JP2008234946A - Grommet - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a grommet of which a flexible part is formed in an ample length, by constituting the flexible part so as to deflect inwardly, when reducing diameter, resulting in significant reduction of inserting force, when it is pushed into a through hole. <P>SOLUTION: A flexible part 6 of an expansible tube part 4 of a grommet 1 is formed thinner than the thickness of an inclination part 4b, to allow deflection inward. According to deflection of the flexible part 6, both the ends of the flexible part 6 approaches the inner periphery and outer periphery of the inclination part 4b to reduce diameter of the expansible tube part 4. Thus, the flexible part 6 can be formed in sufficient length, without obstruction, when it is inserted into a through hole 5 of a vehicle body panel P. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a grommet, and more particularly to a grommet that is attached to a wire harness that is routed in a vehicle such as an automobile and that is attached to a through hole of a panel.

  Generally, a grommet is attached to a wire harness routed from the engine room of a vehicle such as an automobile to the vehicle interior, and the through hole is formed by attaching the grommet to a through hole of a vehicle body panel that partitions the engine room and the vehicle interior. It protects the passing wire harness and is waterproof, dustproof, and soundproof from the engine room side to the passenger compartment.

  As this type of grommet, a so-called one-motion grommet is known in which a locking recess formed on the outer periphery of the grommet is locked to the peripheral edge of the through-hole only by pushing the grommet into the through-hole of the vehicle body panel from one direction. ing.

  For example, Patent Document 1 includes a small-diameter cylindrical portion and an enlarged-diameter cylindrical portion continuous to the small-diameter cylindrical portion, and in a state where the automobile wire harness is passed through and attached to the small-diameter cylindrical portion and the enlarged-diameter cylindrical portion. A grommet that is inserted into the through-hole of the vehicle body from the small-diameter cylindrical portion side, and that locks the vehicle body locking recess provided on the outer peripheral surface of the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion to the vehicle body panel, and has an enlarged diameter across the vehicle body locking recess. A vertical wall on the large-diameter end side of the cylindrical portion and a small-diameter inclined wall facing the vertical wall, the inclined wall is bent inward so as to pass through the through-hole, and the expanded diameter A plurality of ridges extending in the axial direction are provided on the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion, and these ridges are close to each other in the vicinity of the small-diameter end side, and radially spread on the tip end side of the inclined wall. A groove portion formed on the outer peripheral surface of the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion is formed between the strip portions, and a groove in the axial direction is provided in the recess portion. Tsu door has been proposed.

FIG. 5A is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing a hollow part of a conventional grommet, and FIG. 5B is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the main part showing the operation thereof.
As shown in FIG. 5A, since the groove 52 is provided in the recess 51 between the ridges 50, as shown in FIG. 5B, the interval between the ridges 50 is reduced when the diameter is reduced. In addition, the protrusion 51 can be bent so as to bulge into a mountain shape and the diameter of the protrusion 50 can be reduced smoothly.
JP 2002-171645 A

  In the conventional grommet, since the recessed part 51 is formed along the circumferential direction inside the peripheral wall of the protrusion part 50, it is actually difficult for the recessed part 51 to bend as shown in FIG.5 (B). it is conceivable that.

  Even if the dent 51 is formed to be long in the circumferential direction, the dent 51 is greatly bent in the outer direction, and the bent portion protrudes further outward than the outer periphery of the ridge 50. There is a possibility that it may become a hindrance when inserted into the through hole of the vehicle body panel, resulting in a problem that workability is lowered.

  Therefore, conventionally, since the length of the hollow portion 51 is limited, the hollow portion 51 cannot be sufficiently bent, and it is difficult to reduce the insertion force of the grommet that is pushed into the through hole. It was.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and by configuring the bending portion to bend inward when the diameter is reduced, the bending portion can be formed with a sufficient length, and the through-hole can be formed. It aims at providing the grommet which can aim at the significant reduction of the insertion force at the time of pushing in.

