JP2003063451A - Hood supporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To openably and closeably support a hood on a car body by means of a simple hinge mechanism and to easily relieve the impact added to the hood from an upper part. SOLUTION: An upper end part of an impact absorbing member 2 is connected to a rear end lower face of the hood 1 covering an engine room, on the other hand, one end part vertical wall 7 of a hinge arm 6 is pivoted on a vertical wall 5 of a hinge base 4 fastened to car body side part 3 by means of a bolt to form the hinge mechanism 10, further a lower end part 9 of the impact absorbing member 2 is fastened to an upper face of the other end part of the hinge arm 6 by means of a bolt, and both vertical walls 5, 7 are mounted just under an inclined face 14 to the outside in the car width direction of a rear end of the hood 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for supporting a hood on a vehicle body by means of a hinge mechanism so that the hood can be opened and closed, and more particularly to a mechanism for mitigating an impact applied to the hood from above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional hood support device in a vehicle is
As exemplified in JP-A-11-291948, a vehicle body side hinge member of a hinge mechanism that supports a hood on a vehicle body in an openable and closable manner includes an upper flat surface portion and a lower flat surface portion that are located in the same vertical plane. And a hood-side hinge member of the above-mentioned hinge mechanism is connected to the upper flat portion by a hinge pin, and when an impact is applied from above the hood, the bent portion The impact is relaxed by buckling, and then the impact is alleviated by the buckling of each flat part, but in this case, the hood-side hinge member of the hinge mechanism is different from the usual one. Since it has a special shape and the hinge mechanism needs to have a special specification, it is unavoidable that the cost of the hinge mechanism increases significantly.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to support a hood on a vehicle body so that the hood can be opened and closed by a simple hinge mechanism, and to easily alleviate an impact applied to the hood from above.

[0004]

Therefore, the hood support device according to the present invention includes a hinge base attached to a vehicle body, a hinge arm whose one end is pivotally supported by the hinge base, and an upper end and a lower end. Respectively have a shock absorbing member connected to the lower surface of the hood and the upper surface of the other end of the hinge arm.

That is, since the upper and lower ends of the shock absorbing member are connected to the lower surface of the hood and the upper surface of the other end of the hinge arm, respectively, when an impact is applied from above the hood to lower the hood, the hood is lowered. The shock absorbing member arranged between the lower surface of the vehicle and the upper surface of the other end of the hinge arm can easily absorb the above-mentioned shock, and moreover, the hinge base mounted on the vehicle body and the hinge connected to the shock absorbing member. There is no need to make the arm and the special shape at all,
The conventional structure can be used as it is.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described below. 1 and 2, a hood 1 that covers a front engine room of a vehicle from above has upper ends of impact absorbing members 2 welded to the lower surfaces of the rear ends of both sides thereof, while the hood 1 is attached to both sides 3 of the vehicle body. Longitudinal section L
The H-shaped hinge base 4 is bolted, and one end vertical wall 7 of the hinge arm 6 having a substantially L-shaped vertical section is pivotally supported by the pin 8 on the vertical wall 5 of the hinge base 4, and the other end upper surface of the hinge arm 6 is supported. The lower end portion 9 of the shock absorbing member 2 is bolted to the
The hood 1 is supported on both side portions 3 of the vehicle body so as to be openable and closable by a hinge mechanism 10 including a hinge base 4 and a hinge arm 6.

As shown in FIG. 3, the shock absorbing member 2 is bent upward so as to bulge outward from both ends of the lower end portion 9 provided with the bolt holes 11 in the vehicle width direction. A pair of connecting surfaces, that is, a welding surface 13 to the lower surface of the hood 1, is formed at the upper end portion of the hood 1, and the variable portion 12 extends.

Further, inclined surfaces 14 that rise outward in the vehicle width direction are formed on the lower surfaces of both rear ends of the hood 1, and the vertical wall 5 of the hinge base 4 and the vertical wall 7 of the hinge arm 6 are formed. It is arranged directly below the inclined surface 14.

In the above device, when a shock is applied from above the hood 1 as shown by an arrow A in FIG.
0 is designed to have a large strength to support the hood 1 having a large weight and is generally hard to be deformed.
The variable portion 12 bent so as to bulge outward of the shock absorbing member 2 sandwiched between the lower surface of the hinge arm 6 and the upper surface of the hinge arm 6.
Can be deformed relatively easily as shown in FIG. 4, so that the impact energy can be efficiently absorbed and the impact can be reliably alleviated.

Further, the shock absorbing member 2 has its variable portion 12
Are bent so as to bulge outward from both ends of the lower end portion 9 in the vehicle width direction and extend upward, so that even if the lower end portion 9 is bolted to the upper surface of the hinge arm 6, the variable portion 12 Since it is possible to easily avoid the above-mentioned bending action from interfering with the bolting mechanism, it becomes possible to smoothly alleviate the above-mentioned impact by the deformation of the variable portion 12.

Further, when the hood 1 is lowered due to the bending action of the variable portion 12, the vertical walls 5 and 7 of the hinge base 4 and the hinge arm 6 are slanted on the hood 1 as shown in FIG. As a result of the hood 1 being pressed outward and deformed by the hood 1, the impact energy is also absorbed by the deformation, and the impact can be alleviated.

Moreover, in the hinge mechanism 10, the upper surface of the hinge arm 6 is bolted to the lower end portion 9 of the shock absorbing member 2 even though the shock absorbing member 2 is attached, so that the upper surface of the hinge arm is the hood 1. Since the same structure as the conventional device directly bolted to the lower surface can be used as it is, there is a great practical advantage that the cost required for the hinge mechanism 10 can be suppressed low.

[0013]

In the hood support device according to the present invention, the upper and lower ends of the shock absorbing member are connected to the lower surface of the hood and the upper surface of the other end of the hinge arm, respectively. When the hood is lowered due to the addition of the shock absorber, the shock absorbing member can easily absorb the shock, and further, the hinge base attached to the vehicle body and the hinge arm connected to the shock absorbing member are special. There is no need to make it into a shape, and the conventional structure can be used as it is, which is very convenient.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a main part in an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partially perspective enlarged view of the embodiment example.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 hood 2 Shock absorbing member 3 Both sides of the car body 4 hinge base 5 vertical walls 6 hinge arm 7 vertical walls 9 Lower end 10 Hinge mechanism 12 Variable part 14 slope

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Ken Fukutomi             Mitsubishi Motors, 5-3-8 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo             Industry Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 3D004 AA04 BA02 CA15

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A hinge base attached to a vehicle body,
A hood support device having a hinge arm whose one end is pivotally supported by the hinge base, and an impact absorbing member whose upper end and lower end are connected to the lower surface of the hood and the upper surface of the other end of the hinge arm, respectively. 2. The hinge arm according to claim 1, wherein the other end of the hinge arm extends in the vehicle front-rear direction, and the impact absorbing member is bent so as to bulge outward from both end edges of the lower end in the vehicle width direction. A hood support device having a pair of upper ends separated from each other in the vehicle width direction. 3. The hood according to claim 1, wherein an inclined surface that rises outward in the vehicle width direction is formed on the lower surface of the end edge of the hood, and the vertical wall of the hinge base is arranged immediately below the inclined surface. A configured hood support device.