JP2011148440A - Method of assembling instrument panel members - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of assembling instrument panel members which enhances the production efficiency of the instrument panel members. <P>SOLUTION: In the method of assembling the instrument panel members, a small-diameter tubular instrument panel member to which various kinds of attachment parts are welded, and a large-diameter tubular instrument panel member to which various kinds of attachment parts are welded, are assembled by attaching and connecting them to each other. The method includes the first welding step S1 in which spot welding electrodes are inserted into the small-diameter tubular instrument panel member and the large-diameter tubular instrument panel member before these tubular instrument panel members are connected to each other, spot welding of the predetermined various kinds of attachment parts corresponding to the individual tubular instrument panel members is carried out with respect to these instrument panel members; and the second welding step S2 in which after the first welding step S1, the small-diameter and large-diameter tubular instrument panel members are attached to each other, and the small-diameter and large-diameter tubular instrument panel members are connected to each other by welding having high welding strength than the spot welding. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an assembly method for an instrument panel member that is assembled by joining a large-diameter instrument panel tubular member and a small-diameter instrument panel tubular member, and in particular, a small-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which various attachment parts are welded, and various attachment parts. The present invention relates to an assembling method of an instrument panel member that is assembled by assembling and joining together a large-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which the metal is welded.

  Conventionally, as an instrument panel member, one constituted mainly by two members, a large diameter instrument panel member and a small diameter instrument panel member, is known. These large-diameter instrument panel members and small-diameter instrument panel members are conventionally joined to each other by arc welding. In addition, these large-diameter and small-diameter instrument panel members are provided with various attachment parts (for example, a steering bracket). Conventionally, these attachment parts are integrated by joining large-diameter and small-diameter instrument panel members. It was welded to the instrument panel member by arc welding. In general, welding by arc welding has a higher strength than spot welding, but it is known that it takes longer time to weld than welding by spot welding.

  As an instrument panel member formed by joining a large-diameter instrument panel member and a small-diameter instrument panel member to each other, Patent Document 1 discloses a steering provided in a large-diameter pipe by improving the strength of a connecting portion between the large-diameter pipe and the small-diameter pipe. A support bracket is disclosed in which the support rigidity is increased. In addition, this patent document 1 does not disclose the welding method (arc welding, spot welding, laser welding, etc.) of the connecting portion and the bracket.

JP2005-306083

  As described above, in the assembly process of the conventional instrument panel member, the large diameter and small diameter instrument panel members are joined and integrated, and then each mounting part is welded, and then the large diameter instrument panel member and the small diameter instrument panel member are joined. However, since welding of various mounting parts to the instrument panel member was all performed by arc welding, the welding time was increased and the production efficiency was not good.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for assembling an instrument panel member that can increase the production efficiency of the instrument panel member.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an instrument panel that is assembled by assembling and joining together a small-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which various attachment parts are welded and a large-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which various attachment parts are welded. A method for assembling a member, wherein before the small diameter instrument panel tubular member and the large diameter instrument panel tubular member are joined to each other, a spot welding electrode is inserted into each of the instrument panel tubular members, and each instrument panel cylinder is inserted. A first welding step for spot-welding predetermined various attachment parts corresponding to the respective members to the respective instrument panel tubular members, and after the first welding step, predetermined welding is performed by welding having higher welding strength than spot welding. 2 welding steps, in which the small diameter and large diameter instrument panel cylindrical members are assembled together and by welding with higher welding strength than spot welding It is characterized by having a second welding step comprising bonding the diameter and large-diameter instrument panel tubular members together, a.

  In the present invention configured as described above, in the first welding step, the predetermined various attachment parts corresponding to the respective instrument panel tubular members are spot welded to the respective instrument panel tubular members, respectively. Short spot welding can shorten the welding time. Furthermore, in the present invention, since various instrument parts can be welded to each instrument panel tubular member before joining the small diameter instrument panel tubular member and the large diameter instrument panel tubular member to each other, spot welding is used. It is possible to shorten the production process as well as the welding time. Further, since the spot welding electrode is inserted into each of the instrument panel cylindrical members before joining the small diameter instrument panel cylindrical member and the large diameter instrument panel cylindrical member to each other, The length of the shank can be shortened. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the welding failure caused by the pressure drop of the spot welding electrode accompanying the deflection of the shank and the welding failure caused by the shunting due to contact with each instrument panel tubular member. I can do it. In the second welding step, after the first welding step, the small-diameter and large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical members are assembled together, and the small-diameter and large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical members are joined to each other by welding having higher welding strength than spot welding. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a decrease in rigidity of the instrument panel member itself. As a result, according to the method for assembling an instrument panel member of the present invention, it is possible to shorten the welding time by spot welding of various attachment parts and increase the production efficiency of the instrument panel member while suppressing a decrease in rigidity of the instrument panel member itself. I can do it.

