JP7622609B2 - Outer mirror - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an outer mirror .

Patent Document 1 discloses an outer mirror for an automobile. This outer mirror has a mirror unit in which a mirror is attached to a visor (hereinafter, mirror housing), a mirror base to which the mirror unit is rotatably attached, and a mirror base cover that covers the mirror base.

The mirror base is fixed to a mirror bracket attached to the door, and the mirror base cover is fixed to the mirror base.
The mirror base cover has a design surface facing forward in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, and an opposing surface extending rearward from an edge of the design surface adjacent to the design surface of the mirror housing and opposing the outer surface of the mirror housing.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-183391

In such outer mirrors, it is desirable to improve the design by reducing the width of the gap between the edge of the mirror base cover and the mirror housing. However, if the width of the gap is reduced, a whistling noise is more likely to occur due to the wind entering the gap.

Note that these issues are not limited to exterior mirrors, but occur in any exterior vehicle part that has a clearance gap.

The vehicle exterior part for solving the above problem includes a first member having a first design surface that constitutes the design surface of the vehicle and faces forward, and a second member having a second design surface that constitutes the design surface of the vehicle and faces forward, where the first design surface and the second design surface are adjacent to each other in the vehicle width direction or the vertical direction through a clearance gap, the first member has a first surface that extends rearward from an edge of the first design surface that is adjacent to the second design surface, and the second member has a second surface that faces the first surface, and an uneven shape is provided at least at a position on the first surface that is adjacent to the edge and a position on the second surface that faces the position.

According to this configuration, at least one of the first surface and the second surface is provided with the above-mentioned uneven shape. Therefore, the flow of the traveling wind that has separated from the first design surface or the second design surface and entered the above-mentioned gap is disturbed by the above-mentioned uneven shape. This suppresses reattachment of the traveling wind to the first surface or the second surface, so that the generation of whistling noise is suppressed even if the gap is made small.

Therefore, the generation of whistling noise can be suppressed while reducing the width of the parting gap.
In the vehicle exterior part, it is preferable that a plurality of the projections and recesses are arranged at intervals from each other in the extending direction of the edge.

With this configuration, reattachment of the traveling wind to the first surface or the second surface is suppressed at multiple locations in the extension direction of the edge of the first design surface adjacent to the second design surface, i.e., in the extension direction of the parting gap. Therefore, the generation of whistling noise can be more effectively suppressed.

In the above vehicle exterior part, it is preferable that the second member is fixed to the vehicle, the first member is rotatably attached to the second member, and the uneven shape is composed of only recesses.

When the first member is rotatably attached to the second member, if a convex portion is provided on the first surface or the second surface, when the first member rotates relative to the second member, there is a risk that the first surface or the second surface will interfere with the surface on which the convex portion is not provided.

In this regard, according to the above configuration, the uneven shape is constituted only by recesses, so that the occurrence of the above-mentioned inconvenience can be avoided.
In the above vehicle exterior part, it is preferable that the vehicle exterior part is an outer mirror provided on a front door of the vehicle, the outer mirror includes a mirror base fixed to the front door, and a mirror housing that accommodates a mirror main body and is rotatably attached to the mirror base, and the first member is the mirror housing and the second member is the mirror base.

This configuration makes it possible to reduce the width of the gap between the mirror housing and the mirror base in a vehicle's outer mirror while suppressing the generation of whistling noise.

The present invention makes it possible to reduce the width of the gap while suppressing the occurrence of whistling noise.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an outer mirror according to one embodiment of a vehicle exterior part. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the embodiment with a mirror housing and a mirror base separated from each other. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of FIG. 2 as seen from the opposite side. FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of the mirror housing of FIG. 2, focusing on the recessed portion. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG.

Below, one embodiment of a vehicle exterior part will be described with reference to Figures 1 to 5. In this embodiment, the present invention is embodied as an outer mirror 10 provided on the front door 90 of the vehicle.

Hereinafter, the longitudinal direction and width direction of the vehicle will be described as the longitudinal direction X and width direction Y. The front and rear in the longitudinal direction X will be described simply as the front and rear. The vertical direction of the vehicle when the vehicle is positioned on a horizontal plane will be described as the vertical direction Z, and the upper and lower sides in the vertical direction Z will be described simply as the upper and lower sides.

<Outer mirror 10>
As shown in Figures 1 to 3, the outer mirror 10 has a mirror base 20 fixed to a front door 90 indicated by a two-dot chain line in Figure 1, and a mirror housing 30 that houses a mirror body 11 for rearward visibility.

