EP0990759A1 - Hinge for a vehicle closure member - Google Patents

Abstract

The hinge comprises a first knuckle (1) fixed to the door and a second knuckle (2) fixed to the vehicle structure. The two knuckles are fixed by an articulation spindle (7). The second knuckle comprises a fixing plate (21) provided with a pilot peg (5) which is inserted through a bore in the structure and acts as a positioning reference for the hinge. The peg can move axially on the plate so as to occupy an adjustment position in which the body of the peg allows a modification of the position of the second knuckle.

Description

The present invention relates to a hinge for opening of a motor vehicle and more particularly relates to a hinge comprising a fixing plate provided with a pilot pin inserting into through a bore of a structural element to serve as a reference for hinge positioning.

Conventionally, it is known, to facilitate the setting in geometry of a door on a vehicle, and get rid of positioning means complex and expensive, to use an articulation device composed of a classic lower hinge and an upper hinge with a pin pilot. The assembly of such doors is then carried out by bringing the pilot pin of the upper hinge through a reference bore carried by a vehicle structural element, to quickly position the hinge on the structure, then tilting the door around the pilot counter in order to bring the latter parallel to the frame, before to immobilize all the hinges by means of fixing screws.

However, such hinges fitted with a pilot pin have the drawback of allowing only a very small adjustment range positioning of the door in its frame, the upper hinge allowing only a rotational movement of the door around the pilot counter to balance the play of the door in its frame. However, because of dispersions within manufacturing tolerances, it is possible that a door requires greater adjustment to match properly with the vehicle body. Such cases then require disassembly complete hinges and significantly resume adjustment of the door / hinges / vehicle assembly using adjustment means specific, expensive and time-consuming to implement.

The object of the present invention is therefore to propose a hinge, as well as a method of mounting a door equipped with this hinge, quickly geometry the door on the vehicle and also allowing, if necessary, to simply modify the positioning of the door on the vehicle without complete disassembly of the hinge and which is simple and economical to produce.

The subject of the invention is a hinge for a vehicle leaf automobile comprising a first knuckle, fixed to the sash, and a second knuckle, fixed to a structural element of the vehicle, joined together by a hinge pin, the second knuckle comprising a fixing plate fitted with a pilot pin inserted through a bore in the element structure to serve as a positioning reference for the hinge.

According to the invention, the hinge is characterized in that the pin pilot can be moved axially on the stage in order to occupy a position setting in which the body of the pilot piece allows a modification of the position of the second knuckle on the structural element.

According to another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the adjustment position of the pilot pin allows the position to be modified of the second knuckle on the structural element along a single axis of the plane of the platinum.

According to another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the pilot piece has a cylindrical body mounted tight in a hole in the platinum, the cylindrical body protruding from either side of the platinum and comprising, on the side opposite to the structural element, a portion provided with two parallel flats, which can be brought to the level of the plate by axial displacement of the pin in order to allow the relative displacement of the second knuckle relative to the structural element of the vehicle along an axis perpendicular to the flats.

According to another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the pilot piece has a conical end facilitating the positioning of the pilot pin through the bore of the structural element, the other end of the pawn being provided with a head of diameter greater than the cylindrical body of the pawn and serving as a strike zone, for example for a hammer, for axially move the pilot pin along the hole.

According to another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the two flats extend along the body of the pawn from the head on a length slightly greater than the thickness of the plate.

According to yet another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the head of the pawn has a slot making it possible to modify the orientation of the pilot pin using a screwdriver.

According to another characteristic of the hinge according to the invention, the hinge has two fixing screws allowing it to be immobilized definitive on the structural element.

The invention also relates to a method of mounting a opening provided with such a hinge, in which one brings, in a first time, the pilot pin opposite the bore, the assembly of the hinge by slightly pre-tightening the fixing screws of the hinge, then we check the location of the opening on its frame.

According to the invention, the method is characterized in that in the event of poor location of the opening, the pilot pin is moved axially on the plate to bring it into an adjustment position allowing the lateral movement of the plate on the structural element.

According to another characteristic of the method according to the invention, prior to moving the pilot pin to the adjustment position, this the latter is oriented using a screwdriver to bring the two flats parallel perpendicular to the direction in which one wishes move the hinge.

• la figure 1 représente une vue de face d'un mode de réalisation particulier d'une charnière selon l'invention ;
• la figure 2 est une vue de côté de la charnière représentée à la figure 1 lorsque le pion pilote est en position initiale ;
• la figure 3 est une vue de côté du pion pilote équipant la charnière représentée à la figure 2 ;
• la figure 4 est une vue similaire à la figure 2 lorsque le pion pilote est en position de réglage de positionnement de la charnière ;
• la figure 5 est une vue en coupe, suivant la ligne V-V, de la charnière représentée à la figure 4.

