JP2005061613A - Fastener - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fastener capable of being manufactured at lower cost for fixing two separated members to each other while keeping a space between them. <P>SOLUTION: The fastener comprises a bolt 1 having a male screw portion 4 formed at the front end of a columnar shaft portion 3 and a spacer 10 having a female screw portion 15 for engaging with the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 and adapted to be rotated and moved to a position of hitting a second member 50 while being threaded to a screw on the side of a first member 40 after receiving rotating torque from the bolt 1. The valley diameter of the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is smaller than the diameter of the columnar shaft portion 3, and the inner diameter of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is larger than the diameter of the columnar shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. Without reducing the diameter of the columnar shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1 with cutting work, the columnar shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1 can pass through the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10. The bolt 1 can be manufactured only by rolling work, resulting in lower manufacturing cost. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a fastener for fixing two spaced apart members while maintaining a mutual distance.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, fasteners for fixing two members while maintaining a mutual distance have been proposed in the technical field of automobiles and the like. For example, in Patent Document 1, a sleeve that is welded and fixed to one of two spaced members, a spacer that is screwed to the sleeve by a reverse screw, and a male screw portion that can be screwed to a female screw portion formed on the spacer are shafts. The fastener comprised from the volt | bolt with which the front-end | tip of the part was equipped is disclosed.

  An adhesive or the like that can transmit a predetermined torque to the spacer is applied to the male thread portion of the bolt of the fastener. When the bolt is tightened, the spacer is rotated by the transmission torque and pulled out from the sleeve. However, when the spacer comes into contact with the other member, it cannot be rotated any further. Therefore, the male thread portion formed at the tip of the bolt separates from the female thread portion of the spacer and advances to engage with the female thread portion of the sleeve. Fastening is performed with the gap between the members maintained. At this time, in order to allow the bolt to move forward quickly, it is preferable that the bolt can pass through the female thread portion of the spacer without rotating the shaft portion.

Since such a bolt is manufactured by a method of rolling a male screw portion on the tip of a cylindrical blank, the valley diameter of the male screw portion becomes smaller than the blank diameter of the bolt (diameter of the cylindrical portion) as it is. For this reason, the inner diameter of the female screw portion of the spacer screwed with the male screw portion is also smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical portion of the bolt, so that the cylindrical portion of the bolt cannot pass through the female screw portion of the spacer as it is. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the diameter of the cylindrical part of the bolt so that it can pass through the female threaded part of the spacer by additional processing such as cutting or diameter reduction by plastic deformation, which increases the manufacturing process of the bolt and increases the manufacturing cost. There was a problem that.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-347656

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described conventional problems. Bolts can be manufactured at low cost by rolling, and two spaced apart members can be spaced apart from each other as in the conventional product. It aims at providing the fastener which can be fixed while maintaining.

  The fastener of the present invention made to achieve the above object includes a bolt in which a male thread portion is formed on the tip end side of a cylindrical shaft portion, and a female thread portion that engages with the male thread portion of the bolt. It comprises a spacer that receives rotational torque from the bolt via the provided torque transmission means and moves to a position corresponding to the second member separated from the first member by rotating while screwing with the screw on the first member side, In the fastener in which the male screw portion of the bolt is detached from the female screw portion of the spacer and the first member and the second member can be fixed in a state where the spacer has moved to a position where it contacts the second member, the valley of the male screw portion of the bolt The diameter is smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical shaft portion, and the inner diameter of the female screw portion of the spacer is larger than the diameter of the cylindrical shaft portion of the bolt.

  The screw on the first member side may be formed on a sleeve fixed to the first member or directly on the first member. Further, the screw of the spacer screwed with the screw on the first member side may be a reverse screw or a normal screw. Further, the internal thread portion to be screwed with the external thread portion of the bolt detached from the internal thread portion of the spacer may be a nut welded to one member, or a nut that is movably held by one member. There are various torque transmission means provided between the male screw part of the bolt and the female screw part of the spacer, such as a method of deforming a part of the screw thread, a method of covering the part of the screw thread with an elastic material in addition to the adhesive material. Such means can be adopted as appropriate.

