Patent attributes
A grommet mainly made of soft, pliable material has a flange section for sealing against a first side of a vehicle panel around an aperture through the panel. A groove separates the flange section from a conical section that tapers from the groove to a narrower tubular section for tightly fitting around a wire harness passed through the grommet. The conical section has a wider end adjacent the groove that presses against a second, opposite side of the panel when the groove receives an edge of the aperture and the grommet is seated on the panel. The conical section has a region that engages the edge of the aperture as the grommet is pulled to an installed position. A plurality of raised, hard, rigid contact pads are arranged in a circumferential row around the engagement region to provide low friction while sliding past the edge of the aperture when the grommet is pulled through the aperture. The contact pads are spaced apart by recesses that maintain the compressibility of the grommet and keep the soft grommet material between the pads from contacting the edge of the aperture during installation. Angled tabs extend from undersides of the contact pads to help secure the pads on the grommet. The contact pads are connected by a ring structure embedded in the conical section.
