JP2001233246A - Vehicle body structure - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle body structure surely improving rigidity of a strut tower. SOLUTION: A cowling top member 13 is connected to the upper side of a dash panel member 12 for supporting a windshield 14, while a spring support member 22 is arranged inside a strut housing member 21 arranged on the left and right sides of the inside of an engine room S1 so as to support the upper end of a strut 23. One side of the spring support member 22 is connected to the cowling top member 13, while an extension part 21a formed in the strut housing member 21 is connected to the cowling top member 13, and via a firm closed cross section S4 formed in this way, the strut tower 20 is connected to the cowling top member 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle body structure around a strut tower for supporting an upper portion of a front suspension of a vehicle.

[0002]

[Related Background Art] Strut towers provided on the left and right in the engine room of a vehicle support the upper ends of the struts of the front suspension, and support the struts in place against the load acting on the suspension during traveling. ing. In order to fulfill such a role, the strut tower needs to have sufficient rigidity. In order to satisfy this requirement, for example, a vehicle body structure described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 63-47579 has been proposed. In this vehicle body structure, a cowl top is provided between the lower end of the front window and the upper end of the dash panel so as to form a closed cross section in the vehicle width direction, and the spring supports forming the left and right strut towers extend rearward. The strut tower is prevented from deforming by transmitting the load acting on the strut tower to the cowl top side.

[0003]

However, in the vehicle body structure described in the official gazette, the strut tower is connected to the cowl top only by a single steel plate having an extended spring support. Therefore, the load acting on the strut tower cannot be effectively transmitted to the cowl top side. In other words, the cowl top having a closed cross section hardly contributes to the improvement of the rigidity of the strut tower, and as a result, the strut tower is deformed, resulting in a problem such that the suspension is out of alignment.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle body structure capable of reliably improving the rigidity of a strut tower.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a cowl top member joined to a dash panel member for partitioning an engine room and a vehicle compartment of a vehicle and supporting a front window, and an engine room And a pair of strut housing members, the rear edges of which are connected to the cowl top member, and which are disposed in each strut housing member to support the upper end of the strut and to have one end on each side. And a pair of spring support members joined to the cowl top member, and the cowl top member, the strut housing member, and the spring support member are provided so as to cooperate to form a closed cross section.

Accordingly, not only is one side of the spring support member and the trailing edge of the strut housing member simply joined to the cowl top member, but these members cooperate to form a rigid closed cross section. , The load acting on the strut tower via the strut during traveling of the vehicle is transmitted to the cowl top member side via the closed cross section, and the spring support member, the strut housing member, and the cowl top The members and the members cooperate to reliably prevent the strut tower from deforming.

[0007] The present invention is preferably a vehicle body in which a cowl top member having the above-described structure is formed with a vertical wall surface extending substantially upright in the vehicle width direction and a plurality of bead portions extending vertically in the vertical wall surface. It can be embodied as a structure.
With this configuration, the rigidity of the cowl top member is ensured by the bead portion, so that the cowl top member itself does not need to have a closed cross-sectional structure, and the reinforcing material in the closed cross-section can be inevitably omitted. Accordingly, the weight of the cowl top member is reduced, and the weight of the entire vehicle is reduced.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a vehicle body structure of a passenger car will be described below. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the vehicle body structure of the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a dash panel unit, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2 showing a relationship between a front window and a cowl top, and FIG. Fig. 2 shows the relationship between the strut tower and the cowl top.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV, and the left side in FIG. 1 corresponds to the front of the vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 1, a pair of side members 1 are provided in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, and each side member 1
The front side member 2 on the front side and the rear side member 3 on the rear side are welded to each other near a cross member 9 described later. The rear side members 3 each have a concave cross section that opens upward, are bent up and down in accordance with the shape of the floor or the like of the vehicle, and have a circular cross section disposed in the vehicle width direction. They are mutually connected by the cross pipes 4. On these rear side members 3,
Front floor pan 5 and rear floor pan 6 divided into three
The rear side member 3 is welded and fixed to the lower surfaces of the floor pans 5 and 6 with a closed cross section formed in the front-rear direction inside.

Each front side member 2 has a closed cross section in the front-rear direction, and is connected to each other by a cross member 9 having a rectangular cross section and a cross pipe 8 having a circular cross section arranged in the vehicle width direction. . On both front side members 2, a radiator support 10 and a dash panel unit 11 are fixed by welding, and an engine room S1 is formed by these members.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a rear portion of the dash panel unit 11 has an engine room S1 and a vehicle room S2.
The cowl top 13 is joined to the upper end of the dash panel 12 by welding. The cowl top 13 is press-formed from a single steel plate to form a shelf surface 13a extending substantially horizontally in the vehicle width direction, and the rear end of the shelf surface 13a is bent upward and slightly inclined forward. A vertical wall surface 13b that stands upright is formed. The upper end of the vertical wall surface 13b supports the lower end of the front window 14 and is bent toward the compartment S2.