  The fastener according to the present invention is used to fix the first member and the second member that are separated from each other while maintaining a distance between each other. The male screw portion of the bolt is screwed into the female screw portion of the spacer. Torque is transmitted to the spacer and rotated to move the spacer to a position where it contacts the second member. Since the rotation of the spacer stops in this state, the male threaded portion of the bolt moves away from the female threaded portion of the spacer and moves forward to fix the first member and the second member in the same manner as this conventional fastener. It is.

  However, in the fastener according to the present invention, the valley diameter of the male thread portion of the bolt is smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical shaft portion, and the inner diameter of the female thread portion of the spacer is larger than the diameter of the cylindrical shaft portion of the bolt. Therefore, the cylindrical shaft portion of the bolt can be passed through the female thread portion of the spacer without reducing the diameter of the cylindrical portion of the bolt by additional processing such as cutting processing or diameter reduction processing by plastic deformation. For this reason, a bolt can be manufactured only by a rolling process, and since the additional process to a cylindrical shaft part is not required, a manufacturing cost does not become higher than necessary. In the present invention, the engagement between the male screw portion of the bolt and the female screw portion of the spacer is shallower than that of the conventional product, but by providing an appropriate torque transmitting means on at least one of the male screw portion of the bolt and the female screw portion of the spacer. The rotational force of the bolt can be efficiently transmitted to the spacer, and the spacer can be reliably and smoothly pulled out from the sleeve. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

(First embodiment)
1 to 6 show a first embodiment of the present invention, and the fastener of this embodiment includes a bolt 1, a spacer 10, and a sleeve 20. The bolt 1 includes a head 2, a cylindrical shaft portion 3, and a positive screw male screw portion 4 formed on the tip side thereof. The male screw portion 4 is formed by rolling a blank having the same diameter as the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the cylindrical shaft portion 3 is not reduced in diameter by cutting or the like. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the crest diameter d3 of the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the valley diameter d4 of the male threaded portion 4 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3. It is getting smaller. Note that a rod end portion 5 that is thinner than the root diameter d4 of the male screw portion 4 is formed on the distal end side of the male screw portion 4. In this embodiment, the adhesive material S is applied to the male screw portion 4 as torque transmitting means for transmitting the rotational force of the bolt to the spacer 10. The adhesive material S used here is a permanent elastic nylon sold under the trade name “TORQ-PATCH”. However, the torque transmission means is not limited to such an adhesive material S, and any appropriate means can be selected, such as deforming a part of the thread and transmitting a predetermined torque.

  The spacer 10 includes a cylindrical portion 11 and a plate-like portion 13 extending outward from an outer peripheral side edge of one end portion thereof. On the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 11, a male screw portion 12 of a reverse screw is formed. Yes. A screw hole 14 having a smaller diameter than the inner diameter of the cylindrical portion 11 is formed at the center of the plate-like portion 13. A female screw portion 15 that can be screwed into the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is formed on the peripheral surface of the screw hole 14. In addition, as will be described later, the screw thread top portion of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 has a shape cut out by a predetermined amount.

  The sleeve 20 has a cylindrical portion 21 having an inner diameter substantially equal to the outer diameter of the cylindrical portion 11 of the spacer 10 and extending slightly longer than the cylindrical portion 11. On the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 21, a female screw portion 22 that is a reverse screw that can be screwed with the male screw portion 12 formed on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 11 of the spacer 10 is formed.

  A plate-like portion 23 having a predetermined thickness is provided at one end of the cylindrical portion 21 of the sleeve 20 so as to close the opening of the cylindrical portion 21. The plate-like portion 23 has a diameter larger than that of the cylindrical portion 21, and a screw hole 24 having a smaller diameter than the inner diameter of the cylindrical portion 21 is formed at a substantially central portion thereof. On the peripheral surface of the screw hole 24, a female screw portion 25 that can be screwed into the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is formed. The female screw portion 25 has a normal thread shape corresponding to the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1.

