TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of vehicle door handles to control the opening of vehicle doors and in particular to vehicle door handles comprising a bowl configured to be fastened to the door panel and automatic door latches that are controlled via electric means to lock or release vehicle door panels in an automated fashion. Automated door latches, under normal circumstances, do not require bulging handle levers on the exterior surface of the vehicle. The air drag of the vehicle can consequently be reduced, while the visual aspect of the vehicle can be streamlined.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the vehicle door handles of the state of the art, a bowl is disposed in an opening of a door panel and the bowl is fastened to the door panel, for example via a bracket and a slider positioned inside the door panel. The bowl provides a recess and the automatic door latch may be disposed within the recess of the bowl. Thus, to actuated the automatic door latch, the user puts his fingers within the recess to reach the latch.

Furthermore, in order to provide a smooth and streamlined appearance, the outer and upper part of the bowl may be covered by a strip hiding the interface between the upper part of the bowl and the door panel. Such strip is fastened to the bowl, for example by clips enabling a fast and easy assembly.

However, such fastening does not prevent a small displacement of the strip with respect to the bowl when the user pushes the strip to actuate the door panel. As the bowl and the strip are generally painted to enhance the appearance of the vehicle door handle, such small displacement produces friction between the strip and the bowl that may lead to an unpleasant noise for the user. One solution to prevent such noise would be to let the contact portion of the strip or the bowl unpainted but this solution requires the use of a mask which would require an additional step and would render the assembly more complex. Another solution is gluing or sticking the strip to the bowl but such solution increases the costs and the application of glue may be difficult to achieve by the original equipment manufacturer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a goal of the present invention to overcome at least partially the previous drawbacks of the state of the art and to provide a solution avoiding the occurrence of unpleasant noise due to a displacement of the strip with respect to the bowl without complicating the assembly of the vehicle door handle.

To this purpose, the present invention refers to a vehicle door handle assembly comprising:

- a bowl configured to be mounted in an opening of a door panel,

- a peripheral gasket disposed between the bowl and the door panel and configured to be sandwiched between the bowl and the door panel to provide waterproofness and soft contact,

- a strip configured to be fastened to an upper part of the bowl, wherein the strip comprises a hook configured to be slid in a complementary slot of the bowl to ensure the vertical positioning of the strip with respect to the bowl when the door handle is assembled to the vehicle and wherein the slot and the peripheral gasket are configured such that the peripheral gasket is compressed locally by the hook when the hook is slid in the slot in order to prevent movement between the strip and the bowl.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the peripheral gasket comprises a local pad providing an extra thickness, the hook being configured to compress the pad. According to a further aspect of the present invention, the hook and the slot are directed in a horizontal direction when the door handle is assembled to the vehicle.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the strip comprises a plurality of hooks distributed along its length and the peripheral gasket comprises a plurality of pads associated with the respective plurality of hooks.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the peripheral gasket is made of elastomer material.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the strip and the bowl are painted or chromed.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the vehicle door handle assembly also comprises a bracket attached to an inner side of the door panel and a slider configured for linking the bracket and the bowl in order to ensure the fastening of the bowl on the door panel and the compression of the gasket.

The present invention also refers to a method for assembling a vehicle door handle on a door panel, the door panel comprising an opening configured for receiving the vehicle door handle and the vehicle door handle comprising a bowl, a peripheral gasket and a strip comprising a hook configured to be slid in a complementary slot of the bowl wherein the method comprises the following steps:

- the peripheral gasket is positioned on the bowl,

- the bowl is positioned in the opening of the door panel, the peripheral gasket being sandwiched between the door panel and the bowl,

- the strip is fastened to the bowl by pressing the hook against the peripheral gasket and by translating the strip to introduce the hook within a slot of the bowl, the peripheral gasket being compressed by the hook in the fastening position.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the step of fastening the strip to the bowl also comprises the clipping of the strip to the bowl.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, the vehicle door handle also comprises a bracket and a slider and wherein the method also comprises a preliminary step of fastening the bracket to an inner side of the door panel and an additional step of positioning the slider in a slot of the bowl and in a slot of the bracket to ensure the fastening of the bowl to the bracket and the compression of the peripheral gasket between the bowl and the door panel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG.l is a perspective view of a vehicle door handle according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.2 is an exploded view of the vehicle door handle of fig.l;

