LOAD SPACE COVER FOR VEHICLES

This invention relates to load space covers for vehicles, particularly covers for the load spaces of hatchback cars, estate cars (otherwise known as station wagons), sports utility vehicles (SUVs, also known as 4x4s), multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) or vans. Typically, such vehicles have glazed load space doors or hatches that can be swung open or lifted for access to the load space. Where fitted, one or more rear seats of the vehicle may be moved, removed, folded or otherwise collapsed to extend the load space when passenger numbers allow.

For brevity, hatchback cars, estate cars, station wagons, SUVs, 4x4s, MPVs and vans will be referred to generically as 'hatchback vehicles' hereinafter in this specification, irrespective of their load space door configuration. Most hatchback vehicles have a load space that is accessible from, and shares the same volume as, the passenger compartment. As such, they are distinguished from saloon or sedan cars which have a boot or trunk separate from the passenger compartment and concealed behind a bulkhead, under a lid.

The design of most hatchback vehicles allows their load space contents to be seen through the rear windows of the vehicle. This presents a security risk by attracting opportunist theft. The security risk has led to the use of various load space covers to shield the load spaces of hatchback vehicles from prying eyes. Such covers are often known as tonneau covers or parcel shelves. They can take various forms but most comprise horizontally-extensible roller blinds or rigid hinged panels. To facilitate access to the load space, they may retract or lift in response to opening of the load space door.

Load space covers, especially rigid covers, have the additional benefit of providing a support for items placed upon them. Moreover, when in use, load space covers may help to reduce noise transmission from the load space into the passenger compartment of the vehicle.

Most load space covers are removably mounted to the vehicle so as to allow large or tall loads to be carried in the load space when concealment of those loads is impractical or unnecessary, especially when passenger seats are folded or removed to extend the load space. In this respect, it is common for the cover to be attached to opposed mountings in the upper side walls of the load space, just behind the passenger seats. For example, a roller-blind housing known as a cassette may be attached at its ends to complementary mounting formations being recesses into which the ends of the cassette may be located downwardly under gravity or outwardly by spring-loading of telescopic means on the cassette body. The cover section of the roller blind may then be deployed by being pulled rearwardly out of the cassette against spring bias, to be latched in the unrolled condition using latch formations in the upper side walls at the rear of the load space. To this end, the free end of the cover section includes a transverse rod that engages with the latch formations and stiffens the cover section for strength and for ease of handling.

The above arrangement is such that when the passenger seats are positioned ready for use, the roller-blind cassette is disposed closely behind the upper rear edge of the seat backrests. Desirably, therefore, when the cover section of the roller blind is deployed from the cassette, there are no significant gaps between the cassette and the seat through which any load space contents may be seen, through which items placed on the cover section could fall, or through which noise may be transmitted from the load space into the passenger compartment. The same goes for other load space covers, such as rigid hinged panel variants which are preferably hinged about a pivot axis located similarly closely behind the upper rear edge of the seat backrests.

The demands of increased versatility and passenger comfort mean that it is now common for the rear passenger seats of a vehicle to slide fore and aft, and/or for their backrests to recline with variable inclination. Such arrangements are particularly common in MPVs. Often the seats can be moved independently of each other, for example in major and minor portions of a three-passenger bench seat split 2:1 or 3:2. These facilities enable the vehicle seating to be configured in a way that balances load space against passenger space and comfort. Unfortunately, moving the backrest of a seat forward and hence away

from the load space cover opens a gap between the load space cover and the seat. That gap may be large enough to negate the aforesaid benefits of the load space cover.

The problem of the gap created between a load space cover and a movable seat has already been addressed by load space covers having a forwardly-extensible section extending from a roller-blind cassette to the backrest of the movable seat. This is in addition to the normal rearwardly-extensible section extending from the cassette to the rear of the load space. However, this arrangement suffers from bulk, weight, cost and complexity; also, when the seat or its backrest is in a forward position, the cassette obstructs the load space unnecessarily, even when the rearwardly-extensible section of the roller blind is retracted. There is also the problem that the cassette will restrict rearward movement of the seat, should the vehicle configuration otherwise permit such rearward movement.

