Britax Wingard Limited

John Bottrill

Douglas J Cunningham

An exterior rear view mirror for a motor vehicle has a housing containing a reflective member and being adapted to be secured to a bracket, mounted on the vehicle body, by first and second arms. Each arm is pivotally connected to the bracket for relative angular movement about a pivot axis. In order to hold the housing at a predetermined orientation relative to the bracket means, a first pair of detent formations on the second support element diametrically spaced on opposite sides of the pivot axis is adapted to engage with a first pair of complementary formations on one face of a washer located between the second support element and the bracket means, and a second pair of detent formations on the opposite face of the washer diametrically spaced apart from one another relative to the pivot axis and orientated at 90.degree. to the first pair of complementary formations, the second pair of detent formations, is adapted to engage with a second pair of complementary formations on the bracket.

Vehicle exterior mirror

A remotely controlled rearview mirror assembly has a tiltable reflective member mounted on a fixed base in a casing, the reflective member being tilted by means of a remote control. Two or three-wire cable systems are the preferred linkage but electrical or fluidic linkages may be used. The reflective member is anchored to the base by a forked member to prevent rotation of the reflective member, in its own plane, which would otherwise cause jamming or juddering by contact with the sides of the casing. The preferred forked member is a V-shaped wire strut with arms pivotally attached to the reflective member and a necked junction part as a frictional pivot to provide damping. The reflective member is tiltably mounted by an arcuate knife edge received in a linear groove, the included angle of the groove being greater than that of the knife edge. This provides a substantially common elevational and azimuthal pivot point closer to the surface of the reflective member.

Remotely controlled rearview mirror assembly

Safety belt retractors are disclosed in the form of spring driven belt rewinding mechanisms. In some arrangements, a pair of spiral springs act in series or in parallel, one spring applying a constant rewinding torque to a belt storage shaft, the other storing energy when the belt is withdrawn. A ratchet maintains the stored energy and is disengaged by a screw threaded actuator, which moves coaxially to the storage shaft, when the shaft rotates through a number of revolutions. The stored energy is released to supplement the rewinding torque of the first spring. In another arrangement, the ratchet is replaced by an over center spring assembly. An epicyclic gear box drives a coil spring anchorage through a given arc to give an over center action.

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Chichester, United Kingdom

John Bottrill