This invention relates generally to roof boxes for vehicles, in particular for cars. The roof box according to the invention can be disassembled and assembled, and is in particular foldable so as to provide for minimal bulkiness to enable easy shipping and storage.

Background of the Invention Roof boxes of the type commonly used on car roofs for the transportation of various kinds of items, such as skiing equipment, are very bulky. This has as a

consequence that despite a fairly low weight of a box, shipping costs tend to become high because comparatively few items can be loaded on a truck or lorry. Also from a consumer perspective the bulkiness can be a problem in that it is difficult to find a space in a private home for stowing away the box.

Attempts to provide roof boxes that can be disassembled have been made and one example is disclosed in International Application WO 2013/ 144403 (Diaz). This publication discloses a folding luggage box having an opening on both sides, which can be placed on the roof of a motor vehicle and which can adopt two positions, i.e. folded and unfolded. The box comprises a system of hinges with two rotation axes and springs, disposed between the front part and the internal front part, and said system allows the movement required, during folding, for the front part to be positioned inside the cavity formed by the base and the upper part without overlapping same. During unfolding, in order to lock the side parts and in position, the hinge system maintains the assembly formed by the front, upper and rear parts in an intermediate position, which allows the side parts and to extend beyond the inner projections of the front, upper and rear parts so that, once the assembly has been lowered and anchored, the corresponding contour of the side parts and is housed inside the front, upper and rear parts. The box includes a retaining system which, in the unfolded position, anchors the front part to the internal front part and, in the folded position, anchors the upper part to the internal front part. The solution presented in this document requires a fairly complicated system of hinges and other components.

Summary of the Invention

In view of the drawbacks of prior art roof boxes in that they are bulky requiring large space both in shipping and storage, the object of the invention is to provide a roof box that can be disassembled and assembled, and which preferably is foldable so as to provide for minimal bulkiness thereby enabling easy shipping and storage.

A roof box meeting this object is defined in claim 1.

The novel roof box is also advantageous in that it in a preferred embodiment is symmetric in its design which renders manufacturing simpler. The symmetric design requires fewer different components and thus smaller investment in manufacturing equipment.

In a further aspect there is provided an assembly kit for a roof box that can be assembled and disassembled, comprising a unfoldable roof box body and two side parts adapted to be attached to and detached from the roof box body.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus not to be considered limiting on the present invention, and wherein

Fig. 1 shows an exploded view of a roof box according to one embodiment; Fig. 2 shows a roof box body in a folded state;

Fig. 3 illustrates the compact storage of the roof box body in Fig. 2;

Figs . 4-9 shows a sequence of steps in assembly of an embodiment of the roof box; Fig. 10 shows an embodiment of a hinge for connecting the parts of the roof box; and

Fig. 11 shows a detail of the hinge.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

Fig. 1 is an exploded view of an embodiment of a roof box generally designated 10 showing its constituent parts.

Thus, the roof box 10 shown in Fig. 1 comprises a front part 12, a rear part 14, a bottom part 16, a top part 18, and two side parts 19 and 20, respectively.

The parts are preferably connectable by means of hinges. Several different types of hinges are usable, a couple of possibilities will be described later.

One important aspect of a preferred embodiment of the novel roof box is that it is symmetric. Thus, in a preferred embodiment the front and rear parts 12, 14 are identical, which means that they can be manufactured in the same forming tool, or using the same manufacturing process. Similarly the top and bottom parts 16, 18 can be made in the same tool or using the same manufacturing process, although the bottom part will preferably be provided with fastening devices for attachment to the roof of a vehicle. Such fastening devices can be attached or mounted separately after the actual making of the part.

Also the side parts 19, 20 are identical. In a preferred embodiment each side part 19, 20 is provided as two identical parts 19', 19" and 20', 20", respectively, that are assembled separately by the end user when the roof box is to be used. This is indicated in Fig. 1 by a vertical line 22 illustrating a joint. In this manner on single tool or same manufacturing process can be used also in this case.

As is easily understood from the above the symmetric design will greatly reduce manufacturing costs, which in itself is a great advantage. According to the invention the roof box is foldable in a manner that significantly reduces the space requirement both in shipping and in storage.

In order to provide foldability the roof box can be said to comprise a foldable and unfoldable roof box body 11, shown in Fig. 2, and side parts adapted to be attached to the roof box body in its unfolded state so as to form the completed roof box.

Strictly speaking in a preferred embodiment the side parts are attached by one of its edges to a part of the folded roof box body before unfolding thereof, and only when the roof box body is fully unfolded, the side parts are attached by its opposite edge to another part of the roof box body. This process will be described in further detail below.

