JPH08197971A - Propeller shaft support structure - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a support structure for reliably and quickly disengaging a propeller shaft from a vehicle body in the event of a vehicle collision. A support member 13 that rotatably supports an intermediate portion 12 of a propeller shaft 11 is attached to a vehicle body, and a stopper ring 23 that projects in the vehicle front-rear direction and has an annular shape is integrally provided on the support member 13. In the propeller shaft support structure in which a plurality of protrusions 22 arranged on the circumference so as to face the ring 23 in the vehicle front-rear direction are integrally provided with the propeller shaft 11, the stopper ring 23 is provided with A plurality of drainage holes 24 penetrating in the radial direction are formed side by side in the circumferential direction. Then, the drain hole 24 and the protrusion 2
There is always at least one point where 2 and 2 do not match each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a propeller shaft support structure for transmitting a driving force in a vehicle, and in particular, when a collision load is applied to the propeller shaft, the propeller shaft is dismounted to reduce the impact. It concerns a support structure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in FR vehicles (front engine / rear drive vehicles) and 4WD vehicles (four-wheel drive vehicles), engine power is applied to the rear wheel side via a propeller shaft arranged in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. Is transmitted to the rear differential gear of. Since this propeller shaft transmits a large torque to a remote member and is a so-called long member, it is necessary to support the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft to the vehicle body in order to prevent shaking during high-speed rotation. . Therefore, in general, the center support that holds the bearing is generally placed at a position corresponding to approximately the middle of the entire length of the propeller shaft, and this is fixed to the vehicle body by bolts, and the propeller shaft is rotatably supported by the bearing. are doing.

By the way, since the propeller shaft is a long member having high rigidity as described above, when a collision occurs in which a load is applied to the vehicle from the front thereof, the propeller shaft is bulged, and therefore from the front of the vehicle body. Will be received by the entire vehicle body. Therefore, conventionally, when a load larger than a predetermined value is applied, the center support is detached from the vehicle body to improve the shock absorbing ability of the entire vehicle body.

An example thereof is described in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 4-46925, and it will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 4. In the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft 1, a bearing 3 held by a rubber mount 2 is provided. Are fitted together, and the rubber mount 2 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the bracket 4. The rubber mount 2 is for supporting the propeller shaft 1 while allowing the propeller shaft 1 to move in the axial direction and the radial direction. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, a rubber sleeve is folded in two. It is configured as a double annular member. A bearing 3 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the bearing 3 and is fixed to the bracket 4 at the outer peripheral portion thereof.

Therefore, a part of the rubber mount 2 projects along the axial direction of the propeller shaft 1 toward the front side of the vehicle body. On the other hand, a stopper plate 5 having an outer diameter larger than the outer diameter of the rubber mount 2 is attached to the propeller shaft 1. Further, the mounting hole 7 into which the bolt 6 for fixing the bracket 4 to the vehicle body is inserted has a notch 8
Is formed as a hole opened to the front side of the vehicle body.

Therefore, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, when a collision load acts on the propeller shaft 1, the propeller shaft 1 moves to the rear side of the vehicle body due to the deformation of the rubber mount 2. Along with this, the stopper plate 5 comes into contact with the rubber mount 2 and further moves while deforming the rubber mount 2, and finally the stopper plate 5 comes into contact with the bracket 4. At this point, the propeller shaft 1 is attached to the bracket 4.
The load associated with the collision acts from the above, and as a result, the mounting hole 7
Opens from the notch 8 and comes off the bolt 6, so that the propeller shaft 1 is separated from the vehicle body. As a result, the propeller shaft 1 is folded in two to absorb the axial load, and so-called bulging is avoided.

[0007]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional supporting structure, the stopper plate 5 moves and abuts the rubber mount 2 at the time of collision, and pushes and deforms the rubber mount 2, and then the stopper plate 5 pushes the bracket 4. Is configured. Therefore, in the above-mentioned conventional support structure, the stroke for the stopper plate 5 to move before the load due to the collision acts on the bracket 4 becomes long. That is, since the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft 1 is disengaged from the vehicle body, the transmission of the collision load to the vehicle body via the propeller shaft 1 is avoided, so that the propeller shaft 1 is If it takes a long time to separate from the vehicle body, a collision load applied to the vehicle body may be increased, or a collision energy that can be absorbed by deformation of the vehicle body may be reduced, which may cause inconvenience.

In order to eliminate such inconvenience, it can be considered that the stopper plate 5 is brought into contact with a member integrated with the bracket 4. Further, in that case, in order to reduce the number of parts, it is conceivable to replace the existing part of the propeller shaft 1 with the stopper plate 5 and use it. Specifically, since the bolts and nuts of the connecting flange of the propeller shaft 1 are projected in the axial direction, it is conceivable that the bracket 4 and the integral member are brought into contact with each other.

