BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Heretofore, an assist grip of an automobile has been fixed to an automobile body panel through a headlining (roof lining) with bolts. This attaching method is required to use the bolts and additionally nuts to be welded to the automobile body, and thereby the number of related components is increased and their weight is also increased because the bolts and nuts are made of metal. Further, a bolt-screwing operation is essentially required, and one operator is forced to handle all of a bolt, assist grip and machine tool. This provides degraded workability. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-512943 discloses a fastener in which a clip to be attach to the automobile body is integrally formed at the both ends of the assist grip, and the assist grip is immovably attached to the automobile body by using the clip. The clip in this publication comprises a pair of legs formed in substantially V shape, wherein the legs are inserted into mounting holes of an automobile body and a locking member is then inserted between the legs to fixedly attach the assist grip to the automobile body.

This fastener can eliminate the need for any bolt and nut, and solve the aforementioned problem.

The fastener described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-512943 can eliminate the need for any bolt and nut, and can provide reduced its weight and the number of components well as improved workability because of a simplified operation of inserting the clips into the automobile body mounting holes and inserting the locking member between the clips. However, since this fastener is integrally formed with the assist grip, it is required to form the clips simultaneously with the assist grip, and to form different clips depending on various kinds of assist grips. Further, since a heavy load including the weight of an occupant is applied to the assist grip in some cases, the fastener should have a high strength. In order to cope with the concentration of the load at a coupled portion between the clip and the assist grip, the fastener in the aforementioned publication has to provide a high strength in the coupling portion, and thereby there is a possibility that the coupling

portion becomes bigger. As another prior art other than the aforementioned publication, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-278161 discloses a fastener for attaching an automobile component such as a sun visor to an automobile body. This fastener includes a fixed leg and a movable leg to allow the fastener to be attached to the automobile body without any rotation. The fixed leg is engaged with the edge of a mounting hole, and the movable leg is inserted into the mounting hole. After the inserting operation, a plug is inserted into a hollow portion in the movable leg to fix the fastener to the automobile body without any rotation. In this fastener, it is essential to provide the fixed leg and the movable leg. Thus, complicated dies are necessary to mold them, and the legs cannot have a high strength as a whole due to the movable leg.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fastener for fixedly attaching a component such as an automobile component to a workpiece such as an automobile body, which can provide excellent workability of attaching operations without any need for a bolt or nut and can ensure to maintain a high supporting force.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above abject, the present invention provides a fastener for fixing a component such as an automobile component to a workpiece such as an automobile body comprising a clip made of a plastic material and a plug made of a plastic material. The clip includes a leg adapted to be inserted into a mounting hole of a workpiece, a flange disposed at one end of the leg defining an insertion stop surface of the leg to be inserted into the mounting hole, a component holding portion formed on the flange, and a slot formed at the boundary between the leg and the flange. The slot has a depth allowing one of the edges of the mounting hole of the workpiece to be received therein so as to move the clip toward the one edge along the surface of the workpiece. The plug is adapted to be inserted into a space to be formed between the other edge of the mounting hole and the leg by the movement of the clip. The clip can be immovably attached to the workpiece by inserting the plug into this space. As above, the fastener comprises the clip and the plug to be inserted into a space between the clip and the mounting hole. This makes it possible to eliminate the need for any bolt or nut and provide excellent workability of attaching operations. Further, the clip is immovably attached to a workpiece without any movable leg. This provides highly maintained supporting force.

In the aforementioned fastener, the portion of the leg and flange of the clip adjacent to the slot may be formed in a rigid body. The leg of the clip may be formed to have a high rigidity substantially overall, and a resilient engagement portion adapted to engage with the mounting hole may be formed on each of the opposite side surfaces of the leg perpendicular to the one edge. Both the clip flange and the component holding portion may be formed in a rigid body. The clip flange may be formed with a pair of arms adapted to guide the plug to be inserted into the clip and to receive the inserted plug so as not to move in a direction parallel to the other edge of the mounting hole. The plug may include a leg adapted to locate adjacent to the clip leg after inserted into the clip, and a flange provided at one end of the plug leg defining an insertion stop surface, and the plug leg may be formed with a pair of resilient engagement pawls adapted to engage with the edge of the mounting hole after inserted into the clip. Each of the resilient engagement pawls may be formed with an extended portion extending up to the top of the stop surface of the leg flange and acting to deform the engagement pawls in a direction allowing the engagement with the edge of the mounting hole to be released.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a plan view of a clip of a fastener according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the clip of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a right side view of the clip of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a partial left side view of the clip of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a bottom end view of the clip of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the halved clip of Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of a plug of a fastener according to the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a front view of the plug of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a right side view of the plug of Fig. 7.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the plug of Fig. 7.