When the right and left sides in the vehicle width direction Y when looking forward from the rear of the vehicle are simply referred to as the right and left sides, the outer mirror 10 is attached to both the right and left front doors 90. The right outer mirror 10 and the left outer mirror 10 are symmetrical with respect to an imaginary plane that extends in both the front-to-rear direction X and the up-down direction Z. For this reason, in this embodiment, only the left outer mirror 10 will be described, and a description of the right outer mirror 10 will be omitted.

Each component will be described in detail below.
In the following description, the side approaching the center of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction Y is referred to as the inside, and the side away from the center of the vehicle in the vehicle width direction Y is referred to as the outside.

<Mirror base 20>
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the mirror base 20 is made of hard resin, and has a mounting portion 21 that is attached to the front door 90 and a support portion 26 that protrudes from the mounting portion 21 .

The mounting portion 21 has a bottom wall 22 that is triangular in plan view, and a peripheral wall 23 that extends inward from the peripheral edge of the bottom wall 22 .
As shown in FIG. 2 , an annular wall 24 and a female thread portion 25 are provided on an inner surface 22 a of the bottom wall 22 .

The annular wall 24 extends along the peripheral wall 23. That is, the annular wall 24 has a triangular shape in a plan view.
In this embodiment, three female threads 25 are provided. Each female thread 25 is provided integrally with the annular wall 24 at a portion located at an apex of the annular wall 24. The mirror base 20 is attached to the front door 90 by screwing a bolt (not shown) into each female thread 25 from the inside of the front door 90 (see FIG. 1 ).

1 and 3, the support portion 26 protrudes outward from the outer surface 22b of the bottom wall 22 of the mounting portion 21. The support portion 26 has a polygonal cross section with rounded corners.
As shown in Fig. 3, a mounting seat 27 for the shaft 12 is provided on an upwardly facing surface (hereinafter, referred to as an upper surface 41) of an outer surface 40 of the support portion 26. Note that in Fig. 3, only the outer edge of the mounting seat 27 is shown by a two-dot chain line.

The surface of the outer surface 40 of the support portion 26 facing forward (hereinafter, the front surface 42) extends downward from the front edge of the upper surface 41. The front surface 42 is bent in the center in the extending direction. In detail, the front surface 42 has a flat surface 42a extending from the upper surface 41 and an inclined surface 42b that bends and extends from the lower end of the flat surface 42a. The inclined surface 42b extends downward in the vertical direction Z and toward the rear in the longitudinal direction X. The front surface 42 constitutes the design surface of the vehicle.

The tip surface 43 of the support portion 26 extends rearward from the outer edge 42c of the front surface 42. The tip surface 43 is curved so as to bulge outward.
<Mirror housing 30>
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the mirror housing 30 is made of hard resin, and is rotatably attached to the mirror base 20 via a shaft 12 shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG.

The mirror housing 30 has a housing main body 31 that houses the mirror body 11, and a housing cover 36 that covers the housing main body 31 from the front.
As shown in FIG. 2 , the housing body 31 has an opening 32 that opens rearward and is closed by the mirror body 11 , a peripheral wall 33 that defines the opening 32 , and a bulging portion 34 that bulges out from the peripheral wall 33 .

The bulging portion 34 bulges inward from a portion 33a located on the inner side of the peripheral wall 33. The lower surface 34a of the bulging portion 34 is provided with an insertion hole 35 through which the shaft 12 is inserted.

As shown in FIG. 1, the housing cover 36 covers the entire housing body 31 from the front.
The housing cover 36 has an upper cover 37 and a lower cover 38 .

The upper cover 37 covers from the front the portion of the housing body 31 that is above an imaginary plane that extends in the planar direction of the upper surface 41 of the support portion 26 in the vertical direction Z. The front-facing surface 37a of the outer surface of the upper cover 37 constitutes the design surface of the vehicle.

The lower cover 38 covers the entire housing body 31 from the front except for the upper portion.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the lower cover 38 has a front surface 51 that faces forward and constitutes a design surface of the vehicle, and a side surface 52 that extends from an inner edge 51 c of the front surface 51 .

