Vehicle Door Glass Liftplate Assembly With Frangible Sleeve

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to door glass sheet mountings for vehicles, and more particularly, to an improved mounting arrangement for attaching the glass sheet to a liftplate movable within a car door.

2. Discussion

Examples of vehicle glass movement arrangements are addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,032 (Ballor et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,926 (Grace et al.), incorporated by reference herein. FIG. 3 illustrates one example of a prior art embodiment. A liftplate A secures a glass sheet B in place using a fastener C, and a retention nut D with a retainer E disposed therebetween. The retainer E is an additional part in the assembly. It is an object of the present invention to improve vehicle glass mounting assemblies, and particularly to reduce assembly installation procedures and to further reduce costs of such assemblies by the elimination of certain separate parts, such as the retainer E.

The present invention is directed to a vehicle window assembly, including an assembly for regulating the movement of a window within an automotive vehicle door, a liftplate for mounting on the regulator and for securing a glass sheet window for translation of the window upon actuation of the window regulator. The liftplate has a first plate member, and at least one opposing second plate member spaced apart from the first plate member. The first and second plate members are connected to form a glass receiving groove. An insulated fastener assembly secures the glass to the liftplate, thereby reducing the number of parts.

Other features and advantages of the invention, will be evident from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and the accompany drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of a vehicle door, cut away to illustrate an assembly of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective elevational view of the liftplate of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a prior art liftplate device.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4A is a sectional view of an alternate embodiment taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a perspective elevational view of another liftplate of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is another perspective elevational view of the liftplate of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on the line 7--7 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7A is a sectional view of an alternate embodiment taken on the line 7--7 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view as in FIG. 7 showing an insulator in a broken away position with a fastener.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is shown a portion of the inner frame of a motor vehicle door 10 having a window regulator cable drive assembly 12 mounted on the inner door panel operative to open and close a sheet of window glass 14. An example, without limitation, of a window regulator cable drive assembly is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,926 (Grace et al.), incorporated by reference herein. The window glass regulator assembly includes a regulator rail 16 attached to a liftplate 18. The regulator rail is translatable generally upwardly or downwardly by a cable of a cable drive assembly 20, as known in the art.

Referring to FIG. 2, the liftplate 18 has a first plate member 22 and at least one second plate member 24 (FIG. 2 shows two second plate members 24 and 24'). The first and second plate members are spaced opposite one another and generally parallel to each other. The first and second plate member 22 and 24 are joined together to define a groove 26 (shown in FIG. 4) for receiving a glass sheet 14. The regulator rail 16 is secured to the first plate member 22 in a suitable manner (FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a structure in a liftplate for mounting to a regulator rail). The first plate member 22 and the second plate members 24 and 24' have defined therein, and generally opposite one another, apertures respectively denoted in FIG. 4 by numerals 28 and 30, for receiving a suitable fastener 32, such as a screw. The fastener passes through these apertures and a corresponding aperture 34 in the glass and attaches the plate members and glass to sandwich the glass 14 in place. The fastener can be maintained in place by a retention nut or T-nut 36 (see FIG. 4) or solid plastic plate members 24 and 24' (see FIG. 4a). The retention nut 36 can be secured to the second plate member by a flange 37.

A washer 40 may also be disposed between the fastener 32 and an outer wall of the first plate member 22. Shown in FIG. 4, there is also included an insulator 42 surrounding the fastener 32 (e.g., an insulated screw may be used). The liftplate may also include one or more stabilizing ribs 44 for limiting lateral movement of the window sheet glass.

Any suitable window regulator may be employed. An example, without limitation, of one window regulator is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,827 (Djordjevic), incorporated by reference.

The liftplate may be molded from a suitable plastic (e.g., an acetal, such as that commercially available under the name Delrin.TM. from DuPont Corporation) or may combine an assembly of metal (e.g., steel) and plastic combinations. For example, the retention nuts may be a suitable metal (e.g., steel).

Another embodiment of the present invention is depicted in FIGS. 5-8. This embodiment illustrates an example of a different liftplate configuration than as shown in FIG. 2, though the relative structure and operation is generally the same as between the embodiments. The embodiment of FIGS. 5-8 depicts (as more particularly shown in FIGS. 7, 7a, and 8) a breakaway insulating sleeve configuration. Specifically, liftplate 100 has a first plate member 102 with an insulating sleeve 104 molded therein. A tab 106, having a relatively thin section thickness compared with adjacent structure, is molded adjacent the sleeve to allow the sleeve to break away from the first plate member when a fastener 108 is driven through the sleeve upon securing a sheet of glass 110 into place. FIG. 8 illustrates the sleeve 104 in its broken away condition. An opposing and spaced apart second plate member 112 is attached to the first plate member to define a groove 114.

FIG. 6 shows an example of suitable structure for attaching a liftplate, such as the liftplate 100, to a mounting rail. The first plate member 102 includes inwardly directed projections 116 and adjacent structure having a slot 118 defined therein to receive in generally complementary mating relationship (e.g., tongue-in-groove) a mounting bracket (not shown) associated with the mounting rail (also not shown). A nipple 120 has a plurality of slots 122 defined therein. The slots are undercut to attachably receive an end of a cable (not shown) from the cable assembly as is known in the art.

Reasonable modifications and variations of the above-described illustrative embodiment of the invention are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is defined in the appended claims.