Fig. 11 is a view showing the state when a clip of a fastener according to the present invention is being temporarily attached to an automobile body.

Fig. 12 is a view showing the state when the clip temporarily attached to the automobile body is being immovably attached to the automobile body by using the plug.

Fig. 13 is a view showing the state after the fastener according to the present invention is immovably attached to an automobile body.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to the drawings, an embodiment of the present invention will now be described. A fastener according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises a plastic clip 1 shown in Figs. 1 to 6, and a plastic plug 2 shown in Figs. 7 to 10. Figs. 11 to 13 show the steps of attaching the fastener having the clip 1 and the plug 2 to an automobile body 3 as a workpiece. Fig. 13 shows the state when the fastener 5 having the clip 1 and the plug 2 is immovably or fixedly attached to the automobile body, wherein a component such as an assist grip or other automobile components can, for example, be attached to a component holding portion formed on a clip flange of the fastener 5. The clip 1 and the plug 2 will be described in detail below.

In Figs. 1 to 6, the clip 1 is an integrally molded component made of a plastic material. The clip 1 includes a leg 6 adapted to be inserted into a mounting hole of the automobile body as a workpiece, a flange 9 disposed at one end of the leg 6 defining an insertion stop surface 7 of the leg 6 to be inserted into the mounting hole of the automobile body, and a component holding portion 10 formed on the flange 9.

In this embodiment, the flange 9 has a base portion 11 continuously formed to support the component holding portion 10 with high rigidity. The base portion 11 is also formed to have a given area and height allowing an operator to readily hold the clip 1 by his/her fingers or the like. The component holding portion 10 has a pair of pin holes 13 for allowing the clip to be coupled with, for example, the end of a component such as an assist grip with a pin (not shown). A recess 14 capable of housing a coil spring (not shown) to be associated with the pin is formed between the pair of pin holes 13. For example, the coil spring urges the assist grip toward a roof and otherwise retracts the assist grip in non-use.

A slot 15 is formed at the boundary between the leg 6 and the flange 9 (below the insertion stop surface 7). The slot 15 has a width (a length in the height direction in Fig. 2) allowing one of the edges of the mounting hole of the automobile body to be received therein. The slot 15 also has a depth (a length ranging from the right side to the left side in Fig. 2) allowing the clip 1 to be move toward the aforementioned one edge of the automobile body mounting hole along the surface of the automobile body (workpiece) by a given length (a length capable of providing a space, which allows the plug 2 to be inserted therein, at the other edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body). Further, the slot 15 has a length (a length in the lateral direction in Fig. 3) allowing the aforementioned one edge of the mounting hole of the automobile

body to be received over the given length thereof to reliably fix the clip to the automobile body.

In the clip 1, at least each portion of the leg and flange adjacent to the slot 15 is formed as a rigid body. In this embodiment, the leg 6 of the clip 1 is formed to have a high rigidity substantially overall. As shown in Figs. 2 to 5, the leg 6 is constructed to have a highly rigidity overall while facilitating weight reduction in combination with ribs extending vertically and horizontally. An inclined surface 17 is formed at an inlet portion of the slot 15 of the leg 6 to allow the edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body to be readily received in the slot 15. On an opposite side with respect to the surface having the slot 15, the leg is formed with a flat surface 18 for precisely forming the insertion space for the plug 2 to facilitate the insertion of the plug 2 and providing reliable contact with a leg of the inserted plug. A resilient engagement portion 19 adapted to engage with the edge of the mounting hole is formed on each of the two side surfaces of the leg 6 of the clip 1 (the right and left surfaces of the leg 6 shown in Fig. 3) perpendicular to the aforementioned one edge to be received in the slot 15. Between the resilient engagement portion 19 and the main body of the leg 6, a slit 21 is formed to provide resilience to the engagement portion 19. This resilient engagement portion 19 provides a temporarily attaching function for preventing the clip 1 from dropping from the automobile body when the clip 1 is inserted into the mounting hole of the automobile body.

