Air-conducting device for a wheel-arch ventilation arrangement

• US 9,890,966 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2014
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche Ag
• Original Assignee: Dr. Ing. H.C.F. Porsche Ag
• Inventors: Mueller, Benjamin, Bauernfeind, Christoph
• Primary Examiner(s): McAllister, Steven B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, II, Steven
• Application Number:
  US14/311,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20140378043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,331 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 25/16 Mud-guards or wings; Wheel cover panels equipped with means for freeing wheels or tyres from foreign matter B60S
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 35/00 Vehicle bodies characterised by streamlining
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 7/04 with ducting systems , e.g. by double walls; with natural circulation F24F7/02 takes precedence

Abstract

A fender has an air-conducting device with air-conducting lamellae fastened in a holding frame. The air-conducting device has, in the fender, an outer opening into which the air-conducting lamellae project. An air mass flowing into the wheel arch or the fender is conducted to the outside by the air-conducting lamellae.

Claims

1. An air-conducting device for achieving ventilation in a wheel arch of a motor vehicle and a down force on the motor vehicle, the wheel arch having opposite front and rear ends, the air-conducting device, comprising:

a wheel arch contour defining a downwardly concave arcuate edge region of the wheel arch adjacent a lateral outer side of the motor vehicle;

a fender arranged above the wheel arch and having a fender opening with an outer peripheral edge, the fender opening including a first region arranged above the wheel arch contour at a position between the front and rear ends of the wheel arch, the first region of the fender opening having a front end forward of a highest point of the wheel arch contour and a rear end rearward of the highest point on the wheel arch contour and the first region of the fender opening having a first width, and a second region of the fender opening defining an elongated gap with a second width narrower than the first width and extending downward and rearward from the first region and substantially along a rear part of the wheel arch contour;

a wheel arch shell below the fender and having a wheel arch opening aligned with the fender opening;

a holding frame mounted between the wheel arch shell and the fender at a position aligned with the wheel arch opening and the fender opening;

a cover fastened to the holding frame and forming a duct between the wheel arch opening and the fender opening; and

air conducting lamellae connected in the holding frame so as to project into the fender opening, the air conducting lamellae being spaced apart from one another in a straight forward direction of travel of the motor vehicle and parallel to one another and being inclined at an angle counter to the direction of travel so that the lower ends of the lamellae are forward of upper ends of the lamellae to define an air guide directed out from an interior of the wheel arch

wherein the holding frame has opposite first and second legs with wedge-shaped notches, and the air-conducting lamellae have opposite first and second ends with tapered wedge-shaped projections that engage in the notches with clamping or clipping-in action.

2. The air-conducting device of claim 1, wherein the holding frame is connected, on one side in the first region of the fender opening, to the cover that is part of the air-conducting duct between the fender and the wheel-arch shell.

3. The air-conducting device of claim 1, wherein the air-conducting lamellae in the first region of the fender opening have a greater width transverse to the direction of travel than the air-conducting lamellae arranged in the second region.