Upper glove box assembly

• US 7,862,096 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Issued: 01/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Automotive Components Holdings LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Luckett, Thomas J., Kim, Yoon
• Primary Examiner(s): Gutman; H
• Application Number:
  US12/183,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20100026030A1
• Time in Patent Office: 887 Days
• Field of Search: 296/37.1, 296/37.8, 296/37.12, 224/483, 224/539, 220/811
• US Class Current: 296/37.12
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 7/06 mounted on or below dashboards

Abstract

An upper glove box for the passenger side of an automotive vehicle in which a door is upwardly hinged and has an upper edge that is received into a void defined in the instrument panel when the door is opened. The revealed wall forward of the opening of the void is an integral portion of the foam injected instrument panel to provide the desired aesthetics.

Claims

1. An upper glove box assembly for an automotive vehicle comprising:

an instrument panel having an underlying rigid substrate and an outer flexible skin finish surface over an intermediate layer of relatively soft cushioning material;

a glove box structure that includes a bin for holding articles, wherein said structure has upper, lower and side panels to define the volume of said bin;

said instrument panel formed to have an upper portion of said flexible skin finish surface near a horizontal plane and extended to form a curved over finish surface;

said instrument panel further formed to have a glove box installation receptacle with an upper portion of said receptacle having a downwardly directed finished surface extension portion of said curved over finish surface containing said flexible skin finish surface and intermediate layer;

said glove box structure mounted within said glove box installation receptacle of said instrument panel and together therewith forming a void between said upper panel of said glove box and said finished surface extension portion of said instrument panel;

a door panel mounted to said glove box structure for rotational movement upward and outward during opening and downward and inward during closing about a predetermined axis; and

said door panel having defined upper and lower edges, wherein said upper edge of said door panel enters into said void during opening of said door panel and said upper edge of said door panel exits said void when said door panel is closed to reveal said finish surface extension portion within said void during said rotational movement of said door panel.

2. An upper glove box as in claim 1, wherein said intermediate layer of said instrument panel is an injected foam material.

3. An upper glove box as in claim 2, wherein said door panel is mounted on a hinge attached to said glove box structure to provide rotation movement about said predetermined axis.

4. An upper glove box as in claim 3, wherein said predetermined axis is substantially horizontal.

5. An upper glove box as in claim 4, wherein said axis is offset from said door panel and said upper edge of said door panel to allow said upper edge of said door panel to travel an arcuate path that extends into said void when said door panel is opened.

6. An upper glove box as in claim 5, wherein said hinge includes a spring to apply bias force to rotate said door panel into an open position.

7. An upper glove box as in claim 6, wherein said hinge includes a damper element to provide friction opposition to said spring bias force and control the speed of said door panel opening due to said bias force of said spring.

8. An upper glove box as in claim 7, wherein said glove box structure includes a lower latch that interacts with a manually activated release mechanism on said door panel to secure said door panel when said door panel is in a closed position and to release said door panel when said mechanism is manually activated and said door panel opens via said spring applied bias force.

9. An upper glove box as in claim 6, wherein said spring is a torsion spring that is mounted to surround a hinge pin oriented along said axis.

10. An upper glove box as in claim 1, wherein said instrument panel is formed by an injection molding process in which foam material is injected into said downwardly directed finished surface extension as said intermediate layer.

11. An upper glove box as in claim 10, wherein said finished surface extension portion has the same surface appearance as said upper portion of said instrument panel.

12. An upper glove box as in claim 1, wherein said predetermined axis is offset from said door panel by a predetermined distance and said upper edge of said door panel to allow said upper edge of said door panel to travel an arcuate path that extends into said void when said door panel is opened.

13. An upper glove box assembly for an automotive vehicle comprising:

an instrument panel having an underlying rigid substrate and an outer flexible skin finish surface over an injection molded intermediate layer of foam material;

a glove box structure that includes a container for holding articles, wherein said glove box structure has upper, lower and side panels to define the volume of said container;

said instrument panel formed to have an upper portion generally approximating a horizontal plane and further formed with a curved over portion above said upper glove box;

said instrument panel further formed to receive said upper glove box structure with a visible and downwardly directed finished surface extension portion of said curved over portion containing said flexible skin finish surface and intermediate layer;

said glove box structure mounted below said instrument panel and together therewith forming a void between the upper panel of said glove box structure and said finished surface extension portion of said instrument panel;

a door panel mounted to said glove box structure for rotational movement upward and outward during opening and downward and inward during closing about a generally horizontal axis; and

said door panel having a defined upper edge, wherein said upper edge of said door panel travels in an arcuate path, wherein said upper edge of said door panel enters into said void when said door panel is opened, and wherein said upper edge of said door panel exits said void when said door panel is closed to reveal said finished surface extension portion within said void during said rotational movement of said door panel.