Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
PLASTICS RETAINING CLIP
Background of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plastic
retaining clip for clamping components, particularly brake
lines, to motor vehicles onto a stay bolt on the vehicle,
provided with circular ridges, which is welded to a sup-
porting plate, wherein the retaining clip comprises a base
body, which is provided with a bore for housing the stay
bolt and of which the underside butts against the support-
ing plate when the retaining clip is pressed onto the stay
bolt, wherein the retaining clip further comprises clamping
means designed integrally with the base body and which grip
the components, and wherein the retaining clip further
comprises at least two resilient gripping jaws provided
with notches which are connected in one piece to the base
body and/or the clamping means, these gripping jaws being
disposed substantially at the same angular distance around
the centre axis of the bore of the base body and the
distance of the gripping jaws from each other being less
than the diameter of the stay bolt, so that after the
insertion of the stay bolt the gripping jaws with their
notches engage the ridges of the stay bolt because of their
resilient recovery.
Such a retaining clip is described in German
` specification DE-OS 32 38 345. With this known retaining
clip brake lines~of motor vehicles can be secured in an
advantageous way to a stud. The mounting of this known
retaining clip can, however, give rise to problems if the
brake lines are fitted, as is usual, to the underside of
the vehicle, and if this underside of the motor vehicle is
treated with an undersealing agent.
The undersides of motor vehicles are nowadays
often treated with a protective coating consisting of a
relatively pliant, tough tar-like material as protection
against corrosion. Since on the one hand the studs can be
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welded only to the rough automobile body and on the other
hand brake lines must not be covered by undersealing agent,
the brake lines can only be fitted after the undersealing
agent has been applied to the underside of the vehicle
provided with the stud.
If the known retaining clip is mounted on a stud
coated with undersealing agent, then some of the underseal
is scraped off the stud and becomes jammed between the
underside of the stud and the surface onto which the stud
is welded. The retaining clip cannot then achieve its
intended final position. More importantly however, a
substantial portion of the pliant, tough undersealing agent
is left behind on the stud itself. As a result, the
notches of the gripping jaws are prevented from fully
engaging the circular ridges of the stud. Thus there is
the risk of the retaining clip slipping off the stud when
exposed to traffic conditions, and this can even put the
braking system of the motor vehicle out of action. `
A further problem arises from the fact that the
fitting of the retaining clips is carried out automatically
by means of hand-operated automatic appliances which cannot
recognise a possible faulty assembly.
German gebrauchsmuster DE-GM 84 17 558 discloses
a collar nut of plastics for turning onto a stud provided
with a thread. This collar nut is provided with projec-
tions which scrape off the undersealing agent adhering to
the stud during the screwing-on of the collar nut. This
collar nut does, however, necessitate the use of a threaded
stud and thus the turning of the nut when being mounted.
The retaining clips of the kind described in
DE-OS 32 38 345 do not, however, require any turning motion
during assembly, since the brake lines are mounted in the
clamping means of the retaining clip before assembly and
this determines the angular position of the retaining clip
with regard to the studs.
The object of the invention is to provide a
plastics retaining clip of the kind set out in DE-OS
32 38 345 which can be mounted securely onto a stud covered
with undersealing agent.
Brief Description of the Invention
According to the present invention, such a
plastics retaining clip is characterised in that the base
body comprises projections, which protrude into the bore
for housing the stay bolt, the number of the projections
corresponding with the number of gripping jaws, the
projections and the gripping jaws having the same angular
disposition with reference to the centre axis of the bore,
the width of the projections being at least equal to the
width of the relevant gripping jaws, and the projections at
their edge, which butts against the stay bolt and points in
the direction of underside of the retaining clip, are
formed with sharp edges.
When a retaining clip in accordance with the
present invention is pressed onto a stud covered with
undersealing agent, the latter is scraped off by the
projections in the longitudinal direction of the stud. The
removal of the undersealing agent is made easier because
the projections are formed with sharp edges at their edge
pointing towards the underside of the retaining clip.
` Since the angular position of the projections corresponds
with the angular position of the arrangement of the grip-
ping jaws and, further the width of the projections is
matched with the width of the gripping jaws, the underseal-
ing agent is removed from those places against which the
gripping jaws ultimately rest in their final position.
This ensures that under defined conditions the notches
engage the ridges of the stud, and a performance-reliable
construction of the retaining clip is made possible which
positively prevents the retaining clip accidentally slip-
ping off from the stud.
Unllke the clip disclosed in DE-GM 8~ 17 558, the
retaining clip in accordance with the present invention
does not remove the undersealing agent entirel~ from the
stud. Removal of the undersealing agent takes place only
in the areas of the circumference of the stud against which
the gripping jaws rest. This produces the great advantage
that only the materials scraped-off by the projections can
get between the retaining clip and the supporting plate.
In order that scraped-off material should not
reduce cohesion, a retaining clip in accordance with a
preferred embodiment of the invention is provided on its
underside with a recess surrounding the bore. In this
recess material that is scraped off can be accommodated,
thus ensuring that the retaining clip can achieve its final
position when being mounted.
