Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an anti-theft device and more specifically to a mirror back plate of an outer rear view mirror assembly used in automotive vehicles.

Description of the Related Art

Conventionally, in automobile and other vehicles, an outer rear view mirror is installed to see the rearwards or any other moving or fixed object behind. Mirror back plate sub-assembly comprises of mirror glass or reflective element, mirror back plate and rotor, is assembled with a stator fastened with the mounting frame or housing of the outer rear view mirror. This mirror back plate sub-assembly is intended to rotate through control cables operated mechanism or motorized mechanism or by any other means, in order to rotate mirror glass according to the driver’s need. The prior art as per figure-1a, 1b and 1c shows mirror back plate sub assembly, mirror back plate and rotor respectively. The main drawback with the prior art is that mirror back plate sub-assembly is stolen easily by pulling to crack the holding arms of rotor and this broken rotor which is firmly assembled with the stator, cannot be repaired and furthermore the complete outer rear view mirror assembly gets unrepaired and unusable. Another drawback of the prior art is that the said holding arms of rotor are easily broken when there is a sudden impact or collision due to accident and due to this broken holding arm, the cost of complete outer rear view mirror assembly has to be borne by the vehicle owner.
Advantages over the Prior art

The main advantages of the present invention is that when we apply an opposite force exceeding the limiting force to the mirror back plate sub assembly, the said rotor remains unaffected and more importantly, owing to the broken locking flange the said mirror back plate sub assembly is not reusable further and thus discourage theft.

Objects of the invention

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mirror back plate that discourages theft.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mirror back plate that can be easily and efficiently manufactured and is of durable and solid construction.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a mirror back plate that can be operated by a person of ordinary skill.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

Summary of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a mirror back plate, which substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

Brief Description of the Accompanying Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:

Figure 1a, 1b and 1c, illustrate the mirror back plate sub assembly, mirror back plate and rotor respectively;

Figure 2, illustrates the mirror back plate sub assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 3, illustrates an exploded view of mirror back plate sub assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4a and 4b, illustrate the mirror back plate and rotor respectively, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 5, illustrates the partial view of the rotor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of different embodiments

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown an illustrative embodiment of the mirror back plate. It should be understood that the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms; specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail below.

Referring to figures 2 & 3, mirror glass is press fitted to the mirror back plate which is then press fitted to the rotor, already assembled with the fastened stator of outer rear view mirror housing or mounting frame not shown in the drawings.

Referring to figures 4a & 4b, in order to assemble mirror back plate sub-assembly to rotor, indicated face of inventive guide arm of said rotor is in mating condition with the indicated face of guiding flange of said mirror back plate. Now the indicated face of inventive lock is to be in mating condition with the indicated face of locking flange restricting all six degree of freedoms of mirror back plate sub assembly. One poka yoke boss and corresponding through slot have been provided in mirror back plate and rotor respectively for ensuring that there is not wrong assembly of said mirror back plate sub assembly with the said rotor.
Referring to figure 5, two or more inventive notches have been provided at the roots of locking flange holding rib for intentional weakening of ribs to be broken from this specific region only when applied an opposite force exceeding to limiting force to the mirror back plate sub assembly.
It will be understood from the forgoing that the present invention provides an efficient mirror back plate. More important, this feature of the invention has been achieved in a relatively simple and in a cost effective manner.
As those skilled in the art will understand, there are many variations or alterations of the device that can be made using the principles and devices discovered by the inventor. Therefore, the above description is not intended to be limiting but, instead, illustrative. Accordingly, it is the intention of the inventor to embrace all such variations and alterations as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.