The present invention relates to a door mirror of a motor vehicle and, more particularly, to a foldable outside rearview mirror having a mirror body capable of erecting and folding.
To avoid the damage of not only the mirror of itself but also the object with which the vehicle comes into collision during driving or for to narrow the vehicle width during a time when the vehicle parks in a narrow parking or when the vehicle is transmitted on board, it is well known that the door mirror of the motor vehicle is what the people call the foldable door mirror capable of holding an attitude and folding forwardly or backwardly. Such a mirror is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid Opened Nos. Sho 61-203854 and Sho 61-139738. In the door mirror as previously described, a shaft is erected on an extending portion of a base, a socket portion of a frame is inserted into the shaft and a mirror body is secured on the frame. Further, in the door mirror, a clearance is formed between an upper surface of a root portion of the shaft and a lower surface of the socket by intermediary disposing a several of steel balls in concave portions which are respectively provided at a flat surface around the root portion of the shaft and the lower surface of the socket. A coil spring is disposed around the socket and washers and a U-shape plate for the spring are secured at the upper end of the shaft. Since the frame is attached by an elasticity of the coil spring, respective steel balls engages in each of the concave portions which are formed on both of the root portion of the shaft and the under surface of the frame. As a result the mirror body retains an determined attitude.
As previously described, in a conventional door mirror, when the mirror body is actuated to rotate from a normal attitude to the rearwardly folded attitude to avoid the collision or the like, the steel ball rotatably moves after running over any of concave portions which are disposed on the under surface of the frame or the upper surface of the root portion of the shaft, and the mirror body secured on the frame slightly raises up. When the mirror body returns to the original normal attitude again, the mirror body slightly goes down, according to the vertical movement of the mirror body, a noise of the steel ball running over concave portions is caused.
To overcome such disadvantages as described above, in the mirror which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Opened No. Sho 64-63464 a leaf spring and a steel ball are provided around the shaft which is erected at the side of a base through the intermediary of the leaf spring. Thereby at the time of the mirror rotating, the mirror body is prevented from moving vertically by burying the steel ball. In a case as previously described, the mirror is merely pressed by the leaf spring which is provided around the comparative short shaft. Due to an insufficient holding of the mirror body, there has been a disadvantage that a chattering on the mirror surface occurs easily.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds