JP2002019509A - Armrest for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To absorb the impact load acting from the side of an armrest body in collision. SOLUTION: In this armrest of an automobile having the armrest body 1 formed by coating a surface of a core material 4 with a soft layer 5 and a facing 6, the core material 4 is composed of at least upper and lower top plates 4a and 4b, and plural ribs 4c for longitudinally connecting these top plates 4a and 4b, the impact load acting from the side of the armrest body 1 is absorbed by being sheared by the ribs 4c, and the load acting from an upper part of the armrest body 1 is supported by the ribs 4c as the buckling load. As the load acting from the upper part of the armrest body 1 is supported by the ribs 4c connecting the top plates 4a and 4c, as the buckling load, the ribs 4c are not broken even in applying the heavy load onto the armrest body 1 from the upper direction, and the impact load acting from the side of the armrest body 1 in collision is absorbed by shearing the ribs 4c.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an armrest provided inside an automobile door.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 11, a conventional armrest a provided on the inside of a door of an automobile comprises a core layer b having a soft layer c made of a foam such as urethane and a skin d made of vinyl chloride or the like. The core material b is, for example, as shown in FIG.

[0003] The core material b is composed of an upper plate e and the upper plate e.
Is formed in a substantially L-shaped cross section by a side plate f extending downward from one side edge of the upper surface plate e.
When the armrest a receives an impact load from the side, the upper plate e is provided with a plurality of openings g to absorb the impact load and protect the occupant from an impact. Is open.

The opening g has a shape in which an X-shaped bridge h is provided in a diagonal direction of the substantially square opening g.
When the armrest a receives an impact load from the side, the bridge h is broken to absorb the impact.

[0005]

In the conventional armrest a, a large number of bridges h are provided in the opening g of the core material b in order to improve the shock absorbing performance against the impact load from the side. For this reason, when using the armrest a, if the occupant puts an elbow or the like on the bridge h portion of the armrest a, the load may concentrate on the bridge h and the bridge h may be damaged. When an impact load is received from the side, there is a problem that the bridge h cannot absorb the impact load.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and it is hard to be damaged by a vertical impact and has a high shock absorbing performance against a lateral impact load. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automobile armrest using a core material having the same.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, an automobile armrest according to the present invention is an automobile armrest formed by covering a surface of a core material with a soft layer and a skin. The core material is formed of at least two upper and lower upper plates and a plurality of ribs vertically connecting the upper plates, and the ribs shear an impact load applied from the side of the armrest body. And the load acting from above the armrest body is supported by the rib as a buckling load.

With the above structure, when the occupant strikes the elbow or the like on the upper surface of the armrest main body, even if a large load acts locally on the core material from above, the rib supports this load as a buckling load. Therefore, the ribs are not damaged by a large local load, and there is no need to provide an opening in the upper plate, so that the durability of the upper plate is improved.

When an impact load acts on the armrest body from the side due to a vehicle collision or the like, the ribs connected between the upper plates are sheared by the impact load and absorb the impact load. Can be reliably protected.

In order to achieve the above object, an armrest of a motor vehicle according to the present invention is capable of arbitrarily setting a shear load and a buckling load by changing a width of a rib of a core material.

With the above structure, the impact load to be absorbed,
Since it can be handled simply by changing the width of the rib according to the buckling load to be supported, it is easy to set the impact load to be absorbed and the buckling load to be supported, and to mold the ribs of the mold to mold the core material Since it can be dealt with simply by correcting the part, the cost of the mold can be significantly reduced as compared with the case where a new mold is manufactured.

In order to achieve the above object, an automobile armrest according to the present invention is characterized in that an upper portion of a through hole opened between respective ribs is cut into an upper-side upper plate to thereby provide a space between an upper-side upper plate and a lower-side upper plate. The undercut is prevented from occurring in the above.

[0013] With the above structure, after the core material is formed, the mold can be opened in the vertical direction and the molded product can be cut out.
The structure of the mold can be simplified as compared with the case where the mold is slid in the horizontal direction to remove the mold, thereby reducing the cost of the mold.

In order to achieve the above object, an automobile armrest according to the present invention has an upper plate formed in at least three stages of an upper stage, a middle stage, and a lower stage, and the upper surface plates are interconnected by at least two upper and lower ribs. It was established.

According to the above configuration, when the armrest body receives an impact load from the side, the ribs provided in the upper and lower stages are sheared to absorb the impact load, so that the impact absorption performance is further improved.

In order to achieve the above object, an automobile armrest according to the present invention is characterized in that at least two upper and lower ribs provided with different shear loads in upper and lower stages.

According to the above structure, when the armrest body receives an impact from the side, first, the rib having a weak shear load is sheared, and then the rib having a strong shear load is sheared, so that the impact load is gradually absorbed. , Which makes it possible to absorb even greater impact loads.

[0018]

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

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an automobile door provided with an armrest, FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the armrest,
3 is a perspective view of a core material used for the armrest, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, and FIG.

The armrest main body 1 provided on the inner surface of the door of the automobile is attached to the inner panel of the door 2 from the front side of the door trim 3 covering the inner surface of the door 2 by a fixing means (not shown).

The armrest body 1 covers the surface of a core material 4 integrally formed of a synthetic resin as shown in FIG. 3 with a soft layer 5 made of a foam such as urethane, and further coats the surface of the soft layer 5 with vinyl chloride. The core material 4 is hardly damaged by a load from above and below, and has improved shock absorption performance against impact loads from the side. It is formed by the upper plates 4a and 4b.

The upper plate 4a on the upper side and the upper plate 4b on the lower side are connected to each other by ribs 4c slightly thinner than the upper plates 4a and 4b.

The rib 4c is formed by opening a rectangular through hole 4d in a vertical wall substantially perpendicular to the upper plates 4a and 4b with a space in the longitudinal direction at an interval in the longitudinal direction. When an impact load F is applied from the side, each rib 4c is sheared to absorb the impact load F, and the impact load F from the side to be absorbed is provided.
The width of each rib 4c is set according to.

Further, the ribs 4c receive a load in the buckling direction (compression direction) with respect to a load applied from above the armrest main body 1, so that the ribs 4c are less likely to be damaged by a vertical load. And the lower upper plate 4
b, a side plate 4e bent substantially at right angles downward.
Are connected.

The shear load and the buckling load of the rib 4c provided between the upper plates 4a and 4b can be adjusted by changing the size of the through hole 4d opened in the vertical wall and adjusting the width of the rib 4c. , Can be set freely.

Next, the operation of the armrest constructed as described above will be described.

The armrest body 1 inserts a core material 4 made of a synthetic resin in advance into a mold (not shown) to integrally mold the soft layer 5 and the skin 6 into a predetermined shape. The armrest main body 1 is attached to the inner panel of the door 2 from the front side of the door trim 3 that covers the inner surface of the door 2 by fixing means.

The armrest main body 1 attached to the door 2 also serves as a handle for opening and closing the door 2. Even if a larger load acts locally on the upper surface plate 4a than on the upper side, the ribs 4c connecting the upper and lower upper surface plates 4a and 4b receive this load in the buckling direction. In the buckling direction, a load from above is supported by a rib 4c having a large strength. Even if a locally large load acts on the armrest body 1 from above, the rib 4c is hardly damaged.

On the other hand, when an impact load F larger than the side of the armrest body 1 is applied due to a vehicle collision or the like, the rib 4c continuously connecting the upper plates 4a and 4b receives the impact load F in the shear direction. .

Further, since each rib 4c is formed thinner than each of the upper plates 4a and 4b and is easily damaged by a load in the shear direction, it receives an impact load F acting on the armrest body 1 from the side. As shown in FIG. 5, the connecting portion between the upper plates 4a, 4b and the ribs 4c is sheared, thereby absorbing the impact load F, so that the occupant can be reliably protected from the impact at the time of collision. Become.

When the core material 4 used for the armrest according to the above embodiment is molded from a synthetic resin, it is necessary to slide the upper and lower molds horizontally to remove the molded product after molding. By adopting the core material 4 having the shape shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, it is possible to open the upper and lower molds in the vertical direction and to remove the molded product.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the upper part of the through-hole 4d opening in the vertical wall connecting the upper upper surface plate 4a and the lower upper surface plate 4b is cut into the upper upper surface plate 4a. Form.

As a result, undercutting does not occur between the upper surface plate 4a on the upper side and the upper surface plate 4b on the lower side, so that after the core material 4 is formed, the upper and lower dies are opened in the vertical direction to remove the molded product. Therefore, there is an advantage that the structure of the mold can be simplified.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show a modification of the core member 4 in which the upper plate is made up of three steps. The core material 4 is placed between the upper plate 4a of the upper stage, the upper plate 4f of the middle stage and the upper plate 4b of the lower stage. In this embodiment, ribs 4c similar to those of the first embodiment are provided in two stages.