  The grommet of the present invention is a grommet having a small-diameter cylindrical portion and a large-diameter cylindrical portion connected to the small-diameter cylindrical portion, and the large-diameter cylindrical portion is inclined from the small-diameter end side toward the large-diameter end side. The inclined portion is formed, and the inclined portion has a bent portion extending from the small-diameter end side toward the large-diameter end side, and the bent portion is formed with a thickness smaller than the thickness of the inclined portion. In addition, it is configured to bend inward, and according to the bending of the bending portion, both ends of the bending portion are close to the outer peripheral direction and the inner peripheral direction of the inclined portion, so that the diameter-expanding cylindrical portion is The diameter is reduced.

  The bending portion may have a substantially V-shaped cross section, and may be formed to be bent inward by being bent from substantially the center of the bending portion.

  The said bending part may be formed in multiple numbers over the perimeter at a fixed space | interval in the circumferential direction of the said inclination part.

  The bending portion may be formed so as to spread in the circumferential direction from the small diameter end side to the large diameter end side of the inclined portion.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 1, while the bending part of a diameter-expansion cylinder part is formed by thickness thinner than the thickness of an inclination part, it is set as the structure bent inside, and according to the bending of a bending part. In addition, since both ends of the bent portion are close to the outer peripheral direction and the inner peripheral direction of the inclined portion, the diameter-expanding cylindrical portion is reduced in diameter, so that it does not interfere with insertion into the through-hole of the vehicle body panel and is bent. The part can be formed with a sufficient length. As a result, the insertion force when pushing into the through hole can be greatly reduced.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 2, a bending part becomes easy to bend to an inner side direction, and it can aim at the significant reduction of the insertion force at the time of pushing into a through-hole.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 3, a bending part becomes easy to bend to an inner side direction, and it can aim at the significant reduction of the insertion force at the time of pushing into a through-hole.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 4, since the bending part by the side of a large diameter which is hard to bend with the conventional grommet is wide, the diameter-expanding cylinder part by the side of a large diameter becomes easier to reduce in diameter.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a side sectional view showing a grommet according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the grommet according to the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG. (A) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the bending part of the grommet which concerns on the embodiment of this invention, (B) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the operation | movement.

  The grommet 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention is integrally formed of a flexible material such as rubber, for example, and as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a first small diameter provided on the front side of insertion. It has a cylindrical portion 2, a second small-diameter cylindrical portion 3 provided on the back side of insertion, and a large-diameter cylindrical portion 4 connected between the first small-diameter cylindrical portion 2 and the second small-diameter cylindrical portion 3. In addition, they are arranged along the axis L direction.

  The diameter-enlarging cylinder part 4 is formed by expanding the diameter from a connecting part with the first small-diameter cylinder part 2 into a substantially conical shape, and has a horizontal part 4a provided on the large-diameter end side and a large diameter from the small-diameter end side. It has an inclined portion 4b formed to be inclined toward the end side, and is locked between the horizontal portion 4a and the inclined portion 4b at the peripheral edge portion of the through hole 5 formed in the vehicle body panel P. A locking recess 4c is formed.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4A, the outer peripheral surface of the inclined portion 4b of the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4 has a bending portion 6 extending from the small diameter end side toward the large diameter end side.

  The bending portion 6 has a substantially V-shaped vertical cross section by cutting inward and outer sides of the outer peripheral surface of the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4, and is formed with a thickness thinner than the thickness of the inclined portion 4b. It is comprised so that it may bend.

  The bending part 6 is formed in multiple numbers (six places in this embodiment example) at intervals in the circumferential direction. As a result, the diameter-enlarged cylindrical portion 4 is easily bent, and the insertion force when being pushed into the through hole 5 can be significantly reduced.

  Moreover, the bending part 6 is formed so that it may spread in the circumferential direction toward the large diameter end side from the small diameter end side (refer FIG. 2). As a result, the large-diameter end-side bending portion 6 that is difficult to bend in the conventional grommet 1 is widened, so that the large-diameter end-side enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4 is more easily reduced in diameter.

  Next, the case where the grommet 1 which concerns on the embodiment of this invention is mounted | worn with the through-hole 5 of the vehicle body panel P is demonstrated.

  First, the wire harness W is passed through the inside of the grommet 1, and is fixed to the tips of the first small diameter cylindrical portion 2 and the second small diameter cylindrical portion 3 with tape or the like (not shown).