Against this background, the invention resides in a load space cover arrangement for a vehicle, the vehicle having at least one seat whose backrest, at least, is movable between selectable seating positions, wherein the load space cover comprises a housing from which a retractable and rearwardly-extensible cover section may extend, which housing is movable with the backrest of the seat. The seat backrest may move by virtue of moving the whole seat fore and aft, and/or by varying the inclination of the backrest in a recliner action.

In simplest and most preferred arrangements of the invention, the housing is removably attached to the backrest of the seat.

The seat may be one of a row of seats disposed side by side. In that case, preferably, the housing extends across the row but is not attached to other seats of the row. Alternatively the seat may be a portion of a divided bench seat, in which case it is preferred that the housing extends across the bench seat but is not attached to other portions of the bench seat. Most preferably a bench seat is divided into major and minor portions and the housing is attachable to the major portion. These arrangements have the advantage that

the other seats, or other portions, can be moved independently without having to be detached from the housing.

The housing is suitably a cassette from which the cover section is extensible as a roller blind. Latch means may be provided for anchoring the cover section in an extended condition while permitting movement of the housing with the backrest.

The ambit of the invention includes a vehicle having a load space cover arrangement in accordance with the invention. The invention also encompasses a load space cover for a vehicle, the cover comprising a housing from which a retractable and rearwardly- extensible cover section may extend, which housing includes means for attachment to a movable seat of the vehicle.

The invention may also be expressed in method terms as a method of shielding a vehicle load space, comprising extending a load space cover section from a housing attached to a movable seat of the vehicle, anchoring a free end of the cover section to hold the cover section in an extended condition over the load space, and moving the seat between different seating positions with the cover section anchored in the extended condition, the degree of extension of the cover section with respect to the housing varying with the position of the seat.

In order that this invention may be more readily understood, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a rear perspective view of the load space of a hatchback vehicle having movable rear passenger seats, showing how a load space cover may be attached to those seats in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic detail side view showing a preferred means of attachment of the load space cover to the seats shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a rear view of the seats shown in Figure 1, also showing the preferred means of attachment of the load space cover to the seats;

Figure 4 is a rear perspective view corresponding to Figure 1 but showing the load space cover attached to the rear seats of the vehicle and in a retracted condition;

Figure 5 is a schematic side view of the load space and rear passenger seats of the vehicle illustrated in Figures 1 and 4, showing the load space cover in a retracted condition corresponding to that shown in Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a schematic side view corresponding to Figure 5 but showing the load space cover in an extended condition;

Figure 7 is a rear perspective view corresponding to Figure 4 but showing the load space in an extended condition corresponding to that shown in Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a schematic side view corresponding to Figure 6 and showing the load space cover in an extended condition, but with the rear seats slid forward with respect to the load space, thereby further extending the cover section of the load space cover; and

Figure 9 is a schematic side view corresponding to Figure 6 and showing the load space cover in an extended condition, but with the rear seat backrests pivoted into a more upright position, thereby further extending the cover section of the load space cover.

Referring firstly to Figures 1 to 5, a hatchback vehicle 10 has a load space defined between a floor 12, upstanding parallel side walls 14 (only one of which is shown in the drawings), and a rear bench seat 16. In conventional manner, the seat 16 is divided into major and minor portions 18, 20 split in a ratio of say 2: 1 or 3:2. In this way, the seat 16 can carry up to three passengers abreast but the portions 18, 20 can be folded

independently to extend the load space when carrying fewer than three passengers. The seat 16 is therefore analogous to a row of seats, such as the wholly independent and removable seats commonly used in MPVs.

The seat portions 18, 20 each comprise a backrest 22 and a cushion 24. The cushion 24 is mounted to the floor 12 by a seat base 26 that permits fore-and-aft sliding movement of the seat portion 18, 20 with respect to the floor 12; moreover, the backrest 22 is pivotally mounted with respect to the cushion 24 by a recliner mechanism (not shown) so that its angle of inclination with respect to the cushion 24 may be adjusted. Both of those movements affect the length of the load space and hence the length of a cover necessary to shield that load space.

