JP2006290101A - Frame structure of vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a frame structure of a vehicle capable of compatibly establishing the enhancement of the productivity of vehicle frames and enhancement of the assembly work efficiency on a vehicle assembling line. <P>SOLUTION: The frame structure comprises a front frame 1 and a rear frame 2 arranged so that the tails of front side rails 8a and 8b constituting the front frame 1 and the forefronts of rear side rails 10a and 10b constituting the rear frame 2 are overlapped for a requisite length, and the overlapped portion 14 is fixed rigidly at joining points 15 arranged on a rhomb H whose longitudinal axis is 2-4 timed longer than the transverse axis when the frame longitudinal direction is set on the axis of ordinates and the height direction perpendicular thereto is set on the axis of abscissa. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle frame structure, and in particular, can be suitably applied to a vehicle including a vehicle front portion on which common components such as an engine and a cab are mounted and a vehicle rear portion on which a cargo bed is mounted, such as a truck with a cab. The present invention relates to a vehicle frame structure.

  A vehicle such as a truck is provided with a frame for mounting components such as a cab, an engine, a suspension, a wheel base, and a cargo bed.

  Conventionally used as a vehicle frame is a ladder frame composed of left and right side rails extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle and a short cross member that fixes the side rails at a plurality of positions in the longitudinal direction. It was used.

On the other hand, for the purpose of reducing the material cost and manufacturing cost of the frame, the side rails constituting the frame are divided into front and rear, and the divided side rails are joined by welding, rivets, etc. with a reinforcing structure It is shown in Document 1.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-087463

  However, a seamless monolithic frame that has been generally used in the past is used for various types of vehicles with various specifications such as cabs, engines, suspensions, wheelbases, and loading platforms with different lengths. When assembling, since it was supported by a single frame, it was necessary to manufacture various types of frames according to each specification, and there was a problem that the productivity of the frame was poor.

  Furthermore, when assembling a vehicle with the components mounted on the assembly line, it is necessary to consistently assemble the integrated frame up to the final process on the integrated frame according to the specifications. As a result, there is a problem that the efficiency of the assembly work cannot be improved.

  Further, the divided frame shown in Patent Document 1 is produced by dividing the side rail in the length direction, and the divided side rail is provided with a reinforcing structure and joined by welding, rivets or the like. It is assembled by setting it as a side rail, and fixing between the side rails made into this integral by the crossing member (cross member). However, when the side rails are formed by welding joints, there is a problem of causing thermal deformation. Therefore, after the components are mounted on the frame, they cannot be welded, and therefore, after the frame is assembled by welding joints. Without it, the components cannot be installed. For this reason, it is necessary to assemble a monolithic frame according to the specifications as in the conventional case, and therefore, the same problem as in the case of the conventional monolithic frame occurs. In addition, there is a problem in that welding is required to be skillful in welding because deformation is likely to occur in welding joining, and work efficiency is poor because welding joining takes time.

  On the other hand, when joining the divided side rails with rivets, etc., it is necessary to drill a number of holes for rivet joints in advance on the divided side rails. There is a problem that is low. In addition, since there are many holes in the side rail, there is a problem that the strength of the frame is lowered. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a reinforcing structure for this purpose.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and a vehicle including a vehicle front portion on which common components such as an engine and a cab are mounted and a vehicle rear portion on which a loading platform is mounted, like a truck with a cab. It is an object of the present invention to provide a frame structure for a vehicle that can be applied to the above-described method and can simultaneously improve the productivity of the frame and the assembly work efficiency in the vehicle assembly line.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a front frame and a rear frame are provided, and the rear end of the front side rail constituting the front frame and the front end of the rear side rail constituting the rear frame are overlapped with each other at a required length. In addition, the overlapping portion is a rhombus whose vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length when the longitudinal direction of the frame is the vertical axis and the height direction orthogonal to the vertical axis is the horizontal axis. The present invention relates to a vehicle frame structure characterized by being integrally fixed at a joint point arranged above.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vehicle frame structure according to the first aspect of the present invention, the joint point is arranged so that a square shape and an inverted square shape face each other across the longitudinal axis. , Related to

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the vehicle frame structure according to the first or second aspect, wherein an engine and a cab are mounted on the front frame.