In this embodiment, as with the leg 6, the flange 9 of the clip 1 is formed in a rigid body from the base portion 11 to the component holding portion 10. The flange 9 with the base portion is constructed to have a high rigidity overall while facilitating weight reduction in combination with ribs extending vertically and horizontally. Thus, in addition the portion of the leg 6 adjacent to the slot 15, the clip 1 is formed to have a high rigidity at any other portion adjacent to the slot 15 and the vicinity thereof. As illustrated in Fig. 1, a pair of arms 23 are formed on the base portion 11 of the flange 9 of the clip 1. Each of the arms extends from a position corresponding to the flat surface 18 of the leg 6 to an opposite side with respect to the slot 15 to form a space 22. The space 22 formed by the arms 23 acts to guide the plug 2 to be inserted and to constrain the inserted plug so as not to move in a direction parallel to the edge of the mounting hole (in the upward and downward directions in Fig. 1). In the state when the aforementioned one edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body is received in the slot 15, the left edge of the space 22 in Fig. 1 is constrained by the edge of the mounting hole on an opposite side with respect to the slot 15, i. e., the

other edge, and the plug 2 is inserted in this state. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the arm 23 is formed to have a given height allowing the arm to engage with a flange of the plug 2. Further, the surface of the flange 9 and the base portion 11 facing to the space 22 is formed in a flat surface 18A continuously connected to the flat surface 18 of the leg 6.

With reference to Figs. 7 to 10, the plug 2 will be described in detail below.

The plug 2 includes a leg 25 adapted to be inserted into the space 22 of the clip 1 and to be positioned adjacent to the clip leg 6 after the insertion. The plug 2 further includes a flange 27 provided at one end of the plug leg 25 to form an insertion stop surface 26. The surface of the plug leg 25 to be brought into contact with the clip leg 6 is formed with an abutment rib 29 which extends in the upward and downward directions in Figs. 8 to 10 in the middle of the surface and is adapted to be brought into contact with the flat surface 18 of the clip leg 6. The abutment rib 29 extends to the upper portion of the flange 27 beyond the leg 25 to allow the flat surface 18A of the clip flange to be engaged therewith. Thus, when the leg 25 of the plug 2 is inserted into the space 22 formed at the flange 9 of the clip 1, the leg 25 engages reliably with the flat surface 18 and 18A of the clip 1 to attach the clip 1 reliably to the automobile body with keeping the clip immovable. The abutment rib 29 is formed in a thin columnar shape to facilitate weight reduction with maintaining a desired strength (and to provide a space for deformation of a resilient engagement pawl described later). A pair of resilient engagement pawls 30 are formed on the both sides of the abutment rib 29 in the plug leg 25. Each of resilient engagement pawls 30 is adapted to fixedly engage with the edge of the mounting hole when the plug leg 25 is completely inserted into the mounting hole. A slit 31 is formed between the resilient engagement pawl 30 and the main body of the leg. The slit 31 allows the engagement pawls 30 to be deformed toward the abutment rib 29. Each of the engagement pawls 30 includes an extended portion 33 which extends up to the top (the upper portion) of the stop surface 26 of the leg flange 27 and acts to deform the engagement pawls in a direction allowing the engagement with the edge of the mounting hole to be released. The plug 2 can be detached from the mounting hole and the clip 1 by releasing the engagement between the engagement pawls 30 and the mounting hole edge by pinching the pair of extended portions 33 with fingers or a tool.

The plug flange 27 is formed in a given size allowing the upper portion thereof 34 to be readily held by fingers or a tool. This size is preferably arranged in concert

with that of the pair of arms 23 of the clip 1. The upper portion 34 is preferably formed in a hollow structure with a rib at the center thereof to facilitate weight reduction and save materials. The end (the lower end) of the plug leg 25 is tapered to facilitate the insertion into the mounting hole of the automobile body. The surface of the leg 25 to be brought into contact with the edge of the mounting hole is formed in a flat surface to assure the engagement with the end face of the edge.

With reference to Figs. 11 to 13, the steps of attaching the fastener 5 comprised of the clip 1 and the plug 2 each having the above structure to the automobile body 6 as a workpiece will be described. In this example, the fastener 5 is attached to a corner of a roof in a passenger room of an automobile, and the fastener 5 is used to attach an assist grip. Further, a headlining 37 is placed on the inner surface of the automobile body 3, and the clip 1 and the plug 2 are formed with notches 38 and 39 for receiving and pressing the edge of a hole of the headlining 37, respectively. Referring Fig. 11, the clip 1 is first positioned at a mounting hole 41 to make the slot 15 of the leg 6 orient in a direction allowing the lower edge of the mounting hole 41 of the automobile body 3 (and the mounting hole of the headlining 37) to be received therein, and the clip leg 6 is inserted into the mounting hole 41. In the course of this inserting operation of the clip leg 6, the direction of the insertion is changed as the illustrated arrow 42. That is, the inclined surface 17 of the leg 6 is moved downward along the lower edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body 3, and the inner surface of the edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body is brought into contact with the insertion stop surface 7 of the clip flange 9. Further, the clip 1 is slid downward with keeping the contact between the inner surface of the lower edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body and the insertion stop surface 7 of the clip flange 9. Thus, the lower edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body is led into the slot 15 of the clip leg 6, and the slot 15 receives the lower edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body over the depth and length of the slot as shown by the solid line in Fig. 11. In this state, the clip 1 is temporarily attached to the automobile body 3 by the resilient engagement portion 19 of the leg 6. Thus, even if taking off, the clip 1 never drops. Further, when the clip 1 is in the state as shown by the solid line in Fig. 11, a gap 43 is formed between the flat surface 18 of the leg 6 and the upper edge of the mounting hole of the automobile body. This gap 43 is combined with the pair of arms 23 extending from the base portion 11 of the flange 9 of the clip 1 to provide a space allowing the leg 25 of the plug 2 to be inserted therein.