FIG.3 is a perspective view of a strip according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.4 is a perspective view of a strip fastened to a bowl according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.5 is a perspective view of a gasket according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG.6 is a diagram of a hook of the strip fastened to the bowl;

FIG.7 is a flow chart of the different steps of the assembling method according to the present invention;

FIG.8 is a perspective view of a bowl and a slider according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.9 is a perspective view of a bowl, a bracket and a slider according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG.10 is another view of the hook of Fig.6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The following achievements are examples. Although, the specification refers to one or several embodiments, it does not imply that each reference refers to the same embodiment or that the features apply only to a single embodiment. Simple features of different embodiments can also be combined to provide other embodiments.

In the following of the description, the terms up, upper, low, lower, vertical, horizontal refers to relative positions or directions when the door handle is assembled to a vehicle.

Fig.l represents the outer side of a vehicle door handle 1 when it is assembled on a door panel 3 and Fig.2 represents an exploded view of different parts of the vehicle door handle 1. The vehicle door handle assembly 1 comprises a bowl 5 defining a recess 6 in which a switch (not represented) is arranged. The recess 6 is configured to receive the fingers of a user who wants to activate the switch. The bowl 5 is configured to be positioned in an opening 7 of the door panel 3. The vehicle door handle 1 also comprises a peripheral gasket 9 arranged between the bowl 5 and the opening 7 of the door panel 3 in order to ensure waterproofness and soft contact of the assembly 1. The vehicle door handle assembly 1 also comprises a strip 11 configured to be positioned on the top part of the outer side of the bowl 5 in order to hide the interface between the bowl 5 and the door panel 3 and use as a decorative element.

As shown in Fig.3, the strip 11 comprises a plurality of hooks 110 to ensure the fastening of the strip 11 to the bowl 5. In the present case, the strip 11 comprises five hooks 110 but a different number of hooks 110 or even a single hook 110 may also be used. However, a high number of hooks 110 enables a good positioning of the strip 11 with respect to the bowl 5. The hooks 110 are configured to be introduced in slots 50 formed between a wall of the bowl 5 and the door panel 3 (or a peripheral gasket 9) by openings arranged in the bowl 5. The hooks 110 are distributed along the strip 11. The hooks 110 are oriented in the longitudinal direction of the strip 11 corresponding to a horizontal direction when assembled on the vehicle. The different hooks 110 are all directed in the same direction Thus, for the assembly of the strip 11 on the bowl 5, the hooks 110 are introduced in the openings associated with the slots 50 and the strip 11 is slid horizontally so that the extremity of the hooks 110 be positioned behind a wall of the bowl 5 forming the slots 50. These hooks 110 ensure the vertical positioning of the strip 11 with respect to the bowl 5. The bowl 5 and the strip 11 also comprises clipping means 51, 111 to block the horizontal displacement of the strip 11 when the hooks 110 get in the right position (within the slots 50). In the present case, these clipping means are achieved by a lever 51, for example a flexible lever, arranged on the bowl 5 and a stop 111 arranged on the strip 11, the stop 111 being configured to block the translation of the strip 11 in the horizontal direction when assembled on the vehicle. The lever 51 may be made in one piece with the bowl 5 and the stop 111 may be made in one piece with the strip 11. Fig.4 represents the strip 11 fastened to the bowl 5 by the hooks 110 and the clipping means 51, 111. Alternatively, the lever 51 could also be arranged on the strip 11 and the stop 111 could be arranged on the bowl 5 and other configurations of clipping means may also be used. The stop 111 is positioned at an end of the strip 11 but other positioned of the stop 111 may also be chosen. Furthermore, the bowl 5, the strip 11 and the peripheral gasket 9 are configured so that the peripheral gasket 9 is compressed by at least some of the hooks 110 when the door handle 1 is assembled. Thus, when introduced in the slots 50 of the bowl 5, the hooks 110 come in contact with the peripheral gasket 9 and a pressure is required to compress the peripheral gasket 9 and to reach the fastening position of the hooks 110. Figs 6 and 10 represent a portion of the peripheral gasket 9 which is compressed by a hook 110.

