EP0221242B1 - Door hinge for a motor vehicle - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a door hinge for a motor vehicle door according to the preamble of claim 1.

Motor vehicle doors are usually pivotally attached in the door cutout of the body with an upper and lower door hinge. Due to the body-in-white manufacturing tolerances, it is necessary to fit a door into the door cutout or to adjust the door hinges in such a way that it runs smoothly and tightly and, when closed, has circumferential gap sizes of approximately the same size.

Known and customary door hinges for motor vehicle doors consist of body-side and door-side consoles with vertical, hollow-cylindrical shapes through which a bolt is inserted as an axis. The fitting and setting of the door is carried out so that when the door is already suspended in the body shell, the two hinges are bent and bent to compensate for the shell tolerances until the door is optically well fitted and closes well. A door fitted in this way is assigned to a vehicle because of the adapted and slightly curved hinges, is therefore no longer removed and the vehicle is painted with the doors hung in and the doors are only assembled and upgraded during final assembly.

A technically advantageous separate painting of bodies and doors as well as prefabrication and complete pre-assembly of doors is not possible with the door setting described above, since bending work with heavy tools is necessary on the hinge brackets, which the paint and other door elements, such as door panels, handles, etc. would hurt. Another disadvantage of the door setting described above is that the bending of the door hinge brackets only permits a rough setting. It can be seen that the brackets must be adjusted for the same circumferential gap widths in height and the vehicle longitudinal direction for an adjustment. In order to obtain a smooth outer surface that runs with the body, the brackets must also be adjusted and bent in the transverse direction of the vehicle. In addition, it is necessary that the two hinge bolts of the upper and lower door hinge run coaxially. The hinge axis for the entire door is formed by the connecting line between the two hinge bolts. Therefore, if the two hinge bolts of the upper and lower door hinge do not run coaxially, there is undesirable tension in the brackets and the adjacent sheet metal parts and the door is stiff. Adjusting the welded brackets by bending their height, to the side and coaxially aligning the hinge pins is evidently expensive.

It is also known to adjust doors with the aid of elongated holes arranged in hinge parts and underlay strips inserted between the released hinge parts and associated stop parts of the vehicle body or the door. For such a door adjustment, it is normally no longer necessary to bend the hinge brackets, but the adjustment is complex and time-consuming, especially since washers of different thicknesses are required, must be tried out and also kept in stock.

In a further known door hinge for a motor vehicle door (DE-A-2 039 307), which is used to form the generic type, the hinge axis for the door is formed by an upper and a lower door joint as a ball joint. Each door joint consists of a bracket that can be attached to the body and furthermore a bracket that can be attached to the door, which is connected to a ball socket and a ball pin via a ball socket joint. The ball pin is formed from a ball and a bolt attached to it. At least one of the hinge parts has a swivel part which is penetrated by a single fastening means and which is connected to the vehicle door or the vehicle body via a spherical surface. Such a hinge can be adjusted on all sides when the fastener is released, during assembly, i.e. when the fastener is loosened, however, the door lacks support so that the door must be kept free in the door cutout. An adjustment and adjustment is not possible by gradually adjusting the fasteners, so that the assembly is expensive. In addition, a number of expensive individual components are required.

Furthermore, a door hinge for a motor vehicle door (DE-C-3 229 732) is known, which consists of a bracket fastened on the body side and a threaded bolt pivotally held thereon. The vehicle door has a sleeve which is inserted over the threaded bolt with a radial clearance. As part of this clearance and along the threaded bolt, the sleeve for adjustments can be moved and fixed by screws, so that an adjustment element is created. The setting of the vehicle door in the vehicle frame is therefore not carried out here by changing the position of the hinge axis, but on the downstream threaded bolts. If, therefore, the hinge axes of the upper and lower hinge are not aligned coaxially due to tolerances, this is not remedied, so that the vehicle door can be stiff and unfavorable tensions occur. Similarly, tensions and stiffness can be brought into the swivel bearings, which are not designed as ball bearings, by the adjustment itself. Because of the horizontal arrangement of the threaded bolts, the motor vehicle door must be raised freely until it is fixed in order to adjust it and are kept, which also leads to a complex assembly.

In contrast, the object of the invention is to provide a door hinge for a motor vehicle door which is simple in construction and with which a motor vehicle door can be installed and adjusted simply and quickly.

This object is achieved in a generic door hinge with the characterizing features of claim 1.

The hinge axis for the motor vehicle door is formed by an upper and a lower fixed ball joint. Coaxial alignment of cylindrical hinge pins is therefore no longer necessary, since the hinge axis can adjust freely on the two ball joints. For the height and side adjustment, an approximately vertical sleeve with a certain sleeve inner diameter is attached to the bracket attached to the body. A ball socket joint with a ball socket and a ball pin is connected to the bracket that can be fastened on the door side. The ball pin is designed as a threaded bolt which is inserted into the sleeve of the other hinge part. The diameter of the threaded bolt is smaller than the inner diameter of the sleeve, so that the threaded bolt in the sleeve can be displaced in a horizontal plane in all directions with a vertical position for adjustment purposes.