The aims, aspects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood from the description given below of an embodiment of the invention, presented by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein :

• FIG. 1 represents a front view of a particular embodiment of a hinge according to the invention;
• Figure 2 is a side view of the hinge shown in Figure 1 when the pilot pin is in the initial position;
• Figure 3 is a side view of the pilot pin fitted to the hinge shown in Figure 2;
• FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 2 when the pilot pin is in the position for adjusting the positioning of the hinge;
• FIG. 5 is a sectional view, along the line VV, of the hinge shown in FIG. 4.

To facilitate the reading of the drawings, the same parts bear the same references from one figure to another. Furthermore, only the elements necessary for understanding the invention have been shown.

Figure 1 shows an upper hinge 10 for door motor vehicle consisting of a first knuckle 1 connected to the door, not shown, of a vehicle and a second knuckle 2 fixed to an element of structure, not shown, of the vehicle and integral with the first knuckle 1 by a hinge pin 7.

As can be seen more precisely in Figures 1 and 2, the first knuckle 1 comprises a body 11 of sheet metal folded substantially in shape of M having two bores intended to receive the hinge pin 7 joining the first knuckle 1 to the second knuckle 2, these two bores opening laterally on two bearing faces facing each other second knuckle support 2.

The body 11 also includes feet 11a provided with holes allowing the immobilization of the first knuckle 1 on the vehicle door by means of fixing screws.

The second knuckle 2 consists of two branches 24 parallel, L-shaped interconnected by a fixing plate 21. The two branches 24 come from either side of the body 11 of the first knuckle 1 and have a bore intended to receive one of the ends of the hinge pin 7. The fixing plate 21 is provided with two holes 22 intended to receive fixing screws 6 allowing the immobilization of the plate 21 on the structural element, the holes 22 having a diameter significantly greater than the diameter of the screws 6 to allow movement relative to the plate 21 with respect to the fixing screws 6 when these last are not tight.

The plate 21 also has a hole 23 in which a pilot pin 5 is mounted tight. This pilot counter 5, shown alone in the figure 3, comprises a cylindrical body 51 of length substantially equal to three times the thickness of the plate 21 and having on the one hand an end conical and on the other hand an end provided with a circular head 52 of diameter greater than the diameter of the body 51. The pilot piece 5 comprises also two parallel flats 53 made on either side of the body cylindrical 51 and extending from the circular head 52 over substantially the third of the length of the cylindrical body 51. The circular head 52 is provided a slot 54 allowing the rotation of the pilot pin 5 by means of a screwdriver.

As can be seen more precisely in Figure 2, the pawn pilot 5 is, when the hinge is delivered, mounted in a hole 23 in the plate 21 so as to be substantially centered on plate 21. The end conical of the pilot pin 5 and part of the cylindrical body 51 overflows then from the face of the plate 21 coming opposite the structural element of the vehicle, the head 52 and the two flats 53 projecting from the other side of the platinum 21.

The mounting of a motor vehicle door fitted with a upper hinge 10 according to the invention and a lower hinge classic, deprived of pilot pawn 5, will now be explained.

The door is initially approached the body of the vehicle by an operator who brings the pilot pin 5 of the hinge upper 10 through a bore carried by the structural element of the vehicle intended to receive the hinge 10. The cooperation of the pilot pawn 5 with this bore, adjusted to the diameter of the pilot pin 5, then realizes the simple and quick positioning of the upper hinge 10 on the element structure, the hinge fixing screws are then slightly tightened so as to apply the hinges against the structural element. The door is finally tilted around the pilot piece 5 so as to balance the resulting play between the door and its frame, this movement of hinges being allowed by the low tightening of the fixing screws. Once the door in position the hinges are permanently immobilized in blocking the fixing screws.

However, due to the manufacturing dispersions of the different elements, that it is impossible to obtain a positioning correct door by keeping the upper hinge 10 blocked by the pilot pin 5. The hinge 10 according to the invention then makes it possible to have an additional adjustment on the position of the hinge relative to the pilot pin 5 by bringing the latter into an adjustment position.

To do this, the operator strikes the head of pilot pawn 5, for example by means of a hammer, so as to bring the pilot pawn 5 in a depressed position, as shown in Figures 4 and 5. In this adjustment position, the two flats 53 of the pilot pin 5 are arranged opposite the plate 21 of the second knuckle 2 and then allow a slight displacement of knuckle 2 perpendicular to the flats 53.

