Bumper guard strip and bumper comprising such a guard strip

ES 2 194 686 T3

DESCRIPTION

Bumper strip and bumper provided with said strip.

The present invention relates to a bumper strip and to a bumper equipped with such a strip.

It is known to protect a bumper of a motor vehicle by a strip that is generally located on an area of ​​the coating of the bumper more exposed to friction with obstacles, such as the bumpers of other vehicles, in particular during parking maneuvers. This strip can be the same color as the bumper or a different color, depending on the aesthetics of the vehicle.

The fastening of such a band is generally carried out by seaming, the band having, on its longitudinal edges, elastic tabs that penetrate into grooves in the bumper covering.

The spring tabs extend horizontally into the vehicle and form a shoulder on the inside of the bumper surface. Their vertical displacement allows them to grip the surface, by means of elastic return in the direction of the outside of the band, that is to say upwards for the tabs of the inner longitudinal edge of the band and downwards for the tabs of the lower longitudinal edge of the band. DE 196 16 958 describes such a band and serves as the basis for the two-part presentation of the claim.

1.

This fixing mode ensures the retention of the band but has some drawbacks.

In the first place, it has been shown that the band has a tendency to contract after molding, closing on itself in a vertical section, in such a way that the tabs on the upper and lower edges of the band approach each other, meeting by this weakened its attachment to the bumper skin.

To try to solve this problem, moldings are added to the coating to hold the tabs horizontally and prevent them from approaching at the time of belt contraction, but these moldings make the positioning of the strip more difficult.

In addition, the space available inside the bumper covering does not always allow the seaming tabs to be exceeded. Indeed, often a metallic cross member, which reinforces the bumper, was arranged closer to the covering of the latter, which makes it necessary, if a band is to be attached, to provide perforations in the cross member to accommodate the elastic tabs.

The present invention provides for the provision of a new bumper strip, the hooking of which on the bumper covering does not present the drawbacks mentioned above.

The object of the present invention is a bumper strip of a motor vehicle according to claim 1.

The strip according to the invention does not comprise any hooking tongue that extends its longitudinal edges, which will protrude from the inner face of the bumper covering when the strip is mounted on this covering.

Consequently, if a crosstie is to be immediately near the surface of the bumper, the presence of a band according to the invention does not require any perforation of this crosstie.

The bumps of the band perform the function of the elastic tabs of the previous bands, but, in the band according to the invention, the bulges are rigid and it is the band that, due to its elasticity throughout its height, allows the vertical displacement of its longitudinal edges and, in this way, the release of the protrusions at the time of mounting the strip on the bumper.

For this reason, the band according to the invention cannot be altered by an eventual contraction that could close it on itself since a modification of its geometry would only have the effect of reinforcing its attachment on the bumper covering.

The band according to the invention also presents an advantage linked to its manufacture by molding.

Indeed, while the already known band required a relatively complex mold due to the presence of the elastic tabs whose demoulding required movements of certain parts of the mold before the band was ejected, this is no longer the case with the rubber band. the invention since the protrusions of the longitudinal edges of the strip can come out of the mold cavity due to elastic deformation of the entire strip, in the same way as when the strip of a bumper on which it has been seized is removed.

The present invention also has for its object a bumper adapted to receive a strip of the type described above, this bumper being characterized by the fact that its surface has two longitudinal grooves on its outer face, each to receive a longitudinal edge of the strip. , at least one of these grooves being internally delimited by an elastic leg cut out in the covering, this elastic leg can be deformed in a classic way to be retracted at the time of the introduction of a protuberance of the band but ensuring, by elaostic return, the retention of the mentioned protrusion after its introduction.

In order to make the invention better understood, a mode of realization given as a non-limiting example of the scope of the invention will now be described, with reference to the attached drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the interior of a portion of the bumper strip according to an embodiment of the invention,

- figure 2 is an enlarged and sectional view according to II-II of figure 1,

- Figure 3 is a section according to II-II of the

ES 2 194 686 T3 figure 1,

figure 4 is a section according to IV-IV of figure 1,

figure 5 is a perspective view of an area of ​​the bumper covering indicated by arrow V in figure 3.

The bumper strip 1 represented in the drawing has a vertical section in C.

Each of its two longitudinal edges 2 extends horizontally over its entire length.

The band is intended to cover a central band 4 of a bumper whose cover 3, visible in Figures 3 and 4, has two longitudinal grooves 5,6 that form lines of style in which the longitudinal edges 2 of the band are housed. .

As can be seen in particular in the enlarged view of Figure 2, each longitudinal edge 2 of the band comprises, on its inner face directed towards the other longitudinal edge, a protuberance 7 of substantially triangular section extending longitudinally over a relatively short length .

In the example shown, the band comprises four protrusions 7.

The strip 1 being made by molding of plastic material, the protrusions 7 come out directly from the molding. For this, the cavity of the mold used is uniquely defined by a punch, provided with holes corresponding to the protrusions and a matrix that surrounds the punch, without the need for any other movable part of the mold. The elasticity of the strip over its entire height makes it possible, in effect, to separate its two longitudinal edges from one another to free its protrusions from the punch holes and expel it from the mold.

As can be seen in particular in Figure 5, each groove 5, 6 of the bumper covering 3 has, in areas corresponding to the protrusions of the band, cutouts 8 in the bottom of the groove that define an elastic leg 9 that borders the throat internally, that is to say on the side of its mouth directed towards the other throat.

Each of these elastic legs 9 is capable of being deformed by curving towards the inside of the bumper to free the passage of the protrusions 7 of the strip, at the time of placing the latter on the covering of the bumper. Once the protrusions have been introduced beyond the elastic legs 9, the latter return to their initial position, visible in figure 3, in which they immobilize the protrusions.

The longitudinal edges 2 of the strip 1 are thus immobilized at the bottom of the grooves and the strip is mounted on the bumper.

As can be seen in Figures 1 and 4, the band comprises, in the center of its lower longitudinal edge 2, a positioning tab 10 which penetrates into a hole 11 made in the bottom of the lower groove of the covering, in the center from the latter. This tab 10 makes it possible to present the strip 1 on the bumper covering 3 in a position such that the protrusions 7 are opposite the elastic legs 9,

The strip is removed by deforming the elastic legs 9 from the inside of the bumper when the latter is removed from the vehicle.

It is understood that the embodiment that has just been described does not have any limiting character and that it may receive any desirable modification without thereby departing from the framework of the invention.