Wiper blade and method of producing the same

• US 20060179597A1
• Filed: 12/16/2003
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsuba Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsuba Corporation
• Inventors: Sekiguchi, Junichi, Tokunaka, Hiroki, Hoshino, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,712,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 15/250.430
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/38 Wiper blades provided with liquid spreading means B60S1/524; provided with gas spreading means B60S1/546
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/381 Spoilers mounted on the squeegee or on the vertebra
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/3881 in additional element, e.g. spoiler
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 1/3884 Wire-shaped section
• CPC Class Codes: B60S 2001/3818 the backing strip being a channel-like element, e.g. not continuous
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49826 Assembling or joining

Abstract

A wiper blade (18a) has a rubber holder (22) for holding a blade rubber (21). This rubber holder (22) has a connection block (24) coupled to a wiper arm and two sub-holders (25) fixed on both sides of the connection block (24), and the sub-holders (25) each has two rod-shaped spring members (27) curved with curvature radii smaller than that of a front glass and 11 holder pieces (26) fixed to these rod-shaped spring members (27) in a longitudinal direction at a predetermined interval. Further, this rubber holder (22) is formed so that the two sub-holders (25) are coupled to each other via the connection block (24) in the longitudinal direction.

Claims

1. A wiper blade attached to a wiper arm provided swingably to a vehicle to perform a swinging motion on a windshield glass and wipe said windshield glass, the wiper blade comprising:

a plurality of elastic members each attached integrally to a blade rubber contacting with said windshield glass and coupled in a longitudinal direction to be elastically deformable in a direction perpendicular to said windshield glass.

2. The wiper blade according to claim 1, wherein sub-holders provided with holding portions for holding said blade rubber to said elastic members are coupled in the longitudinal direction.

3. The wiper blade according to claim 2, wherein two of said sub-holders are coupled via a connection block connected to said wiper arm.

4. The wiper blade according to claim 2, wherein a plurality of holding pieces respectively provided with said holding portions, and a rod-shaped spring member coupling said holding pieces in the longitudinal direction at a predetermined interval are provided to said sub-holders.

5. The wiper blade according to claim 1, wherein elastic forces of said elastic members are made different in the longitudinal direction of said blade rubber.

6. A manufacturing method of a wiper blade having a blade rubber contacting with a windshield glass and a rubber holder for holding said blade rubber and attached to a wiper arm swingably provided to a vehicle to wipe said windshield glass, the manufacturing method comprising:

a sub-holder forming step of forming a plurality of sub-holders each having a holding portion holding said blade rubber and being elastically deformable in a direction perpendicular to said windshield glass;

a sub-holder coupling step of coupling said plurality of sub-holders in the longitudinal direction to form said rubber holder; and

a blade-rubber attaching step of attaching said blade rubber to said rubber holder.

7. The manufacturing method of a wiper blade according to claim 6, wherein said sub-holder forming step includes:

a spring-member forming step of forming a rod-shaped spring member into a predetermined curved shape; and

a holding-piece fixing step of fixing a plurality of holding pieces each having said holding portion to said rod-shaped spring member in the longitudinal direction at a predetermined interval.