JP2010137625A - Cowl structure of vehicle body - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cowl structure assuring prescribed durability and corresponding flexibly regardless of the shape of an upper member in the front part of a vehicle body. <P>SOLUTION: This cowl structure includes a cowl inner 20 stretched between the front ends of a pair of side outer panels with the upper member extending to the front of the vehicle body, and a pair of cowl top sides 30 placed on both of left and right ends of the cowl inner 20. In the both ends of the cowl inner 20, sub connection parts 22 bending and extending to the rear of the vehicle body are formed respectively. The cowl top side 30 is formed substantially in a U-shape having an upper surface 30a and both side surfaces 30b, 30c. The side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 is superimposed and joined to the sub connection part 22 of the cowl inner 20, and the side surface of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the side surface 43 of the side outer panel 40. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a cowl structure of a vehicle body, and more particularly to a cowl structure of a vehicle body having a cowl inner and a cowl top side that are attached in the vicinity of a joint portion between an upper member at a front portion of the vehicle body and a side outer panel.

A conventionally known cowl structure attached to the front part of a vehicle body will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a front part of a vehicle body having a cowl structure according to the prior art, and shows a perspective view of the front part of the vehicle body as viewed from the right front side. In the figure, an arrow FR indicates the front of the vehicle body, an arrow UP indicates the upper side of the vehicle body, and an arrow LH indicates the vehicle width direction of the vehicle body. In FIG. 5, only the right side of the front part of the vehicle body is shown.
FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a BB cross section of the front portion of the vehicle body shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, a pair of upper members 100 extending forward of the vehicle body are formed at the left and right ends of the front portion of the vehicle body, and a side outer panel 140 is coupled to one end portion (base end portion) of each upper member 100. (In FIG. 5, only the right side portion is shown).
A cowl structure having a cowl inner 120 and a cowl top side 130 is attached to the front end portion of the side outer panel 140.
Specifically, a cowl inner 120 extending in the vehicle width direction is bridged in the vicinity of the joint portion between the side outer panel 140 and the upper member 100.
A cowl top side 130 is placed on both left and right ends of the cowl inner 120.

Here, when the side surface portion of the side outer panel 140 at the front of the vehicle body and the cowl inner 120 and the cowl top side 130 are joined, as shown in FIG. The side surfaces are joined by spot welding (joined at the position of S10 shown). Although not shown, the cowl top side 130 is also fixed to the front part of the cowl inner 120 in addition to the side part of the side outer panel 140.
Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the cowl top side 130 is joined by spot welding to positions (S10a, S10b) below the ridgeline 130a formed on itself.

By the way, when the durability of the vehicle body is taken into account, the length dimension (length dimension in the Y1 direction) of the cross section (the cross section in the vertical direction (Y1 direction)) of the upper member 100 at the front of the vehicle body is predetermined (predetermined length). (Dimension) is desirable.
This is because when the length of the cross section of the upper member 100 exceeds a predetermined value, the upper member 100 is not greatly deformed (because the amount of deformation is small) when the automobile is running, etc. This is because the load on the vicinity of the joint with the side outer panel 140 is reduced. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, a vehicle body in which the length of the cross section of the upper member 100 is ensured to be equal to or greater than a predetermined length is referred to as a “model having a high cross section of the upper member”.
However, there are models of automobiles (hereinafter referred to as “models having a low upper member cross section”) in which the length of the cross section is not more than a predetermined value due to design, function, and the like.

  In the “model having a high cross section of the upper member”, since the deformation amount of the upper member 100 is small, even if the cowl structure having the cowl inner 120 and the cowl top side 130 formed as shown in FIG. The end portion of the cowl inner 120 and the cowl top side 130 were not damaged (or deformed) by the load near the joint portion. For example, even when the automobile travels on a rough road, the cowl top side 130 is not damaged (or deformed) because the load near the coupling portion is small.

