Shutter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10857946-B2
Application number	US-201615759353-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2016
Priority date	Sep 11, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A shutter is formed to be capable of bending in a sliding direction, and slides along a pair of guide grooves including a curved portion at one portion thereof, the guide grooves being provided on two sides, facing each other, of an opening of a device main member and a shutter storage side, to open and close the opening. The shutter includes a shutter base material sliding along the guide grooves in a state wherein corresponding portions fit into the guide grooves; and a hinge base material disposed on an outer face of the shutter base material. Also, the hinge base material is a sheet formed by a continuous fiber reinforced plastic or a sheet produced using a pre-preg material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A shutter which is formed to be capable of bending in a sliding direction, and which slides along a pair of guide grooves including a curved portion at one portion thereof, the guide grooves being provided on two sides, facing each other, of an opening of a device main member and a shutter storage side, to open and close the opening, the shutter comprising:
a shutter base material adapted to slide along the guide grooves in a state wherein corresponding portions thereof fit into the guide grooves, the shutter base material comprising a plurality of rib materials separated from each other and arranged side by side in the sliding direction with a space therebetween;
a hinge base material disposed in such a way so as to cover outer faces of the rib materials of the shutter base material;
another rib material fixed at one end of the hinge base material at a side same as that of the rib materials and having a width in the sliding direction greater than that of each of the rib materials;
a handle disposed above the another rib material, and having an engagement hole and two hole portions; and
a decorative film firmly attached to an upper face of the hinge base material,
wherein the hinge base material is a sheet formed of a continuous fiber reinforced plastic, and made of a pre-preg material,
each of the rib materials includes a flat upper face as the outer face, a lower face having concave and convex shapes with a number of inverted concave-shaped notch portions, and one projection on each side adapted to fit into one of the guide grooves, the outer faces of the rib materials being fixed to one side of the sheet of the hinge base material individually so that the sheet is bent when sliding at the curved portion,
the another rib material having two another projections on each side perpendicular to the sliding direction adapted to engage one of the guide grooves,
the another rib material has a lower face with a shallow cavity, a positioning projecting piece extending from an upper surface thereof, and two through holes between the two another projections to sandwich the positioning projecting piece, the positioning projecting piece passing through a hole of the hinge base material, and
the handle is fixed to the another base material with the hinge base material therebetween so that two screws pass through the two through holes and engage the two hole portions and the projecting piece engages the engagement hole through the hinge base material.

2. A shutter according to claim 1 , wherein a fiber of the pre-preg material is formed of a woven fabric.

3. A shutter according to claim 2 , wherein the woven fabric has a number of fibers in a shutter sliding direction less than that of fibers in a direction of intersecting the shutter sliding direction.

4. A shutter according to claim 1 , wherein the pre-preg material is a uni-Direction tape such that fibers are aligned in one direction.

5. A shutter according to claim 1 , wherein the shutter base material and the hinge base material are capable of sliding in a state wherein respective corresponding portions fit in the guide grooves.

6. A shutter according to claim 1 , wherein the shutter is a lid of a vehicle glove compartment.

7. A shutter according to claim 1 , wherein each of the rib materials includes the one projection on each side perpendicular to the sliding direction adapted to engage one of the guide grooves, the one projection having two side faces in the direction perpendicular to the sliding direction to be flush with two side faces of each of the rib materials, and an upper face lower than an upper face of each of the rib materials.

Assignees

• Nifco Inc

Inventors

• Taniguchi Katsuhiko
• Lim Seonkyu

Classifications

• B60R7/04 Primary

  in driver or passenger space {, e.g. using racks (B60R7/005, B60R7/08 take precedence)} · CPC title

• B60R2011/0094

  characterised by means for covering after user, e.g. boxes, shutters or the like · CPC title

• B65D43/20

  linearly slidable · CPC title