The foldable and unfoldable roof box body 1 1 is constituted as follows. The front part 12 is connected to the bottom part 16 or the top part 18 at a front end thereof by means of a hinge. The rear part 14 is connected to both the bottom 16 part and the top part 18 at a rear end thereof by means of a hinge. Finally, the top part 18 is connected to either the front part 12 or to the rear part 14 by means of a hinge, thereby forming a foldable structure, shown in Fig. 2. This structure leaves one free end 18a on the top part 18, and one free end 10a on the front part 10 or a free end 12a on the rear part 12. In the description below we assume that it is the front part that has a free end.

It should be noted that the front and rear part being identical, the attachment of the rear part to both the top and bottom parts could be substituted by attaching the front part in that manner, in which case of course the rear part is attached to only one of the top and bottom parts to provide the foldability.

Thus, in a disassembled state the roof box comprises one folded part consisting of the front and rear parts 12, 14 connected as described above to the bottom and top parts 16, 18, the folded state is shown in Fig. 2.

In Fig. 3 four folded roof box bodies 11 are shown on a shipping pallet, however without the side parts 19, 20 visible, but they do easily fit inside the empty space provided by the folded body 1 1. In the disassembled state the side parts 19, 20 are separate from the rest of the structure, and as indicated above, preferably they are also disassembled in two identical parts each 19', 19" and 20', 20", respectively. These four parts, in pairs forming the sides, are easily stowed into the folded roof box body structure.

Now the procedure for assembling the roof box will be described, starting with a folded roof box body 1 1 , as shown in Fig. 2, and two separate side parts 19, 20. In Fig. 4 the side parts 19 and 20 are shown as attached to the top part 18 of the roof box body 1 1 in a position just before the roof box is to be folded together from its folded state. Of course, as indicated previously, the side parts 19, 20 have been preassembled from the constituent halves 19', 19" and 20', 20", respectively.

Next, as shown in Fig. 5, the roof box body 11 is beginning to be unfolded. The top part 18, which actually is at the bottom in Fig. 4, is brought around 360 °, as is further illustrated in Fig. 6, to finally reach the position in Fig. 7. Here the free end 12a of the front part 12 or meets the free end of the top part 18.

The top part 18 and the front part 12 are coupled together along their free ends 12a, and 18a, respectively by any suitable means. However, one preferred embodiment is illustrated in Fig. 11 , and will be described separately below.

Thus, when the free ends have been connected the structure shown in Fig. 8 is arrived at, i.e. with a completed roof box body spanning the volume of the roof box, but still with the side parts 19, 20 "depending" from the top part 18.

From this position the side parts are just folded down to meet the longitudinal sides 16a of the bottom part 16 and the finished roof box 10 is shown in Fig. 9.

In Fig. 10 the final coupling to provide the roof box body 1 1 is shown in one embodiment, a detail of which is shown in Fig.1 1.

Thus, in this embodiment the two free ends 12a and 18a, respectively, described earlier are provided with mating tube segments 24 and 26, respectively. Thereby these tube segments are provided in an alternating fashion such that there is gap between each tube segment in which a mating tube segment 24 on one part, i.e. the front part 12, fits with a tube segment 26 on the top part 18.

In order to connect the parts a pin 28 is inserted in the tube segments 24, 26 and suitably locked in place when it has been fully inserted.

All other connections between the hinged part could be connected with a similar type of hinge. However, other possibilities of course exist, and the means of connecting the components is not part of the invention per se and can be varied within the scope of the claims without inventive skills.

One possible alternative is to use rubber hinges, in which case a suitable length of a band or segment of a suitably flexible rubber is used. The longitudinal edges of this rubber band or segment are provided with rims or flanges which fit in corresponding grooves on each part to be connected. The grooves have a longitudinal slit that matches the thickness of the rubber band but is narrower than the flanges or rims. By positioning the parts adjacent each other with the edges having said grooves in parallel, the rubber band can be inserted and fed into the grooves whereby the flanges or rims will be locked in place and the band will extend out from the slit thereby connecting the two parts forming a rubber hinge.

The means of connecting the side parts is likewise no part of the invention per se and numerous options are available to the skilled man. The roof box is suitably delivered in a disassembled state in view of its compactness in such state. Thus, it is also within the inventive concept to provide an assembly kit comprising a folded roof box body and separate side parts. Furthermore each of the side parts can be provided as two identical parts that are connected to each other before assembly of the roof box. These four components can easily be stowed inside the empty space in the folded roof box body, i.e. in the storage space SP indicated in e.g. Figs. 2 and 3 by an arrow.