FORM 2
THE PATENT ACT, 1970,
(39 OF 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULE, 2003
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
'Rear Quarter Cladding with Bi-Directional Snap Fit Mounting'


Mahindra & Mahindra Limited An Indian Company, R&D Center, Automotive Sector, 89, M.I.D.C, Satpur, Nashik-422 007, Maharashtra, India,

The following specification describes the nature of the invention


Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an arrangement for retaining a free end portion of a vehicle plastic body panel to the metal portion of a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention relates to bi-directional snap fit mounting structure for attaching a cladding to a vehicle body.
Background of the Present Invention:
Claddings are the aesthetic parts which are generally fitted on the vehicle body panels to impart better appearance to the vehicle. Other than the aesthetic requirement it works as a corrosion resistance, softer and flexible outer surface to the vehicle and dampens the impact lowering its effect metal body panel of an automotive vehicle. The top potion of the cladding surface will have a line biting contact with the body panel to create a zero gap condition along the full length at the top. The outer surface of the cladding generally has styling / aesthetic features and the inner surface of the cladding has arrangement or means to fit it with the metal body panel. The cladding covers the rear end of a vehicle and wrap around the corners. When a cladding has a straight portion ending with a large wrap around corner, the mounting / fixing of the cladding with metal panel has to be done with bi-direction snap fits as a blind assembly operation.
Conventionally in automotive vehicles when a part is having wrap around corner, it is mounted with positive fastener using bolt or screw or with adhesive. In prior art number of arrangements for retaining / mounting cladding on the vehicle body are available. American patent Nos. US. 4529244 and US. 4607877 disclose the positive cladding mounting schemes mostly by using screw and bolts. Patent No. US. 6811210 describes snap fit mounting scheme in which body profile is not having wrap around corner and the mounting scheme is unidirectional. If a part having the wrap around corner and the fixing strategy of the cladding is unidirectional the manufacturing of the mounting scheme in the wrap around corner will not be feasible.

Thus, in the prior art concepts of retaining cladding on body panel bolts and screws are visible from outside and therefore it needs some additional part like cap to hide the screw and bolt mountings. Also the vehicle body panel need to have some fastener like weld nut or clip nut to accommodate the fastener like bolts and screws. Body panel has to have access from sidewise or from inside to make such fixing strategy.
Objectives of the Present Invention:
The main object of the present invention is to provide a novel system for retaining the cladding on the vehicle body panel using bidirectional snap mounting.
Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the use of positive fastener fixing strategy like screws or bolt for retaining the cladding on the vehicle body panel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cladding retaining system in which mounting from inside of the body panel and thereby the problem for the accessibility of mounting tool is eliminated.
Further object of the present invention is to provide a cladding retaining system on the vehicle body panel requiring a minimum of attaching hardware or support structure.
Still another object of the present invention is to over come the drawbacks of prior art cladding retaining systems.
Brief Description of the Figures:
The objectives of the present invention, its features and advantages will become apparent from the following specification and the drawings appended herewith in which,

