JP7697796B2 - Vehicle Structure - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle structure in which a pair of mating members are provided on a sliding door provided on the side of the vehicle body and on a portion of the vehicle body that faces the sliding door when the door is closed.

Generally, a sliding door installed on the side of an automobile body is attached to the body so that it can slide relative to the body, and furthermore, a down stopper is provided to prevent the door from shaking relative to the body when the door is closed (for example, Patent Document 1).

The down stopper is a pair of components each having a concave portion and a convex portion formed thereon, and is provided at opposing locations on the sliding door and the vehicle body. When the door is closed, the concave portion and the convex portion of the down stopper fit together to prevent the sliding door from shaking.

JP 2018-103909 A

By the way, the down stopper is designed so that when the sliding door is closed, the stopper on the sliding door side is pressed against the stopper on the vehicle body side to stabilize the sliding door.

However, depending on manufacturing errors or installation accuracy of the sliding door or the vehicle body, tiny gaps or insufficient pressure may occur between the concave and convex parts, and the parts sandwiching the gap may repeatedly collide due to vibrations while the vehicle is moving, causing abnormal noise.

As a countermeasure to this, it is possible to increase the amount of pressure between the stoppers to a level that sufficiently prevents gaps from occurring between the concave and convex parts, but in this case, the operability of opening and closing the sliding door is impaired, and there is a risk that the durability and wear resistance of the down stopper will decrease.

The present invention aims to provide a vehicle structure that can prevent the generation of abnormal noise with a simple and inexpensive structure without pressing the mating members between the sliding door and the vehicle body.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the vehicle structure of the present invention has a pair of engaging members provided on a sliding door provided on the side of the vehicle body and on a portion of the vehicle body that faces the sliding door when the door is closed, and the pair of engaging members are formed with a recess and a protrusion that can engage with each other, and a magnetic force is applied to the recess and the protrusion in a direction intersecting the direction in which the protrusion enters the recess, so that when the recess and the protrusion are engaged, a magnetism is imparted that separates the protrusion from one side of the inner surface of the recess and a magnetism that brings the protrusion into contact with the other side of the inner surface of the recess .

As described above, according to the present invention, the concave and convex portions of the mating fitting members provided on the sliding door and the vehicle body are made magnetic, so that when the door is closed, the concave and convex portions of the fitting members can be kept in either a contacting or separated state by the magnetism. This makes it possible to prevent or mitigate the collision between the concave and convex portions caused by vibrations while the vehicle is running, even if a minute gap is formed between the concave and convex portions of the fitting members, and prevents the generation of abnormal noise with a simple and inexpensive structure without pressing the fitting members.

Magneticity can be imparted to four surfaces, for example, both inner surfaces of the recess and both outer surfaces of the protrusion that fits inside them, and magnetism that generates a repulsive force can be imparted to the two sets of inner surfaces of the recess and outer surfaces of the protrusion, keeping the recess and protrusion apart. In this case, in addition to preventing collisions between the recess and protrusion, contact between the recess and protrusion can also be prevented, improving the durability and wear resistance of the fitting member.

In addition, by imparting magnetism that generates a repulsive force to one set of inner surfaces of the concave portion and outer surfaces of the convex portion, and imparting magnetism that generates an attractive force to another set of inner surfaces of the concave portion and outer surfaces of the convex portion, it is possible to maintain the convex portion in contact with the attractive side of the concave portion. In this case, the combination of the repulsive force and the attractive force makes it possible to effectively bring the concave portion and the convex portion into contact and maintain that contact state.

In addition, by providing magnetism to the concave and convex parts using electromagnets, it is possible to provide magnetism only while the vehicle is moving, which improves the ease of opening and closing the sliding door while preventing collisions between the concave and convex parts caused by vibrations while the vehicle is moving.

1A and 1B are diagrams showing the arrangement of a down stopper in a vehicle structure according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1A shows a state where a door is open, and FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a down stopper in a non-engaged state, and FIG. 1B is a perspective view of a down stopper in a engaged state. Reference AA cross-sectional view of FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A in FIG. 2B, showing the configuration of the down stopper in the present invention.

Below, the embodiment of the vehicle structure according to the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2 , a vehicle structure 1 according to the present invention has a down stopper 5 as a mating fitting member provided on a sliding door 3 provided on the rear side of a vehicle body 2, and a center pillar 4 of the vehicle body 2 that faces the front end of the sliding door 3 when the door is closed. The down stopper 5 is formed with a recess 6 and a protrusion 7 that can fit together, and the recess 6 and the protrusion 7 are endowed with magnetism that separates the two when they are fitted together , and magnetism that brings them into contact with each other .

The sliding door 3 is located on the side of the vehicle body 2 and behind the center pillar 4, and is attached to the vehicle body 2 so that it can slide freely in the front-rear direction, with its front end facing the center pillar 4 when the door is closed.

The center pillar 4 is formed near the center of the side of the vehicle body 2 in the fore-and-aft direction so as to connect the ceiling side and floor side of the vehicle body 2, and the front door 8 is located forward of this center pillar 4.