  Thus, in the above-mentioned frame structure, a vehicle according to the specifications by mounting a front frame for mounting a common component such as an engine and a cab and configuring a vehicle front portion and a loading platform having a different length. A rear frame for constituting the rear portion, and the rear end of the front side rail constituting the front frame and the front end of the rear side rail constituting the rear frame are overlapped with a required length, and the overlapping portion Are arranged on a diamond whose longitudinal axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length when the longitudinal direction of the frame is the vertical axis and the height direction orthogonal to the vertical axis is the horizontal axis. To fix it together.

  For joining at the joining points, bolts, rivets, spots, blind rivets and nuts, pop nuts, mechanical clinch, self-piercing rivets, FSJ, dimple joining methods as shown in US Pat. No. 3,771,216 or One of the joining means of other methods can be used, or two or more of the above-mentioned joining means can be used in combination, and a joining hole is formed in advance at the joining point, or a joining point mark is applied. Is done.

  As described above, the overlapping portion is bonded at the bonding points arranged in a rhombus whose vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length, so that the load on each bonding point is dispersed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the stress from concentrating on the joining points of the portions, and therefore, the overlapping portion of the front side rail and the rear side rail can be joined with a small number of joining points with high strength. In addition, since the overlapping part can be fixed with a small number of joint points, it is possible to prevent the problem of the strength of the overlapping part being lowered due to the drilling of the joint hole, and further reduce the number of joining operations and improve the assembly work efficiency. Can be made. Furthermore, since a small number of joint points that are linearly arranged in the rhombus can be accurately formed and formed, the front frame on which common components such as the engine and cab are mounted is mass-produced as a standard product by flow work. can do. Further, in the assembly line, the work of assembling the front part of the vehicle by mounting common components such as the engine and the cab on the front frame can be performed with high efficiency by the flow work.

  According to the frame structure of the present invention, the rear end of the front side rail constituting the front frame and the front end of the rear side rail constituting the rear frame are overlapped with a required length, and the overlapping portion is Integral at the junction point arranged on a rhombus whose vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length when the longitudinal direction of the frame is the vertical axis and the height direction orthogonal to the vertical axis is the horizontal axis Since the load on each joint point is dispersed and stress is concentrated on some joint points, the overlap of the front side rail and the rear side rail can be reduced. There is an effect that it becomes possible to join with high strength depending on the point.

  In addition, since the overlapping part can be fixed with a small number of joint points, it is possible to prevent the problem of the strength of the overlapping part being lowered due to the drilling of the joint hole, and further reduce the number of joining operations and improve the assembly work efficiency. There is an effect that can be done.

  Furthermore, since a small number of joint points that are linearly arranged in the rhombus can be formed with high precision, the front frame must be a standard product for mounting common components such as the engine and cab. Therefore, the front frame can be mass-produced by the flow work.

  Then, after the rear part of the vehicle is assembled by mounting the rear part in accordance with the specifications such as the length of the carrier, the rear frame of the rear part of the vehicle is attached to the front frame of the front part of the vehicle in the final stage of the assembly line. Since the vehicle is assembled by fixing by joining a small number of joint points, there is an effect that the productivity of vehicle assembly can be greatly improved.

  Hereinafter, a vehicle frame structure according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a vehicle frame structure according to the present invention. The vehicle frame of the present invention includes a front frame 1 and a rear frame 2 provided separately. The front frame 1 constitutes the vehicle front portion 5 by mounting common components such as the engine 3 and the cab 4, and the rear frame 2 has a loading platform 6 having a different length as a specification. The vehicle rear portion 7 is configured by mounting accordingly.

  The front frame 1 is assembled by fixing the left and right front side rails 8a and 8b with a short cross member 9, and the rear frame 2 is short between the left and right rear side rails 10a and 10b. It is assembled by fixing with the cross member 11.

  Further, the front side rails 8a and 8b and the rear side rails 10a and 10b have a U-shaped cross section or a C-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 2, respectively, and the rear ends of the front side rails 8a and 8b The front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b can be fitted to each other, and the webs 12 and the flanges 13 are overlapped with each other by this fitting to form an overlapping portion 14. In the example of FIGS. 1 and 2, the front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b overlap the outside of the rear ends of the front side rails 8a and 8b to form an overlapping portion 14.

