JP7548683B2 - vehicle - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle equipped with a hood that covers a storage compartment at the front of the vehicle.

Some vehicles have an engine room at the front of the vehicle, while some electric vehicles and other vehicles have an engine at the rear of the vehicle, and some have a trunk room at the front of the vehicle. Storage compartments such as the engine room or trunk room are covered by a hood that can be opened and closed.

Vehicles with hoods are provided with a shock absorbing material, known as a hood bumper, to prevent the hood from colliding violently with the vehicle body when the hood is closed. For example, in Patent Document 1, the hood bumper is fixed to a rigid bracket located inside the engine compartment. In vehicles where the hood bumper is fixed to a rigid body inside the engine compartment, a stopper is provided on the inner surface of the hood that abuts against the hood bumper when the hood is closed. In this configuration, when the hood is closed, the hood bumper and the stopper collide first, preventing the hood from colliding violently with the vehicle body.

Publication No. 6-34217

The stopper is required to have enough rigidity so that it does not deform when the hood is closed. On the other hand, if the stopper is too rigid, there is a risk that when the hood is deformed due to a person or object colliding with the hood, the stopper will be stiff and suppress the deformation of the hood. If the deformation of the hood is suppressed, the absorption of the impact that accompanies the deformation of the hood will be hindered, and the hazard value may become higher.

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a vehicle equipped with a stopper that is difficult to deform when the hood is closed, but is easily deformed in conjunction with deformation of the hood.

A vehicle according to one aspect of the present invention includes:
A storage section provided at the front of the vehicle;
A vehicle including a hood covering the storage section,
a hood bumper made of an elastic material and fixed to either one of a rigid body disposed inside the storage portion or the hood;
a stopper that comes into contact with the hood bumper when the hood is closed,
The stopper is
The main body,
A reinforcing piece that reinforces the main body,
The body includes:
A pressure piece;
A front wall piece supporting a portion of the pressure-receiving piece on the vehicle front side;
A rear wall piece supporting a vehicle rear side portion of the pressure receiving piece;
An opening portion is formed on at least one of the left side and the right side of the vehicle,
the reinforcing piece is joined to a base side of the front wall piece and a base side of the rear wall piece so as to partially close the opening,
There is a gap between the end of the reinforcing piece and the pressure-receiving piece.

Here, "the reinforcing piece partially covers the opening" means any of the following configurations.
- If an opening is located on either the left or right side of the vehicle, one of the openings is partially blocked with a reinforcing piece. - If openings are located on both the left and right side of the vehicle, one of the openings is partially blocked with a reinforcing piece, and no reinforcing piece is provided for the other opening. - If openings are located on both the left and right side of the vehicle, one of the openings is partially blocked with a reinforcing piece, and the other opening is partially blocked with another reinforcing piece.

The stopper, which is formed by combining the main body and the reinforcing piece in the above configuration, is formed roughly in a box shape. In particular, the reinforcing piece is joined to the main body so as to reinforce the base side of the main body. Therefore, even if the hood bumper and the stopper collide when the hood is closed, the stopper is less likely to deform. Here, the base side of the main body refers to the side opposite the end of the main body in the protruding direction.

In the above configuration, there is a gap between the end of the reinforcing piece and the pressure-receiving piece of the main body. In other words, the reinforcing piece is not connected to the pressure-receiving piece. Therefore, when stress acts to shift the end on the base side of the main body and the end in the protruding direction in the parallel direction of the front wall piece and the rear wall piece, the main body is likely to deform. As will be explained in the first embodiment below, such stress is likely to occur when an impact acts on the hood from outside the hood. Therefore, the stopper in the above configuration is likely to deform when an external force acts on the hood, and is unlikely to hinder the absorption of the impact accompanying the deformation of the hood.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a vehicle shown in the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a cross section taken along line II-II of FIG. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a hood bumper and a stopper in the vehicle of FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of the stopper shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from the inner surface side of the hood. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a deformation state of the hood and the stopper when an external force acts on the hood shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a vehicle shown in the second embodiment.