The peripheral gasket 9 may comprise pads 90 located at the position configured to receive the hooks 110 in order to provide an extra thickness of the peripheral gasket 9 and therefore to ensure a compression of the peripheral gasket 9 by the hooks 110. Such pads 90 are visible in Fig.5. The pads 90, three pads 90 in the present case, are distributed along the length of the peripheral gasket 9 at the positions configured for receiving the hooks 110 of the strip 11. Such compression of the peripheral gasket 9 allows preventing any move of the strip 11 against the bowl 5 and therefore preventing any unpleasant noise due to a move of painted parts (i.e. the strip 11 and the bowl 5). Furthermore, the extra thickness provided by the pads 90 improves the resistance of the peripheral gasket 9 and prevent any damages that may occur on the peripheral gasket 9 due to the hooks 110 during the assembly. The peripheral gasket 9 may be made of elastomer and the pads 90 may be made in one piece with the peripheral gasket 9.

The present invention also refers to a method for assembling the vehicle door handle 1 on the door panel 3.

Fig.7 is flowchart of the different steps of the method according to the invention.

The first step 101 refers to the fastening of a bracket 23 (visible in Fig.9) on the inner side of the door panel 3. The inner side corresponds to the side facing the interior of the vehicle when the vehicle is assembled.

The second step 102 refers to the fastening of the strip 11 on the bowl 5. The hooks 110 of the strip 11 are introduced within the slots 50 of the bowl 5. the strip 11 is then translated laterally to be clipped to the bowl 5.

The third step 103 refers to the positioning of the peripheral gasket 9 on the bowl 5. A footprint may be designed on the bowl 5 to ease the positioning of the peripheral gasket 9 on the bowl 5.

According to an alternate solution corresponding to step 103’, the peripheral gasket 9 may be positioned on the outer side of the door panel3 around the opening 7. The peripheral gasket 9 may comprise bumps and the door panel 3 may comprise complementary holes configured to receive the bumps to ensure the correct positioning of the peripheral gasket 9.

The fourth step 104 refers to the positioning of the assembly of the bowl 5 with the strip 11 in the opening 7 of the door panel 3, the peripheral gasket 9 being sandwiched between the bowl 5 and the outer side of the door panel 3. The hooks 110 of the strip 11 come also in contact with the gasket 9 and in particular with the pads 90.

The fifth step 105 refers to the positioning of a slider 17 (visible in Fig.8 and 9) in a first slot 19 of the bowl 5 and in a second slot 21 of the bracket 23 to ensure the fastening of the bowl 5 to the bracket 23 and the compression of the peripheral gasket 9 between the bowl 5 and the door panel 3. Fig.8 represents an embodiment of the slider 17 positioned on the bowl 5. The slider 17 comprises a first hook 17a and a second hook 17b configured to be introduced in a first slot 5a and a second slot 5b of the bowl 5. Fig.9 represents the bowl 5 of Fig.8 and the bracket 23, the bowl 5 being fastened to the bracket 23 by the slider 17. The bracket 23 comprises hooks 230 forming a slot configured for receiving the slider 17 in order to ensure the fastening of the slider 17 on the bracket 23. Thus, during the assembly, the slider 17 is positioned in both the slots 5 a, 5b of the bowl 5 and the hooks 230 of the bracket 23 in order to ensure the fastening of the bowl 5 on the bracket 23. Such fastening of the bowl 5 on the bracket 23 via the slider 17 also ensures the compression of the peripheral gasket 9 between the bowl 5 and the door panel 3. The pads 90 are also compressed by the hooks 110. Other types of fastening of the bowl 5 to the bracket 23 may also be used.

The different steps of the method may be achieved in a different order.

Thus, the use of a combination of hooks 110 configured for compressing a peripheral gasket 9 and clipping means allows obtaining a reliable fastening of the strip 11 on the bowl 5. Furthermore, the elasticity of the peripheral gasket 9 enables preventing the displacement of the strip 11 with respect to the bowl 5 due to the constraint applied by the peripheral gasket 9 on the hooks 110 of the strip 11. This absence of displacement prevents the occurrence of unpleasant noise due to frictions between painted parts such as the strip 11 and the bowl 5. Furthermore, such solution does not require any additional parts or additional assembling steps but only pads 90 producing an extra thickness possibly if the thickness of the peripheral gasket 9 is not high enough to ensure the absence of movement between the strip 11 and the bowl 5.