JP2007060780A - Flexible protective tube for harness, and wire harness with protective tube - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a flexible protective tube for harness which is less likely to damage an internal wire harness due to bending, and to provide a wire harness with a protective tube that uses this flexible protective tube for harness. <P>SOLUTION: In the flexible protective tube 1 for harness, having a substantially rectangular or elliptical internal cross-section for passing wires and is provided with a plurality of ridges 8 and valleys 9, arranged in bellows shape, the flexible protective tube 1 is provided, at a part in the longitudinal direction thereof, with a portion 10 for regulating the bending, where flexibility is reduced as compared with other parts. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is, for example, attached to a wire harness used for electrical wiring in an automobile, and protects the harness flexible protective tube, and the harness flexible protective tube is attached to the wire harness. It is related with an attached wire harness.

Conventionally, for example, to supply power to a sliding door of an automobile, a wire harness is routed between the vehicle body and the sliding door, and the wire harness is bent and accommodated in a protector provided on the sliding door side. The extra length of the wire harness accompanying opening and closing is absorbed.
However, in the case of this method, when the wire harness repeatedly moves back and forth as the slide door is opened and closed, the wire harness easily interferes with the center pillar on the vehicle body side.
If interference occurs, the wiring harness may be worn out or deformed, which may impair the reliability of the power supply. Therefore, pay more attention than necessary to the installation location of the protector described above. And it took a lot of time to install the protector.

  Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Patent Literature 1 covers a wire harness with a flexible protective tube for a harness having a circular cross section, and the left and right side surfaces of the harness flexible protective tube have different ridges and valleys. A method has been proposed to prevent interference by regulating the bending radius for each bending direction applied to the wire harness when the sliding door is opened and closed.

However, in the case of the method described in Patent Document 1, a protector that absorbs the extra length of the wire harness is required, and there is a problem that the installation takes time and labor.
Therefore, recently, as shown in FIG. 4, a method of accommodating a wire harness in a bellows tube having a substantially rectangular cross section, that is, a flexible protective tube 1 for a harness having a substantially rectangular cross section has been proposed.
In the case of this method, the flexible protective tube 1 is not bent in the direction of the short side 2 of the flexible protective tube 1, but can be bent only in the direction of the long side 3, that is, in the horizontal plane in FIG. Become. Therefore, the flexible protective tube 1 is routed with its long side 3 in the vertical direction, and a flat wire harness is placed along the long side 3 so that its width direction is vertical. Store upright.
In this way, bending is generated only in a horizontal plane, and a flat wire harness is accommodated in the flexible protective tube 1 for harness so that the width direction thereof becomes the direction of the long side 3. Thus, the surplus length of the wire harness is intended to be absorbed by meandering in the thickness direction of the flat wire harness in the harness flexible protective tube 1.

JP 2004-248366 A

  However, in the case where the wire harness is accommodated in the harness flexible protective tube 1 having a substantially rectangular cross section shown in FIG. 4, for example, as shown in FIG. In the fixing parts 4 and 5 fixed to the slide door 7, the flexible protective tube 1 for harness that can be meandered in a horizontal plane is connected to the fixing parts 4 and 5 that are fixed and do not move, and FIG. Thus, when the sliding door 7 is moved from the right side to the left side in the figure with respect to the vehicle body 6, the internal wire harness is likely to bend greatly at the connection portion with the fixing portions 4 and 5, and the wire harness is damaged. The possibility to do is guessed.

6A shows a state in which the slide door 7 is on the rightmost side in FIG. 5, and the slide door 7 has moved to the left side in the order of (b), (c), and (d). FIG. 5E shows a state in which the slide door 7 reaches the leftmost position in FIG. In this series of movements, the wire harness inside the harness flexible protective tube 1 is likely to be greatly bent at the connection portions with the fixing portions 4 and 5.
The wire harness is subjected to such bending every time the sliding door 7 is opened and closed, and repeatedly undergoing this bending, the wire harness may be damaged at the connection portion between the wire harness and the fixing portions 4 and 5. is there.

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a flexible protective tube for a harness that hardly damages an internal wire harness due to bending, and a wire harness with a protective tube using the flexible protective tube for a harness. It is in.

  In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the flexible protective tube for harness according to claim 1 of the present invention has a plurality of ridges and a plurality of valleys on the peripheral surface in a bellows shape, and a cross section through which an electric wire is inserted. A flexible protective tube for a harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical shape, and the flexible protective tube for a harness has a bending restricting portion whose flexibility is reduced compared to other portions in a part of the longitudinal direction. It is characterized by that.