According to a further preferred embodiment, the
bore of the base body is oval in shape. This creates an
open space between the stud and the bore of the base body
for the purpose of accommodating removed undersealing
material. This additionally reduces the risk of the
undersealing material getting between the supporting plate
and the underside of the retaining clip.
In yet another preferred embodiment the plastics
retaining clip in accordance with the invention, the
retaining clip is provided with two gripping jaws staggered
at 180 and a substantially oval bore is used. On this
specific embodiment small webs are provided projecting into
the bore, which are staggered at 90 in relation to the
projections and which are designed so that they butt
against the stud in the assembled position. By means of
these webs the retaining clip is supported against any
possible tilting when only two projections are used. It is
to be noted that only small webs are used, which scrape off
only relative little undersealing material in the course of
the pressing on. The amount of the undersealing material
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removed in the course of the pressing on is
consequently not substantially increased~
According to the above objects, from a broad
aspect, the present invention provides a plastics
retaining clip for clamping components, particularly
brakelines, to motor vehicles, on to a stay bolt on
the vehicle~ The stay bolt is provided with circular
ridges and is welded to a supporting plate. The
retaining clip comprises a base body, which is
provided with a bore for housing the stay bolt and of
which the underside butts against the supporting
plate when the retaining clip is pressed onto the
stay bolt. The retaining clip further comprises
clamping means designed integrally with the base body
and which grip the brakeline components. The
retaining clip further comprises at least two
resilient gripping jaws provided with notches which
are connected in one piece to the base body and/or
the clamping means. These gripping jaws are disposed
opposite each other and the distance of the gripping
jaws from each other is less than the diameter of the
stay bolt, so that after the insertion of the stay
bolt, the gripping jaws with their notches engage the
circular ridges of the stay bolt because of their
resilient recovery. The clip is characterized in
that the base body comprises projections, which
protrude into the bore for housing the stay bolt and
which are formed with sharp edges, which edges are
perpendicular to the axis of -the stay bolt and are
adapted to scrape undersealing agent off the stay
bolt. The number of the projections correspond with
the number of gripping jaws. The projections and the
gripping jaws are axially aligned and the projections
are located below the relevant gripping jaws. The
width of the projections is at least equal to the
r,
- 5a -
width of the relevant gripping jaws and the sharp
edges of the projections butt against -the s-tay bolt
and point in the direction of the underside of the
retaining clip.
srief Description of the Drawings
__ __
In order that our invention may be better
understood, a preferred embodiment will now be
described in greater detail by wa~ of example and
with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a side view of a plastics retaining
clip in accordance with the invention - drawn
partially in section - in the assembled state; and
Figure 2 is an underside view of the retaining
clip according to Figure 1.
Detailed Description of_the Drawings and Preferred
Embodiment
In Figure 1 an underside plate of a motor
vehicle constitutes the supporting plate 1, onto
which a stud 2 is securely welded. The stud is
provided with circular ridges 3. The illustrative
retaining clip serves the purpose of securing
brakelines 4 and 4', shown in section lines, to this
stud.
Retaining claip 10 comprises base body 11,
clamping means 12, 13 and 12' and 13' and gripping
jaws 14, 14'. The base body 11 res-ts on the
supporting plate 1 of the automobile body sheet iron.
Inside the base body is provided a bore 21, which
extends into the entrance region 21a, this extension
being followed by a recess 21b, the surface line of
which is parallel with the axis of the bore.
The bore, as can best be seen in Figure 2, is
not circular, but substantially oval in shape. On
two sides of the bore, at angular positions
corresponding with the position of the gripping jaws
- 5b -
14, 14', are arranged projections 22, 22'. The
projections at their forward edge 22a are formed with
sharp edges. Furthermore, small webs
~2~ 5
23,23' are provided inside the bore which prevent angular
movements of the retaininy clip in a direction
perpendicular with the plane in which the gripping jaws
14,14' are disposed.
The form of the clamping means 12,13 and/or
12',13' is known from the prior art and is therefore not
described in further detail.
The assembly of this retaining clip is carried
out as follows:
The brake lines are inserted into the clamping
means 12,13 or 12',13' before the assembly of the retaining
clip in a customary way. Then the retaining clip is
pressed onto a stud either by hand or by means of a
hand-operated automatic tool, the stud being covered with
undersealing agent from a preceding underbody treatment.
The retaining clip is first placed onto the stud, centering
being made easier by conical entrance region 21a of the
bore 21, and is then pressed in the axial direction of the
stud onto the latter. During the pressing-on movement,
which is effected without the retaining clip being turned,
the sharp edges of projections 22,22' scrape off from the
stud a strip of undersealing material at each side of the
stud. The scraped-off undersealing material is taken up by
the conical entrance regions 21a, the cylindrical recess
21b and by the cavities of the base body left between
projections 22,22' and webs 23,23' and may possibly be
dislodged completely from the region of the base body. The
gripping jaws 14,14' spring back during the pressing-on and
bear on the stud in the region of the stud freed from
undersealing material by the scraping action of the
projections. This makes possible a definite engagement of
notches 14a,14a' into the stud and thus provides reliable
retentive effectiveness of the retaining clip.