  The male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 is screwed into the female threaded portion 15 of the spacer 10, but the thread section of the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 is triangular as shown in FIG. The thread thread cross section of the female thread portion 15 has a substantially trapezoidal shape with the top notched, and the inner diameter d2 of the female thread portion 15 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. That is, the valley diameter d4 of the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 is smaller than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the inner diameter d2 of the female threaded portion of the spacer 10 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. The relationship is d2> d1> d4.

  In order to obtain a shape in which the top of the thread of the female thread portion 15 is notched, after forming the screw shape on the peripheral surface of the screw hole 14 of the spacer 10, the top of the screw thread is formed so that the inner diameter becomes a constant diameter. The screw hole 14 may be formed in advance so that the inner diameter is the above-mentioned constant diameter, and a screw shape may be formed on the circumferential surface of the screw hole 14.

  Next, with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6, a method for maintaining and fixing the distance between the two separated members using the above fastener will be described. Here, a case will be described in which the first member 40 and the second member 50 positioned at a distance L1 are fixed while maintaining the interval. The first member 40 is, for example, a side plate of an automobile, and the second member 50 is, for example, an automobile front pillar.

  As shown in FIG. 3, first, the sleeve 20 is fixed to the first member 40. Specifically, after the cylindrical portion 21 of the sleeve 20 is inserted into the through hole 41 formed in the first member 40, the plate-like portion 23 is placed on the surface of the first member 40 on the opposite side to the insertion direction of the sleeve 20. Both members are fixed by welding. Further, the spacer 10 is completely screwed into the sleeve 20 until the plate-like portion 13 of the spacer 10 contacts the cylindrical portion 21 of the sleeve 20. As described above, in this embodiment, the spacer 10 and the sleeve 20 are screwed together via a reverse screw.

  Next, the bolt 1 is inserted into the through-hole 51 formed in the second member 50 from the opposite side of the first member 40. As shown in FIG. 4, when the bolt 1 is rotated in the positive screwing direction (clockwise direction) with the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 screwed with the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10, the bolt 1 is provided between the two. Rotational torque is transmitted from the bolt 1 to the spacer 10 through the adhesive S that is the torque transmission means, and the bolt 1 and the spacer 10 are integrally rotated in the forward direction.

  By the rotation of the spacer 10, the spacer 10 screwed into the sleeve 20 via a reverse screw rotates in a loosening direction and moves in a direction of coming out of the sleeve 20. As shown in FIG. 5, the spacer 10 moves until the plate-like portion 13 comes into contact with the second member 50. When the position of FIG. 5 is reached, the spacer 10 does not rotate any more due to frictional resistance, so when a predetermined torque is applied to the bolt 1, the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 passes through the female threaded portion 15 of the spacer 10 and is detached. As shown in FIG. 6, it further advances and is screwed into the female screw portion 25 of the sleeve 20.

  As described above, since the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1, the male screw portion 4 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1 is the spacer 10. After passing through the female screw portion 15 and being detached, the female screw portion 15 of the screw hole 14 can be smoothly passed. Although the screw threads of the male screw portion 4 and the female screw portion 15 are not completely meshed with each other, there is no problem in tightening strength because this state is not the final fixed state.

  In this way, the bolt 1 moves forward until the male screw portion 4 reaches the female screw portion 25 formed in the screw hole 24 of the sleeve 20, and the male screw portion 4 is moved to the female screw portion 25 of the sleeve 20 as shown in FIG. 6. By screwing, the first member 40 can be firmly attached to the second member 50 while maintaining the distance L1. At this time, since the adhesive material S applied to the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 also adheres to the screw hole 24 of the sleeve 20, the loosening prevention between the female screw portion 25 and the male screw portion 4 formed in the screw hole 24 is achieved. A secondary effect is also obtained.

  As described above, in the fastener of the present embodiment, the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is larger than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1, so that the cylindrical shaft portion of the bolt 1 is used. 3 can pass through the screw hole 14 of the spacer 10 smoothly, and it is not necessary to reduce the diameter of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1 by cutting or the like. For this reason, the bolt manufactured by the usual rolling process can be used as it is, and a fastener can be provided at lower cost than before.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment described above, the diameter of the sleeve 20 is made larger than the diameter of the spacer 10 so that both are screwed together while the spacer 10 is accommodated in the sleeve 20. In the second embodiment, the diameter of the spacer 10 is made larger than the diameter of the sleeve 20, and both are screwed together while the sleeve 20 is accommodated in the spacer 10. The spacer 10 includes a cylindrical portion 11 and a plate-like portion 13 provided so as to close one of the openings. A female screw portion 16 is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 11. A screw hole 14 is drilled at a substantially central portion of the plate-like portion 13. A female screw portion 15 that can be screwed into the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is formed on the peripheral surface of the screw hole 14.

