JP2009166636A - Tube for protecting external surface of wiring harness, and wiring harness - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress the suspension of wiring harness routed between a vehicle body and a door and can smoothly curve the wiring harness by a simple structure. <P>SOLUTION: This tube for protecting the external surface of wiring harness so routed as to be supported on the vehicle body and the door at longitudinal both sides and not supported therebetween is formed of a flexible elastic body. The tube comprises a vertical flat plate at one side, and, at the other side, a curved surface of a semi-annular shape in cross section which forms a semi-circular shape in cross section allowing the wiring harness to pass therethrough by continuously being connected to the one side. The flat plate is formed of a material different from the material forming the curved part. The hardness of the material forming the flat plate part is higher than that of the material forming the curved part to suppress the hang-down of the wiring harness by the weight thereof, and the wiring harness is made flexible by the curved part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a wire harness exterior protection tube and a wire harness, and more particularly, a smooth bending operation of a wire harness while suppressing the sag of the wire harness routed between a sliding door of a vehicle and a vehicle body. Is possible.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a wire harness routed in a vehicle is protected with various exterior protective materials in order to prevent electric wire damage or disconnection due to interference with peripheral components. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-25999 (Patent Document 1), as shown in FIG. 4, a wire harness W / H is inserted through a caterpillar-shaped cable guide 2 in which a plurality of link members 1 are linearly connected. A structure in which this is bridged in an S shape between the slide door 3 and the vehicle body 4 has been proposed.
By passing the wire harness W / H through the caterpillar-shaped cable guide 2, the trajectory of the wire harness W / H that curves following the movement of the slide door 3 is controlled, and the wire harness W / H and peripheral members are controlled. Can be prevented.

  However, since the caterpillar-shaped cable guide 2 is expensive and the wire harness W / H inserted through the cable guide 2 is exposed from the gap between the link members 1, the cable guide is formed by the tube body 5 as shown in FIG. 5. 2 must be further sheathed to prevent exposure, resulting in an increase in the number of parts and the number of work steps, resulting in an increase in cost.

  On the other hand, when a configuration that does not use the cable guide 2 as described above, such as a general tube-shaped exterior protection material, it is difficult to control the trajectory of the wire harness even if a smooth bending operation is possible. There is a problem in that a wire harness that is externally covered with a protective material and is routed over a vehicle is drooped due to its weight, and the hung wire harness interferes with peripheral members and is easily damaged.

JP 2004-25999 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has a simple structure, suppresses the hanging of the wire harness routed between the vehicle body and the door, prevents interference with peripheral members, and It is an object to enable a smooth bending operation of the harness.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the first invention is a wire harness exterior protection tube in which both sides in the length direction are supported by a vehicle body and a door, and the space between the two is not supported,
A semi-circular cross section that is formed from a flexible elastic material and has a flat plate portion on one side and a semicircular cross section that is continuous with the one side and forms a cross-sectional shape for penetrating the wire harness. The curved part is provided in the other part,
The flat plate portion is formed of a material different from the material forming the curved surface portion, and the sag due to the weight of the wire harness is suppressed by making the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion larger than the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion. On the other hand, a tube for protecting the exterior of a wire harness is provided that is bendable by the curved surface portion.

  As described above, in the exterior protection tube of the wire harness that is supported and routed by the door and the vehicle body on both sides in the length direction, the exterior protection is achieved by forming one side portion in the vertical direction from the flat plate portion. The vertical deflection of the working tube can be restricted, and the drooping due to the weight of the wire harness can be suppressed by the exterior protection tube having a simple structure as described above. In particular, by making the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion larger than the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion which is the other portion, it is possible to effectively suppress the sag of the exterior protection tube and Interference can be prevented.

In addition, as described above, the exterior protection tube is formed from a flexible elastic material, and a curved surface portion having a semicircular cross section is provided as the other portion continuously with one side portion including the flat plate portion, By setting the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion to be smaller than the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion, even if one side portion in the vertical direction is a flat plate portion, the outer protection tube is in the length direction (horizontal direction). Can be smoothly curved.
In particular, by making the curved surface portion of the low hardness that expands and contracts flexibly on the outer peripheral side of the curve, it is possible to absorb the difference between the inner and outer periphery that occurs during the bending, and the high hardness flat plate portion can be absorbed on the inner peripheral side of the curve. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles that are likely to occur on the inner peripheral side due to the difference between the inner and outer peripheral surfaces, so that the wire harness can be bent with good appearance. Moreover, durability of the tube for exterior protection can also be improved by preventing generation | occurrence | production of a wrinkle.

  Therefore, when the wire harness sheathed with the exterior protection tube is routed between, for example, a slide door and a vehicle body, the drooping due to the weight of the wire harness sheathed with the exterior protection tube is suppressed. It is possible to smoothly follow the opening / closing operation of the sliding door while curving the wire harness in the length direction with a good appearance.

