DE29703407U1 - Load compartment separating device for motor vehicles, in particular for combination passenger cars - Google Patents

Description

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Dipi.-ing. Harald Ostriga··· ^? &ngr;·!·· ··* ^: Dipi.-ing. Bernd Sonnet*

Dipi.-ing. Jochen-Peter Wirths &eegr;.™«^*

^&Ggr;&sgr; Stresemannstr. 6-8

* Authorized by the European Patent Office 42275 Wuppertal-B armen

Ostriga, Sonnet & Wirths ■ PO Box 20 16 53 ■ D-42216 Wuppertal

O/os

Owner: Peter Butz GmbH & Co.

Verwaltungs-KG Kronprinzstr. 47-49

40764 Langenfeld

Designation

of the invention: Loading space separator for motor vehicles, in particular for station wagons

The invention relates to a loading space separating device for motor vehicles, in particular for station wagons, according to the preamble of claim 1.

Such a loading space separator has become known through obvious prior use. In the known loading space separator, the winding shaft is equipped with a spring motor, the torque of which counteracts the rolling movement of the material web. The material web can be a film, a net or another textile flexible or pliable surface structure.

The roller blind housing, which holds the winding shaft and is made up of two roller blind housing end caps and a roller blind housing cover, can basically be mounted anywhere in the vehicle-side installation area. The most common is a roller blind housing that extends almost across the entire width of the loading area.

Postgiro office Credit- und Volksbank eGmbH Commerzbank AG VAT ID No. Eat Wuppertal-Barmen Wuppertal-Barmen VAT No. (Bank code 360 100 43) 445 04-431 (Bank code 330 600 98) 301 891 024 (Bank code 330 400 01) 4 034 823 DE 121068676

Peter Butz GmbH & Co. KG

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Roller blind housing that is held behind the rear seats of a station wagon, in particular on the rear surface of the rear seat backrests.

.5 In order to move the material strip of the known loading space separator into its operating position, it can be detachably attached either above the roller blind housing at the top of the vehicle or adjacent to it or on the flap-like rear door. For fastening, the free end area of the material strip is usually provided with a pull rod, the fastening heads of which, arranged at both ends, can be inserted into corresponding suspension eyes on the vehicle.

To secure the stretched or unrolled material web in its operating position, the winding shaft can be assigned a form-alignment lock, which blocks the winding shaft against the material web unrolling inadvertently (see DE-27 49 560 Al). This is extremely important in the event of a sudden impact of the load on the material web, e.g. in the event of an unexpected emergency stop.

In the loading space separating device described at the beginning, which is known from obvious prior use, the roller blind housing has two roller blind housing end caps made of plastic, which are attached to the end of a slotted tube-like light metal body. The longitudinal slot of the slotted tube-like light metal body represents a guide slot for the material web.

On the inside, each plastic end cap has a bearing pin that protrudes axially inwards, i.e. an axle stub.

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on which a bearing of a winding shaft, which represents a tubular shaft body, is arranged. The roller blind housing end caps made of plastic also serve to attach the roller blind housing in the vehicle-side installation field.
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In the case of the loading space separator known from obvious previous use, it is considered disadvantageous that the axle stub and winding shaft can be deformed by the load if the material web is subjected to tensile stress in the event of a crash. In such a case, the safety of the known loading space separator is guaranteed by the winding shaft being held on both long sides of the longitudinal slot of the slotted tube-like roller blind housing casing, but this solution is not satisfactory.

Based on the loading space separating device described at the beginning, which is known from obvious prior use, the invention is based on the object of redesigning the known loading space separating device so that it also withstands increased safety requirements.

According to the invention, this object is achieved in that the two end caps and the roller blind housing casing together form a housing representing a rigid support body, that the axle body is formed in one piece and penetrates the winding shaft over its entire axial length, and that the two free end regions of the axle body are held in the two end caps and secured against axial displacement on the roller blind housing.

It is important that the two end caps are attached to the roller blind casing in such a way that a total of

Peter Butz GmbH & Co. KG.

statically safe, particularly resistant to deflection, rigid support body is present. It is also important that the axle body is not made up of axle stubs that are only attached at one end, as is the case with the known model, but rather represents a continuous axle body, the two free end areas of which are held by the rigid roller blind housing, namely by the two end caps. At the same time, the two free end areas of the axle body are secured against axial displacement on the roller blind housing, in particular on the end caps themselves.

The advantages of the loading space separating device according to the invention consist primarily in the fact that the forces introduced by the winding shaft via its bearings to the free end areas of the axle body are transferred via the shortest route to the axle fastening, i.e. to the roller blind housing end caps. From there, the forces are transferred either via the roller blind housing end caps themselves or via the roller blind housing casing to the fastening points on the vehicle.

In addition, the rigid roller blind housing body and the continuous one-piece axle body together eliminate the buckling of the axle bearings that occurs under greater loads. Even in the event of bending of the winding shaft and axle body, the rigid roller blind housing, in conjunction with the securing of the axle against axial displacement, ensures that the forces introduced via the material web can be safely transferred to the vehicle-side fastening points.

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In a further embodiment of the invention, a simple and effective design has been created in that each free end region of the axle body passes through a through opening of the corresponding end cap.
5

The securing of the two free end areas of the axle body against axial displacement is expediently designed in such a way that each projection of the free end area of the axle body protruding from the outer surface of the associated end cap is provided with an axial securing device, such as a cylindrical pin or a circlip.