Below, a vehicle 1 according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. The same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same objects. The arrows in the drawings indicate "FR" the front of the vehicle, "RR" the rear of the vehicle, "UP" the top of the vehicle, and "LWR" the bottom of the vehicle. Note that the present invention is not limited to the illustrative embodiment, but is indicated by the claims, and is intended to include all modifications within the meaning and scope equivalent to the claims.

<Embodiment 1>
<Overall composition>
A vehicle 1 shown in Fig. 1 is a vehicle with an engine mounted at the front of the vehicle. An engine room in which the engine is housed is provided with a hood 3 that is configured to be able to be opened and closed. As shown in Fig. 2, the vehicle 1 of this example is provided with a hood bumper 4 that is a buffer material for preventing the hood 3 from colliding violently with the vehicle body when the hood 3 is closed. The number of hood bumpers 4 may be one or more. Each component of the vehicle 1 of this example will be described in detail below.

<Storage section>
As shown in Fig. 2, the vehicle 1 of this example has a storage section 2 in its front part. The storage section 2 in this example is an engine room that stores an engine (not shown). In the vehicle 1 of this example, a bracket 21 is attached to an inner wall 20 of the storage section 2. The bracket 21 is a rigid body that is placed inside the storage section 2. A hood bumper 4, which will be described later, is fixed to an outer surface 210 of this bracket 21. Here, in a vehicle 1 that does not have an engine mounted in the front part, the storage section 2 is a trunk room.

Food
The hood 3 includes an outer panel 30 and an inner panel 31. The inside of the hood 3 is hollow. The outer panel 30 is a panel material arranged on the vehicle exterior side. The inner panel 31 is a panel material arranged on the storage section 2 side. A stopper 5 is fixed to an inner surface 310 of the inner panel 31 of the hood 3. The stopper 5 is a member that comes into contact with the hood bumper 4 when the hood 3 is closed.

The hood 3 is configured to be rotatable via a hinge 11 provided on the cowl 10. As shown by the dashed arrow in FIG. 2, the hood 3 rotates along an arc when opening or closing the hood 3. This rotational path is approximately constant.

<Food Bumper>
The hood bumper 4 is a cushioning material made of an elastic body. The hood bumper 4 has an end surface 4s perpendicular to the rotation trajectory of the hood 3. The shape of the hood bumper 4 is not particularly limited as long as it has an end surface 4s and is compressed in the direction of stress when a stress perpendicular to the end surface 4s acts on the end surface 4s. The hood bumper 4 in this example is cylindrical. The material of the hood bumper 4 is also not particularly limited as long as it is a material that can absorb the impact of the hood 3. The hood bumper 4 in this example is made of rubber.

The hood bumper 4 is fixed to a bracket 21 disposed inside the storage section 2. In this example, the hood bumper 4 is adhered to the outer surface 210 of the bracket 21. Unlike this example, the hood bumper 4 may be fixed to the bracket 21 by being screwed into a screw hole provided in the bracket 21.

Stopper
The stopper 5 is a member that comes into contact with the hood bumper 4 when the hood 3 is closed and receives the pressure of the hood bumper 4. The stopper 5 of this example is fixed to the inner surface 310 of the hood 3. The stopper 5 of this example is not easily deformed when the hood 3 is opened or closed, but is easily deformed when an external force acts on the hood 3 during a frontal collision. In order to satisfy these characteristics, the stopper 5 of this example is configured by combining a main body 6 and a reinforcing piece 7.

[Main unit]
3 and 4, the main body 6 is a generally box-shaped member including a pressure-receiving piece 60, a front wall piece 61, a rear wall piece 62, and a side wall piece 63. As shown in Fig. 2, the pressure-receiving piece 60 has a plane 5s that abuts against an end surface 4s of the hood bumper 4 when the hood 3 is closed. The plane 5s is perpendicular to the rotation locus of the hood 3 indicated by the dashed arrow.