On the other hand, the amount of deformation of the upper member 100 is larger in the “model having a lower upper member cross section” than in the “model having a higher upper member cross section”. That is, in the “model with a low upper member cross section”, the load applied in the vicinity of the coupling portion increases.
Therefore, in the “model having a low cross section of the upper member”, when the same structure as the cowl top side 130 and the cowl inner 120 of FIG. 5 described above is used, the cowl top side 130 (or the cowl inner 120) is connected to the coupling portion. There was a case of damage (or deformation) due to the influence of the load on the vicinity. In particular, in the cowl top side 130, “the vicinity of the joint portion with the side outer panel 140”, which is heavily loaded, often breaks.
Therefore, conventionally, in the “model with a low upper member cross section”, for example, the end of the cowl inner 120 and the cowl top side 130 are prevented from being damaged by increasing the thickness of the cowl top side 130 (the cowl top side 130). Increased the durability of the structure).

Further, for example, in the “model having a low upper member cross section”, the above-described breakage (or deformation) is prevented by using the cowl top side 131 having a shape as shown in FIG. 7 (the durability of the cowl structure is improved). Increased).
Specifically, the cowl top side 131 is joined to the side outer panel 140 by spot welding at two places (S20a, S20b) in the vertical direction across the ridgeline 131a. In this way, the position of spot welding is divided up and down across the ridge line 131a, thereby distributing the load up and down, thereby increasing the thickness of the cowl top side 131 (or cowl inner 120) without increasing the plate thickness. Was preventing damage.
In addition, the structure of the vehicle body structure provided with the cowl structure which joined the cowl top side to the side outer panel by spot welding as mentioned above is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1.
JP 11-34921 A

However, as in the prior art described above, the method of ensuring durability by increasing the thickness of the cowl top side for a model having a lower upper member cross section has the technical problem of increasing the mass of the vehicle body. Cause it to occur.
In addition, the above-described “cowl top side that is spot-welded at two locations on the top and bottom across the ridge line” shown in FIG. 7 has a more complicated shape than the cowl top side shown in FIG. Was inviting a rise.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above technical problem, and an object of the present invention is to ensure a predetermined durability without increasing the cost of parts and to form the upper member at the front of the vehicle body. An object of the present invention is to provide a cowl structure having a cowl inner and a cowl top side that can be flexibly handled without being influenced.

The present invention made to solve the above-described problems includes a cowl inner extending in the vehicle width direction spanned between the front end portions of a pair of side outer panels to which an upper member extending forward of the vehicle body is attached, and placed on the left and right ends of the cowl inner. The present invention is applied to a cowl structure of a vehicle body including a pair of cowl top sides.
The cowl inner is formed with sub-joints extending at the rear of the vehicle body at both ends thereof, and the cowl top side has a substantially U-shaped cross section in which an upper surface and both side surfaces are formed. The side portions of the cowl top sides are overlapped with the sub coupling portions at both ends of the cowl inner, and the both ends of the cowl inner are wound to the rear of the vehicle body so that the sub coupling portion and the side surfaces of the cowl top side are The end of the side surface of the cowl top side that is joined and joined to the cowl inner is joined to the side surface of the side outer panel.

As described above, in the cowl structure of the present invention, the sub coupling portions that are bent and extend rearward of the vehicle body are formed at both ends of the cowl inner. In the present invention, after the cowl inner sub-joint portion is wound to the rear of the vehicle body and joined to the cowl top side (after the cowl inner and the cowl top side are sub-assembled), the side outer panel is connected to the cowl top side. The ends are joined.
Thereby, since the side surface of the cowl top side is supported by the joint portion with the side outer panel and the joint portion with the cowl inner, the load applied to the cowl top side joined to the side surface of the side outer panel can be dispersed. The surface deformation of the cowl top side is suppressed. That is, according to the present invention, it is possible to increase the rigidity of “the vicinity of the joint portion with the side surface of the side outer panel”, which is a portion to which a load on the cowl top side is greatly applied.