Figure 1 shows the outer side view of the cladding in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 2 shows inner side view of the cladding in accordance with the present invention,
Figure 3 shows front view of plastic clip explaining the snap point and the flanges which rests in the dog house.
Figure 4 shows the front view of the metal push clip.
Figure 5 is the perspective view of the dog house explaining the mating faces.
Figure 6 shows the tower in cladding explaining the face where metal clip is inserted.
Figure 7 is the perspective view showing inner side of cladding wherein dog housing is welded or pasted on the cladding.
Figure 8 is the perceptive view of vehicle body panel with mounting holes.
Figure 9 shows perspective view of plastic reinforcement bracket.
Figure 10 is the perspective view wherein plastic reinforcement is mounted on the vehicle body panel.
Figure 11 is the sectional view of the cladding mounted on the vehicle body panel in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 12 is the sectional view of the cladding mounted on the plastic reinforcement bracket in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 13 is the perspective view of cladding retaining arrangement in accordance with the present invention.
Detailed description of the present invention:
Referring to Figure 1, body side cladding (1) has the styling surface with a geometry covering two directions. Direction A (2) is approximately a straight line in the direction of length of a vehicle. Direction B (3) which is changing at approximately 90 degrees with respect to direction A (2), is the wrap around geometry. The entire surface of the cladding is the styling indent.
The inner side of the cladding (1) comprises of mounting means namely dog house (4), boss (5) and tower (6). The dog house (4) can be made inbuilt with the cladding (1) or it can be made separately and fixed with the cladding by welding or using suitable adhesive. The dog house has a flat face on that elongated hole and it is there to have the free float of the plastic clip to accommodate the body panel and cladding dimensional variation. The boss (5) and tower (6) can be inbuilt in the cladding or and made separately and welded to the cladding with suitable adhesive as shown in figure 2. The tower is in the form of rib and in the direction of the mounting.
Cladding (1) has mounting snap fasteners like plastic clips (fig. 3) and metal clip (fig. 4) which are fitted in the cladding dog (4). The plastic clip has two flanges with one shoulder which will be fitted on the dog house in the cladding. Plastic Clip has a snap point (8) which is snapped on the body panel (23) in the mounting hole (21). The clip slides in the dog house top surface (13) and shoulder (10) of the plastic clip and touches the neck of the dog house slot (14) and thus gets snapped in the dog house. The size of the slot depends upon float required of plastic clip to accommodate the variations in the assembly. The dog house top surface (13) is located in between the flange (9).
Metal clip (fig. 4) is force fitted in the tower (6). The catching finger (12) of the metal clip bites the tower surface to hold the clip flanges (11) rigidly in the

tower. The latch (17) is the face which butt with the face (27) in the reinforcement plastic bracket (24). This butting condition locks the degree of freedom of the cladding in the vehicle lengthwise. The metal push clip flange (11) lock in the slot (26) of the reinforcement (24) and this locking arrest the degree of freedom of the cladding in widthwise movement. The locating feature (18) touches with slot surface (26) of the reinforcement (24) and this arrest the movement of cladding in vehicle heightwise. The dog house feature (19) rest on the inner surface of the cladding (1) and located by boss (5) with hole (20).
Vehicle body panel (23) has mounting holes (21) for mounting plastic clip and the mounting holes (22) for mounting the reinforcement bracket (24) using push pin (28). Reinforcement bracket (24) can be made of plastic or sheet metal and has a slot (26), resting face (27) and mounting hole (25). This reinforcement can be mounted using push pin (28) and bolt (29) as shown in figure 10.
The first direction of mounting is in the direction of vehicle length to lock all the metal push clips (11) in the slot (26). After this the entire wrap around portion (3) will have touching condition with vehicle body panel (23). The second direction mounting is in the direction of vehicle width to lock all plastic clips (7) in the mounting holes (21) in the vehicle body panel (23). After these two steps the feature Vine (2) of the cladding (1) will have touching condition with vehicle body panel (23). In the cladding mounting process, four metal clips in the tower of the cladding will be positioned and snapped in the plastic reinforcement in the direction of a vehicle length. This mounting will lock the cladding in three directions. After this plastic snap clips on rear end wrap around portion will get locked in the vehicle body panel hole in the direction which is normal to Vehicle length.

Advantages of the Present Invention:
7
• Rigid mounting because of bi- direction and easiness of assembly.
• Part floating after full mounting will not be there which is generally observed in the unidirectional mounting.
• Time required for mounting the cladding is less thus reducing the manufacturing cycle time..
• All mountings being snap, there is no need of fixing tool like rivet gun, nut runner and like.
• Appearance of the Cladding A surface is not affected
• Part Cost is reduced because of bi-directional fixing strategy.
• Mounting clip acts as locator of part in vehicle condition so no need of separate aperture of locator.