Sealing or guiding assemblies and methods of making them

Abstract

A method of making a sealing or guiding assembly for sealing or guiding a corner of a movable window glass, such as for the window in a motor vehicle door. The assembly comprises two lengths of sealing or guiding strip which are connected together to form a corner matching the corner of the window glass. The corner between the two lengths of strip is bridged across by a flexible flap which is produced by an in-situ molding operation forming part of the method. The two lengths of strip are placed into the mould which has a cavity matching the shape of the flexible flap but which is arranged so that the flap is connected to each sealing strip only over a small part of the total area of the sealing strip which is overlapped by the flap. The flap is therefore otherwise spaced from each sealing strip by a gap which, during the molding operation, is occupied by a plate which defines part of the mold cavity for forming the flap. This plate and the gap protect an adjacent flocked area of a lip of each sealing strip from damage by the heat of the molding operation. Flocking can thus be carried out before the molding operation, instead of afterwards, thus simplifying production. The flap defines a shallow groove or ridge matching a ridge or groove either on a sealing strip or on a rigid support to which the strip and flap are to be attached. The groove-ridge pair engage each other when the assembly is placed into position on the rigid support.