  Then, the overlapping portion 14 of the rear ends of the front side rails 8a and 8b and the front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b is integrally joined by a joining point 15 shown in FIGS. For joining at the joint 15, bolts, rivets, spots, blind rivets and nuts, pop nuts, mechanical clinch, self-piercing rivets, FSJ, dimple joining methods as shown in US Pat. No. 3,771,216 or others It can join using the joining means of. The joining means may be joined using one type of method, or two or more of the joining means may be used in combination. A joint hole 16 is formed in the joint point 15 in advance, or a joint point mark is provided.

  The joining points 15 for joining the webs 12 of the overlapping portion 14 to each other are arranged on a rhombus H line having the longitudinal direction of the frame as the vertical axis and the height direction perpendicular to the vertical axis as the horizontal axis. The rhombus H at this time has a ratio of the vertical axis length to the horizontal axis length of 1: 2-4. That is, when the horizontal axis length is A, the vertical axis length is 2A to 4A, which is 2 to 4 times that length. FIG. 1 shows a case where the vertical axis length is 2 times 2A, 3 times 3A, and 4 times 4A with respect to the horizontal axis length A.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, the junction point 15 has three C-shaped portions 16a inclined symmetrically at equal intervals on one side (upper side) sandwiching the vertical axis X and the other side (lower side). In each of the two, three inverted C-shaped portions 16b that are symmetrically inclined at equal intervals are arranged facing each other. The C-shaped portion 16a and the inverted C-shaped portion 16b may be symmetrically arranged, or may have different numbers and different arrangement intervals.

  In the overlap portion 14, in order to join the rear ends of the front side rails 8a and 8b and the front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b with high strength, as shown in FIG. When the vertical height of the web 12 of the rails 10a and 10b is L, it is preferable that the length of the overlapping portion 14 is about 2L, which is about twice the height L.

  The distance between the left and right end portions of the upper C-shaped portion 16a and the lower inverted C-shaped portion 16b is substantially equal to the spacing S of the joint points 15, The interval between the left and right inclined portions in the letter-shaped part 16a and the inverted letter-shaped part 16b is set to an interval 2S that is approximately twice the interval S between the junction points.

  Under the condition that the length is about 2 L with respect to the height L of the web 12 in the overlapping portion 14, the overlapping portion 14 is bonded with high strength at the bonding point 15 of the rhombus H as shown in FIG. In order to do this, a range in which the vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length A is preferable, and 3A, which is three times the length, is most preferable.

  On the other hand, when the vertical axis length is shortened to 2 A or less with respect to the horizontal axis length A, the left and right lengths of the rhombus H on which the junction points 15 are arranged are shortened. There is a problem that the joint bending strength between the side rails 8a and 8b and the rear side rails 10a and 10b is lowered. On the other hand, when the vertical axis length is increased to 4 A or more with respect to the horizontal axis length A, it is necessary to extend the left and right lengths of the overlapping portion 14 in order to arrange the junction point 15. In addition, since the slopes of the left and right inclined portions of the C-shaped portion 16a and the inverted C-shaped portion 16b are reduced and approach a straight line, a large stress is applied to a part of the junction 15. It becomes easy to act, and the intensity | strength falls as a result.

  Therefore, when the horizontal axis length of the rhombus H is A, setting the arrangement of the junction points 15 so that the vertical axis length is 2A to 4A, which is 2 to 4 times the longitudinal axis length, is a small junction point. This is very important in obtaining high joint strength efficiently.

  FIG. 4 shows a case where the joining point 15 of the web 12 of the overlapping portion 14 is used in combination of fixing by dimple joining 15a and fixing by bolt 15b, and the flange 13 of the overlapping portion 14 is used. Shows a case where a combination of dimple bonding 15a fixing and bolt 15b fixing is used on a straight line. In addition, joining in the flange 13 of the superimposition part 14 can arrange | position arbitrarily the joining point 15, and can join.