  The exterior protection tube is preferably formed by two-color extrusion molding.

  As described above, by forming the exterior protection tube by two-color extrusion molding, a long exterior protection tube in which two types of materials having different hardness such as the flat plate portion and the curved surface portion are continuous is compared. Can be easily obtained.

  The flat plate portion and the curved surface portion of the outer protection tube are formed of a thermoplastic elastomer, and the hardness (Shore hardness D) of the thermoplastic elastomer forming the flat plate portion is set to 20 to 60 degrees, while the curved surface portion is formed. The thermoplastic elastomer preferably has a hardness (JIS A) of 30 to 70 degrees.

As the thermoplastic elastomer for forming the flat plate portion and the curved surface portion, it is preferable to use an olefin thermoplastic elastomer or a polyester thermoplastic elastomer, the soft segment is an olefin rubber such as EPDM, and the hard segment is polypropylene (PP). It is particularly preferable to use an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer that is an olefinic resin.
For example, in the curved surface portion having a lower hardness than the flat plate portion, the hardness is lowered by changing the blending ratio of the soft segment (olefin rubber) and the hard segment (olefin resin) of the olefin thermoplastic elastomer forming the flat plate portion. It is preferable to use an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer.

  As described above, the hardness (Shore hardness D) of the thermoplastic elastomer forming the flat plate portion is set to 20 to 60 degrees, and the hardness (JIS A) of the thermoplastic elastomer forming the curved surface portion is set to 30 to 70 degrees. Thus, it is easy to achieve both the prevention of the wire harness covered with the outer protection tube and the smooth bending in the length direction. In addition to the hardness, it is preferable that the thickness of the flat plate portion is 1 to 3 mm and the thickness of the curved surface portion is about 1 to 2 mm.

  Further, the flat plate portion is divided into an inner flat plate portion and an outer flat plate portion and overlapped, and the upper end of one of the inner flat plate portion and the outer flat plate portion is made continuous with the upper side portion of the curved surface portion, and the other lower end. It is good also as a structure which made the flat plate part openable and closable over the full length of the length direction by making the lower side part of the curved-surface part continuous. With this structure, when the wire harness is inserted, the inner flat plate portion and the outer flat plate portion can be opened laterally and the wire harness can be easily inserted from the side surface of the tube, so that the assembly workability can be improved. On the other hand, after inserting the wire harness, the inner flat plate portion and the outer flat plate portion can be overlapped to close the side surface of the tube, so that the wire harness can be reliably protected without being exposed to the outside.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wire harness that is sheathed with the exterior protection tube having the above-described configuration and is routed between the slide door and the vehicle body.

As described above, when the wire harness is routed between the slide door and the vehicle body, the connecting portion of the wire harness needs to follow the slide door while curving in a narrow space between the slide door and the vehicle body. When the wire harness of the crossing part hangs down in such a narrow space, there is an increased possibility that peripheral members interfere with the hanged wire harness and damage the wire harness. It is very effective.
Note that the present invention can be applied not only between the sliding door and the vehicle body, but also to a wire harness that is routed between the side door and the vehicle body.

  It is preferable that the flat plate portion is positioned in a vertical portion that is on the vehicle outer side when the sliding door is fully closed in a wired state of the wire harness, and the curved surface portion is positioned on the vehicle inner side.

  When the wiring harness is routed between the sliding door and the vehicle body and the sliding door is opened and closed, the portion that becomes the inside of the vehicle when the sliding door is fully closed with the wiring harness routed is large as the outer periphery of the curve. It is a part that requires elasticity. Therefore, as described above, the flat plate portion of the exterior protection tube is positioned on the vertical portion that is the vehicle exterior side when the slide door is fully closed, and the curved surface portion of the exterior protection tube is positioned on the interior side of the vehicle. It is possible to follow the movement of the slide door while smoothly curving the wire harness with the curved surface portion having a large stretchability as the outer peripheral side of the curve, while effectively preventing the wire harness to be sag from hanging down.

  As described above, according to the present invention, one side portion in the vertical direction is formed from the flat plate portion in the exterior protection tube of the wire harness that is routed with both sides in the length direction supported by the door and the vehicle body. By doing so, the bending of the exterior protection tube in the vertical direction can be restricted, and the sag due to the weight of the wire harness can be suppressed by the exterior protection tube having the simple structure as described above. In particular, by making the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion larger than the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion which is the other portion, it is possible to effectively suppress the sag of the exterior protection tube and Interference can be prevented.