According to the flexible protective tube for a harness according to claim 1 formed in this way, since it has a bending restricting portion having a lower flexibility than other portions in a part in the longitudinal direction, for example, If this bend restricting portion is provided in the vicinity of the fixed portion of the wire harness, the bend restricting portion acts to minimize bending even if a bending force is applied.
As a result, the wire harness housed in the flexible protective tube for harness does not bend suddenly, and therefore the risk of damage is reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the flexible protective tube for a harness according to the first aspect, the bending restricting portion is a straight tube.
According to the flexible protective tube for a harness according to claim 2 formed in this way, the bending restricting portion can be formed by a simple straight tube, that is, a straight tube that does not need to be subjected to corrugated processing, etc. Processing of a flexible protective tube for a harness with a bending restricting portion is easy.

Furthermore, the flexible protective tube for harness according to claim 3 is the flexible protective tube for harness according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of adjacent side surfaces on the long side or the long diameter side of the bending restricting portion are adjacent to each other. A linear rib is formed in the tube axis direction across the mountain portion.
According to the flexible protective tube for a harness according to claim 3, which is formed in this manner, since a linear rib is formed across a plurality of adjacent peaks, the harness can be used by the linear rib. In addition to making it difficult for the flexible protective tube to be bent, there is also an advantage that buckling is also difficult to occur because part of the peaks and valleys remains.

  Moreover, the flexible protection tube for harnesses of Claim 4 is a boundary part of the said bending | flexion control part and the said other part in the flexible protection tube for harnesses in any one of Claims 1-3. In addition, a bending boundary portion having flexibility between the bending restriction portion and the other portion is provided.

According to the flexible protection tube for a harness according to claim 4, the intermediate flexibility between the bending restriction portion and the other portion is provided at a boundary portion between the bending restriction portion and the other portion. Therefore, the wire harness housed in the flexible protective tube for harness is less likely to be bent. In other words, the bent part bends with a gentler curve.
As a result, damage due to bending of the wire harness is less likely to occur.

Further, in the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 5, the electric wire is provided inside the flexible protective tube for harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical cross section having a plurality of ridges and a plurality of valleys on the peripheral surface in a bellows shape. It is the wire harness with a protection tube accommodated, Comprising: The said flexible protection tube for harnesses is a flexible protection tube for harnesses in any one of Claims 1-4.
According to the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 5, the flexible protective tube for a harness has a bending restricting portion. Therefore, even if a bending force is applied, the bending restricting portion bends. Since it acts to stop to the minimum, the wire harness housed in the flexible protective tube for harness does not bend suddenly and the risk of damage is reduced.

Furthermore, the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 6 is the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 5, wherein the electric wire includes a flexible flat cable.
According to the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 6, the cross-section of the flexible protective tube for harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical cross section is used. If there is, there is an advantage that the cable is hardly twisted since the width direction of the cable is always positioned at the long side portion or the long diameter portion.

Furthermore, the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 7 is the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 5, wherein the electric wire includes a cable molded in a flat shape.
According to the wire harness with a protective tube according to claim 7, the long side of the wire harness with a protective tube is the same as in the invention according to claim 6, as long as the electric wire is a cable formed into a flat shape. Since the width direction of the cable is always positioned at the portion or the long diameter portion, an effect that the cable is hardly twisted can be expected.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a flexible protective tube for a harness that hardly damages an internal wire harness due to bending, and a wire harness with a protective tube using the flexible protective tube for a harness. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the flexible protective tube for harness according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In addition, since the state in which the flexible protection tube for harness according to the present invention in which the wire harness is housed is mounted between the vehicle body and the sliding door is substantially the same as the conventional one, the harness that is a feature of the present invention is described below. Only the external shape of the flexible protective tube will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the flexible protective tube for harness according to the present invention.
This is an arbitrary position in the longitudinal direction of the flexible protective tube 1 for harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical cross section (hereinafter simply referred to as flexible protective tube 1), for example, the flexible protective tube 1 and the fixing portion shown in FIG. 4 and 5 are provided with a predetermined length of the bending restricting portion 10, that is, a portion where the flexible protective tube 1 is difficult to bend or does not bend, and the wire harness is connected to the fixing portions 4 and 5. It is designed not to cause excessive bending.
Here, the bending restricting portion 10 shown in FIG. 1 is formed of a so-called straight pipe that does not form the normal peak portion 8 or valley portion 9 at all. Of course, a peak 8 or a shallow valley 9 lower than a normal peak 8 or valley 9 formed at the end of the bending restricting portion 10 (this portion is hereinafter referred to as another portion 12) is formed. Needless to say, it is more flexible than the straight pipe but may be less flexible than the other portions 12. In short, considering the conditions of the place where the flexible protective tube 1 is installed, it may be determined according to how much the flexibility of the bending restricting portion 10 is reduced as compared with a normal portion.