The threaded bolt is made longer than the sleeve is long, so that the threaded bolt is displaceable in the vertical direction for adjustment purposes within the sleeve, with a threaded area protruding over both end faces of the sleeve.

After the adjustment with respect to the sleeve, the threaded bolt is fixed by two clamping nuts on both sides of the sleeve. The contact surface of the nuts on the end faces of the sleeves should be selected so that even with a laterally displaced threaded bolt, a system is guaranteed, d. H. that the contact surface diameter must at least correspond to the outer sleeve diameter plus the clearance distance between the threaded bolt and the inner sleeve surface.

With the door hinge according to the invention, a simple adaptation of a motor vehicle door to the door cutout in the body is advantageously achieved in that the hinge pin can be displaced in a horizontal plane during assembly in order to compensate for the manufacturing tolerances and can also be changed in the vertical direction with the aid of the clamping screws along the threaded pin . The threaded bolt of the upper and lower door hinge is held in an approximately vertical direction after installation and height and side adjustment. A coaxial alignment of the threaded bolts is not necessary because they do not serve as swivel axes, but only carry the two ball joints. A fixed degree of freedom of the ball joint is suppressed by the fixed connection of the upper and lower ball joint via the door or the body, so that a desired swivel joint (hinge) with two degrees of freedom for pivoting the door is obtained again.

For assembly, the threaded bolt is placed in the sleeve and temporarily locked. As a result, a rough setting has already been made and the door is already held by the hinge. The height can be adjusted by turning the upper nut on the threaded bolt with only one nut on one, for example the upper door hinge, until the desired gap width is reached on the upper door edge. For the side adjustment, each joint can be adjusted separately when another joint is determined. After setting, the nuts are tightened and the door is fixed.

This cost-effective assembly and setting option makes it possible to manufacture, paint and upgrade doors and bodies separately and to connect them only at the end of the final assembly. It can be seen that this makes the production and individual assemblies more efficient and less expensive.

According to claim 2, the bearing surface between the sleeve and nut is formed by a disc placed over the threaded bolt and laterally projecting the sleeve. As a result, the nut can expediently be kept small, since the bearing surface is formed by the washer, which does not rotate when the nut is tightened.

To tighten the nuts after adjustment, it is necessary to hold the threaded bolt firmly, as this is freely rotatable in the ball joint. This holding can be done by all measures known per se, but it has proven expedient to provide the spherical shell from above with an opening through which a holding tool, preferably an Allen key, can be inserted into a recess in the ball. From this side there is usually enough space to insert the holding tool.

The door hinge described can also be in the reverse arrangement, i. H. the ball below the sleeve can be used, which may be appropriate depending on the installation conditions or space for attaching the setting and holding tools in the door cutout. It is also possible to assign the console with the sleeve of the door and the console with the ball joint of the body.

With the features of claim 4, inexpensive manufacture of the required spherical shells is achieved in that two sheets with hemispherical shape are placed one above the other and connected.

In the previously claimed designs, the threaded bolt is firmly connected to the ball of the ball joint. When inserting the door, it is therefore necessary to raise it relatively far relative to the sleeve so that the threaded bolt can be inserted into the sleeve. For some door cutouts there is not enough space for this, so that an embodiment according to claim 5 is then required for the ball and the threaded bolt are releasably attached. The door can thus be inserted laterally without having to lift it a lot, since the connection between the threaded bolt and the ball only takes place during assembly.

An expedient type of releasable attachment between ball and threaded bolt is specified with the features of claim 6.

Using two exemplary embodiments, the invention is explained in more detail with further features, details and advantages.

• Fig. 1 eine teilweise geschnittene Seitenansicht einer ersten Ausführung eines Türgelenks,
• Fig. 2 eine Draufsicht auf das Türgelenk gemäß Fig.1,
• Fig. 3 eine teilweise geschnittene Seitenansicht einer zweiten Ausführung eines Türgelenks.

Show it

• 1 is a partially sectioned side view of a first embodiment of a door joint,
• 2 shows a plan view of the door hinge according to FIG. 1,
• Fig. 3 is a partially sectioned side view of a second embodiment of a door hinge.

1 shows a door joint 1, which consists of a body-side bracket 2 with a vertically attached sleeve 3 attached to it and a door-side bracket 4 with a ball joint 5: The sleeve 3 consists of a piece of pipe that extends from the bracket plate of the bracket 2 is surrounded on about one side and connected to it (see FIG. 2). The ball joint 5 consists of the ball socket 6 and the ball 7, a threaded bolt 8 projecting downwards being formed on the ball 7. The threaded bolt 8 is inserted into the sleeve 3 and screwed and fixed on both sides via sheaths 9, 10 and nuts 11, 12 against the sleeve 3. The spherical shell 6 is formed by two hemispherical, superimposed metal sheets of the console 4 and is open at the bottom for the passage of the threaded bolt 8 and at the top. In the area of this upper opening, the ball has a hexagonal recess 13 for inserting an Allen key.