Therefore, according to the cowl structure of the present invention, since the rigidity of the cowl top side can be ensured, it can also be applied to a model in which the upper member has a low cross section.
That is, the cowl structure for a vehicle body according to the present invention can be applied without being influenced by the shape of the upper member at the front of the vehicle body, so that the parts can be shared.
Further, in the cowl structure of the present invention, it is not necessary to increase the thickness of the cowl inner and the cowl top side, so that the mass of the vehicle body is not increased.
Further, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to make the cowl inner into a complicated shape as shown in FIG.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a cowl structure for a vehicle body having a cowl inner and a cowl top side that can flexibly cope with an increase in parts cost and without being influenced by the shape of the upper member at the front of the vehicle body. it can.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a front portion of a vehicle body provided with a cowl structure according to an embodiment of the present invention, and shows a perspective view of the front portion of the vehicle body as viewed from the right front side.
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of parts showing a joining relationship between the cowl structure of the embodiment of the present invention and the side outer panel of the vehicle body. FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing a joint portion between the cowl structure and the side outer panel in the structure of the front portion of the vehicle body shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an AA cross section of the front portion of the vehicle body shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cowl structure according to the embodiment of the present invention is mounted on the cowl inner 20 extending in the vehicle width direction, spanned on the front end portion of the side outer panel 40 constituting the vehicle body W, and on both left and right ends of the cowl inner 20. And a cowl top side 30 mounted thereon.
This embodiment is characterized by a cowl structure of the vehicle body W and a joint structure between the cowl structure and the side outer panel 40, and the other structures are the same as those of the prior art. Therefore, hereinafter, a characteristic configuration of the present invention will be described in detail, and a description of a configuration similar to that of the related art will be omitted.

Specifically, a pair of upper members 10 extending in the front direction of the vehicle body W are formed at the left and right ends of the front portion of the vehicle body W, and the side outer panel 40 is coupled to one end portion (base end portion) of each upper member 10. Has been.
A cowl inner 20 extending in the vehicle width direction is bridged around the front end portion of the side outer panel 40 (in the vicinity of the coupling portion with the upper member 10). A cowl top side 30 is placed on each of the left and right ends of the cowl inner 20.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the cowl inner 20 extending in the vehicle width direction is formed with substantially rectangular sub-joining portions 22 that are bent at the rear of the vehicle body at both left and right ends (in the illustrated example, Only the right edge is shown).
Further, the cowl top side 30 has a substantially U-shaped cross section in which the upper surface 30a and both side surfaces 30b, 30c are formed, and the cowl inner 20 and the side outer panel 40 are formed at the end portion (rear end in the drawing) of the side surface 30b. A coupling portion 32 is formed to be joined.
The side outer panel 40 includes a front end portion 41 substantially parallel to the vehicle width direction of the vehicle body W and a side surface portion 43 substantially parallel to the front-rear direction of the vehicle body W. Further, the front end portion 41 is formed with a cowl inner mounting portion 41a that is configured to fit an end portion (the left end portion in FIG. 2) of the cowl inner 20 and an upper member mounting portion 41b to which the base end portion of the upper member 10 is mounted. Has been.

In this embodiment, the cowl inner 20 and the cowl top side 30 are joined and sub-assembled, and then the end of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the side outer panel 40.
Specifically, first, as shown in FIG. 2, the joint points 22 a and 22 b of the sub-joint portion 22 of the cowl inner 20, and the joint points 32 a and 32 b of the joint portion 32 formed on the side surface 30 b of the cowl top side 30, In this state, the joining points 22a and 22b and the joining points 32a and 32b are joined by spot welding (in FIG. 2, only the right end portion of the cowl inner 20 is shown, but the left end portion of the cowling inner 20 is shown. Is also joined to the cowl top side 30).
Thereby, the cowl inner 20 is joined to the cowl top side 30 in a state in which the sub coupling portions 22 formed at both ends are wound in the rearward direction of the vehicle body W.