  The sleeve 20 has an outer diameter substantially equal to the inner diameter of the cylindrical portion 11 of the spacer 10, and includes a cylindrical portion 21 slightly longer than the cylindrical portion 11. Further, on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 21, a male screw portion 26 that can be screwed with the female screw portion 16 formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 11 of the spacer 10 is formed. Also in the second embodiment, the valley diameter d4 of the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is smaller than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. Therefore, the relationship is d2> d1> d4.

  Also in the fastener of the second embodiment, the sleeve 20 is fixed to the first member, and the bolt 10 is screwed into the spacer 10 that is screwed to the sleeve 20 with a reverse screw and is rotated. The bolt 1 and the spacer 10 are screwed together via the male screw portion 4 provided with torque transmitting means and the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10, and the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 is that of the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. Since it is larger than the diameter d1, the cylindrical shaft portion 3 can smoothly pass through the screw hole 14 after the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 passes through the screw hole 14 while screwing with the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10. If the spacer 10 has a large diameter in this way, the contact area between the spacer 10 and the second member can be increased.

(Third embodiment)
In the third embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, the sleeve 20 is fixed to the first member 40 so that it cannot be rotated by the clip 30. A nut 31 is welded to the back surface of the first member 40. The other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, the bolt 1 is inserted into the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 through the through hole 51 of the second member 50, and torque is applied to the spacer 10 by the torque transmitting means. , And the spacer 10 is moved to the position of FIG. Thereafter, the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 is detached from the female threaded portion 15 of the spacer 10 and advanced, and screwed with the nut 31 welded to the back surface of the first member 40 to complete the fastening.

  Also in the third embodiment, the valley diameter d4 of the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is smaller than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is the cylindrical shaft portion 3 of the bolt 1. Therefore, the relationship is d2> d1> d4. In the first embodiment, the female screw portion 25 is formed in the spacer 20, but the third embodiment is different in that the nut 31 is used.

(Fourth embodiment)
In each of the above-described embodiments, the screw between the spacer 10 and the sleeve 20 is a reverse screw, and the spacer 10 is moved to the bolt head side by the rotation of the bolt 1. However, as shown in this embodiment, the screw between the spacer 10 and the sleeve 20 may be a positive screw. That is, as shown in FIG. 12, the sleeve 20 fixed to the first member 40 includes the spacer 10 screwed on the outer periphery thereof via the positive thread portion 33.

  For this reason, when the bolt 10 provided with torque transmitting means is screwed into the male screw portion 4 and the spacer 10 is rotated, the spacer 10 is moved to the front end side of the bolt 1 by the positive screw and hits the second member 50 as shown in FIG. And stop. In this embodiment, the nut 31 is held on the back surface of the second member 50 by a nut holder 34 so as to be freely movable within a certain range, and is automatically aligned by the tip of the bolt 1. Therefore, when the bolt 1 is further screwed from the state shown in FIG. 13, the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 disengages the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10, and is screwed with the nut 31 on the back surface of the second member 50 as shown in FIG. The conclusion is complete.

(Fifth embodiment)
In each of the above embodiments, the spacer 10 and the sleeve 20 are used, but the fifth embodiment shown in FIGS. 15 to 18 shows an example in which the sleeve 20 is not used. That is, in the fifth embodiment, the female screw 70 is directly provided on the first member 40, and the spacer 10 is screwed into the female screw 70 together with the bolt 1 as shown in FIG. The female screw 70 is a positive screw, and the spacer 10 moves and stops until the tip of the spacer 10 contacts the second member 50 as shown in FIG. Although not shown in the figure, in this embodiment, a part of the thread of the male thread portion of the bolt 1 is deformed to serve as torque transmitting means.