As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the front wall piece 61 is a plate-like piece that extends from the inner surface 310 of the hood 3 toward the inside of the storage section 2. The width direction of the plate-like piece is aligned with the width direction of the vehicle 1. The end of the front wall piece 61 in the protruding direction is connected to the end of the pressure-receiving piece 60 on the front side of the vehicle. The front wall piece 61 supports the front side of the pressure-receiving piece 60 on the inner surface 310 of the hood 3. This front wall piece 61 has an attachment portion 61F (see Figure 4) that is joined to the inner surface 310. The attachment portion 61F is joined to the inner surface 310 by, for example, spot welding.

The rear wall piece 62 is a plate-like piece that extends from the inner surface 310 of the hood 3 toward the inside of the storage section 2. The width direction of the plate-like piece is aligned with the width direction of the vehicle 1. The end of the rear wall piece 62 in the protruding direction is connected to the end of the pressure-receiving piece 60 on the rear side of the vehicle. The rear wall piece 62 supports the rear side of the pressure-receiving piece 60 on the inner surface 310 of the hood 3. This rear wall piece 62 has an attachment portion 62F that is joined to the inner surface 310. The attachment portion 62F is joined to the inner surface 310 by, for example, spot welding.

It is preferable that the distance between the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62 becomes wider the further away from the pressure-receiving piece 60. In that case, it is preferable that the angle between the plane 5s of the pressure-receiving piece 60 and the front wall piece 61 is approximately the same as the angle between the plane 5s and the rear wall piece 62. With this configuration, the stress acting on the plane 5s is distributed approximately evenly to the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. As a result, when the hood 3 is closed and the hood bumper 4 and the stopper 5 collide, the main body 6 of the stopper 5 is less likely to deform.

3, the side wall piece 63 is a plate-shaped piece arranged on the vehicle right side of the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. This plate-shaped side wall piece 63 extends from the inner surface 310 of the hood 3 toward the inside of the storage section 2, like the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. The end of the side wall piece 63 in the protruding direction, which is in a position not visible in the drawing, is connected to the pressure-receiving piece 60. Therefore, the side wall piece 63 supports the pressure-receiving piece 60 together with the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. On the other hand, the side wall piece 63 is not connected to the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. Therefore, the side wall piece 63 and the front wall piece 61 do not support each other, and the side wall piece 63 and the rear wall piece 62 do not support each other. It is preferable that the side wall piece 63 is arranged on the center side of the hood 3 in the vehicle width direction. This is because the weight of the hood 3 is likely to be applied to the center side of the main body 6 in the vehicle width direction. Unlike this example, if the stopper 5 is located on the right side of the hood 3 in the vehicle width direction, the side wall piece 63 of the main body 6 is preferably located on the left side of the main body 6. Here, as shown in the third embodiment described below, the side wall piece 63 is not essential and does not have to be present.

The main body 6 having the above configuration does not have a side wall piece disposed on the left side of the vehicle. Therefore, the main body 6 has an opening 64 that opens to the left side of the vehicle. Unlike this example, if the main body 6 does not have a side wall piece 63, the main body 6 has a second opening that opens to the right side of the vehicle in addition to the opening 64.

The reinforcing piece 7 is a plate-shaped piece that reinforces the main body 6. In this example, the reinforcing piece 7 is positioned so as to cover a portion of the opening 64 formed on the left side of the vehicle in the main body 6. In other words, the reinforcing piece 7 does not cover the entire opening 64. In this example, the reinforcing piece 7 has an attachment portion 7F that has a shape that conforms to the inner surface 310 of the hood 3. The reinforcing piece 7 is fixed to the inner surface 310 via the attachment portion 7F.

The reinforcing piece 7 has a first joint piece 71 that is joined to the front wall piece 61. The first joint piece 71 overlaps a continuous area of the left side of the vehicle of the front wall piece 61, from the base side to the vicinity of the end in the protruding direction. The base of the front wall piece 61 is the end opposite the end in the protruding direction of the front wall piece 61.

