Exterior Rearview Mirror Mounting via Conical Attachment and Five-Point Support
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for securing exterior rearview mirrors to vehicle doors are costly and require high fabrication expenditure due to complex six-point supports and central attachment screws, making them both expensive and difficult to mount and dismount.
Innovation Solution
A motor vehicle design featuring a mirror baseplate with a conical attachment and five-point support, which engages with a door shaft reinforcement, allowing for precise positioning and securement using a single central attachment screw, simplifying the mounting process and reducing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a six-point support with central attachment screw is used to secure the mirror baseplate, then the connection reliability is improved, but the manufacturing cost and fabrication complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The support structure is divided into two functional parts: a conical attachment element for longitudinal positioning and five separate bearing faces for transverse and vertical support. This segmentation allows each element to be optimized independently, simplifying manufacturing while maintaining connection reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The complex six-point support system is extracted and replaced with a simplified combination of conical attachment and five-point support. The conical element handles longitudinal positioning, while the five bearing faces handle lateral positioning, eliminating the need for complex six-point coordination and reducing fabrication expenditure.
2Manufacturing precision
If a six-point support system is used for mirror attachment, then positioning precision is improved, but the device complexity and mounting difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Positioning functions are segmented into two independent systems: conical attachment for longitudinal positioning and five-point bearing faces for transverse and vertical positioning. This reduces the complexity of coordinating six points while maintaining precision through specialized geometric forms.
Solution Approach 2:
The conical attachment element uses a conical (curved) geometry to achieve precise longitudinal positioning through rotational symmetry. This curved geometric form simplifies the positioning mechanism compared to flat six-point contacts, reducing device complexity while maintaining manufacturing precision.
3Strength
If multiple attachment points are used to secure the mirror baseplate, then connection strength is improved, but the ease of assembly and disassembly deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment system is segmented into a conical element for strength and five bearing faces for support, allowing the fastening operation to be concentrated at a single accessible location while maintaining distributed structural support for connection strength.
Solution Approach 2:
The five-point support acts as an intermediary between the mirror baseplate and the door reinforcement, distributing mechanical loads across multiple points to maintain connection strength, while the conical attachment provides the primary fastening interface that is easily accessible for assembly and disassembly operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A motor vehicle has an exterior rearview mirror, which is fixed to a vehicle door by a mirror baseplate. An opening, through which the mirror baseplate engages, is provided in an outer skin of the vehicle door, and the mirror baseplate is secured by a multi-point support and a central attachment screw. The mirror baseplate contains, at its free end, a conical attachment which engages in an opening of a door shaft reinforcement, formed as an extruded profile part, a hollow profile part, or a profiled sheet-stamped part, of the vehicle door, as a result of which the exterior rearview mirror is pre-positioned in a positionally correct fashion in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The mirror baseplate is additionally supported on the door shaft reinforcement by a five-point support.