Before or after this operation, the operator responsible for mounting the door orients the pilot pin 5 so as to bring the two flats 53 perpendicular to the direction in which must be corrected the positioning of the upper hinge 10. This orientation of the pilot pin 5 is carried out simply by using a screwdriver coming to cooperate with the slot made on the screw head. Advantageously and to facilitate the identification of the orientation of the flats 53, the slit of the screw head may, during manufacture, be oriented parallel to the flats 53.

The door is then moved manually so as to be correctly repositioned in its frame and the hinges are permanently immobilized by means of fixing screws.

The hinge according to the invention therefore allows a setting in rapid geometry of a door on a vehicle thanks to the cooperation of a pilot pin 5 with a bore of the structural element and to modify, if necessary, the position of the hinge relative to the pilot pin 5 to answer the few cases where the initial position of the pilot pin 5 does not allow not a correct mounting of the door in its frame. Furthermore, this modification of the positioning of the door is carried out along a single axis of adjustment, adjustable by the operator according to the need, which allows keep the settings along the other axes and save time when the geometry of the door.

In a mounting variant, the vehicle door may also be equipped with two hinges according to the invention, the pilot pin of the first hinge then cooperating with an adjusted hole carried by the structural element and the pilot pin of the second cooperating hinge with an oblong hole whose smallest width is adjusted to the diameter of the pilot counter.

The mounting of a door fitted with such hinges according to the invention is carried out simply by inserting the pilot piece of each hinge through the holes provided on the structural element so as to immobilize the door according to a fixed geometry, the possible adjustment of the geometry carried out by bringing each of the pilot pins in position setting and orienting them correctly to adjust the door relative to its framing. Once this adjustment is made, the hinges are immobilized using the fixing screws. This type of articulation device is particularly suitable for mounting the boot doors.

Of course, the invention is in no way limited to the modes of realization described and illustrated which have been given only by way of example.

On the contrary, the invention includes all equivalents techniques of the means described as well as their combinations if these are carried out according to his spirit.

Claims (9)

Hinge (10) for a motor vehicle opening comprising a first knuckle (1), fixed to the sash, and a second knuckle (2), fixed to a structural element of the vehicle, joined together by an axis articulation (7), said second knuckle (1) comprising a plate of fixing (21) provided with a pilot pin (5) inserting through a bore of the structural element to serve as a positioning reference for said hinge (10), characterized in that said pilot pin (5) is movable axially on the plate (21) in order to occupy an adjustment position in which the body of the pilot pin (5) allows a modification of the position of the second knuckle (2) on the structural element. Hinge (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that said pilot pin adjustment position (5) authorizes the modification of the position of the second knuckle (2) on the structural element according to a single axis of the plane of the plate (21). Hinge (10) according to claim 2, characterized in that said pilot pin (5) comprises a cylindrical body (51) mounted tightly in a hole (23) of the plate (21), said cylindrical body (51) projecting from on either side of the plate (21) and comprising, on the side opposite to the structural element, a portion, provided with two flats (53) parallel, can be brought to the level of the plate (21) by axial movement of the pilot pin (5) to allow movement relative of the second knuckle (2) with respect to the structural element of the vehicle along an axis perpendicular to the flats (53). Hinge (10) according to claim 3, characterized in that the two flats (53) extend along the body of the pin (51) from the head (52) over a length slightly greater than the thickness of the plate (21). Hinge (10) according to claim 4, characterized in that the pilot pin (5) has a conical end for easy positioning said pilot pin (5) through the bore of the structural element, the other end of the pilot pin (5) being provided with a head (52) of diameter higher than the cylindrical body (51) and serving as a striking zone, by example for a hammer, to axially move the pilot pin (51) the along the hole (23). Hinge (10) according to claim 5, characterized in that said head (52) of the pilot pin (5) has a slot (54) allowing change the orientation of the pilot pin (5) using a screwdriver. Hinge (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the hinge (2) has two fixing screws (6) allowing its final immobilization on the structural element. Method for mounting a door leaf provided with a hinge (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, in which it is brought, first, the pilot pin (5) opposite the bore, we assemble the hinge by pre-tightening the hinge fixing screw, then we check the location of the door on its frame, characterized in that, in case of bad location of the opening, the pilot pin (5) is moved axially on the plate (21) to bring it into an adjustment position allowing the lateral movement of the plate (21) on the structural element. Method according to claim 8 for mounting an opening provided a hinge according to claim 6, characterized in that before moving the pilot pin (5) to the position of adjustment, orient said pilot pin (5) by means of a screwdriver to bring the two parallel flats (53) perpendicular to the direction in which you want to move the hinge (10).

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