| 1. | A wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6 to reserve liquid 4, said hollow part being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 provided inside the hollow part 6 of the case 2, said design plate 8 being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate in floated state owing to the buoyant force of the liquid 4 in the hollow part 6 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate 8. |
| 2. | A wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6, said hollow part 6 being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 mounted on a rotation shaft 23 horizontally provided inside the hollow part 6 of the case 2, said design plate being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate around the rotation shaft 23 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate. |
| 3. | A wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6, said hollow part 6 being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 which is rotatably mounted on ring bearing 40, design plate 8 being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate with being guided by the ring bearing 40 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate. |
Generally, while the car advertisement based on the painting of an advertising phrase or advertising description on a car body has the advantage of being able to advertise to unspecified many persons with the movement of a car, this method of advertising has the disadvantage in that it is costly due to the need of painting a car body and the advertising phrase or sentence is very difficult to change. Especially, another problem of damaging the appearance of a car is caused because of painting advertising text on a car body.
On the other hand, there is employed another car advertisement in which the wheels of a vehicle are inserted on their lateral sides directly with unique designs or they are provided with wheel caps carrying ad designs. Conventional such advertising designs rotate together with wheels when a car is running. And, when the car stops, the designs also stop rotation but at random positions, even at inverted positions sometimes. Therefore, it is hard to read or view the desig SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to resolve the above-described problem with the conventional art and thus to provide a new conception wheel cover wherein the design plate provided therein can maintain the desired position independently of running or parking of a car and can be easily replaced.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6 to reserve liquid 4, said hollow part being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 provided inside the hollow part 6 of the case 2, said design plate 8 being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate in floated state owing to the buoyant force of the liquid 4 in the hollow part 6 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate 8.
According to the another aspect of the invention, there is provided a wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6, said hollow part 6 being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 mounted on a rotation shaft 23 horizontally provided inside the hollow part 6 of the case 2, said design plate being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate around the rotation shaft 23 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a wheel cover comprising a case 2 formed with a hollow part 6, said hollow part 6 being provided on a lateral side of a wheel 16 of a vehicle, and a design plate 8 which is rotatably mounted on ring bearing 40, design plate 8 being provided with a weight 23 on its bottom, wherein the front face of said case 2 is composed of a transparent cover plate to provide sight for the design, and said design plate 8 is able to rotate with being guided by the ring bearing 40 and able to maintain the prescribed position independently of the rotation of the case 2 by means of a weight 23 on the bottom of the design plate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a perspective of wheel cover of the invention.
Figure 2 is a broken view of Figure 1 Figure 3 is a section of the invention.
Figure 4 is an another embodiment of the invention Figure 5 is an another embodiment of the invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Some preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail below by referring to the attached drawings.
Referring to Figures 1 to 3, which show a wheel cover according to the present invention, the case 2 in circular form is formed with a hollow part 6 for store a liquid 4 and the hollow part 6 of the case 2 is mounted with a design plate 8, on the front face of which a design is printed.
The case 2 consists of a main body 10 made of a synthetic resin and a cover 12 assembled in front of the main body 10, wherein the cover is mounted on a tire-wheel 16 of a vehicle by means of separate bolts 14. The main body 10 and the cover 12 are both formed in circular disk form and are screw-connected with each other by means of the corresponding threads 20, which are formed on the inner wall of the rim 18 protruding on a surface of the main body 10 and on the outer wall of the cover 21. At this time, the cover 12 is made of a transparent synthetic resin so that the design printed on the design plate 8 may be visible to the outside. In the case of the present embodiment, the cover 12 is mounted by a separate securing plate 22, which is combined to the cover plate 21 of the cover 12, but the cover 12 and the securing plate 22 may be constructed in an integrated form.
The design plate 8, which can float by the buoyant force of the liquid 4 stored in the hollow part 6 of the case 2 and so rotate freely inside of the case 2, is provided with a weight 23 at its lower part. The weight 23 is intended to cause the center of gravity of the design plate 8 to position in its bottom so that the lower end of the design plate may orient downward. Thus, the design plate 8 can stay in the same desired position without rotating due to the weight 23, even if the case 2 rotates. The liquid 4 stored in the hollow part 6 is the mixture of water with a minor amount of anti-freezer to prevent freezing in the winter.
The reference numeral 24 stands for a sealing material between the main body 10 and the cover 12. And the numbers 25 and 26 stand for the injection port formed on the back and the cock for that port 25 respectively.
For functioning of the wheel cover which is constructed as described above, the case 2 in which the design plate 8 is installed is filled with water through the injection port 25 and closed by means of the cock 26 and then the case is fixed on the tire wheel 16 by using bolts 14. As the design plate 8 is maintained with respect to its erecting position irrespectively of whether the vehicle is running or not, the design printed on the design plate 8 can always be read correctly without tilting or turning upside down.
Thus, when the design plate 8 is printed with an advertising description, a lasting advertising effect is attained independently of whether the vehicle is running or not. In addition, the advertising phrase or description can be conveniently replaced by dismantling the case 2 and changing the design plate 8, thus without damaging the external appearance of the car. When needed, the design plate 8 can be printed with individuality designs to the driver's taste other than advertising designs.
In the case of the present embodiment, instead of directly mounting the case 2 on the wheel 16 of a tire by using bolts 14, it is also possible to mount the case 2 in the form of a wheel cap on the wheel by means of fitting-connection.
Now referring to Figure 4, which shows another embodiment of the invention, the design plate 8 is mounted on the rotation shaft 28, which is horizontally provided inside of the hollow part 6 of a case 2. This rotation shaft 28 which is mounted in the case 2 is provided on its end with a bearing 30 on which the design plate 8 is mounted. This arrangement is intended to protect the design plate 8 from damage in the instance that it could collide the inside surface of the hollow part 6 of the case 2 by an impact occurring during driving a car. Preferably, instead of water, a liquid with a high thermal conductivity may be stored in the hollow space of the case 2 to absorb the heat generated from the bearing 30.
Figure 5 shows modified embodiment of the invention, in which the shaft 28 is replaced by the ring bearing 40 which rotatably supports the outer part of the disk type design plate 8.
The present invention constituted as above is not restricted to the foregoing embodiments for the wheels of a car but may also be applied to almost all sorts of rotating articles including, for example, door knobs in public buildings, taps on public water pipes and the like.