In addition, as described above, the exterior protection tube is formed from a flexible elastic material, and a curved surface portion having a semicircular cross section is provided as the other portion continuously with one side portion including the flat plate portion, By setting the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion to be smaller than the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion, even if one side portion in the vertical direction is a flat plate portion, the exterior protection tube is lengthwise (horizontal direction). ) Can be smoothly curved. In particular, by making the curved surface portion of the low hardness that expands and contracts flexibly on the outer peripheral side of the curve, it is possible to absorb the difference between the inner and outer periphery that occurs during the bending, and the high hardness flat plate portion can be By doing so, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles that are likely to occur on the inner peripheral side due to the difference between the inner and outer periphery, so that the wire harness can be bent with good appearance. Moreover, durability of the tube for exterior protection can also be improved by preventing generation | occurrence | production of a wrinkle.
Moreover, the exterior protection tube in which two kinds of materials having different hardness such as the flat plate portion and the curved surface portion are continuous can be obtained relatively easily by two-color extrusion molding.

  Further, as described above, the flat plate portion of the exterior protection tube is positioned on the vertical portion that is the vehicle exterior side when the slide door is fully closed, and the curved surface portion of the exterior protection tube is positioned on the vehicle interior side, so It is possible to follow the movement of the slide door while smoothly curving the wire harness with the curved surface portion having a large stretchability as the outer peripheral side of the curve, while effectively preventing the wire harness to be sag from hanging down.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 2, the exterior protection tube 10 of the wire harness W / H is sheathed on the wire harness W / H routed between the slide door 20 and the vehicle body 21 of the automobile. Specifically, the exterior protection tube 10 is attached to the wire harness W / H that is supported by the slide door side support member 22 and the vehicle body side support member 23 on both sides in the length direction and is routed without being supported therebetween. Exterior.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the outer protection tube 10 has a flat plate portion 11 on one side in the vertical direction of the outer protection tube 10 and has a semicircular cross-section for passing through the wire harness continuously with the one side portion. A semicircular curved surface portion 12 is provided as the other portion. Bending portions 12 a and 12 b are provided at the upper end and the lower end of the curved surface portion 12, and the upper and lower bending portions 12 a and 12 b are respectively connected to the upper end 11 a and the lower end 11 b of the flat plate portion 11.

  The exterior protection tube 10 composed of the flat plate portion 11 and the curved surface portion 12 is formed of an olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer whose soft segment is EPDM and whose hard segment is polypropylene (PP), and the blending ratio of the soft segment and the hard segment is determined. By changing the hardness, the hardness of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer forming the flat plate portion 11 is made larger than the hardness of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer forming the curved surface portion 12.

  In this embodiment, the hardness (Shore hardness D) of the thermoplastic elastomer that forms the flat plate portion 11 is 40 degrees, and the hardness (JIS A) of the thermoplastic elastomer that forms the curved surface portion 12 is 50 degrees. Further, the thickness of the flat plate portion 11 is 2.5 mm, the thickness of the curved surface portion 12 excluding the upper and lower bent portions 12 a and 12 b is 1.4 mm, and the thickness of the bent portions 12 a and 12 b is the same as the thickness of the flat plate portion 11. It is about. Thus, the exterior protection tube 10 made of two kinds of materials having different hardnesses is formed by two-color extrusion molding.

The wire harness W / H is inserted into the exterior protection tube 10 and the wire harness W / H sheathed with the exterior protection tube 10 is routed between the slide door 20 and the vehicle body 21 (FIG. 2). At this time, the flat plate portion 11 of the exterior protection tube 10 is positioned at the vertical portion that is the vehicle exterior side when the slide door 20 is fully closed (P3), and the curved surface portion 12 is positioned at the vehicle interior side.
One end of the exterior protection tube 10 is fitted and fixed to the slide door side support member 22, and the other end of the exterior protection tube 10 is fitted and fixed to the vehicle body side support member 23. The connector connected to the terminal on the sliding door side support member 22 side of the wire harness W / H sheathed at the terminal is connected to the connector of the terminal of the door harness routed in the sliding door 20, and the body of the wire harness W / H The connector connected to the terminal on the side support member 23 side is connected to the connector of the wire harness terminal arranged in the vehicle body 20. In the present embodiment, both the slide door side support member 22 and the vehicle body side support member 23 are provided with a rotation mechanism so that the wire harness W / H can be rotatably supported.

  P1 in FIG. 2 indicates the fully open state of the slide door 20, and P3 indicates the fully closed state. Moreover, P2 has shown the half-open state which is the intermediate | middle stage. The wire harness W / H sheathed by the exterior protection tube 10 follows the opening / closing operation of the slide door 20 while smoothly curving.

  As described above, in the exterior protection tube 10 of the wire harness W / H in which both sides in the length direction are supported and routed by the slide door 20 and the vehicle body 21, one side portion in the vertical direction is the flat plate portion 11. By forming from the above, it is possible to restrict the vertical deflection of the exterior protection tube 10, and to suppress the sag due to the weight of the wire harness W / H sheathed by the exterior protection tube 10. In particular, by making the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion 11 larger than the hardness of the material forming the other portion (curved surface portion 12) continuous to the one side portion, the drooping of the exterior protection tube 10 is effectively performed. Thus, interference with peripheral members can be prevented.

