JP2001071704A - Wheel cover - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve quality of external appearance without losing a function to exhaust high temperature air by providing a disclike cover body and a plurality of ventilation parts arranged between the center part of the cover body and the peripheral part thereof, and providing in the ventilation part a plurality of louvers which is centrifugally inclined from a body side toward a vehicle outer side. SOLUTION: A cover body 32 is a disclike shape, has a size to cover approximately the whole surface of the design surface side of a wheel 11, and is provided with a plurality of approximately sectorial opening parts 33 which corresponds to the opening part 13 of the wheel 11. A ventilation member 41 is mounted in each opening part 33 of this wheel cover 31 so as to form a ventilation part 40. In the ventilation member 41, a small square mesh is formed on approximately the whole surface of a ventilation design surface 41a. The square composes a louver 42, and forms an opened ventilation hole 43. The louver 42 in a circumferential direction is inclined in a centrifugal direction from a body side to a vehicle outer side. High temperature air is introduced by the centrifugally inclined louver 42 and exhausted from the ventilation part 40 to the outside.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wheel cover mounted on an automobile wheel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 1, an automobile wheel comprises a substantially cylindrical rim 12 and a spoke portion 14 connecting the rim 12 and a center portion 17. Spoke part
14 comprises a plurality of spokes 16 radiating from a hub hole 18 provided in a central portion 17 and arranged at equal intervals.
The space surrounded by the adjacent spokes 16 and rim 12 forms the opening 13.

[0003] The opening 13 also has a function as a heat radiating window for releasing the heat generated in the wheel 11 and its peripheral portion to the outside. That is, a disc brake device 21 is mounted inside the wheel 11, that is, on the vehicle body side, and when the vehicle is running at high speed, the braking friction when braking the brake disc 22 of the disc brake device 21 by a brake pad (not shown). Heat is generated. Also, kinetic friction heat is generated when the tire 5 rotates at high speed on the road surface. Due to the frictional heat, the air in the wheel 11 and its surroundings becomes considerably hot, and this high-temperature air is discharged from the opening 13 to the outside. Therefore, as the opening area of the opening 13 is as large as possible, the hot air around the wheel 11 is more easily discharged.

[0004] Incidentally, the brake disk 22 is made of a casting, and thus easily rusts, and rust is generated on the disk surface after raining or car washing. When an observer 1 at a position slightly away from the car looks at the wheel 11, the observer 1 can directly see the rusted brake disc 22 through the opening 13 of the wheel 11, so that the appearance quality of the wheel 11 Feel bad. The larger the opening area of the opening 13 is, the more easily the rusted brake disk 22 can be seen, so that the appearance quality of the wheel 11 is low. Therefore, although increasing the opening area of the opening 13 is effective for discharging high-temperature air, it is not preferable in terms of aesthetics of the wheel 11.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, a technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the appearance quality of a wheel cover without impairing the original function of discharging hot air around the wheel. It is to provide.

[0006]

In order to solve the above technical problems, according to the present invention, there is provided a wheel cover having the following configuration.

That is, a wheel cover according to the present invention includes a disk-shaped cover body, and a plurality of ventilation portions disposed between a center portion and a peripheral portion of the cover body. It is characterized by having a plurality of louvers inclined in a centrifugal manner from the vehicle body side to the vehicle outside.

It has been confirmed that when the wheel cover having the above structure is mounted on a wheel, high-temperature air is effectively discharged from the wheel side toward the outside of the vehicle. It is considered that the hot air is discharged to the outside for the following two reasons. That is, the hot air rotates with the wheel, but the centrifugal force acts on the air due to the mass of the air itself, and the first reason is that the hot air moves from the center to the outer periphery. The second reason is that the peripheral portion has a higher peripheral velocity than the central portion, so that the density of the air is lower, so that the pressure is lower than the central portion and the high-temperature air moves from the central portion toward the outer peripheral portion. is there. The high-temperature air flows in a centrifugal direction from the central portion toward the outer peripheral portion, but the flow is blocked by the outermost rim, so that the high-temperature air flows toward the ventilation portion provided in the middle. In the ventilation section having the louvers inclined in a centrifugal direction from the vehicle body side to the vehicle outside, the hot air moves in the centrifugal direction along the louvers inclined in the centrifugal shape. Therefore, the direction in which the hot air moves from the wheel side to the outside of the vehicle through the wheel cover is the centrifugal direction, so that the hot air is smoothly discharged without receiving any resistance.