In such a configuration, since the bolts and nuts are arranged at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction, when the collision load acts on the propeller shaft 1, the bolts and nuts and the bracket 4, which is a mating member, In order to make sure contact with the integral member, it is necessary to make the member annular.
Also, since this kind of member is to be exposed to the outside under the floor of the vehicle, it is necessary to provide a drainage hole,
It is desirable that the number of drainage holes be several to several tens in order to eliminate the need for indexing work during assembly.

However, even if the members with which the bolts and nuts are in contact are annular, by providing a plurality of water drain holes, a member with a certain interval in the circumferential direction is provided in terms of buckling strength. Will be equivalent. Therefore, when the positions of the bolts and nuts in the circumferential direction and the positions of the drainage holes with low buckling strength in the circumferential direction coincide with each other at the time of collision, the member is locally deformed by the bolts and nuts. May absorb the load, and as a result, the collision load may not be surely and quickly transmitted to the bracket 4.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a support structure capable of reliably and quickly disengaging a propeller shaft from a vehicle body in the event of a vehicle collision.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a support member rotatably supporting an intermediate portion of a propeller shaft mounted on a vehicle body and projecting in the vehicle front-rear direction and having an annular shape. A stopper ring is formed integrally with the support member, and a plurality of protrusions arranged on the circumference so as to face the stopper ring in the vehicle front-rear direction are provided integrally with the propeller shaft. In the propeller shaft support structure,
A plurality of drainage holes penetrating in the radial direction are formed side by side in the circumferential direction in the stopper ring, and there is always at least one location where the drainage hole and the protrusion do not coincide with each other. It is what

[0013]

According to the present invention, even if a large number of projections and a large number of water drain holes may face each other in the axial direction of the propeller shaft at any time when the rotation of the propeller shaft has stopped. At least one projection is always offset circumferentially with respect to each drainage hole. Therefore,
Even if the propeller shaft retracts in the event of a vehicle collision and the projections come into contact with the front edge of the stopper ring on the front side of the vehicle body due to this, all the projections and all the drain holes are Not a perfect match. That is, since at least one protrusion does not directly contact the fragile portion of the stopper ring, there is no risk of the stopper ring being crushed by the collision load. As a result, the collision load is efficiently transmitted from the projecting portion to the support member, and as a result, the propeller shaft can be quickly and reliably disengaged from the vehicle body.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a view showing a center support 12 of a propeller shaft 11 having a front shaft 9 and an intermediate shaft 10 connected thereto, and FIG. 2 is a circumferential direction of a nut 22 and a drainage hole 24. It is a schematic diagram which shows the relative position of.

A cylindrical sleeve 14 is fixed to the inner peripheral portion of a bracket 13 fixed to a vehicle body (not shown) by means such as welding, and the inner peripheral side of the sleeve 14 is made of rubber or the like. Rubber mount 1 made of elastic material
5 is held. The rubber mount 15 is formed in a double annular shape so as to be elastically displaced in both the radial direction and the axial direction, and a metal ring attached to the outer peripheral portion of the rubber mount 15 is attached to the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 14. It is held by the bracket 13 by being fixed to. A bearing case 17 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the rubber mount 15, and a bearing 18 fitted to the outer peripheral portion of the intermediate shaft 10 is fitted to the inner peripheral portion of the bearing case 17 and held therein. Has been done.

The front shaft 9 and the intermediate shaft 10 are
The circular flanges 19 and 20 formed at the respective ends are closely attached to each other and connected. More specifically, the flanges 19 and 20 are fastened at four locations by bolts 21 and nuts 22 (the nut 22 is on the left side in FIG. 1), and the nuts 22 are the flanges 1 and 20.
They are attached at intervals of 90 degrees in the circumferential direction of 9, 20. As described above, in this embodiment, the flanges 19 and 20 form a stopper portion, and the four nuts 22 form a protrusion portion.

A stopper ring 23 is attached to the ends of the sleeve 14 on the flanges 19 and 20 side, that is, the ends on the front side of the vehicle (left side in FIG. 1) by means such as press fitting. There is. The stopper ring 23 is, for example, machined so that the front end side has a large diameter and the rear end side has a small diameter, and an edge portion on the vehicle front side thereof projects in the axial direction of the propeller shaft 11 beyond the rubber mount 15. ing. The outer diameter of the edge portion is set to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the circle connecting the outermost peripheral portions of the nut 22 fastening the flanges 19 and 20. On the other hand, the edge portion of the stopper ring 23 on the vehicle rear side is in contact with the step portion of the sleeve 14 across the flange portion of the rubber mount 15. That is, the stopper ring 23 is fixed in a state where the movement of the stopper ring 23 as a whole in the right direction in FIG. 1 is blocked. Therefore, nut 2
2 and the stopper ring 23 face each other with an interval A in the axial direction of the propeller shaft 11.

