing around ring and according to one rotating direction, allowing said first positional fixing means to decouple the casing from the support chassis if a predetermined external thrust torque is exceeded by said casing, while both positional fixing means cooperate, in one rotating direction, in a return of said ring to a coupling position and a return of said casing to a driving position, wherein the stop element and the elastic member are integrated in a single piece of synthetic material with elastic properties.