The reinforcing piece 7 has a second joint piece 72 that is joined only to the base side of the rear wall piece 62. The base of the rear wall piece 62 is the end opposite the end of the rear wall piece 62 in the protruding direction. In this example, the first joint piece 71 overlaps the portion of the rear wall piece 62 on the left side of the vehicle, from the base to the middle.

The reinforcing piece 7 has a through hole 70 that penetrates in the thickness direction. This through hole 70 is a hole for hooking the tip of a hood support rod (not shown). The hood support rod is a bar that holds the hood 3 in an open state. The reinforcing piece 7 supports the main body 6 and is also supported by the main body 6. Therefore, even if the reinforcing piece 7 is a plate-shaped piece, it can firmly hold the tip of the hood support rod. Unlike this example, if a hole that supports the tip of the hood support rod is provided on the inner surface 310 of the hood 3, the reinforcing piece 7 may not have a through hole 70.

In this example, there is a gap 6a between the end of the reinforcing piece 7 in the protruding direction and the pressure-receiving piece 60 on the left side of the stopper 5. In addition, because the second joint piece 72 of the reinforcing piece 7 is only joined to the base side of the rear wall piece 62, there is also a gap 6b between the reinforcing piece 7 and the rear wall piece 62 on the left side of the stopper 5. These two gaps 6a, 6b are connected in a roughly L-shape. The roughly L-shaped gap is formed by the portion of the opening 64 that is not covered by the reinforcing piece 7.

The thickness of the reinforcing piece 7 used to support the hood support rod is preferably thicker than the front wall piece 61, rear wall piece 62, and side wall piece 63 of the main body 6. If the reinforcing piece 7 is not used to support the hood support rod, the thickness of the reinforcing piece 7 may be approximately the same as the thickness of each piece 61, 62, and 63 of the main body 6.

[Weakened part]
The main body 6 of the stopper 5 in this example includes a fragile portion 65 that partially reduces the strength of the main body 6. The fragile portion 65 is configured to reduce the strength of the stopper 5 against stress acting on the stopper 5 in a direction deviated from the rotation orbit of the hood 3. The fragile portion 65 is provided on at least one of the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62. The fragile portion 65 in this example is a fold line formed in a portion of the rear wall piece 62 closer to the pressure-receiving piece 60. The fold line is a ridge line formed at the joint between the surfaces and extends in the vehicle width direction. The fold line is a valley fold when viewed from the outside of the rear wall piece 62. Such a fragile portion 65 does not reduce the strength of the stopper 5 against stress acting on the stopper 5 in a direction along the rotation orbit of the hood 3. The fragile portion 65 is not essential. Depending on the overall shape of the stopper 5, the fold line may be a mountain fold when viewed from the outside of the rear wall piece 62.

Here, the weak portion 65 is not limited to a folded line. The weak portion 65 may be, for example, a groove with a locally thin thickness, a plurality of recesses arranged in parallel in the vehicle width direction, or a long hole. In any case, the weak portion 65 is provided so as to extend in the vehicle width direction in the front wall piece 61 or the rear wall piece 62.

Effect
In the vehicle 1 having the above-described configuration, the stopper 5 is formed into a roughly box-like shape by combining the main body 6 and the reinforcing piece 7. Therefore, when the hood 3 is closed and the hood bumper 4 and the stopper 5 collide with each other, the stopper 5 is less likely to deform.