In accordance with the invention, a load space cover housing exemplified here by a roller-blind cassette 28 is attached to the rear of the seat 16, near the top of the backrest 22. Pairs of complementary mounting formations on the seat 16 and the cassette 28 provide for removable attachment of the cassette 28 to the seat 16. As Figures 2 and 3 show, those formations comprise a pair of T-section pins 30 spaced apart on the major portion 18 of the seat 16, which are received within a pair of undercut sockets 32 correspondingly spaced apart on the forward face of the cassette 28. Other fastenings could of course be used.

Figure 3 shows that the sockets 32 are keyhole- shaped, each comprising an enlarged hole 34 for receiving the head of a T-section pin 30, and a slot 36 extending laterally from the hole 34. The heads of the pins 30 engage behind the slots 36 of the sockets 32 when the heads are inserted into the respective holes 34 and the cassette 28 is then slid sideways into a locking position with respect to the backrest 22. If there is sufficient lateral clearance, that sideways displacement of the cassette 28 may be effected when the backrest 22 is upright. However, it may be more convenient to move the cassette 28 sideways when the backrest 22 is collapsed into a generally horizontal position when the seat 16 is folded. In that case, the cassette 28 may simply be accessed through the rear doors of the vehicle, if fitted.

It will be noted that the pin mountings 30 are situated only on the major portion 18 of the seat 16. This allows the minor portion 20 to be folded or reclined forwards without having to detach the cassette 28 from the backrest 22, while permitting both portions 18, 20 to be folded away with the cassette 28 still attached.

Once the cassette 28 is attached to the seat 16 as shown in Figures 2, 4 and 5, the cover section 38 of the roller blind may then be extended by being pulled rearwardly out of the cassette 28 against spring bias. Figures 6 and 7 show that the cover section 38 may then be latched in the unrolled condition by engagement with latch formations 40 (only one of which is shown) in the upper side walls 14 at the rear of the load space. To this end, the free end 42 of the cover section 38 includes a transverse rod 44 that engages with the latch formations 40 and stiffens the cover section 38 for strength and ease of handling.

Latching the rod 44 into the latch formations 40 anchors the free end 42 of the cover section 38 with the cover section 38 in an extended condition over the load space. Figures 8 and 9 show that the seat 16 may then be moved between different seating positions while the cover section 38 is anchored in the extended condition. As the seat 16 moves, the degree of extension of the cover section 38 with respect to the cassette 28 varies with the position of the seat 16. For example, Figure 8 shows the cover section 38 in an extended condition, with the seat 16 slid forward with respect to its base 26. In contrast, Figure 9 shows the cover section 38 in an extended condition, but with the seat backrest 22 pivoted into a more upright position with respect to the seat cushion 24. In both instances, it will be apparent that the seat movements shown in Figures 8 and 9 will further extend the anchored cover section 38. Moreover, the spring bias applied by the cassette 28 will keep the cover section 38 taut and will cause the cover section 38 to retract back into the cassette 28 when the movements shown in Figures 8 and 9 are reversed. In all seating positions, substantial gaps in the coverage of the load cover are avoided.

Many variations are possible within the inventive concept. For example, whilst it is preferred that the seat portions 18, 20 are wholly independent of each other with regard to their sliding and reclining movements, they may instead be linked. So, for instance, the seat 16 may have a single cushion, which may slide as a whole, and a divided backrest whose portions may be reclined differently. Of course, it is also possible that the seat 16 is not split into portions at all or that it cannot be folded: it may have only a reclining movement or only a sliding movement. In its broad sense, the invention requires only that the backrest, at least, is movable between selectable seating positions: this may, for example, be achieved by non-reclining, sliding seat having a backrest that is movable with the cushion but that is fixed with respect to the cushion.

The means of attachment of the load space cover to the seat may also be varied. For example, mounting formations may extend across the full width of the seat, and the mounting formations may be reversed so that pins on the load space cover housing engage with sockets on the seat. Other releasable mounting means will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

It is also possible for each seat in a row or each portion of a bench seat to have a separate load space cover housing attached to it, the resulting plurality of load space covers thus extending side-by-side and co-operating to shield the load space.

Many other variations are possible within the inventive concept. Reference should therefore be made to the appended claims rather than the foregoing specific description in determining the scope of the invention.