Convenient Awning Assembly for Parked Cars

Following the high economic development and upgraded living standard nowadays, cars have long ago become a necessary traffic means in our daily life. Since there are only limited indoor parking lots available for the speedily increasing cars, most cars expose to sunlight or rainwater when they are parked. There are some kinds of cover conveniently supplied as automotive accessory, they are, however, inconvenient in operation, especially when the car is temporarily parked somewhere.

Therefore, it is desirable to have a simple and convenient means which, when used in sunny days, can provide sufficient shade a parked car, and, when used in rainy days, may conveniently provides passengers an temporary awning to prevent the passengers from being wetted when they are getting on or off the car.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide an easily and conveniently-operated awning assembly which consists of a pair of fixing frames and a driving mechanism fixed to the car roof, a pair of power-actuated retractably movable bars connected to the driving mechanism, storage compartments, and awning roller assemblies fixed to the fixing frames, and can be easily operated to achieve projected shading effect.

FIG. 1 illustrates a car on roof of which an awning assembly according to the present invention is installed;

FIG. 2 is an assembled three-dimensional perspective of the awning assembly according to the present invention in which the top awning is removed for clarity in illustration;

FIG. 3 is a disassembled perspective of the awning assembly according to the present invention, and again, the top awning is removed; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an awning assembly of the present invention installed on car roof with its awnings extended in operation positions.

Please refer to FIG. 1, the present invention is suitable for being mounted on a car roof by means of a front fixing frame 1 and a rear fixing frame 2 which are separately fixed to adequate positions near the front and the rear part of the car roof, respectively, and have a width substantially equal to that of car roof. The present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, generally consists of a top awning 9, a driving motor case 3 disposed between the front and the rear fixing frames 1, 2 with its one lateral side near the edge of the car roof, two storage compartments 4, 5, a front awning roller assembly 6 and a rear awning roller assembly 7 fixed to the front and the rear fixing frames 1, 2, respectively, two sleeves 31, 32 extending from another lateral side of the driving motor case 3 in a direction parallel to the two fixing frames 1, 2, and a side awning roller assembly 8 fixed between the two fixing frames 1, 2 at the end opposite to the driving motor case 3.

Please refer to FIG. 3 for the detailed structure of the present invention. The front and the rear fixing frames 1, 2 respectively have a bottom plate 11, 21, and a top support 12, 22 two ends of which are connected to two ends of the bottom plate 11, 21, respectively. The storage compartments 4, 5 are parallelly attached to inner edge of the bottom plate 11, 21 of the fixing frames 1, 2, respectively, and have a width smaller than that of the fixing frames 1, 2, allowing the driving motor case 3 to be disposed between the remaining length of the fixing frames 1, 2 with its front and rear sides direct contacting the inner edges of the fixing frames 1, 2. The front and the rear awning roller assemblies 6, 7 consist of an awning roller 61, 71 and an awning 63, 73, respectively. The front and the rear awning rollers 61, 71 are formed of lugs 62, 72 (lugs 62 are not shown in the figure but their positions on the awning roller 61 are corresponding to that of lugs 72 on the awning roller 7), respectively. By means of the lugs 62, 72, the awning roller assemblies 6, 7 are properly screwed to the top supports 12, 22, respectively. The front awning 63 and the rear awning 73 are received in the awning rollers 61, 71, respectively, and can be retractably pulled out of the awning rollers 61, 71 via openings formed thereof. Suckers 64, 74 are provided in front of the awning 63, 73 near two outer sides thereof, respectively (suckers 74 are not shown in the figure but their positions on the awning sheet 73 are corresponding to that of suckers 64 on the awning sheet 63). In the two sleeves 31, 32, two power-actuated retractably extending bars 33, 34 are provided therein, respectively. When a motor in the driving motor case 3 is started, it will actuate the bars 33, 34 to retractably move sideward. The side awning roller assembly 8 consists of an awning roller 81 and a side awning 83, the front edge of the side awning 83 is connected to the two power-actuated retractably extending bars 33, 34, allowing the side awning 83 to extend out when the bars 33, 34 are actuated to move out by the motor in the driving motor case 3. Since this is a known art similar to that used in the common retractable automotive antenna, it is not described herein.

The awning assembly according to the present invention is fixedly mounted on top of a car roof by means of the fixing frames 1, 2 and the driving motor case 3, and the top awning 9 is normally connected to the top supports 12, 22 of the fixing frames 1, 2 or the driving motor case 3. FIG. 1 shows the front, rear, and side awning roller assemblies 6, 7, 8 thereof in an awning-retracted state when they are not in use. The top awning 9 protects not only a parked car but also the other components of the present invention from direct exposure to the sunlight or rainwater. FIG. 4 shows the front, rear, and side awnings 63, 73, 83 in an extended or use state. The front and rear awnings 63, 73 are manually pulled to the lower edge of windshields and are held there to by means of the suckers provided at front edge of the awnings 63, 73. When a driver needs to take a rest during the course of driving under strong sunshine, he or she may simply park the car at some safe place and pull down the front and the rear awnings to get the car under desirable shade. In rainy days, the motor in the driving motor case may be started when necessary, and causes the two power-actuated bars 33, 34 to move outward and thereby pull out the side awning 83 connected thereto to form a temporary shield to protect passengers from getting wet when they open or close their umbrella before getting off or on the car, respectively.

Following advantages are available from using the present invention:

1. The front and the rear awnings are easy in operation and may form between them and the car roof a space large enough for sufficient fresh air to flow therethrough and effect good insulation thereof, keeping indoor of the car in a cool state. The driver may take and enjoy a comfortable rest without needing to find a shaded place.

2. The side awning roller assembly is electrically controlled and can, therefore, timely provide passengers with useful protection when they are getting on or off the car in rainy days.

3. The storage compartments are provided between the two fixing frames without any reverse influence on the appearance of the car. The room provided by the storage compartments is easily accessible and suitable for accommodating umbrella, rain coat, tools, etc.