In this example, as shown in FIG. 2, the end surface 4s of the hood bumper 4 and the flat surface 5s of the stopper 5 are perpendicular to the rotation trajectory of the hood 3. The stopper 5 is resistant to deformation due to stress from a direction perpendicular to the rotation trajectory. Therefore, when the hood bumper 4 and the stopper 5 collide, the stopper 5 is resistant to deformation.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, a state in which an external force acts on the hood 3 will be described. As shown by the white arrow in FIG. 5, when an impact acts from outside the hood 3, the outer panel 30 is deformed first. The deformation of the outer panel 30 is propagated to the inner panel 31 as shown by the thick arrow, and the upper part of the inner panel 31 is deformed downward of the vehicle. At this time, the base side of the stopper 5 is shifted downward of the vehicle. Here, in the stopper 5 of this example, the side wall piece 63 (FIG. 3) is not connected to the front wall piece 61 and the rear wall piece 62 on the right side of the stopper 5, and approximately L-shaped gaps 6a, 6b are formed between the reinforcing piece 7 and the main body 6 on the left side of the stopper 5. Therefore, when the base side of the stopper 5 is shifted downward of the vehicle, the rear wall piece 62 is bent downward of the vehicle, and the entire stopper 5 is deformed so as to be bent. The deformation of the stopper 5 makes it easier for the deformation of the inner panel 31 to continue without being hindered by the stopper 5. If the inner panel 31 is likely to continue to deform, the outer panel 30 connected to the inner panel 31 is likely to continue to deform as well. As a result, the entire hood 3 is sufficiently deformed to absorb the impact acting on the hood 3, reducing the damage value.

<Embodiment 2>
As shown in Fig. 6, the hood bumper 4 may be fixed to the inner surface 310 of the hood 3, and the stopper 5 may be fixed to the rigid body of the storage section 2. In this example, when an external force acts on the hood 3, the inner panel 31 deforms diagonally downward on the vehicle, and the hood bumper 4 shifts diagonally downward. In this case, of the stopper 5 that abuts against the hood bumper 4, stress is likely to be applied to the front wall piece 61. Therefore, in this example, it is preferable that approximately L-shaped gaps 6a, 6b are formed between the main body 6 and the reinforcing piece 7 along the pressure-receiving piece 60 and the front wall piece 61 when viewed from the side of the vehicle. In addition, it is preferable that the fragile portion 65 is formed in the front wall piece 61.

<Embodiment 3>
As a modified example of the first and second embodiments, there is a configuration in which the side wall piece 63 of the stopper 5 does not exist. In this case, the main body 6 has an opening 64 that opens toward the left side of the vehicle, and a second opening that opens toward the right side of the vehicle. In this case, the reinforcing piece 7 may be provided only in the opening 64, or in addition to providing the reinforcing piece 7 in the opening 64, a second reinforcing piece may be provided in the second opening. It is preferable that the second reinforcing piece has the same configuration as the reinforcing piece 7 in the first embodiment.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle 10 cowl, 11 hinge 2 storage section 20 inner wall, 21 bracket 210 outer surface 3 hood 30 outer panel, 31 inner panel 310 inner surface 4 hood bumper 4s end surface 5 stopper 5s flat surface 6 main body 6a, 6b gap 60 pressure-receiving piece, 61 front wall piece, 62 rear wall piece, 63 side wall piece, 64 opening 65 fragile portion 61F, 62F mounting portion 7 reinforcing piece 7F mounting portion 70 through hole, 71 first joint piece, 72 second joint piece

Claims (1)

A storage section provided at the front of the vehicle;
A vehicle including a hood covering the storage section,
a hood bumper made of an elastic material and fixed to either one of a rigid body disposed inside the storage portion or the hood;
a stopper that comes into contact with the hood bumper when the hood is closed,
The stopper is
The main body,
A reinforcing piece that reinforces the main body,
The body includes:
A pressure piece;
A front wall piece supporting a portion of the pressure-receiving piece on the vehicle front side;
A rear wall piece supporting a vehicle rear side portion of the pressure receiving piece;
An opening portion is formed on at least one of the left side and the right side of the vehicle,
the reinforcing piece is a separate member from the main body, and is joined to a base side of the front wall piece and a base side of the rear wall piece so as to partially close the opening , and is also fixed to a member to which the stopper is fixed;
A vehicle in which there is a gap between the end of the reinforcing piece in the protruding direction of the main body and the pressure-receiving piece.

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