As shown in Figs. 1 and 5, the front surface 51 and the front surface 42 of the support portion 26 are adjacent to each other in the vehicle width direction Y with a parting gap S therebetween (see Fig. 5).
The front surface 51 and the front surface 42 are flush with each other in the vehicle width direction Y. That is, the front surface 51 has a flat surface 51a adjacent to the flat surface 42a and an inclined surface 51b adjacent to the inclined surface 42b. The inner edge 51c of the front surface 51 extends along the outer edge 42c of the front surface 42 (see FIG. 1). In this embodiment, the front surface 51 corresponds to the first design surface according to the present invention, and the front surface 42 corresponds to the second design surface according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the side surface 52 extends rearward from the edge 51c. In this embodiment, the side surface 52 extends at an acute angle with respect to the front surface 51. The side surface 52 faces the tip surface 43 of the support portion 26 at a distance I in the vehicle width direction Y. In this embodiment, the side surface 52 corresponds to the first surface according to the present invention, and the tip surface 43 corresponds to the second surface according to the present invention.

That is, the mirror housing 30 in this embodiment corresponds to a first member according to the present invention, and the mirror base 20 corresponds to a second member according to the present invention.
As shown in Figures 4 and 5, a plurality of recesses 53 are provided on the side surface 52 at positions adjacent to the edge 51c of the front surface 51. The recesses 53 are elliptical in plan view and elongated in the front-rear direction X (see Figure 4). The recesses 53 are also U-shaped in cross section (see Figure 5). The recesses 53 are arranged at intervals from one another in the extension direction of the edge 51c (see Figure 4).

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
A recess 53 is provided on a side surface 52 of the lower cover 38 of the mirror housing 30. Therefore, the flow of the traveling wind that has separated from the front surface 42 of the mirror base 20 and entered the clearance gap S is disturbed by the recess 53. This prevents the traveling wind from reattaching to the side surface 52, so that the generation of a whistling noise is suppressed even if the clearance gap S is made small.

Next, the effects of this embodiment will be described.
(1) The mirror housing 30 is a first member having a front surface 51 that constitutes the vehicle's design surface and faces forward, and a mirror base 20 is a second member having a front surface 42 that constitutes the vehicle's design surface and faces forward. The front surfaces 51 and 42 are adjacent to each other in the vehicle width direction Y via a clearance gap S. The mirror housing 30 has a side surface 52 that extends rearward from an edge 51c of the front surface 51 that is adjacent to the front surface 42. The mirror base 20 has a tip surface 43 that faces the side surface 52. A recess 53 having an uneven shape is provided in the side surface 52 at a position adjacent to the edge 51c.

According to this configuration, the above-mentioned effects can be achieved. Therefore, the width of the parting gap S can be reduced while suppressing the generation of the whistling noise.
(2) The recesses 53 having the uneven shape are arranged at intervals from one another in the extending direction of the end edge 51c.

This configuration suppresses reattachment of the traveling wind to the side surface 52 at multiple locations in the extension direction of the edge 51c of the front surface 51 adjacent to the front surface 42, i.e., in the extension direction of the parting gap S. Therefore, the generation of whistling noise can be more effectively suppressed.

(3) The mirror base 20 as the second member is fixed to the vehicle. The mirror housing 30 as the first member is rotatably attached to the mirror base 20. The uneven shape is formed by the recesses 53.

If a protrusion is provided on the side surface 52, when the mirror housing 30 rotates relative to the mirror base 20, there is a risk that the protrusion will interfere with the surface on which the protrusion is not provided.
In this regard, according to the above-described configuration, the uneven shape is constituted only by the recesses 53, so that the occurrence of the above-described inconvenience can be avoided.

(4) The vehicle exterior part is an outer mirror 10 that is provided on the front door 90 of the vehicle. The outer mirror 10 includes a mirror base 20 that is fixed to the front door 90, and a mirror housing 30 that houses a mirror body 11 and is rotatably attached to the mirror base 20. The first member is the mirror housing 30, and the second member is the mirror base 20.

This configuration makes it possible to reduce the width of the gap S between the mirror housing 30 and the mirror base 20 in the vehicle's outer mirror 10 while suppressing the generation of whistling noise.

<Example of change>
This embodiment can be modified as follows: This embodiment and the following modifications can be combined with each other to the extent that there is no technical contradiction.

The shape of the mirror base 20 is not limited to the shape exemplified in this embodiment, and can be changed as appropriate to suit the requirements for mounting the outer mirror 10 on a vehicle. For example, the shape of the bottom wall 22 of the mounting portion 21 is not limited to a triangular shape in plan view as exemplified in this embodiment, and may be a rectangular or polygonal shape in plan view. In this case, the shape of the annular wall 24 and the number and arrangement of the female thread portions 25 may be changed as appropriate to suit the shape of the bottom wall 22.