When the designed wheel cover is mounted on the wheel, the wheel cover covers the entire wheel and a plurality of centrifugally inclined louvers provided in the ventilation portion of the wheel cover are provided in the horizontal direction. Since the view is obstructed, a viewer who looks at the wheel from a substantially horizontal direction cannot see the inside of the wheel, that is, the brake disc. Therefore, the viewer feels that the appearance quality of the wheel is high because the viewer only sees the wheel cover that has been subjected to the design processing.

The ventilation portion can be provided in the cover main body by integral molding or separate molding, but is preferably formed by fitting a ventilation member into an opening provided in the cover main body.

According to the above configuration, a ventilation section having a complicated shape can be formed in the cover body. That is, when the ventilation portion has a complicated shape, a small ventilation member that requires precision molding and a large cover body that is sufficient for normal molding are separately molded. After that, by fitting the ventilation member into the opening provided in the cover body, a cover body having a ventilation section having a complicated shape is obtained. Therefore, the molding cost can be suppressed and the cost can be reduced as compared with the case where the cover main body and the ventilation member are precision molded integrally.

The structure of the louver of the ventilation portion may be a mesh plate or a substantially flat plate extending in the circumferential direction of the wheel cover.

The mesh plate louver is a louver whose mesh unit is a polygon such as a triangle, a square, a rhombus, and a hexagon. The substantially flat louver extending in the circumferential direction of the wheel cover is an arc plate louver extending in the circumferential direction of the wheel cover, and a flat louver corresponding to a chord of the arc are arranged in parallel. It is a louver. Each of the louvers having these shapes has a higher ventilation ratio than the cylindrical louvers, and thus has higher air permeability.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the wheel 11 includes a rim 12 and a spoke portion 14, and both are integrally formed by casting aluminum or an aluminum alloy. The rim 12 has a substantially cylindrical shape, and a tire (not shown) is mounted on an outer peripheral portion thereof. Rim flange 15 on the outermost periphery of rim 12
To form The spoke portion 14 has a hub hole 18 and a bolt hole 19
And a plurality of spokes 16 radially extending around the hub hole 18 on the design surface side of the rim 12.
Spoke 16 connects center part 17 to the inner peripheral surface of rim 12
Support 12 A space surrounded by two adjacent spokes 16 and the rim 12 forms a substantially fan-shaped opening 13.
Are arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction between the center portion 17 and the rim 12. A hub (not shown) of an axle and a bolt 23 extending outward from the brake disc 22 are inserted into a hub hole 18 and a bolt hole 19 provided in the center portion 17 of the spoke portion 14, respectively. Then, nut to bolt 23
The wheel 11 is fixed to the axle by screwing at 24.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the wheel cover 31 includes a cover body 32 and an engaging portion (not shown), and is formed by ordinary resin molding. The cover main body 32 has a disk shape and has a size that covers substantially the entire design surface side of the wheel 11. The cover body 32 has a plurality of substantially fan-shaped openings 33 corresponding to the openings 13 of the wheel 11. The opening 33 of the wheel cover 31 has the same arrangement and shape as the opening 13 of the wheel 11, but may be different. The engaging portion (not shown) is the wheel 11 of the peripheral portion 34.
The wheel cover 31 is mounted on the wheel 11 by being engaged with the rim flange 15.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a ventilation member 41 is attached to each opening 33 of the wheel cover 31 to form a ventilation section 40. The ventilation member 41 formed by precision molding of the resin includes a substantially fan-shaped ventilation design surface 41a protruding to the outside of the vehicle so as to be substantially flush with the surface of the wheel cover 31, one arc-shaped wall surface 48,
It has a cup shape surrounded by two radial side wall surfaces 49, and the wheel 11 side is open to substantially the entire surface. A mesh having a small square as a basic unit is formed on substantially the entire surface of the ventilation design surface 41a. This quadrangle is composed of two louvers 42 extending in a substantially arc-shaped or straight line in parallel in a substantially circumferential direction, and two louvers 42 extending in parallel in a substantially radial direction. Form. As shown in FIG. 4, the louvers 42 in the circumferential direction are inclined in the outer peripheral direction, that is, in the centrifugal direction from the vehicle body side toward the vehicle outer side. In addition,
The basic unit of the mesh of the ventilation member 41 can be a polygon such as a triangle, a rhombus, or a hexagon, or a round hole such as a circle or an ellipse. The louvers 42 forming these basic units are inclined in a centrifugal manner from the vehicle body side toward the vehicle outside.

