The invention firstly relates to a sunshade assembly, comprising a flexible sunscreen, a rotatable winding shaft for winding and unwinding the sunscreen and two opposite guides for cooperation with two opposite longitudinal edges of the sunscreen.
One important field of application of such sunshade assemblies are vehicles which are provided with an open roof construction. Nowadays there is a trend towards larger roof openings, and thus also the need arises for larger sunshade assemblies with larger (longer) sunscreens.
Such larger sunscreens, however, suffer from certain drawbacks. The friction between the guides and the longitudinal edges of the sunscreen increases substantially, which leads to high forces to be exerted by the winding shaft when winding the sunscreen (and, oppositely, by an opposite moving member for unwinding the sunscreen), leading to higher tensions in the sunscreen with a resulting transverse contraction of the sunscreen which, finally, results in an even higher friction or even in a detachment of the longitudinal edges of the sunscreen. As a result of these high forces (such as frictional forces) the sunscreen suffers from an increased wear and even may be damaged or torn. Further there is an increased power demand for moving the sunscreen.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds