JP2002186131A - Vehicle wire protector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent wears of wires caused by pebbles accumulated in a protector. SOLUTION: This wire protector comprises an upper cover 10 and a lower cover 20. A pebble-discharging openings 23 are formed in the lower cover 20, even if pebbles enter the protector through a gap between coupling parts of the upper cover 10 and the lower cover 20, the pebbles are immediately discharged through the discharging openings 23, so that the pebbles do not accumulate in the protector. With such a constitution, wear of wires 16, caused by vibration of a traveling vehicle while the pebbles accumulated in the wire protector are brought into contact with the wires 16, can be surely avoided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle electric wire protector disposed on an outer bottom surface of a vehicle for protecting electric wires.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electric vehicle, for example, an electric power line is routed from an inverter device mounted on the vehicle to the motor. However, since this type of electric wire is thick, it is often installed on the outer bottom surface of the vehicle. . In such a case, an electric wire protector for the vehicle is required to protect the electric wire from stones and foreign substances that are thrown up by the wheels during traveling of the vehicle. This type of protector is composed of an upper cover attached to the outer bottom of the vehicle, and a lower cover attached to the upper cover. The protector receives and protects electric wires between the upper cover and the lower cover. . Here, the lower cover has been considered to have a non-porous shape so that stones, sand, etc., which are flipped up when the vehicle is running, do not enter.

[0003]

However, due to the structure of assembling the upper and lower covers as described above, a slight gap must be set at the fitting portion between the two covers.
For this reason, foreign substances and stones that are flipped up during traveling of the vehicle gradually enter the protector from the gap between the fitting portions of the two covers, and are accumulated without being discharged. Then, the wire and the stone come into contact with each other inside the protector. In this state, the wire coating is rubbed against the stone due to the vibration during traveling of the vehicle, so that the wire is gradually worn.

The present invention has been completed in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an electric wire protector for a vehicle which can prevent stones and the like from accumulating in the protector and abrading an electric wire coating. And

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a discharge port for discharging stones is formed in a lower cover of a protector including an upper cover and a lower cover. It has features.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the lower cover is formed with a plurality of tapered cylindrical portions that are wider toward the upper side, and a discharge port is opened at a lower end of the tapered cylindrical portion. It has features. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the electric wire is inserted into the protective tube and housed in the electric wire protector.
Further, the present invention is characterized in that the lower cover is provided with a tube supporting portion for supporting the protective tube by floating it from the bottom surface of the lower cover.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, even if a stone or the like enters the inside from the fitting gap between the upper and lower covers, it does not pass through the outlet of the lower cover. Since it is immediately discharged, stones and the like do not accumulate inside the protector. Thereby, abrasion of the electric wire coating due to friction with the stone can be reliably prevented.

<Invention of Claim 2> Although the discharge port of the lower cover is for discharging the stone that has entered the inside of the protector, the stone may enter in reverse from here. Therefore, in order to suppress the backflow of the stone and to smoothly discharge the entered stone, it is desirable to form as many discharge openings as possible in the lower cover as small as possible. However, if a large number of outlets are simply formed on the flat surface of the lower cover, the strength of the lower cover itself is reduced, so that there is a possibility that the lower cover may be damaged by collision with a large stone.

In this regard, according to the second aspect of the present invention,
A plurality of tapered tubular portions having a wide upper portion are formed on the lower cover, and the lower end of each tubular portion is opened as a discharge port, so that the strength of the lower cover is increased. In addition, even if stones enter the protector from the fitting portions of the upper and lower covers, when the stones reach the vicinity of the tapered upper end provided on the peripheral edge of the discharge port due to vibration during vehicle running, the inner wall of the tapered portion is formed. , And is smoothly discharged out of the protector from the discharge port at the lower end. In addition, since most of the stones jumped up by the wheels are rebounded to the outer wall of the tapered cylindrical portion, the backflow of the stone from the outlet into the protector can be suppressed. It is immediately discharged along the inner wall of the car and does not accumulate inside.

<Invention of Claim 3> According to the invention of Claim 3, since the electric wire is inserted into the protective tube and housed in the electric wire protector, the electric wire can be more reliably protected.
Moreover, since the protective tube is supported by being floated from the bottom surface by the tube supporting portion, it is possible to more reliably prevent abrasion due to foreign matter such as a stone that has entered the inside.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. The electric wire protector includes an upper cover 10 attached to the outer bottom surface 1 of the vehicle, and a lower cover 20 attached to the upper cover 10. The upper cover 10 is a substrate portion 10 extending along the outer bottom portion 1 of the vehicle.
A and a pair of side walls 10B extending downward from side edges of the substrate portion 10A, and have a U-shaped cross section and open downward. A mounting portion 11 intermittently protrudes laterally from a side edge portion of the substrate portion 10A of the upper cover 10, and a bolt 13 is formed in a mounting hole 12 formed here.
And the upper cover 10 is fixed to the outer bottom surface portion 1 of the vehicle.

On the other hand, the lower cover 20 is composed of a substrate portion 20A extending along the upper cover 10 and a pair of side walls 20B extending upward from a side edge of the substrate portion 20A. It has a gutter shape that opens upward,
The side wall 20B can be inserted between the side walls 10B of the upper cover 10. The side wall 20B is provided with an interlocking projection 21 intermittently projecting along the longitudinal direction.
4A, and can be engaged with the side wall 20 of the lower cover 20.
B is inserted between the side walls 10B of the upper cover 10, the engaging projections 21 are engaged with the engaging holes 14A of the elastic pieces 14, and the lower cover 20 is attached to the upper cover 10, and thus the entire wire protector. Is fixed to the vehicle.

