Flush Vehicle Window Slider With Load-Bearing Shoulders
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flush horizontal vehicle window assemblies in pickup trucks face issues with reliable sliding motion and complete sealing due to wear, debris, and moisture accumulation in guide paths, as well as aesthetically unpleasing gaps and inadequate sealing, particularly with 'S' shaped trailing guide paths.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle window assembly with a horizontal slider featuring guide pins with load-bearing shoulders that engage track surfaces, avoiding contact with the sides and bottoms of guide paths, and using substantially perpendicular trailing guide paths to minimize gaps and enhance sealing, allowing for easy sliding and reliable moisture control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If guide pins contact the sides and bottoms of guide paths to enable sliding motion, then the slider can move horizontally, but wear, debris, and moisture accumulate in the guide paths causing unreliable sliding motion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces load-bearing shoulders on the guide pins as intermediary elements that transfer the sliding motion function from the guide pins to the track surfaces. The shoulders contact the top surfaces of the horizontal track portions, allowing the guide pins to move freely in the guide paths without their sides or bottoms contacting the path surfaces, thereby preventing wear and debris accumulation while maintaining reliable sliding motion.
2Shape
If 'S' shaped trailing guide paths are used to move the sliding panel into the plane of fixed panels, then flush orientation is achieved, but gaps and inadequate sealing occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the trailing guide paths to be substantially perpendicular to the window opening rather than 'S' shaped, creating a localized change in the path geometry. This perpendicular configuration allows the sliding panel to be moved into the plane of the fixed panels through a different mechanism (the load-bearing shoulders on the track surfaces) while eliminating the gap-forming 'S' shape, thereby achieving both flush orientation and proper sealing.
3Ease of operation
If guide pins are received within guide paths to facilitate sliding, then horizontal movement is enabled, but debris and moisture accumulate in the guide paths
Solution Approach 1:
The load-bearing shoulders act as intermediary elements that assume the function of contact during sliding motion. By transferring the load-bearing contact from the guide pin sides and bottoms to the track surfaces, the guide paths remain clear of debris and moisture accumulation points, while the guide pins still facilitate horizontal sliding motion through their receipt within the guide paths.
Data Source
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AI summary
A flush-flush horizontal vehicle window assembly (10) is provided that includes a sliding panel (20') with guide pins (22a-d), 'formed with a load-bearing shoulder (23a-c), and with a load-bearing shoulder surface (24a-d) on sliding panel corners, and a frame (14) defining a window opening (13). The frame is attached to two fixed panels (11, 12). Upper/lower tracks (15, 16) are attached above/below the window opening. Each track has a leading (28a, b) and a trailing guide (29a, b) path formed through a surface of the respective tracks, where the pins partially project into the guide paths and where load-bearing shoulder surfaces (24a-d) smoothly and reliably slide on the track surfaces. Each leading guide path (28a, b) is "S" shaped and each trailing guide path (29a, b) is shaped in a perpendicular manner at one end, which causes the sliding panel (20') to smoothly enter and seal the window opening in a flush manner. An aesthetically pleasing flush-flush slider results when the sliding panel is in the plane of the window opening and further in the plane of the outer vehicle body panel.