The down stopper 5 is composed of a female down stopper 10 formed by forming a slot-shaped recess 6 on a base plate 9 having a mounting hole 9a, and a male down stopper 12 formed by forming a protruding piece-shaped convex portion 7 on a base plate 11 having a mounting hole 11a.

The female down stopper 10 is attached to two locations, one above and one below, at the front end of the sliding door 3, and the male down stopper 12 is attached to the rear end of the center pillar 4, aligned with the female down stopper 10 in the up-down and left-right directions. When the sliding door 3 is closed, the protrusion 7 of the male down stopper 12 enters and fits into the recess 6 of the female down stopper 10.

The recess 6 has a minimum width just a little way in from the edge of the opening, and the inner surface is set to a gentle slope so that the width increases as it goes further inward, and the minimum width is set to be, for example, about 0.2 mm larger than the protrusion 7. Magnets 13 and 14 are embedded in the recess 6 with their end faces aligned with both inner surfaces at the part of the minimum width, giving the recess 6 magnetism.

The protrusion 7 is set to a constant width along its protruding direction. Magnets 15 are embedded in the protrusion 7 with both end faces aligned with the outer surfaces of both parts of the protrusion 7 that face the magnets 13 and 14 when fitted into the recess 6, imparting magnetism to the protrusion 7.

For reference, as shown in Figure 3, the magnets 13, 14 in the recessed portion 6 and the magnet 15 in the protruding portion 7 can be set so that, in the fitted state, the south pole of magnet 15 faces the south pole of magnet 13, and the north pole of magnet 14 faces the north pole of magnet 15.

According to the above configuration, magnets 13 and 14 are embedded in the recess 6 of the female down stopper 10 provided on the sliding door 3, and magnet 15 is embedded in the protrusion 7 of the female down stopper 12 provided on the center pillar 4. The south and north poles of the magnets 13 and 14 face the south and north poles of the magnet 15, respectively, so that when the door is closed, the recess 6 and protrusion 7 can be kept apart by the repulsive force of the magnetic forces.

This allows the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 of the down stopper 5 to be pressed together without pressing them together, while forming a minute gap of, for example, about 0.1 mm between them, and suppresses the force of the collision between the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 caused by vibrations while the vehicle is running, suppressing the impact sound to an inaudible level and preventing the generation of abnormal noise. Moreover, it is possible to prevent contact between the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 itself, thereby improving the durability and wear resistance of the down stopper 5.

The strength of the repulsive force is set to 633 N, for example, assuming that the gap between magnets 13, 14 and magnet 15 is 0.1 mm, the magnetic flux density of magnets 13, 14 and magnet 15 is 200 mT, and the end faces are 5 mm x 10 mm. However, by adjusting the magnetic force while checking the actual device, it is also possible to respond to cases where abnormally excessive input is anticipated.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and appropriate modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 may be magnetized by an electromagnet, so that they are magnetized only while the vehicle is traveling. This prevents the magnetism imparted to the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 from impairing the opening and closing operability of the sliding door 3, and improves the opening and closing operability of the sliding door 3 while preventing collisions between the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 caused by vibrations while the vehicle is traveling.

In addition, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, the magnets 13, 14 in the recessed portion 6 and the magnet 15 in the protruding portion 7 are fitted together such that the S pole of magnet 13 faces the S pole of magnet 15, and the N pole of magnet 15 faces the S pole of magnet 14.

In this case, when the door is closed, the repulsive force of magnets 13 and 15 and the attractive force of magnets 14 and 15 keep the side of recess 6 where magnet 14 is provided in contact with protrusion 7, preventing collisions between recess 6 and protrusion 7 caused by vibrations while the vehicle is running, and preventing the generation of abnormal noise.

In addition, instead of attaching the female down stopper 10 to the sliding door 3 and the male down stopper 12 to the vehicle body 2, the female down stopper 12 may be attached to the sliding door 3 and the female down stopper 10 may be attached to the vehicle body 2. In the above description, the female down stopper 10 or the male down stopper 12 is attached to the center pillar 4, but if the configuration is similar, the member for attaching the down stopper 5 can be changed as appropriate. In the above embodiment, a small gap is formed between the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7, but if the recessed portion 6 and the protruding portion 7 are made magnetic, they can be set so that they are in complete contact with each other without forming a gap between them.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vehicle structure 2 vehicle body 3 sliding door 4 center pillar 5 down stopper 6 concave portion 7 convex portion 8 front door 9 base plate 9a mounting hole 10 female down stopper 11 base plate 11a mounting hole 12 male down stopper 13 magnet 14 magnet 15 magnet

Claims (1)

A vehicle structure in which a pair of engaging members are provided on a sliding door provided on a side of a vehicle body and on a portion of the vehicle body that faces the sliding door when the door is closed, the pair of engaging members are formed with a recess and a protrusion that can engage with each other, and a magnetic force is applied to the recess and the protrusion in a direction intersecting the direction in which the protrusion enters the recess, so that when the recess and the protrusion are engaged, a magnetic force is applied to the recess and the protrusion in a direction intersecting the direction in which the protrusion enters the recess, so that a magnetic force is imparted to the recess that separates the protrusion from one side of the inner surface of the recess and a magnetic force is imparted to the protrusion that contacts the protrusion from the other side of the inner surface of the recess .

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