The shape of the mirror housing 30 is not limited to the shape exemplified in this embodiment, and can be changed as appropriate to suit the requirements for mounting the outer mirror 10 on a vehicle. For example, the shape of the lower cover 38 is not limited to the front surface 51 consisting of both the flat surface 51a and the inclined surface 51b as exemplified in this embodiment, but may be composed of only one of the flat surface 51a and the inclined surface 51b. In this case, the shape of the support part 26 of the mirror base 20 is also not limited to the front surface 42 having both the flat surface 42a and the inclined surface 42b as exemplified in this embodiment. In other words, the shape of the support part 26 may be changed as appropriate, as long as the front surface 42 is flush with the front surface 51 of the lower cover 38.

The arrangement of the multiple recesses 53 is not limited to extending along the edge 51c as illustrated in this embodiment. For example, the multiple recesses 53 may be arranged at intervals in the front-to-rear direction X on the side surface 52. Even in this case, it is sufficient that at least one recess 53 is located adjacent to the edge 51c on the side surface 52.

The mirror housing 30 is not limited to having multiple recesses 53 spaced apart along the edge 51c. The mirror housing 30 may have at least one recess 53 provided at a position on the side surface 52 adjacent to the edge 51c.

The shape of the recess 53 is not limited to the elliptical shape in plan view as exemplified in this embodiment. For example, the recess 53 may be a circular shape or a rectangular shape in plan view.
The shape of the recess 53 is not limited to the U-shaped cross section as exemplified in this embodiment. For example, the recess 53 may have a flat bottom surface and side surfaces rising from the edges of the bottom surface.

The recess 53 is not limited to being provided on the side surface 52 of the lower cover 38 of the mirror housing 30 as exemplified in this embodiment, but may be provided on the tip surface 43 of the support portion 26 of the mirror base 20. In this case, the recess 53 may be provided at a position facing the position adjacent to the edge 51c on the side surface 52, i.e., at a position adjacent to the edge 42c on the tip surface 43.

- The vehicle exterior part according to the present invention is not limited to the outer mirror 10 in which the mirror housing 30 is rotatably attached to the mirror base 20. For example, the present invention can also be applied to a vehicle exterior part such as a radiator grill in which a first member is fixed to a second member. In this case, the uneven shape is not limited to a concave portion and may be a convex portion.

The uneven shape is not limited to being provided on at least one of the first and second surfaces that face each other in the vehicle width direction Y. In other words, if the vehicle exterior part has a first design surface and a second design surface that are adjacent to each other in the vertical direction Z via a parting gap S, the uneven shape can be provided on at least one of the first and second surfaces that face each other in the vertical direction Z.

I: Interval S: Clearance X: Forward/backward direction Y: Vehicle width direction Z: Up/down direction 10: Outer mirror 11: Mirror body 12: Shaft 20: Mirror base 21: Mounting portion 22: Bottom wall 22a: Inner surface 22b: Outer surface 23: Peripheral wall 24: Annular wall 25: Female thread portion 26: Support portion 27: Mounting seat 30: Mirror housing 31: Housing body 32: Opening 33: Peripheral wall 33a: Part 34: Bulging portion 34a: Lower surface 35: Through hole 36: Housing cover 37: Upper cover 37a: Surface 38: Lower cover 40: Outer surface 41: Upper surface 42: Front surface 42a: Flat surface 42b: Inclined surface 42c: Edge 43: Tip surface 51: Front surface 51a: Flat surface 51b: Inclined surface 51c: Edge 52: Side 53: Recess 90: Front door

Claims (1)

A mirror base fixed to a front door of a vehicle;
a mirror housing that accommodates a mirror body and is rotatably attached to the mirror base;
When the front-rear direction of the vehicle is defined as the front-rear direction ,
The mirror housing has a first design surface that constitutes a design surface of the vehicle and faces forward,
the mirror base has a second design surface that constitutes a design surface of the vehicle and faces forward,
The first design surface and the second design surface are adjacent to each other in a vehicle width direction via a parting gap,
the mirror housing has a first surface extending rearward from an edge of the first design surface adjacent to the second design surface,
The mirror base has a second surface facing the first surface in the vehicle width direction ,
a plurality of recesses are provided at a position adjacent to the edge on the first surface and a position facing the position on the second surface, the recesses being spaced apart from each other in an extension direction of the edge ;
Outer mirror .

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