In the present invention, preferably, in the first and second diameter instrument panel tubular members, spot welding electrodes are respectively inserted from both ends of each instrument panel tubular member, and various attachment parts are spot welded. To do.
In the present invention configured as described above, spot welding electrodes are inserted from both ends of the small-diameter and large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical members, and various attachment parts are spot-welded. As a result, the production efficiency of the instrument panel members can be increased. In addition, since the spot welding electrodes are respectively inserted from both ends, the length of the shank for the spot welding electrode is further shortened, and welding defects accompanying the pressure drop of the spot welding electrode due to the bending of the shank, It is possible to more reliably suppress poor welding due to the diversion caused by contact with the instrument panel tubular member.

In the present invention, preferably, the various attachment parts include high weld strength attachment parts that require high weld strength to the large-diameter instrument panel tubular member, and the predetermined welding in the second welding step is performed with high weld strength. Welding the mounting part to the large instrument panel tubular member.
In the present invention configured as described above, it is possible to efficiently perform the welding of the high-weld-strength mounting part requiring high welding strength to the large-diameter instrument panel tubular member in the assembly process of the instrument panel member. Further, a high weld strength attachment component (for example, an electric power steering bracket) is supported by a large-diameter instrument panel tubular member having high rigidity.

In the present invention, preferably, the welding having higher welding strength than spot welding in the second welding step is arc welding.
In the present invention configured as described above, the welding strength of the joint portion between the small-diameter instrument panel cylindrical member and the large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical member, and the high-welding strength attachment component to the large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical member are more reliably provided. The welding strength of the welded portion can be ensured.

  According to the instrument panel member assembling method of the present invention, the production efficiency of the instrument panel member can be increased.

It is a perspective view showing an example of an instrument panel member assembled by an instrument panel member assembly method according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view which shows the state which is performing the spot welding of various attachment parts to the instrument panel member by this spot welding apparatus used for the assembly method of the instrument panel member in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the assembly process of the instrument panel member by the assembly method of the instrument panel member by embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, a method for assembling an instrument panel member according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First, an example of an instrument panel member assembled by an instrument panel member assembly method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an instrument panel member assembled by an instrument panel member assembly method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the instrument panel member 1 is a member extending in the vehicle width direction so as to connect the left and right bodies (not shown) at the front of the vehicle body, and includes a large diameter instrument panel member 2 and a small diameter instrument panel member 4. I have. The large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 are formed in a cylindrical shape (pipe shape), and are joined to each other by arc welding at a portion indicated by A in FIG.

  The large-diameter instrument panel member 2 has high mechanical strength and is provided on the driver's seat side to support the load of a steering (not shown) to be attached. The large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 are both made of carbon steel pipes for machine structures capable of spot welding, arc welding, laser welding, and the like. The small-diameter instrument panel member 4 is formed so that its diameter gradually increases in the vicinity of the joint with the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 so as to coincide with the diameter of the large-diameter instrument panel member 2.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 has a predetermined mounting part, in this example, a steering bracket 6 to which a column EPAS (electric power assist steering) (not shown) is attached, and a steering body cowl part. A steering bracket 8 to which a (not shown) is attached, an instrument panel bracket 10 to which a body tunnel (not shown) is attached, a left knee bolster 12 and a right knee bolster 14 to which a knee airbag mounting bracket (not shown) is attached. The side brackets 16 to which the right hinge pillar inner (not shown) is attached are welded to each other. Among these brackets (various attachment parts), as will be described later, the steering bracket 6 is welded by arc welding, and the other brackets 8 and the like are welded by spot welding.

  The small-diameter instrument panel member 4 has various predetermined mounting parts, in this example, an instrument panel bracket 18 to which a globe hinge portion (not shown) is attached, a side bracket 20 to which a left hinge pillar inner (not shown) is attached, and the like. Parts 22, 24 and 26 are welded. These brackets (various mounting parts) 18 and the like are welded by spot welding as will be described later.

Next, with reference to FIG. 2, a spot welding apparatus used in an instrument panel member assembling method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a side view showing a spot welding apparatus used in the method for assembling an instrument panel member according to the embodiment of the present invention and a state in which various attachment parts to the instrument panel member are spot welded by this apparatus.
In FIG. 2, the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 is shown as an example, but the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 is also spot-welded by a spot welding device 31 as described below.

As shown in FIG. 2, the spot welding device 31 is composed of a pair of left and right, and their basic configurations are the same, so only one will be described.
The spot welding device 31 includes a welding gun 32, an arm-side shank 34 fixed to the welding gun 32, a movable rod-side shank 36 that can swing around the welding gun 32, and an arm-side spot welding electrode section. 38 (hereinafter referred to as the arm side electrode 38) and a movable rod side spot welding electrode portion 40 (hereinafter referred to as the rod side electrode 40).