In the stopper ring 23, for example, on the edge side facing the nut 22, seven drainage holes 24 are formed at equal intervals along the outer peripheral direction, and these drainage holes 24 are Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the stopper ring 23 penetrates in the radial direction and opens in a circular shape. The intervals between the drainage holes 24 and the intervals between the nuts 22 are set to be unequal in the circumferential direction.

Further, the distance A between the nut 22 and the stopper ring 23 is set so that the stopper ring 23 and the nut 22 or the flange 20 do not interfere with each other when the propeller shaft 11 moves back and forth during normal traveling. It is set. The bracket 13 is integrally formed with a flange 25 that projects in the left-right direction (the left-right direction with respect to the front-back direction of the vehicle body). And on this flange 25,
Mounting hole 27 into which bolt 26 for fixing to the vehicle body is inserted
Is formed as a hole opened to the front side of the vehicle body by the cutout portion 28. In addition, the interval B from the position of the central axis of the bolt 26 to the edge portion of the flange 25 on the front side of the vehicle body is such that the bolt 26 is not attached to the flange 2 by an unexpected external force other than during a vehicle collision.
The size is set so that it does not come off from 5.

Next, the operation of the present invention constructed as above will be described. When bumps, rebounds, sudden braking, or sudden starts occur during normal traveling, the propeller shaft 11 is allowed to move radially and axially due to elastic deformation of the rubber mount 15. In that case, since the gap A is provided between the nut 22 forming the drop-off mechanism and the tip of the stopper ring 23 as described above, the nut 22 does not come into contact with the stopper ring 23.

Therefore, when an excessive impact is applied to the front side of the vehicle by colliding with an obstacle in front of the vehicle, the propeller shaft 11 is moved along the axis of the propeller shaft 11 from a drive unit (not shown) as the vehicle body is deformed. Load is applied. If the load is larger than a predetermined value, the propeller shaft 11 starts moving toward the rear of the vehicle. When the amount of movement exceeds the distance A between the nut 22 and the stopper ring 23, each nut 22
End face of the stopper ring 23 contacts the front edge of the stopper ring 23.

The relative position of the nut 22 as a protrusion and the drainage hole 24 in the stopper ring 23 in such a completely accidental case will be described. As described above, four nuts 22 are equally spaced. Are arranged on the circumference. On the other hand, seven drainage holes 24 are arranged on the circumference at equal intervals. Therefore, the interval between any two nuts 22 is 90 degrees or 18 degrees at the center angle.
0 degree, and the interval between any two of the drain holes 24 is
The central angle is about 51 degrees, 103 degrees, or 154 degrees. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, when any one of the nuts 22 and any one of the drain holes 24 are aligned in the axial direction (when the positions in the circumferential direction match), all the other nuts 22 and the drainage hole 24 are located offset from each other in the circumferential direction. That is, no two or more nuts 22 face the drain holes 24 in the axial direction by any chance.

Therefore, when the propeller shaft 11 retracts in the axial direction due to the collision load and the nut 22 abuts on the stopper ring 23, the fragile portion of the stopper ring 23 is not locally deformed.

The stopper ring 23 is attached to the nut 22.
It is pushed to the rear of the vehicle by the (propeller shaft 11),
Further, although the bracket 13 is pushed by the stopper ring 23, since the buckling strength of the stopper ring 23 itself is high, the collision load from the front of the vehicle body is efficiently transmitted to the bracket 13. And the collision load is the bolt 26
When it becomes larger than the fixing force by the bolt 26, the bolt 26 expands the slit 28 and the entire bracket 13 begins to be displaced rearward along with the propeller shaft 11. Then, when the bracket 13 and the propeller shaft 11 move by the distance B, the bracket 13 comes off from the vehicle body.

As described above, in the above support structure, when the end face of the nut 22 and the front edge of the stopper ring 11 contact each other, all the nuts are removed from the drainage holes 24 which are weakened in the stopper ring 23. 22 is displaced, or only one of the four nuts 22 is matched, in other words, since there are at least one drain hole 24 and nut 22 that do not match each other at all times at all times, The buckling strength of the stopper ring 23 is improved as compared with the conventional case. Therefore, the collision load is efficiently applied to the bracket 13, whereby the propeller shaft 11 is quickly and surely separated from the vehicle body. Therefore, the shock acting on the vehicle body is further alleviated, or the collision energy is more effectively absorbed due to the deformation of the entire vehicle body.

