JP2008273337A - Vehicle body side part structure - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a side part structure of an automobile improving a getting-on-and-off property of a rear door while securing rigidity of a side part. <P>SOLUTION: This side part structure includes a side outer panel 2, a locker reinforce 5 arranged inside the side outer panel 2 and a rail cover 6 storing a rail of a sliding door on the automobile furnished with the sliding door, and the locker reinforce 5 is furnished with a front locker reinforce 3, a rear locker reinforce 4 and intermediate members 7a, 7b connecting them to each other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle body side structure, and more particularly, to a rocker reinforcement structure that forms a lower edge portion of a door opening in an automobile having a sliding door.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a side part structure in which a reinforcing member is mounted on a side surface of a vehicle body has been adopted from the viewpoint of securing rigidity on the side surface of an automobile. 4-6 shows the side part structure 10 in the motor vehicle which employ | adopts a sliding door as a rear door among such side part structures of a motor vehicle.

  The conventional side structure 10 includes a side outer panel 2, a rocker reinforcement 5, and a rail cover 6. In addition, although the side part structure 10 contains many reinforcement members etc. in addition to this, illustration and description are abbreviate | omitted suitably about the member with little relation with this invention.

  The side outer panel 2 is provided at a lower edge portion of the automobile including a center pillar 23 provided substantially perpendicular to the ground between the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22 and the lower side of the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22. And a rocker panel 24 connected to the lower end of the center pillar 23. A front opening flange 25 and a rear opening flange 26 perpendicular to the ground are provided at the upper edge portions of the rocker panel 24 that form the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22.

As a reinforcing structure of such a rocker panel 24, a rocker reinforcement 5 having a substantially hat-shaped cross section extending over the entire length of the rocker panel 24 is disposed inside the rocker panel 24, and the rocker reinforcement 5 has rigidity corresponding to the maximum required proof stress. By setting to, the rigidity of the rocker panel 24 in the vehicle longitudinal direction and the vehicle width direction is enhanced.
A side part structure of an automobile having the above-described configuration is disclosed in Patent Document 1. Although this car does not employ a sliding door, it is reinforced by joining reinforcements to the side outer (rocker panel).

By the way, in an automobile in which the rear door is a slide door, an upper arm and a lower arm (not shown) that support the slide door are slidably connected to an upper rail and a lower rail (not shown) provided along the upper and lower edges of the rear door opening 22. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5B, a rail cover 6 for storing the rail is provided below the rear door opening 22 in the rocker panel 24. The rail cover 6 includes an upper cover 61 and a lower cover 62, and has a rail storage portion 63 inside the joint portion thereof.
JP 2000-351387 A

  The rail cover 6 has a certain length in the vehicle width direction in order to store the rail. Therefore, in order to avoid interference with the rocker panel 24 and the rocker reinforcement 5, it is disposed below the rocker panel 24 and above the rocker reinforcement 5 as shown in FIG. . However, by arranging the rail cover 6 on the rocker reinforcement 5, the position of the rear opening flange 26 becomes higher than the position of the front opening flange 25 by the height of the rail storage portion 63. Getting on and off is worse.

  Theoretically, by forming the height h4 of the vertical portion 52a in the rail cover lower portion 52 of the rocker reinforcement 5 lower than the height h3 of the vertical portion 51a of the front door lower portion 51, The height of the rear opening flange 26 can be matched with the height of the front opening flange 25. However, since the rocker reinforcement 5 is formed by pressing a single iron plate, the design has the following restrictions.

  First, the rocker reinforcement 5 has a front door lower portion as shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) as the EE cross section and the FF cross section in FIG. 4 and as a perspective view in FIG. 51 and the rail cover lower portion 52 are each press-molded into a substantially hat-like cross-sectional shape, and the intermediate portion has a gradually changing portion 53 whose cross-sectional shape gradually changes. When the height difference a2 between 51a and the vertical portion 52a of the rail cover lower portion 52 is increased, the distortion of the gradually changing portion 53, that is, the amount of change increases as shown in FIG. Cracks occur. As described above, Rocka Reinforce 5 is a reinforcing member and requires a certain level of strength. If there is such wrinkles or cracks, these will trigger deformation when a strong force is applied to Rocka Reinforce 5. Can not ensure a certain strength.

Secondly, the rocky reinforcement 5 is made of a hard member to ensure rigidity corresponding to the maximum required proof stress, and the above-described creases and cracks during press molding vary greatly depending on the hardness of the member. This is likely to occur with hard materials. Also, the harder the member, the harder it is to mold.
For the reasons described above, it is difficult to increase the height difference a2 beyond a certain level. In the side part structure 10 in an automobile employing a conventional sliding door, the height of the rear opening flange 26 is set to the front opening flange 25. Could not be the same height.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a side part structure of an automobile in which the rear door is a sliding door and the side door rigidity is ensured while improving the entry / exit of the rear door.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a side including a side outer panel, a rocker reinforcement disposed inside the side outer panel, and a rail cover for storing a rail of the sliding door in an automobile equipped with a sliding door. The rocker reinforcement is a partial structure, and is characterized by including a front rocker reinforcement, a rear rocker reinforcement, and an intermediate member that couples them.
The intermediate member is preferably composed of a first intermediate member fixed to the front rocker reinforcement and the rear rocker reinforcement, and a second intermediate member fixed to the first intermediate member and the rail cover.