According to this modification, the armrest body 1
The impact load received from the side is absorbed by shearing the upper and lower ribs 4c, so that the effect of further improving the impact absorption performance is obtained.

The upper and lower ribs 4c are sheared by changing the width and number of the ribs 4c so that the ribs 4c having a weak shear load are first sheared, and then the ribs 4c having a strong shear load are sheared. Therefore, the impact load can be gradually absorbed.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to the case of a door armrest attached to the inside of the door 2, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to an armrest attached to a vehicle body.

[0038]

As described above in detail, in the present invention, the core material housed in the armrest main body is formed by at least two upper and lower upper plates and a plurality of ribs vertically connecting these upper plates. The rib absorbs the impact load acting from the side of the armrest body by shearing, and the load acting from above the armrest body is supported by the rib as a buckling load. When a large load acts locally on the core material from above when an elbow or the like strikes the upper surface of the main body, the ribs support this load as buckling loads, so the large local load breaks the ribs There is no need to provide an opening in the top plate, and the durability of the top plate is improved.

When an impact load acts on the armrest body from the side due to a vehicle collision or the like, the ribs connected between the upper plates are sheared by the impact load to absorb the impact load. Can be reliably protected.

Further, since the shear load and the buckling load can be arbitrarily set by changing the width of the rib of the core material, the rib load can be adjusted according to the impact load to be absorbed or the buckling load to be supported. Because you can respond simply by changing the width,
The impact load to be absorbed and the buckling load to be supported can be easily set, and it can be dealt with only by modifying the rib forming part of the mold for forming the core material. As a result, the mold cost can be significantly reduced.

Further, the upper portion of the through hole opened between the ribs is cut into the upper surface plate on the upper side to prevent undercut from occurring between the upper surface plate on the upper stage and the upper surface plate on the lower stage. Since the rear mold can be opened vertically to remove the molded product, the structure of the mold can be simplified as compared with the case where the mold is slid horizontally to remove the mold. The mold cost can be reduced.

Furthermore, if the upper plate is formed in at least three stages of the upper stage, the middle stage and the lower stage, and the upper surface plates are connected to each other by at least two upper and lower stages of ribs, the armrest body receives an impact load from the side. Since the ribs provided in the upper and lower stages are sheared to absorb the impact load, the shock absorbing performance is further improved. When the main body receives an impact from the side, the ribs with a low shear load are sheared first, and then the ribs with a high shear load are sheared. Loads can be absorbed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a door to which an armrest of an automobile according to an embodiment of the present invention is attached.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an armrest of the automobile according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a core used for an armrest of an automobile according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view of the armrest of the automobile according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a modified example of a core material used for an armrest of an automobile according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a modified example of the core material used for the armrest of the automobile according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a core material used for a conventional automobile armrest.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional automobile armrest.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Armrest main body 2 Door 3 Door trim 4 Core material 4a, 4b Top plate 4c Rib 4d Through hole 4e Side plate 4f Top plate 5 Soft layer 6 Skin F Impact load

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An automobile armrest in which an armrest main body is formed by covering the surface of a core material with a soft layer and a skin, wherein the core material is formed of at least two upper and lower upper plates, and these upper plates are vertically The ribs are formed by a plurality of ribs connected in the direction, and the impact load applied from the side of the armrest body is absorbed by shearing the ribs, and the load applied from above the armrest body is the ribs. An armrest for a vehicle, wherein the armrest supports as a buckling load. 2. The armrest of an automobile according to claim 1, wherein a shear load and a buckling load can be arbitrarily set by changing a width of the rib of the core material. 3. An undercut between an upper upper plate and a lower upper plate by making the upper portion of the through hole opened between the ribs bite into the upper upper plate. Or the armrest of a car according to 2. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the upper surface plates are formed in at least three stages of an upper stage, a middle stage and a lower stage, and the upper surface plates are connected to each other by at least two upper and lower stages of ribs. 2. The armrest of an automobile according to claim 1. 5. The armrest of an automobile according to claim 4, wherein the shear loads of the ribs provided in at least two upper and lower stages are made different in upper and lower stages.