2A and 2B show another embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 2A is a side view of the flexible protective tube 1 viewed from the left, and FIG. 2B is a front view.
FIG. 2 shows that the cross section is substantially rectangular and the bending basically occurs only on the long side. The flexible protective tube 1 is characterized in that a bending boundary portion 13 is further formed between the bending restricting portion 10 shown in FIG.
By the way, in the other part 12, if this flexible protective tube 1 is routed between the vehicle body and the slide door, for example, in order to have flexibility, that is, flexibility that can cope with the movement of the slide door, The width, height, depth, or pitch of the peak portion 8 and the valley portion 9 is appropriately selected.

Further, the bending boundary portion 13 shown in FIG. 2 is crafted on at least the long side surfaces 14 and 14 of the boundary portion between the bending restricting portion 10 and the normal flexible portion, that is, the other portion 12. It is provided and has flexibility between the bending restricting portion 10 and the other portion 12.
Specifically, in this embodiment, a bent boundary portion 13 is formed by arranging a peak portion having an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the peak portion 8 of the other portion 12 and a valley portion having a shallow depth in a bellows shape. ing.
Here, the bellows shape means that the peak portion 8 and the valley portion 9 are not formed in a spiral shape, but are formed independently in the axial direction (longitudinal direction) of the flexible protective tube 1, that is, in a ring shape. It means that
Further, the intermediate flexibility between the bending restricting portion 10 and the other portion 12 is the relationship between the flexibility of the bending restricting portion 10 <the flexibility of the bending boundary portion 13 <the flexibility of the other portion 12. It means having.

In this way, when a bending force is applied to the flexible protective tube 1, the bending radius gradually decreases from the bending boundary portion 13 toward the other portion 12 at the end of the bending restricting portion 10, so A bending curve is formed. As a result, since the wire harness inside the flexible protective tube 1 is not subjected to rapid bending, it is difficult to be damaged over time.
In FIG. 2, a slit portion 15 is provided at the lower portion of the flexible protective tube 1, but this can be applied to a flat wire harness such as a flexible flat cable or a cable molded into a flat shape. The flat wire harness is accommodated in the flexible protective tube 1 through the slit 15 so as to facilitate insertion into the protective tube 1. Of course, if the flexible protective tube 1 to be used is short and the wire harness can be easily inserted into the flexible protective tube 1 without the slit portion 15, it is not necessary to provide the slit portion 15.

FIG. 3 shows still another embodiment of the flexible protective tube for harness according to the present invention. (A) is a side view of the flexible protective tube for harness as viewed from the left, and (b) is a front view. It is.
As shown in FIG. 3, the flexible protective tube 1 has an elliptical cross section, and the bending basically occurs only along the major axis.
This flexible protective tube 1 having an elliptical cross section has a bending restricting portion 10 having a predetermined length in a part of its longitudinal direction. A bending boundary portion 13 is provided at both ends of the bending restriction portion 10, and an ordinary bending property, that is, a flexible bellows-like peak portion 8 and a valley portion 9 are provided further ahead of the bending boundary portion 13. Another portion 12 is formed. In the other portion 12, as in the above-described embodiments, for example, when the flexible protective tube 1 is routed between the vehicle body and the slide door, the flexibility that can respond to the movement of the slide door is provided. Therefore, the width, height, depth, or pitch of the peak portion 8 and the valley portion 9 is appropriately selected.

In the bending restricting portion 10 in this embodiment, the both side surfaces 14 and 14 on the long diameter side are flexible so as to straddle a plurality of adjacent ridge portions 8 at portions where the normal ridge portions 8 and valley portions 9 are formed. A plurality of linear ribs 16 are formed in parallel with the axial direction of the protective tube 1. That is, since the plurality of linear ribs serve as a stick for bending, it is more difficult to bend than the other portions 12. That is, the flexibility (flexibility) is low.
And the bending boundary part which has the trough part 17 wider than the bending control part 10 and the other part 12 in both ends of this bending control part 10, and also has the linear rib 16 continuous with the bending control part 10 13 is formed. The flexibility of the bending boundary portion 13 corresponds to the middle between the bending restricting portion 10 and the other portion 12.

  When bending force is applied to the flexible protective tube 1 by providing the bending boundary portion 13 having flexibility between the bending restriction portion 10 and the other portion 12 in this way. Since the bending radius gradually decreases from the bending boundary portion 13 toward the other portion 12 at the end portion of the bending restricting portion 10, a gentle bending curve is formed. The wire harness is also not subjected to rapid bending, and is less likely to be damaged over time.