  According to the present invention, the rocker reinforcement is mainly divided into the two parts of the front rocker reinforcement and the rear rocker reinforcement, so that there is no restriction at the time of press molding as described above, and the intermediate members are the front rocker reinforcement and the rear rocker. Rigidity can be maintained by combining reinforcements.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the side structure of an automobile according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
1 to 3 show a side part structure 1 of an automobile according to an embodiment of the present invention. The side structure 1 includes a side outer panel 2, a rocker reinforcement 8, and a rail cover 6.
The rocker reinforcement 8 includes a front rocker reinforcement 3, a rear rocker reinforcement 4, and a first intermediate member 7a and a second intermediate member 7b that couple them.
The rail cover 6 includes an upper cover 61 and a lower cover 62 and is disposed on the rear rocker reinforcement 4.

  The side outer panel 2 includes a center pillar 23 provided substantially perpendicular to the ground between the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22, and a lower edge portion of the automobile including the lower side of the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22. And a rocker panel 24 connected to the lower end of the center pillar 23. A front opening flange 25 and a rear opening flange 26 perpendicular to the ground are provided at the upper edge portions of the rocker panel 24 that form the front door opening 21 and the rear door opening 22.

  As a reinforcing structure of the rocker panel 24, the front rocker reinforcement 3 and the rear rocker reinforcement 4 having a substantially hat-like cross section extending over the entire length of the rocker panel 24 and the first intermediate member 7a that couples the rocker panel 24 to each other. And the second intermediate member 7b are disposed, and by setting the rocker reinforcement 8 to rigidity according to the maximum required proof stress, the rigidity of the rocker panel 24 in the vehicle longitudinal direction and the vehicle width direction is increased. Has been enhanced.

  The front rocker reinforcement 3 is a plate member that is fixed to the rocker panel 24 at the lower side of the front door opening 21 and has a substantially hat-like cross section as shown in FIG. It is fixed to the front opening flange 25 at its upper edge and to the lower edge of the rocker panel 24 in the middle of the vertical portion 3a by spot welding w1 and w2, respectively, and its lower edge is below the lower edge of the side outer panel 2 Protrusively.

The rear rocker reinforcement 4 is fixed to the rocker panel 24 via the rail cover 6 below the rear door opening 22, as shown in FIG. 3D as a DD cross section of FIG. The upper edge of the plate member is fixed to the lower cover 62 by spot welding w4, and the lower edge protrudes below the lower edge of the side outer panel 2.
The front rocker reinforcement 3 and the rear rocker reinforcement 4 are fixed to each other by spot welding w5.

  The first intermediate member 7a has spot welds w7 and w8 on the front rocker reinforcement 3 and the rear rocker reinforcement 4, respectively, below the center pillar 23, as shown in FIG. To firmly bond them together.

  As shown in FIG. 3C as a CC cross section in FIG. 2, the second intermediate member 7 b is located below the center pillar 23 and behind the first intermediate member 7 a. The first intermediate member 7a is fixed to the first intermediate member 7a by spot welding w10 and w11, and is fixed to the side surface of the upper cover 61 and the side surface of the front rocker reinforcement 3 by w12, and these are firmly coupled.

  According to the side part structure 1 configured as described above, the front rocker reinforcement 3, the rear rocker reinforcement 4, and the rail cover 6 are fixed to each other via the first intermediate member 7a and the second intermediate member 7b, respectively. At the same time, it is fixed to the lower edge of the side outer panel 2 and the entire rocker reinforcement 8 can secure the required strength, so that it is possible to maintain rigidity against the lateral force at the lower edge of the vehicle body.

  Moreover, since the rocker reinforcement 8 is mainly divided into the front rocker reinforcement 3 and the rear rocker reinforcement 4, it can be molded without being restricted by press molding. Therefore, the height h <b> 2 of the vertical portion 4 a of the rear rocker reinforcement 4 can be formed lower than the height h <b> 1 of the vertical portion 3 a in the front rocker reinforcement 3. In other words, since the difference a1 between the height h2 of the vertical portion 4a and the height h1 of the vertical portion 3a can be made large, the height of the rear opening flange 26 is made equal to the height of the front opening flange 25. be able to.

  As mentioned above, although one embodiment of the seat mounting structure of the present invention has been described, this is an example for embodying the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the structure of the vehicle or the supply situation of materials without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Depending on the situation, it can be implemented in various forms.

It is a disassembled perspective view which shows one Embodiment of the side part structure of the motor vehicle by this invention. It is a front view which shows the side part structure of FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the side structure of FIG. 2, where (a) shows AA, (b) shows BB, (c) shows CC, and (d) shows a DD cross section. It is a front view which shows the side part structure of the motor vehicle of a prior art example. It is sectional drawing which shows the side part structure of FIG. (A) shows AA and (b) shows a BB cross section, respectively. It is a perspective view which shows the rocker reinforcement of a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Side part structure 2 Side outer panel 5,8 Rocker reinforcement 6 Rail cover 7a First intermediate member 7b Second intermediate member 10 Side structure 21 Front door opening 22 Rear door opening 23 Center pillar 24 Rocker panel 25 Front opening flange 26 Rear Opening flange 51 Lower part of front door 51a Vertical part 52 Rail cover lower part 52a Vertical part 53 Gradual change part 61 Upper cover 62 Lower cover 63 Rail storage part

Claims (2)

A side structure including a side outer panel, a rocker reinforcement disposed inside a lower edge of the side outer panel, and a rail cover for storing a rail of the sliding door in an automobile including a sliding door,
The rocker reinforcement has a front side rocker reinforcement, a rear rocker reinforcement, and an intermediate member that connects these parts.   The intermediate member includes a first intermediate member fixed to the front rocker reinforcement and the rear rocker reinforcement, and a second intermediate member fixed to the first intermediate member and the rail cover. The vehicle body side part structure according to claim 1, wherein

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