Further features of the invention can be found in additional subclaims.
15

In the drawings, a preferred embodiment according to the invention is shown in more detail, it shows,

Fig. 1 a part of an axial longitudinal section through the roller housing and winding shaft of a loading space separator,

Fig. 2 is a radial cross-section corresponding to the section line II-II in Fig. 1 and

Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of the force distribution in the cargo space separator.

In the drawings, a loading space separating device is designated as 10. A material web 29, such as a tarpaulin or net, has only been indicated with a dashed line in Fig. 2 to simplify the drawing.

Peter Butz GmbH & Co. KG.

The loading space separating device 10 has a roller blind housing 11, which essentially consists of two roller blind housing end caps 12 and a roller blind housing casing 13 extending between the two end caps 12. The roller blind housing casing 13, a light metal continuous cast profile, has a circular cross-section in the embodiment shown. Along a surface line, the roller blind housing casing 13 forms a longitudinal slot 14 for the passage of the material web 29.

At each end, the roller blind housing casing 13 has an inner ring recess 15, into which a radially inwardly offset ring collar 16 of the roller blind housing end cap 12 is inserted, which has a circular contour. The roller blind housing casing 13 and the end caps 12 are firmly connected to one another in the area of the ring collars 16 on the end cap side, for example by means of the screw connection 17 indicated in Fig. 1, which radially penetrates both the roller blind housing casing 13 in the area of its ring recess 15 and the ring collar 16 on the end cap side. Several such screw connections 17 are provided evenly distributed around the circumference.

In each end cap 12, a central through-opening 18 is provided for a free end region 20 of a continuous, one-piece axle body 21 that passes through both end caps 12. The axle body 21 is made of a suitable steel.

The free end areas 2 0 of the axle body 21 are secured against rotation on the end cap side in a manner not shown. This can be done in such a way that at least one free

Peter Butz GmbH & Co. KG

End region 20 and the associated through-opening 18 are provided with corresponding flattened areas (not shown).

To secure the axial position of the axle body 21, each projection 23 of the free end region 20 that projects beyond the outer surface 22 of an end cap 12 receives a circlip 24 in a corresponding annular groove 25. Each free end region 20 of the axle body 21 carries a bearing, e.g. a roller bearing 26, which is overlapped on the outside by the tubular shaft body of a winding shaft 27. The tubular shaft body of the winding shaft 27 is made of steel or light metal.

The winding shaft 27, whose outer surface 28 carries the material web 29, is driven in the winding direction u by means of the restoring force of a spring motor (not shown), while the axle body 21 is fixed in space.

Based on Fig. 2 and 3, it is conceivable that when a tensile load 2PZ is introduced through the material web 29, the outer surface 28 of the winding shaft 17 is subjected to a tensile load distributed over its axial length, which acts on the respective axle body 21 via the two bearings 26 with a force PZ in accordance with the two arrows.

It can also be seen that the forces PZ can be transmitted via the shortest route via the free end areas 20 of the axle body 21, via the through-openings 18 and via the end caps 12 to the roller blind housing casing 13 and from there can be transferred as holding forces PH to the vehicle-side fastening points.

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Since the roller blind housing 11 is a rigid body in the static sense, the holding points for the vehicle-side fastening can be arranged as desired. Due to the continuous one-piece axle body 21, deformation of the free axle end areas 20 is almost impossible.

Even a deflection of the axle body 21 caused by excessive tensile stress on the material web 29 could be controlled with the arrangement shown, especially since the free end regions 20 of the axle body 21 are secured against unwanted axial displacement by means of the circlips 24.

Claims (8)

Peter Butz GmbH & Co. Claims 1. Loading space separating device (10) for motor vehicles, in particular for station wagons, with a material web (29) that can be unrolled from a winding shaft (27) against the torque of an engine, which can be releasably clamped between vehicle-side fastening points and the winding shaft (27), which forms an approximately tubular shaft body that is rotatably mounted on at least one axle body (21) at both ends, which is held by two roller blind housing end caps (12) that hold an approximately hollow cylindrical roller blind housing casing (13) between them, which forms a longitudinal slot (14) surrounding the material web (29) along a surface line, characterized in that the two end caps (12) and the roller blind housing casing (13) together form a roller blind housing (11) that represents a rigid support body, that the axle body (21) is designed in one piece and the winding shaft (27) over its entire axial length and that the two free end regions (20) of the axle body (21) are held in the two end caps (12) and secured against axial displacement in the roller blind housing (11). 2. Loading space separating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the free end regions (20) of the axle body (21) are secured against axial displacement at the end caps (12). 3. Loading space separating device according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that each free end region (20) of the axle body (21) passes through a through opening (18) of the associated end cap (12). Peter Butz GmbH & Co. Vt?»wä*StuRgs»K<$ ·**·' 4. Loading space separating device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each projection (23) of the free end region (20) of the axle body (21) projecting from the outer surface (22) of the associated end cap (12) is provided with a .5 Axial locking, such as a cylindrical pin or a circlip (24), is provided. 5. Loading space separating device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that both end caps (12) are screwed (at 17), welded or glued to the roller blind housing casing (13). 6. Loading space separating device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized _in that the roller blind housing casing (13), end caps (12) and axle body (21) consist of metal. 7. Loading space separating device according to claim 6, characterized in that the roller blind housing casing (13) is a light metal extruded profile. 8. Loading space separating device according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the free end regions (20) of the axle body (21) are secured against rotation in the end caps (12).