  Since the spacer 10 can no longer rotate when the state shown in FIG. 16 is reached, the male threaded portion 4 of the bolt 1 moves forward away from the female threaded portion 15 of the spacer 10 as shown in FIG. 17, and the second member 50 as shown in FIG. The nut is welded to the nut 31 welded to the back surface of the screw to complete the fastening. Also in the fourth and fifth embodiments, the valley diameter d4 of the male screw portion 4 of the bolt 1 is smaller than the diameter d1 of the cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the inner diameter d2 of the female screw portion 15 of the spacer 10 is the bolt. It is larger than the diameter d1 of one cylindrical shaft portion 3, and the relationship of d2> d1> d4 is the same as in the other embodiments.

  The fasteners of any of the embodiments described above can be manufactured at low cost only by rolling without post-processing the bolt 1, and two spaced apart members are maintained at the same distance as in the conventional product. Can be fixed while. Needless to say, the freely movable nut 31 as shown in the fourth embodiment can also be used in the third and fifth embodiments.

It is an exploded view which shows the fastener of 1st Embodiment. It is an enlarged view which shows the screwing part of a volt | bolt external thread part and the internal thread part of a spacer. It is sectional drawing which shows the initial stage of the fastening by the fastener of 1st Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which a spacer moves by rotation of a volt | bolt. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which the spacer contact | abutted to the 2nd member. It is sectional drawing which shows the completion state of fastening. It is an exploded view which shows the fastener of 2nd Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the initial stage of the fastening by the fastener of 3rd Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which a spacer moves by rotation of a volt | bolt. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which the spacer contact | abutted to the 2nd member. It is sectional drawing which shows the completion state of fastening. It is sectional drawing which shows the initial stage of the fastening by the fastener of 4th Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which the spacer contact | abutted to the 2nd member. It is sectional drawing which shows the completion state of fastening. It is sectional drawing which shows the initial stage of the fastening by the fastener of 5th Embodiment. It is sectional drawing which shows the state which the spacer contact | abutted to the 2nd member. It is sectional drawing which shows the state by which engagement with the external thread part of the volt | bolt and the internal thread part of the spacer was cancelled | released. It is sectional drawing which shows the completion state of fastening.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bolt 2 Head 3 Cylindrical axial part 4 Male thread part 5 Rod tip part 10 Spacer 11 Cylindrical part 12 Male thread part 13 Plate-like part 14 Screw hole 15 Female thread part 16 Female thread part 20 Sleeve 21 Cylindrical part 22 Male thread part 23 Plate-like part 24 Screw hole 25 Female thread part 26 Male thread part 30 Clip 31 Nut 33 Positive thread part 34 Nut holder 40 First member 41 Through hole 50 Second member 51 Through hole 70 Female thread

Claims (6)

A bolt with a male thread formed on the tip side of the cylindrical shaft,
A female screw portion that engages with the male screw portion of the bolt is provided, receives a rotational torque from the bolt via a torque transmission means provided between the two, and rotates while being screwed with the screw on the first member side. It consists of a spacer that moves to a position that hits a second member that is separated from one member,
In the fastener in which the male screw portion of the bolt is detached from the female screw portion of the spacer and the first member and the second member can be fixed in a state where the spacer has moved to a position where it hits the second member.
A fastener having a valley diameter of a male threaded portion of a bolt made smaller than a diameter of a cylindrical shaft portion, and an inner diameter of a female threaded portion of a spacer made larger than a diameter of a cylindrical shaft portion of a bolt.   2. The fastener according to claim 1, wherein a screw on the first member side is formed on a sleeve fixed to the first member.   The fastener according to claim 1, wherein a screw of a spacer screwed with a screw on the first member side is a reverse screw.   2. The fastener according to claim 1, wherein a screw of a spacer screwed with a screw on the first member side is a positive screw.   2. The fastener according to claim 1, wherein the female screw portion to be screwed with the male screw portion of the bolt detached from the female screw portion of the spacer is a nut welded to one member.   2. The fastener according to claim 1, wherein the female screw portion to be screwed with the male screw portion of the bolt detached from the female screw portion of the spacer is a nut that is held movably by one member.

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