The present invention relates to vehicle sun visors and particularly to improved means for mounting visors for movement along one or more axes.
Visors used in vehicles are pivoted on a support rod for movement between an upward storage position and a downward position for blocking sunlight from the driver's eyes. Also, the visors typically can be pivotally moved from side to side to cover either the windshield or one of the side windows for blocking sunlight from different directions. In order to hold the visor in the stored position or in a position to which the operator has adjusted the visor, the visors typically include a torque fitting to hold the visor in an adjusted position. Such torque fittings in the prior art have usually involved adjustable compression fittings such as generally U-shaped bands surrounding and adjustably clamped to the support rod to which the visor body is mounted. Visors manufactured by the assignee of this application have employed a straight visor support rod with such an adjustable compression fitting to provide for vertical movement of the visor. The straight rod in turn is secured to an elbow and pivot bracket which has its own torque fitting including a compression spring mounted to provide a stiffly rotating coupling between the elbow and pivot bracket. The pivot bracket in turn is secured to the vehicle headliner.
It has been discovered that lubricous plastic material molded in a collar around the end of a rod will, when cooled to room temperature, shrink to compressively grip the rod and provide a breaking torque between the rod and collar which is sufficient for holding a visor in place. This principle has been tried on a cantilever mounting at the end of a visor support rod to a pivoted socket by providing such a collar at one end of the rod and inserting the collar into a socket external to the visor body. Such an arrangement provides only minimum contact at the end of the support rod which causes significant pressure on the plastic material. This in turn can cause the material to cold flow and wear out at pressure points. Also, the cantilever mounting does not provide a very rigid coupling of the visor to the pivot bracket with the plastic collar interface at such junction.