Next, both end portions of the cowl inner 20 joined to the cowl top side 30 are placed on the cowl inner mounting portion 41 a of the side outer panel 40, and the joint points 32 c and 32 d of the coupling portion 32 of the cowl top side 30 and the side outer panel 40 are connected. The joining points 42a and 42b formed on the side surface portion 43a are overlapped, and the joining points 32c and 32d and the joining points 42a and 42b are joined by spot welding.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 3, the cowl top side 30 and the cowl inner 20 are joined to the positions S2a and S2b, and the cowl inner 20 and the side outer panel 40 are joined to the positions S1a and S1b.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the sub coupling portion 22 of the cowl inner 20 at the joining position S2, and the side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 is connected to the side outer panel 40. Are joined at the joining position S1.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the front end 30 a 1 of the upper surface 30 a of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the upper surface of the upper member 10. Further, the upper end portion 30 a 2 of the upper surface 30 a of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the cowl inner mounting portion 41 a of the side outer panel 40.
A flange portion 30b1 is formed at the lower end of the side surfaces 30b, 30c of the cowl top side 30, and the flange portion 30b1 is joined to the cowl inner mounting portion 41a of the side outer panel 40.

As described above, in this embodiment, the sub coupling portion 22 of the cowl inner 20 is wound toward the rear of the vehicle body W and joined to the side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 (the cowl inner 20 and the cowl top side 30 are connected to each other). After the assembly, the side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 is joined to the side outer panel 40.
As a result, the side surface 30b of the cowl top side 30 is supported by the junction point S1 (S1a, S1b) with the side outer panel 40 and the junction point S2 (S2a, S2b) with the cowl inner 20, so The load applied to the joined cowl top side 30 can be dispersed, and surface deformation of the cowl top side 30 is suppressed.
That is, according to the cowl structure of the present embodiment, the durability of the cowl top side 30 can be ensured without increasing the plate thickness of the cowl inner 20 and the cowl top side 30.

Therefore, the cowl structure of the present embodiment can be applied without being influenced by the shape of the upper member 10 at the front of the vehicle body, and the parts can be shared.
Further, in the cowl structure of the present embodiment, it is not necessary to increase the thickness of the cowl inner 20 and the cowl top side 30, and therefore the mass of the vehicle body W is not increased.
Further, the present invention does not employ a configuration in which the cowl inner is joined across the ridgeline of the side outer panel as shown in FIG. 7 described above, so that it is not necessary to make the cowl inner 20 in a complicated shape, which increases the cost of parts. Can be prevented.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the cowl inner 20 and the cowl that can be flexibly handled without causing an increase in component costs and without being influenced by the shape of the upper member formed at the front portion of the vehicle body W. A cowl structure for a vehicle body having a top side 30 can be provided.
In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, A various deformation | transformation is possible within the range of the summary.

It is a perspective view of the vehicle body front part provided with the cowl structure of embodiment of this invention. It is a disassembled perspective view of components which shows the joining relation of the cowl structure of the embodiment of the present invention, and the side outer panel of a vehicle body. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view illustrating a joint portion between a cowl structure and a side outer panel from the structure of the front portion of the vehicle body illustrated in FIG. 1. It is the schematic diagram which showed the AA cross section of the vehicle body front part shown in FIG. It is a perspective view of the vehicle body front part provided with the cowl structure by a prior art. FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a BB cross section of the front portion of the vehicle body shown in FIG. 5. It is a perspective view of the vehicle body front part provided with the cowl structure by a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

W vehicle body 10 upper member 20 cowl inner 22 sub coupling portion 22a, 22b joint 30 cowl top side 30a upper surface 30
30b, 30c Side surface 32 Joint part 32a, 32b, 32c, 32d Joint point 40 Side outer panel 41 Front end part 42a, 42b Joint point 43 Side part

Claims (1)

A cowl of a vehicle body comprising a cowl inner extending in the vehicle width direction spanned between the front end portions of a pair of side outer panels to which an upper member extending in front of the vehicle body is attached, and a pair of cowl top sides placed on both left and right ends of the cowl inner Structure,
The cowl inner is formed with sub-joints extending at the rear of the vehicle body and extending at both ends thereof,
The cowl top side has a substantially U-shaped cross section in which an upper surface and both side surfaces are formed.
The side portions of the cowl top sides are overlapped with the sub coupling portions at both ends of the cowl inner, and the both ends of the cowl inner are wound to the rear of the vehicle body so that the sub coupling portion and the side surfaces of the cowl top side are Joined and
A cowl structure for a vehicle body, wherein an end portion of a side surface of the cowl top side joined to the cowl inner is joined to a side surface of the side outer panel.

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