The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 04, 1997
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1995
Colin J Young, Dearborn, MI (US);
Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI (US);
Abstract
A guide mechanism for a sliding door of a vehicle includes a wedge with a protruding blade of thickness t fastened to an edge portion of the door, and a guide body fastened to a header of the vehicle. The vehicle header and edge portion of the door are adjacent one another when the door is in a closed position. First and second flexible wings are connected to the guide body forming a pair of wings defining a slot between the first and second wings with the wings separated a minimum distance, .delta..sub.0, across the slot. First and second flanges respectively connected to the first and second wings extend away from one another forming a lead-in channel having a dimension greater than the minimum distance, .delta..sub.0, for guiding the blade to engage the slot when the door is in the closed position. Making the blade thickness, t, greater than the minimum distance, .delta..sub.0, across the slot causes each of the wings to exert pressure on the blade when the blade is positioned dead center so that movement between the door and header can occur without breaking contact between the wings and the blade thereby minimizing rattling and noise.