Next, another arrangement example of the water drain holes 24 will be described with reference to FIG. The example shown here is an example in which eight water drainage holes 24 are provided in which some of the intervals are unequal. Note that the other points are configured similarly to the above-described embodiment, and detailed description thereof will be omitted, and the same members will be denoted by the same reference numerals.

The four nuts 22 forming the protrusions are spaced apart from each other by 90 degrees in the circumferential direction, and the flanges 19 and 2 are formed.
No. 0 is attached, and its circumferential arrangement is shown in FIG. 3 (a). On the other hand, the drainage hole 24
8 are formed, and the arrangement in the circumferential direction is as shown in FIG. That is, five of these drainage holes 24 are set at equal intervals P to each other, and in FIG. 3B, the distance P1 between the drainage hole 24a on the left side and the drainage hole 24b above it and The intervals P2 and P3 at two locations between the drain holes 24a and 24b and the adjacent drain holes 24 are set to be different from the basic interval P.

FIG. 3 (c) is a diagram showing an example of the relative position in the circumferential direction of the nut 22 and the drainage hole 24 arranged as shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b). It shows the case where the three nuts 22 are completely aligned with the three drain holes 24 in the circumferential direction. Since the distance between the drainage holes 24 is partially changed as described above, only the nut 22 on the left side as shown in FIG.
It is positioned so that it does not match with 4.

That is, as described above, the nut 22 is
Since the four nuts are arranged on the circumference at equal intervals, any two nuts 22 can be spaced by 90 degrees or 18 at the central angle.
0 degrees. On the other hand, since the total number of water drain holes provided is eight, the basic interval P is half the central angle (45 degrees) of the interval between the nuts 22, and the intervals P1 and P2. , P3 are slightly larger or smaller at the central angle with respect to the interval P, respectively. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3C, the four nuts 22
Even when up to three of them are lined up with any of the drain holes 24 in the axial direction, the remaining one nut 22 is always displaced in the axial direction with respect to any of the drain holes 24. That is, all four nuts 22 do not coincide with the drain holes 24 in the circumferential direction by any chance.

Therefore, when the propeller shaft 11 retracts in the axial direction due to a collision load and the nut 22 abuts on the stopper ring 23, at least one nut 22 buckles with respect to the drain hole 24. It abuts a portion between the water drainage holes 24 having high strength. Therefore, the collision load is always efficiently transmitted to the bracket 13 via the stopper ring 23. As a result, the propeller shaft 11 can be quickly and surely removed from the vehicle body.

Although the nut 22 is formed as a protrusion in each of the above-described embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and the bolt 21 side may be used as a protrusion or a protrusion is formed beforehand. It is also possible to use a stopper plate having a grooved portion. Also, the bolts 21 and nuts 22 or the drain holes 24 can be provided in appropriate numbers.

[0032]

As described above, according to the support structure of the present invention, the stopper ring is formed with a plurality of water drain holes penetrating in the radial direction thereof in a line in the circumferential direction. Since there is always at least one portion where the protrusion and the protrusion do not coincide with each other, the substantial buckling strength of the stopper ring itself is improved, whereby the collision load at the time of vehicle collision is efficiently transmitted from the stopper to the bracket. In comparison with the conventional support structure, the propeller shaft can be smoothly detached from the vehicle body. As a result, the impact force of the collision can be effectively absorbed, and the collision energy due to the deformation of the entire vehicle body can be more effectively generated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing relative positions in the circumferential direction of seven nuts and water drain holes provided at equal intervals.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing relative positions in the circumferential direction of eight water drain holes and a nut that are partially provided at unequal intervals.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an example of a conventional propeller shaft support structure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Propeller shaft 12 Center support 13 Bracket 22 Nut 23 Stopper ring 24 Drain hole

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yasushi Takahashi 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Toyota Motor Corporation (72) Inventor Tetsunori Ando 4-3-1 Tsujido Shinmachi, Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture・ OK ・ Megrastic Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A support member for rotatably supporting an intermediate portion of a propeller shaft is attached to a vehicle body, and an annular stopper ring protruding in the vehicle front-rear direction is integrally provided on the support member. In the propeller shaft support structure in which a plurality of protrusions arranged on the circumference so as to face each other in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body are integrally provided with the propeller shaft, the stopper ring faces in the radial direction. A propeller shaft support structure, characterized in that a plurality of water drainage holes penetrating therethrough are formed side by side in the circumferential direction, and there is always at least one portion where the water drainage holes and the protrusion do not coincide with each other.