A total of six bead portions 15 are formed on the vertical wall surface 13b of the cowl top 13 at substantially equal intervals in the vehicle width direction.
Each bead portion 15 has a trapezoidal cross section and extends vertically over the entire vertical wall surface 13b. The bead portion 15 is formed at the same time as the cowl top 13 is pressed. As shown in FIG. 3, a garnish 16 made of a synthetic resin having a substantially L-shaped cross section is disposed on the front side of the cowl top 13, and one side surface 16 a of the garnish 16 is connected to the lower end surface of the front window 14, and the garnish 16
The other side surface 16b extends downward and is fixed on a shelf surface 13a of the cowl top 13 by a fixing member such as a pin (not shown). A space S3 partitioned from the engine room S1 is formed in front of the shelf 13a and the vertical wall surface 13b of the cowl top 13 by the garnish 16, and a wiper motor and the like are housed in the space S3 (not shown).
A weather strip 17 is attached to the bent portion of the garnish 16 along the vehicle width direction.
When the front hood 18 is closed, the rear edge of the front hood 18 is pressed onto the top 7.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, both left and right sides of the dash panel unit 11 are respectively constituted by front fender aprons 19, and strut towers 20 are provided on the inner walls of the front fender aprons 19 in the engine room S1. Is provided. These strut towers 20 include a strut housing 21 and a spring support 22. The strut housing 21 is provided on the dash panel 1.
It is located immediately before 2 and has a substantially semi-cylindrical shape extending in the vertical direction, and its periphery is joined to the inner wall of the front fender apron 19 by welding. The spring support 22 is welded and fixed in the strut housing 21. The spring support 22 is formed in a cup shape that opens downward, and the strut 2 of the front suspension is used.
3 is supported at the upper end.

In order to bring the strut tower 20 closer to the dash panel 12 in this way, in the vehicle of the present embodiment, the dash panel 12 is positioned slightly forward as compared with a normal vehicle, and the strut 23 is By setting the caster angle α to about 3 °, the strut tower 20 is slightly inclined backward. As shown in FIG. 4, the rear side of the spring support 22 abuts on the front portion of the shelf surface 13a of the cowl top 13, and the abutting portion is fixed by welding. The upper end of the strut housing 21 has a rear edge extending rearward to form an extended portion 21a.
The rear end of 1a is bent downward and fixed on the shelf surface 13a of the cowl top 13 by welding. The rear side of the spring support 22 and the strut housing 21
And the shelf surface 13a of the cowl top 13 cooperate to form closed cross sections S4 at the rear of both strut housings 20, respectively.

In the vehicle body structure of the present embodiment configured as described above, the rear side of the spring support 22 and the extending portion 21a of the strut housing 21 are not only welded to the cowl top 13 but are also welded. Member 22,
A closed cross section S4 is formed between the cowl top 21 and the shelf surface 13a of the cowl top 13. Therefore, the strut tower 20
Is connected to the cowl top 13 via the strong closed section S4, and the load acting on the strut tower 20 from the strut 23 during traveling of the vehicle is transmitted to the cowl top 13 via the closed section S4. Therefore, the strut housing 21, the spring support 22, and the cowl top 13 cooperate to reliably prevent the strut tower 20 from being deformed. As a result, problems due to deformation of the strut tower 20, for example, a decrease in steering performance due to suspension alignment misalignment and the like can be prevented.

As is apparent from FIGS. 3 and 4, the cowl top 13 is not formed in a closed cross-sectional structure in the vehicle body structure of the present embodiment, but is sufficiently provided by a total of six bead portions 15 formed on the vertical wall surface 13b. Rigidity is secured. Accordingly, the cowl top 13 can sufficiently satisfy the support rigidity and the like for the front window 14 originally required, and can sufficiently contribute to the prevention of the deformation of the strut tower 20 due to the load during traveling as described above. And, as described above, the cowl top 13 does not have a closed sectional structure,
Moreover, since the reinforcing material in the closed cross section is necessarily omitted, the cowl top 13 is significantly reduced in weight, which can contribute to the weight reduction of the entire vehicle.

Although the embodiment has been described above, aspects of the present invention are not limited to this embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is embodied in a vehicle body structure of a passenger car. However, the applicable vehicle type is not limited to a passenger car, and is applicable to a vehicle having a structure including a cowl top 13 and a strut tower 20. For example, it may be applied to a wagon vehicle.

In the above embodiment, a total of six beads 15 having a trapezoidal cross section are formed on the vertical wall portion 13b in order to secure the rigidity of the cowl top 13, but the configuration of the cowl top 13 is not limited to this. The bead portion 15
The rigidity may be ensured by changing the number or the shape of the cross section, or by forming the cowl top 15 in a closed cross section instead of the bead portion 15.

[0019]

As described above, according to the vehicle body structure of the present invention, one side of the spring support member and the rear edge of the strut housing member are connected to the cowl top member, and these members cooperate to close. Since the strut tower is provided with a cross section, the strut tower is coupled to the cowl top through a strong closed cross section, and the rigidity of the strut tower can be reliably improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a vehicle body structure according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a dash panel unit.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2, showing a relationship between a front window and a cowl top.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2, illustrating a relationship between a strut tower and a cowl top.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 Dash panel (Dash panel member) 13 Cowl top (Cowl top member) 21 Strut housing (Strut housing member) 22 Spring support (Spring support member) 23 Strut S1 Engine room S2 Cabin S4 Closed section

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Sakurai 5-33-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Nakura 5-33-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Inside the Automotive Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hideshi Kobayashi 5-33-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (72) Inventor Yorito Takemoto 5-33-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Motors Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masataka Miura 4-21-1, Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Motors Engineering Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 3D003 AA01 BB01 CA05 CA07 CA60 DA29

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cowl top member that is joined to a dash panel member that partitions an engine room and a vehicle compartment of a vehicle and supports a front window, and is disposed on both sides of the engine room in a vehicle width direction, and has a rear edge. A pair of strut housing members coupled to the cowl top member, and a pair of springs disposed in each of the strut housing members to support an upper end of the strut and to have one side coupled to the cowl top member, respectively. A body structure comprising a support member, wherein the cowl top member, the strut housing member, and the spring support member are provided so as to cooperate to form a closed cross section.