In the electric wire protector, for example, three corrugated tubes 15 which are plastic protective tubes are accommodated.
A power wire 16 is inserted into the inside 5. A plurality of inverted conical tapered cylindrical portions 22 are formed in the substrate portion 20 </ b> A of the lower cover 20, and a circular discharge port 23 is opened at a lower end of the tapered cylindrical portion 22.

The present embodiment has the above configuration, and its operation will be described next. As the vehicle travels, a large number of stones wound on wheels may hit the outer bottom of the vehicle.
In this case, in the present embodiment, since the electric wire 16 is housed in the corrugated tube 15 and further disposed inside the electric wire protector, the stones and foreign substances that have been jumped up can be removed from the lower cover 2.
0 directly hits the substrate portion 20A and the side wall 10B of the upper cover 10 and is bounced back, and it can be reliably prevented that these directly hit the electric wire 16 and wear the insulating coating of the electric wire 16.

On the other hand, since the electric wire protector is configured by fitting the upper cover 10 and the lower cover 20, a slight gap is inevitably generated between the two covers 10, 20. For this reason, the jumped-up stones or the like may enter the wire protector from the gap. When stones and foreign matter that enter in this way accumulate in the wire protector,
There is a concern that the vibration during traveling may cause the stone to rub against the corrugated tube 15 and hence the insulating coating of the electric wire 16 to cause wear.

However, in this embodiment, the lower cover 20
Since a plurality of discharge ports 23 for discharging stones are formed in the substrate portion 20A, even if stones or the like enter the inside, they are immediately discharged from the discharge ports 23 and do not accumulate therein. . Even if the stones enter the wire protector through the outlet 23, the stones are also immediately discharged.
6 can be reliably prevented from being worn by rubbing.

Incidentally, in order to smoothly discharge the invaded stone while suppressing the backflow of the stone, it is desirable to form as many small openings as possible in the lower cover 20. However, if a large number of outlets are simply formed in the substrate portion 20A of the lower cover 20, the strength of the lower cover 20 itself is reduced. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the substrate portion 20A and increase the weight. Causes the problem of

In this regard, according to the present embodiment, the lower cover 20 is formed with a plurality of tapered tubular portions 22 having a wide upper portion, and a discharge port 23 is formed at the lower end of each of the tubular portions 22. Therefore, the strength of the lower cover 20 is increased, and stones and the like that have entered the inside of the tapered cylindrical portion 22 are rolled from the upper end of the tapered cylindrical portion 22 by the vibration during traveling of the vehicle, and smoothly from the outlet 23 at the lower end. Will be discharged. In addition, most of the stones jumped up by the wheels are rebounded to the outer wall of the tapered tubular portion 22, so that the backflow of stones and the like from the outlet 23 can be suppressed.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be implemented, for example, in the following modes. In the following embodiments, the same parts as those in the above-described embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. (1) As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, a wall body may be provided upright from the bottom surface of the lower cover 20 to form the tube support portion 30. At the upper end of the tube support portion 30, a semicircular concave portion 30A conforming to the outer diameter of the corrugated tube 15 is formed, and the corrugated tube 15 is placed in the concave portion 30A as shown in FIG. Alternatively, the corrugated tube 15 may be sandwiched and fixed between the tube 10 and the corrugated tube 10. In this case, the corrugated tube 15 and the lower cover 20
If the clearance between the inner bottom surface of the lower cover 20 and the inner bottom surface of the lower cover 20 is set so as to be larger than the inner diameter of the discharge port 23, foreign matter that has entered inside can be caught between the corrugated tube 15 and the inner bottom surface of the lower cover 20. And can be discharged smoothly.

(2) As shown in FIG. 6, the discharge port 23 and the cylindrical portion 22 connected to the discharge port 23 may be formed in a square pyramid shape, and the discharge port 23 may be opened in a square shape. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state in which an upper cover and a lower cover are assembled in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the lower cover according to the embodiment of the present invention as viewed from a discharge port side.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of another embodiment of the present invention in which an upper cover and a lower cover are assembled.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Upper cover 20 ... Lower cover 23 ... Opening formed in the lower cover for stone discharge 16 ... Electric wire

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazunori Chikada 1-7-10 Kikuzumi, Minami-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi F-term in the Auto Network Engineering Laboratory Co., Ltd. 4E352 AA02 BB15 CC02 CC20 DD06 DR01 DR02 DR15 GG02 5G357 DA10 DC12 DD06 DE03

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An electric wire which is mounted on an outer bottom surface of a vehicle so as to cover the electric wire and protects the electric wire. The electric wire comprises an upper cover attached to the vehicle and a lower cover attached to the upper cover. An electric wire protector for a vehicle, wherein an outlet for discharging stones is formed in the lower cover. 2. The lower cover according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of tapered cylindrical portions that are wider toward the upper side are formed, and the discharge port is opened at a lower end of the tapered cylindrical portion. Vehicle wire protector. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the electric wire is inserted into and housed in a protective tube, and the lower cover is provided with a tube supporting portion for supporting the protective tube so as to float from the bottom surface of the lower cover. Claim 1 or 2
A wire protector for a vehicle as described in the above.