The peripheral edge of the opening on the side of the wheel 11 has a shape corresponding to the opening 33 of the cover main body 32, and has a plurality of engaging portions 44 on its outer peripheral wall surface. The engaging portion 44 protruding outward from the outer peripheral wall surface of the ventilation member 41 is constituted by a locking claw 45, an engaging concave portion 47, and a locking convex portion 46 in order from the wheel 11 side. Engage with the peripheral edge of the opening 33 of the cover 31. Therefore, the ventilation member 41 is
32 can be easily attached and detached.

Next, a method of using the wheel cover 31 and its operation will be described. Rim flange 15 of wheel 11
The wheel cover 31 is attached to the wheel 11 by engaging an engaging portion (not shown) of the wheel cover 31 with the wheel cover 31. Thereafter, a ventilation member is provided on the periphery of each opening 33 of the cover body 32.
The engaging portion 44 of the wheel cover 31 is engaged with the opening portion of the wheel cover 31.
A ventilation member 41 is attached to 33. After the ventilation members 41 are attached to the respective openings 33 of the wheel cover 31, the wheel cover 31 may be attached to the wheel 11.

Wheel cover 31 having a plurality of vents 40
When the vehicle equipped with the wheel 11 travels at high speed, the air around the wheel 11 is heated by the kinetic friction heat and the braking friction heat to a high temperature. The hot air moves in the centrifugal direction from the center toward the outer periphery due to the centrifugal force and the pressure difference. The hot air is guided to the ventilation section 40 while moving in the centrifugal direction. At this time, the high-temperature air is guided in the oblique centrifugal direction by the louver 42 inclined in the centrifugal direction from the vehicle body side toward the vehicle outside, and is discharged to the outside after passing through the ventilation part 40. Accordingly, a centrifugal airflow from the periphery of the wheel 11 to the outside is formed, so that the high-temperature air does not stay around the wheel 11. Since the disc brake device 21 is not overheated by high-temperature air, a predetermined braking performance can be ensured.

Further, since the wheel 11 is entirely covered by the wheel cover 31, and the louver 42 is inclined in a centrifugal manner from the vehicle body side to the vehicle outer side, a horizontal view is blocked. Therefore, a viewer who looks at the wheel 11 from a horizontal direction outside the vehicle cannot see the inside of the wheel 11. Therefore, even if the brake disc 22 is rusted, the viewer cannot see the inside of the wheel 11 through the wheel cover 31 and does not feel that the appearance quality is low. I feel that its appearance quality is high.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the louver 42 can be formed by arranging a plurality of arc plates extending in the circumferential direction of the wheel cover 31 in parallel, or as shown in FIG. As shown, a plurality of flat plates corresponding to the chords of this arc can be arranged in parallel. Furthermore, these plate louvers
42 can also be arranged diagonally and parallel. These plate-like louvers 42 are inclined in a centrifugal manner from the vehicle body side toward the vehicle outside. In addition, the louvers 42 of various shapes described above are used.
The wheel cover 31 may be integrally formed by simultaneously molding the ventilation member 41 and the cover main body 32, or may be a ventilation member made of a metal or a heat-resistant resin previously formed in a desired shape.
The cover body 32 can also be formed by insert molding in which the cover body 32 is resin-molded after the 41 is set in a molding die.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the periphery of a conventional wheel.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention and showing a state where a wheel cover is mounted on a wheel.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a state in which a ventilation member is attached to a wheel cover in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of a main part of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a ventilation member according to another embodiment of the present invention. (A) and (B) show the ventilation member whose louver is an arc plate and a flat plate, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Wheel 12 Rim 13 Opening 14 Spoke part 15 Rim flange 16 Spoke 17 Center part 18 Hub hole 19 Bolt hole 21 Disc brake device 22 Brake disk 23 Bolt 24 Nut 31 Wheel cover 32 Cover main body 33 Opening 34 Peripheral edge 40 Ventilation part 41 ventilation member 41a ventilation design surface 42 louver 43 ventilation hole 44 engaging portion 45 locking claw 46 locking convex portion 47 engaging concave portion 48 arc-shaped wall surface 49 side wall surface

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A disk-shaped cover body (32) and a cover body
A plurality of ventilation portions (40) arranged between a central portion (35) of the (32) and a peripheral portion (34), and the ventilation portions (40) are arranged from the vehicle body side to the vehicle exterior when the wheel cover is attached. A wheel cover having a plurality of louvers (42) inclined in a centrifugal shape toward the wheel cover. 2. The ventilation part (40) is formed by fitting a ventilation member (41) having the louver (42) into an opening (33) provided in a cover body (32). Claim 1.
The described wheel cover. 3. The wheel cover according to claim 1, wherein the louver is a mesh plate or a substantially flat plate extending in a circumferential direction of the wheel cover.