Then, as shown in Fig. 12, with taking the plug 2, the abutment rib 29 of the plug leg 25 is moved to the gap 43 in Fig. 11 in the direction of the arrow 45 along the flat surface 18A of the clip flange 9 and the flat surface 18 of the clip leg 6 to insert the plug leg 6 into the gap 43 of the mounting hole 41. When the insertion stop surface 26 of the plug flange 27 is brought into contact with the upper edge of the mounting hole 41 of the automobile body, the resilient engagement pawl 30 of the plug leg 25 engages with the end face of the edge at the both side surfaces of the mounting hole 41 to attach the plug 2 to the automobile body 3. Thus, the clip 1 is immovably attached to the automobile body 3 with keeping the clip immovable, and thereby the fastener 5 comprised of the clip 1 and the plug 2 is fixedly coupled with the automobile body 3. An assist grip is swingably attached to the component holding portion 10 formed on the flange 9 of the clip 1 by using a pin or the like. For example, a coupling portion for receiving the component holding portion 10 are provided at each of the both ends of the assist grip, and the component holding portion 10 is coupled with each of the coupling portions through a pin. The assist grip may be coupled after the fastener is fixed to the automobile body. Alternatively, the clip 1 may be coupled to each of the both ends of the assist grip in advance, and then each of the clips 1 coupled with the both ends may be attached to the automobile body.

The latter case has an advantage that the clip can be coupled with the assist grip at any suitable place other than a component assembly line of automobiles.

Fig. 13 shows the state when the fastener 5 comprised of the clip 1 and the plug 2 is immovably attached to the automobile body 3. In this state, a typical case will be considered in which an assist grip (not shown) is attached to the component holding portion 10, and an occupant applies a certain load in the direction of the arrow 46 by gripping the assist grip. In the fastener 5, a primary body to be attached to the automobile body is the clip 1, and the plug 2 is provided to keep the clip 1 immovable in the mounting hole. Further, the component holding portion 10 is provided in the clip 1. Thus, the load 46 is applied only to the clip 1 but not to the plug 2, and thereby the plug 2 is not deformed or damaged due to the load. On the other hand, the portion of the leg 6 and the flange 9 adjacent to the slot 15 of the clip 1 (a portion shown by a circle 47) is formed in a rigid body. Thus, even if the load 46 is applied to such a portion, the leg 6 and the flange 9 have a sufficient resistance against the load and are not deformed or damaged. This provides highly maintained supporting force of the assist grip.

For detaching a component such as an assist grip or the like from the automobile body 6, an assist grip or the like is swung to open the flange 27 of the plug 2. Then, a finger, tool or the like is entered into the extended portion 33 of the pair of resilient engagement pawl 30 to draw the extended portions 33 each other to deform the resilient engagement pawls 30 so as to release the engagement between the engagement pawl and the mounting hole edge. Then, the plug 2 is pulled out of the automobile body. The completion of the pulling-out operation of the plug 2 allows the clip 1 to be moves toward the gap 43 in Fig. 11. When the clip 1 is moved in an opposite direction with respect to the arrow 42, the clip 1 can be readily detached from the automobile body 3 together with an assist grip or the like. It is apparent that the fastener may be reused.

According to the present invention, the fastener comprises a clip and a plug to be inserted into a space between the clip and a mounting hole. This makes it possible to eliminate the need for any bolt or nut and provide excellent workability of attaching operations. Further, the clip is immovably attached to a workpiece without any moveable leg. This provides highly maintained supporting force. Further, the portion of the leg and the flange adjacent to a slot of the clip is formed in a rigid body.

This prevents the clip from being deformed and damaged. Further, a load is applied only to the clip. Thus, the plug is neither deformed nor damaged, whereby it can maintain a high supporting force for a long time.