  Generally speaking, the flexible protective tube 1 without the bending boundary portion 13 shown in FIG. 1 is known in advance that the flexible protective tube 1 is not subjected to much bending. On the other hand, the flexible protective tube 1 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is used when it is known that a relatively large bend is applied to the flexible protective tube 1. The flexible protective tube 1 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 can be bent more gently by the wire harness housed therein.

  Considering the magnitude of the bending applied to the flexible protective tube 1 in advance, when it is estimated that the bending is not so large, the flexible protection as shown in FIG. If the tube 1 is used, and the place where a relatively large bending is expected to be applied, the flexible protective tube 1 with the bending boundary 13 shown in FIG. Therefore, the cost can be further reduced.

  In addition, what is necessary is just to shape | mold each flexible protection tube 1 of FIGS. 1-3, for example with plastics, rubber | gum, etc. If it is made of plastic, rubber or the like, it is easy to mold with a mold. For example, rubber or plastic can be poured into a mold having the shape as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 or FIG. 3, and the total length already formed corresponds to the other portion 12 described above. It is also possible to form the bending restricting portion 10 and the bending boundary portion 13 by providing the flexible protective tube with the slit 15 and sandwiching the slit 15 with a mold and performing heat molding.

By the way, in both of the examples shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the bending boundary portion 13 is provided at both ends of the bending restriction portion 10, and this is because the bending restriction portion 10 is in the longitudinal direction of the flexible protective tube 1. This is because the other portion 12 is formed so as to follow both sides. For example, when the bending restricting portion 10 is provided at the end of the flexible protective tube 1, the bend restricting portion 10 is bent only on one side. The boundary portion 13 is provided.
Of course, even in the flexible protective tube 1 shown in FIG. 1, when the bending restriction portion 10 is provided at the end of the flexible protective tube 1, the other portions are provided only on one side of the bending restriction portion 10. 12 will be provided.

2 and FIG. 3 show two embodiments as the bending boundary portion 13, but in addition to this, the dimensions of the peaks and valleys, for example, the height and depth, or the pitch, and various combinations of these can be used. The flexibility may be set to be intermediate between the bending restricting portion 10 and the other portion 12.
Moreover, the place where such a flexible protective tube 1 is applied is not limited between the vehicle body and the sliding door, and can be applied to a necessary place in the vehicle body.

  According to the flexible protective tube for harness of the present invention as described above, the flexible protective tube for harness and the flexible protective tube for harness that hardly damage the internal wire harness due to bending are used. A wire harness with a protective tube can be provided.

It is a front view which shows one Example of the flexible protective tube for harnesses of this invention. The another Example of the flexible protective tube for harnesses of this invention is shown, (a) is a left view, (b) is a front view. The further another Example of the flexible protective tube for harnesses of this invention is shown, (a) is a left view, (b) is a front view. It is a perspective view which shows an example of the conventional flexible protective tube for harnesses concerning this invention. It is the schematic diagram which showed the movement of the flexible protection tube for harnesses at the time of using the flexible protection tube for harnesses which FIG. 4 shows between a vehicle body and a slide door according to the movement of a slide door. It is the schematic diagram which showed typically the motion of the flexible protective tube for harnesses in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Flexible protective tube 3 for harnesses Side face 4 of a long side part 4 Fixing part 5 Fixing part 6 Vehicle body 7 Sliding door 10 Bending control part 12 Other part 13 Bending boundary part 15 Slit part 16 Linear rib

Claims (7)

  A flexible protective tube for a harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical cross section having a plurality of ridges and a plurality of valleys on a peripheral surface in a bellows shape, and having an electric wire inserted therein, the harness having flexibility The flexible protective tube for harness, wherein the protective tube has a bending restricting portion whose flexibility is reduced in a part of the longitudinal direction as compared with other parts.   The flexible protection tube for a harness according to claim 1, wherein the bending restricting portion is a straight tube.   The harness according to claim 1, wherein linear ribs are formed in the tube axis direction across a plurality of adjacent peaks on both side surfaces of the long side or long diameter side of the bending restricting portion. Flexible protective tube.   The boundary portion between the bending restriction portion and the other portion has a bending boundary portion having flexibility between the bending restriction portion and the other portion. The flexible protection tube for harnesses in any one of Claim 3.   A wire harness with a protective tube in which an electric wire is housed inside a flexible protective tube for a harness having a substantially rectangular or elliptical cross section having a plurality of ridges and a plurality of valleys in a bellows shape on the peripheral surface, The flexible protective tube for harness is the flexible protective tube for harness in any one of Claims 1-4, The wire harness with a protective tube characterized by the above-mentioned.   The said electric wire contains a flexible flat cable, The wire harness with a protective tube of Claim 5 characterized by the above-mentioned.   The said electric wire contains the cable shape | molded by the flat shape, The wire harness with a protective tube of Claim 5 characterized by the above-mentioned.

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