  Next, the grommet 1 is inserted from the first small-diameter cylindrical portion 2 into the through hole 5 of the vehicle body panel P such as a dash panel that partitions the outdoor side and the indoor side.

  Next, when the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4 of the grommet 1 comes into contact with the peripheral edge portion of the through hole 5, the operator pushes the grommet 1 at a stretch. As a result, the inclined portion 4b of the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4 passes through the through-hole 5 in a deformed state with a reduced diameter inside.

  When the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4 passes through the through-hole 5, the bending portion 6 is bent inward by bending from substantially the center thereof, as shown in FIG. 4B. In accordance with the bending of the bending portion 6, the diameter-expanding cylindrical portion 4 is reduced in diameter by the both ends of the bending portion 6 being close to the outer peripheral direction and the inner peripheral direction of the inclined portion 4 b.

  Thereafter, the locking recess 4c of the grommet 1 is locked to the through hole 5 of the vehicle body panel P, and the inclined portion 4b and the horizontal portion 4a that are restored after passing through the through hole 5 are brought into close contact with both surfaces of the vehicle body panel P. The grommet 1 is mounted in the through hole 5 of the vehicle body panel P. According to the grommet 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the bent portion 6 of the diameter-expanded cylindrical portion 4 is formed with a thickness thinner than the thickness of the inclined portion 4b and is bent inward. According to the bending of the bending portion 6, the both ends of the bending portion 6 are close to the outer peripheral direction and the inner peripheral direction of the inclined portion 4 b, so that the diameter-expanded cylindrical portion 4 is reduced in diameter. Therefore, the bending portion 6 can be formed with a sufficient length. As a result, the insertion force when pushing into the through hole 5 can be greatly reduced.

  In addition, since there is a sufficient space for the wire harness W to pass inside the enlarged diameter cylindrical portion 4, there is no problem even if the bent portion 6 protrudes greatly inward.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the technical matters described in the claims.

  For example, the bent portion 6 is formed in a substantially V-shaped cross section, but if it is formed with a thickness thinner than the thickness of the inclined portion 4b and bends inward, other shapes (for example, a substantially U-shaped cross section). It may be formed in a character shape or the like.

  The grommet 1 of the present invention is attached to a wire harness W routed in a vehicle such as an automobile and is mounted in the through hole 5 of the panel P.

It is side surface sectional drawing which shows the grommet which concerns on the example of embodiment of this invention. It is a top view which shows the grommet which concerns on the example embodiment of this invention. It is the III-III sectional view taken on the line of FIG. (A) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the bending part of the grommet which concerns on the embodiment of this invention, (B) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the operation | movement. (A) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the hollow part of the conventional grommet, (B) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the operation | movement.

Explanation of symbols

1: Grommet 2: First small-diameter cylindrical portion 3: Second small-diameter cylindrical portion 4: Expanded cylindrical portion 4a: Horizontal portion 4b: Inclined portion 4c: Locking recess 5: Through hole 6: Deflection portion P: Body panel

Claims (4)

In the grommet having a small diameter cylindrical portion and an enlarged diameter cylindrical portion connected to the small diameter cylindrical portion,
The diameter-enlarging cylindrical portion has an inclined portion formed to be inclined from the small-diameter end side toward the large-diameter end side,
The inclined portion has a bending portion extending from the small diameter end side toward the large diameter end side,
The bending portion is formed to have a thickness thinner than the thickness of the inclined portion and is configured to bend inward, and both ends of the bending portion are in accordance with the bending of the bending portion. By approaching in the outer peripheral direction and the inner peripheral direction, the diameter-expanding cylindrical portion is reduced in diameter.
Grommet characterized by that.   The grommet according to claim 1, wherein the bending portion has a substantially V-shaped cross section and is bent inward by being bent from a substantially center of the bending portion.   3. The grommet according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the bending portions are formed over the entire circumference with a certain interval in the circumferential direction of the inclined portion.   The grommet according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the bending portion is formed so as to expand in a circumferential direction from a small diameter end side to a large diameter end side of the inclined portion. .

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