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:
May. 09, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 28, 1998
Thomas Franz Gehring, Scarborough, CA;
Slawomir Smolec, Toronto, CA;
Collins & Aikman Plastics, Inc., Troy, MI (US);
Abstract
An air outlet assembly includes a housing secured to a structure. A plurality of air directional fins, i.e., louvers or vanes, extend through the housing. The housing includes a plurality of receiving apertures. The receiving apertures receive bosses of the louvers therein. The receiving apertures define a boss surface and a spring surface. The boss surface has a radius of curvature equal to that of the boss being inserted. The spring surface has a radius of curvature greater than that of the boss being inserted. Two extensions are cut away on either side of both the boss surface and the spring surface to define the amount of effort required to rotate the boss when it is inserted into the receiving aperture. An opening is cut away adjacent the receiving aperture to further control the resilience of the spring surface as it abuts the boss inserted into the receiving aperture. This resiliency or spring characteristic creates a frictional force against which an effort must be applied in order to rotate the boss and, therefore, the louvers.