Further, as described above, the exterior protection tube 10 is formed from a flexible olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer, and the curved surface portion 12 having a semicircular cross section is formed continuously with one side portion including the flat plate portion 11. By providing the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion 12 as the other portion smaller than the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion 11, even if the one side portion in the vertical direction is the flat plate portion 11, the outer protection tube 10. Can be smoothly curved in the length direction (horizontal direction).
In particular, by setting the low hardness curved surface portion 12 that flexibly expands and contracts to the outer peripheral side of the curve, it is possible to absorb the difference between the inner periphery and the outer periphery that occurs during the bending, and the inner peripheral side of the curve has the higher hardness. By using the flat plate portion 11, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles that are likely to occur on the inner peripheral side due to the difference between the inner periphery and the outer periphery, so that the wire harness W / H can be curved with good appearance. Moreover, durability of the exterior protection tube 10 can be enhanced by preventing the generation of wrinkles.

  Further, as described above, the flat plate portion 11 of the exterior protection tube 10 is positioned in the vertical portion that is the vehicle exterior side when the slide door 20 is fully closed (P3), and the curved surface portion 12 of the exterior protection tube 10 is disposed on the vehicle interior side. By positioning, the wire harness W / H that is routed over is effectively prevented from drooping, and the wire harness W / H is slid while smoothly curving the wire harness W / H with the curved surface portion 12 having a large stretchability as the outer peripheral side of the curve. It is possible to follow the movement of the door 20.

  The exterior protection tube 10 of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the flat plate portion 11 is divided into an inner flat plate portion 11A and an outer flat plate portion 11B and overlapped. The lower end 11A-2 of the inner flat plate portion 11A is made continuous with the lower bent portion 12b of the curved surface portion 12, and the upper end 11B-1 of the outer flat plate portion 11B is made continuous with the upper bent portion 12a of the curved surface portion 12, so It is good also as a structure which can be opened and closed over the full length of a length direction. With the above structure, in addition to the effects obtained in the above embodiment, when the wire harness W / H is inserted, the inner flat plate portion 11A and the outer flat plate portion 11B are opened to the side to facilitate the wire harness W / H from the side surface of the tube. Therefore, assembly workability can be improved. Further, after the wire harness W / H is inserted, the inner flat plate portion W / H and the outer flat plate portion 11B can be overlapped to close the tube side surface, so that the wire harness W / H can be reliably exposed without being exposed to the outside. Can protect.

1 shows an exterior protection tube of a wire harness according to the present embodiment, wherein (A) is a schematic perspective view of the exterior protection tube viewed from the flat plate portion side, and (B) is a schematic perspective view of the exterior protection tube viewed from the curved surface portion side. FIG. 3C is a schematic cross-sectional view of an exterior protection tube that is sheathed on a wire harness. It is a figure which shows the wiring structure of the wire harness in this embodiment. It is a schematic sectional drawing which shows another example of the tube for exterior protection. It is a figure which shows a prior art example. It is a figure which shows a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Exterior protection tube 11 Flat plate part 12 Curved surface part 20 Slide door 21 Car body 22 Slide door side support member 23 Car body side support member

Claims (5)

A wire harness exterior protection tube in which both sides in the length direction are supported by the vehicle body and the door, and the space between them is routed without being supported,
A semi-circular cross section that is formed from a flexible elastic material and has a flat plate portion on one side and a semicircular cross section that is continuous with the one side and forms a cross-sectional shape for penetrating the wire harness. The curved part is provided in the other part,
The flat plate portion is formed of a material different from the material forming the curved surface portion, and the sag due to the weight of the wire harness is suppressed by making the hardness of the material forming the flat plate portion larger than the hardness of the material forming the curved surface portion. On the other hand, a tube for protecting the exterior of a wire harness, characterized in that it is freely bent by the curved surface portion.   The tube for external protection of a wire harness according to claim 1, wherein the tube for external protection is formed by two-color extrusion molding.   The flat plate portion and the curved surface portion of the outer protection tube are formed of a thermoplastic elastomer, and the hardness (Shore hardness D) of the thermoplastic elastomer forming the flat plate portion is set to 20 to 60 degrees, while the curved surface portion is formed. The wire harness exterior protection tube according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the thermoplastic elastomer has a hardness (JIS A) of 30 to 70 degrees.   A wire harness that is sheathed with the exterior protection tube according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and is routed between the slide door and the vehicle body.   5. The wire harness according to claim 4, wherein the flat plate portion is positioned in a vertical portion that is on the vehicle outer side when the sliding door is fully closed in a wired state of the wire harness, and the curved surface portion is positioned on the vehicle inner side.

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