Door mirror assembly for a vehicle

• US 7,048,393 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2003
• Issued: 05/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Murakami Corporation
• Original Assignee: Murakami Corporation
• Inventors: Sugiyama, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafer, Ricky D.
• Application Number:
  US10/680,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20040080840A1
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 359/841, 359/871, 359/872, 359/877, 248/475.1, 248/476, 248/477, 248/488
• US Class Current: 359/871
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/06 mounted on vehicle exterior B60R1/025, B60R1/08 take precedence

Abstract

A door mirror assembly for a vehicle is provided, which includes a housing, a frame supporting the housing internally. The housing has a shell with a front aperture, two fixation ports and an engagement port. On the other hand, the frame has a main body to be enclosed by the shell, two fixation elements and an engagement element. The door mirror assembly further includes two fixation sections formed by fixing the two fixation ports and two fixation elements with fasteners and an engagement section formed by engaging the engagement port and engagement element. The door mirror assembly has a feature that the engagement section is adapted to be on the circumference of a circle, the center of circle lies on an axis defined by the two fixation sections, so that the rotational displacement of housing relative to the frame can be restricted.

Claims

1. A door mirror assembly for a vehicle comprising:

a housing having a shell with a front aperture, two fixation ports being formed on an inner surface of the shell and an engagement port being integrally formed with the shell;

a frame having a main body provided in the shell , two fixation elements being formed on an outer surface of the main body and an engagement element being integrally formed with the main body, the frame being fixed to a mirror base and supporting the housing, the mirror base fixed to the vehicle;

two fixation sections formed by rigidly fixing the two fixation ports to the two fixation elements with fasteners, respectively; and

an engagement section formed by elastically engaging the engagement port with the engagement element,

wherein the engagement section is positioned offset from an axis defined by the two fixation sections, so that a rotational displacement of the housing relative to the frame can be restricted.

2. A door mirror assembly according to claim 1, wherein at least two engagement sections are provided and the engagement sections restrict the rotational displacement of the housing in opposite directions to each other.

3. A door mirror assembly according to claim 1, wherein the engagement port comprises a hole drilled into the shell, and the engagement element comprises a column projecting from the main body and the column has a claw at an end thereof, and wherein not only the column is adapted to reach beyond an outer surface of the shell through the hole while the column is in contact with a side wall of the hole, but also the claw is adapted to be in contact with periphery of the hole.

4. A door mirror assembly according to claim 3, wherein the column has a contact surface to be in contact with the inner surface of the shell.

5. A door mirror assembly according to claim 3, wherein the claw is positioned so that a direction of a width of the claw is substantially in parallel with the axis.