  The operation of the above embodiment will be described below.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the front frame 1 for mounting the common components such as the engine 3 and the cab 4 to configure the vehicle front portion 5 and the loading platform 6 having different lengths are mounted and according to the specifications. The rear frame 2 for constituting the vehicle rear portion 7 is divided and manufactured separately. At this time, joint points 15 such as joint holes 16 are formed in advance at the positions of the rhombus H shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 at the rear ends of the front side rails 8a and 8b and the front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b. deep.

  The front frame 1 can be a standard product for mounting common components such as the engine 3 and the cab 4, and thus can be mass-produced efficiently by flow work.

  The front frame 1 and the rear frame 2 manufactured as described above are introduced into an assembly line, and the front frame 5 is assembled by mounting common components such as the engine 3 and the cab 4 on the front frame 1. Since the vehicle front part 5 can be assembled as a common specification, it can be mass-produced efficiently by the flow work. At this time, the rear frame 2 is mounted with components such as a cargo bed 6 according to the specification by another assembly line.

  In this way, the front frame 1 and the rear frame 2 on which the components are respectively mounted are the front parts constituting the front frame 1 in the common vehicle front part 5 as shown in FIG. 6 in the final stage of the assembly line. The overlapping portion 14 is formed by fitting the rear ends of the side rails 8a and 8b and the front ends of the rear side rails 10a and 10b constituting the rear frame 2 in the vehicle rear portion 7 of various types of vehicles according to specifications. The joining point 15 between the web 12 of the overlapping portion 14 and the flange 13 is joined using a joining means such as the dimple joint 15a.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, each overlapping portion 14 is joined at a joining point 15 arranged in a rhombus H whose vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length. It is possible to prevent a problem that the load on the joint points 15 is dispersed and stress is concentrated at some joint points, so that the number of overlapping portions 14 of the front side rails 8a and 8b and the rear side rails 10a and 10b is small. Bonding can be performed at the bonding point 15 with high strength. In addition, since the overlapping portion 14 can be fixed with high strength by a small number of joining points 15, it is possible to prevent the problem that the strength of the overlapping portion 14 is lowered due to the drilling of the joining hole 16, and further reduce the number of joining operations and assemble. Work efficiency can be improved.

  Furthermore, a small number of joint points 15 arranged in a straight line on the rhombus H can be formed with high accuracy, and there is no deformation as in conventional welding joints, and the front frame 1 and the rear frame 2 can be easily and efficiently formed. Therefore, in the final stage of the vehicle assembly line, the front frame 1 and the rear frame 2 can be fixed and the vehicle can be easily assembled, thereby greatly improving the productivity of vehicle assembly.

  Note that the vehicle frame structure of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various shapes are used for the front frame and the rear frame, and other aspects do not depart from the gist of the present invention. Of course, various changes can be made within the range.

It is a front view which shows arrangement | positioning of the junction point in the web of the overlapping part of this invention. It is the II-II direction sectional drawing of FIG. It is a front view which shows the detail of FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the modification of the joining method of an overlap part. It is a top view of the frame structure of the vehicle of this invention. It is a conceptual diagram showing the state which fixes a vehicle rear part with respect to a vehicle front part in the last stage of an assembly line, and assembles a vehicle.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Front frame 2 Rear frame 3 Engine 4 Cab 8a, 8b Front side rail 10a, 10b Rear side rail 14 Superposition part 15 Junction point 16a C-shaped part 16b Reverse-shaped part A A Horizontal axis length H Rhombus X Vertical axis

Claims (3)

  A front frame and a rear frame are provided, the rear end of the front side rail constituting the front frame and the front end of the rear side rail constituting the rear frame are overlapped with each other at a required length, and the overlapping portion is attached to the frame. It is integrated at the junction point arranged on the rhombus whose vertical axis length is 2 to 4 times the horizontal axis length when the longitudinal direction is the vertical axis and the height direction orthogonal to the vertical axis is the horizontal axis. A vehicle frame structure characterized by being fixed.   2. The vehicle frame structure according to claim 1, wherein the joint point is arranged such that a C-shape and an inverted C-shape are opposed to each other across the longitudinal axis. The vehicle frame structure according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an engine and a cab are mounted on the front frame.

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