The door joint 1 shown has the following function:

A door hinge for a motor vehicle door is formed by an upper and lower door joint 1. The motor vehicle door is hung from above with the bracket 4 already attached to it via the threaded bolt 8 in the body-side bracket 2 or sleeve 3. As a result, the door is already temporarily connected to the body and does not need to be held or supported. The upper disks 10 and nuts 12 have already been attached before the door is inserted, the lower disks 9 and nuts 11 are now screwed on.

In order to adjust the door for the same circumferential gap width compared to the door cutout and for a smooth bodywork, the ball 7 is held in place by the hexagon recess 13. Then the upper nuts 12 are adjusted until the appropriate door height is reached and the lower nuts 8 are adjusted accordingly. For the adjustment of the door with respect to a vertical, the threaded bolt 8 or both threaded bolts of the upper and lower door joint are displaced within the clearance 14 between threaded bolt 8 and sleeve 3 and the threaded bolt 3 is fixed in position by tightening the mutually opposing nuts 11 and 12, with which the Door setting is finished.

The next embodiment of a door hinge in Fig. 3 corresponds essentially to that of Fig. 1 and also consists of a door-side bracket 4 with ball joint 5, ball socket 6, ball 7, threaded bolt 8, washers 9, 10, nuts 11, 12 and a body side Console 2 with sleeve 3. Only the upper part of the threaded bolt 8 is modified in that it protrudes through a bore 15 through the ball 7, is provided with a thread there and is firmly screwed to the ball 7 by a nut 16.

1 and 2, it was necessary to raise the door so far when inserting that the threaded bolt 8 could be inserted into the sleeve 3 from above, the door in an embodiment according to FIG. 3 are simply inserted laterally into the door cutout of the body, after which the threaded bolt 8 is then inserted from below through the bore 15 of the ball 7 and fastened with the aid of the nut 16.

In summary, it is found that the invention proposes a door hinge which, with a simple, inexpensive construction, enables a motor vehicle door to be installed and adjusted quickly and easily in the door cutout of a body.

Claims (6)

1. Door hinge for a motor vehicle door, wherein the hinge axis for the door is formed by an upper and a lower door articulation (1) constructed as a ball articulation (5), each door articulation (1) comprising a body-mountable bracket (2) and a door-mountable bracket (4), which are connected by means of a ball and socket articulation (5) having a ball socket (6) and a ball spigot, the ball spigot being constituted by the ball (7) and a pin (8) which is secured thereto, characterised in that the body-mountable bracket (2) carries a substantially vertically disposed sleeve (3) with a specific internal sleeve diameter, that the pin, constructed as a screwthreaded pin (8), is smaller in diameter than the internal sleeve diameter, and a clearance (14) is formed, so that after insertion into the sleeve the screwthreaded pin (8) is displaceable within this sleeve, situated in the same axial direction as the sleeve (3), in a horizontal plane, that the screwthreaded portion of the screwthreaded pin (8) is given extra length relatively to the sleeve length, so that the screwthreaded pin (8) is displaceable upwards and downwards within the sleeve region, and that the sleeve (3) is embraced from its two ends by two nuts (11, 12) which are screwed on to the screwthreaded pin (8) and whose bearing contact surface diameters correspond at least to the external sleeve diameter plus the clearance (14) between screwthreaded pin (8) and internal sleeve surface, the horizontal and vertical situations of the screwthreaded pin (8) within the sleeve (3) being fixable with the nuts (11, 12).

2. Door hinge according to claim 1, characterised in that the bearing contact surface between sleeve (3) and nuts (11, 12) is formed by washers (9, 10) placed over the screwthreaded pin (8).

3. Door hinge according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the ball socket (6) is open underneath to allow the screwthreaded pin (8) to extend through, and also comprises an aperture at the opposite side, and in the region of this aperture the ball (7) has a profiled recess (13) for the insertion of a holding tool, preferably a key for operating socket-head screws, with which the ball (7) is prevented from rotating during the adjusting operation and the tightening of the nuts (11, 12).

4. Door hinge according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the ball socket (6) is constituted by two connected-together sheet metal elements which are situated one above the other and are shaped to a hemispherical form in opposite directions.

5. Door hinge according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the ball (7) and the screwthreaded pin (8) are releasably secured.

6. Door hinge according to claim 5, characterised in that the ball has a through hole, and the ball (7) held in the ball socket (6) is adapted to be fitted with this hole (15) on to an upper and likewise screwthreaded portion of a screwthreaded pin (8) and to be fixed with a nut (16).

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