  The welding gun 32 is configured to be rotatable, and the arm-side shank 34 is also rotated in accordance with the rotation thereof, so that the position of the arm-side electrode 38 at the tip thereof is relative to the instrument panel members 2 and 4 (at the positions of various attachment parts). It is configured to rotate 360 degrees.

  On the other hand, the movable rod side shank 36 also rotates and swings with the rotation of the welding gun 32, and in the example of FIG. 2, the left movable rod side shank 36 is movable rightward so as to swing vertically. The rod-side shank 36 is configured to swing in the depth direction, and the rod-side electrode 40 provided at the tip thereof is positioned at a position facing the inner arm-side electrode 38 of the instrument panel members 2 and 4. Is configured to

  When spot welding various predetermined attachment parts to the small diameter instrument panel member 4, the arm side shank 34 and the arm side electrode 38 are horizontally inserted into the cylinder of the small diameter instrument panel member 4. In the present embodiment, the left and right spot welding devices 31 are operated, and the shank 34 and the arm side electrode 38 are inserted from both ends of the small diameter instrument panel member 4 so that different attachment parts can be welded in parallel. It is composed.

  Thereafter, the tip of the rod-side electrode 40 is positioned at a position facing the arm-side electrode 38, and an electric current is passed between the electrodes 38, 40 while applying pressure to the part to be welded with various attachment parts. Melt and weld metal with resistance heat. In the present embodiment, the rigidity of the arm-side shank 34 is increased so that the arm-side shank 34 does not bend even when pressure is applied, and does not come into contact with the small-diameter instrument panel member 4.

Further, by providing two spot welding devices 31 on the left and right, the length of the arm-side shank 34 can be made at least half the length of the small diameter instrument panel member 4. Accordingly, when applying pressure to the welded portion during spot welding, the arm-side shank 34 is minimized in bending, and the shank 34 is deformed due to a welding failure due to a decrease in the pressure of the welded portion caused by the bending, and due to the deflection. It is possible to suppress poor welding caused by contact with the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 and generation of a shunt.
The spot welding by the above spot welding apparatus 31 is performed on the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 in the same manner, and the obtained effects are also the same. The description is omitted.

Next, an instrument panel member assembling method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of an instrument panel member assembling process by the instrument panel member assembling method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 3, in this embodiment, in the spot welding step S1, the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 are provided in parallel in separate welding steps S11 and S12, respectively, Various attachment parts are welded by spot welding. For example, the spot welding steps S11 and S12 are performed in parallel on two production lines in the assembly factory of the instrument panel member 1.

In the welding step S11 (“large diameter instrument panel member welding step”), the various mounting parts 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 described above are converted into the large diameter instrument panel member 2 by the two spot welding devices 31 shown in FIG. Spot welded. In the present embodiment, as described above, since the pair of left and right spot welding apparatuses 31 are used, for example, the various attachment parts 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 weld the part 8 and the part 16 at the same time. It is possible to weld efficiently.
In this step S11, the steering bracket 6 is not welded.

At the same time, in the welding step S12 ("small-diameter instrument panel member welding step"), the above-described various attachment parts 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26 are replaced by the two spot welding apparatuses 31 shown in FIG. Spot welding is performed on the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 by a similar device 31 provided on a line different from the device 31 used in S11. In this embodiment, also in this step S12, as described above, since the pair of left and right spot welding devices 31 are used, the various attachment parts 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 are, for example, the part 18 and the part 26. It is possible to perform welding efficiently, such as welding at the same time.
In addition, in this process S1, welding process S11, S12 does not need to be performed simultaneously, for example, may be performed in order of process S11, S12, etc. in series on one production line.

  Next, the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member to which all the various attachment parts to be spot-welded in the spot welding process S1 are welded are provided to the arc welding process S2. In this arc welding process S2, for example, in the assembly factory of the instrument panel member 1, it is carried out on one production line.

  In this arc welding step S2, first in step S21, the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 are assembled, and arc welding is performed at the joint A (see FIG. 1). Arc welding takes longer than spot welding, but its welding strength is high. In the present embodiment, this step S21 ensures the rigidity of the instrument panel member 1 itself, in other words, the rigidity of the entire instrument panel member 1 by using arc welding for joining the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4. Like to do.

On the other hand, among the various mounting parts described above, there are some that require high welding strength. For example, in the present embodiment, the above-described column EPAS (electric power steering) mounting steering bracket 6 is required to have high welding strength. That is, since the electric power steering attached to the bracket 6 is heavy, its supporting strength is required.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, following step S21, the steering bracket 6 is welded to the large diameter instrument panel member 2 by arc welding in step S22. In the present embodiment, steps S21 and S22 are performed continuously using the same arc welder.

  In the present embodiment, the steps S21 and S22 in the arc welding step S2 are performed at substantially the same timing as seen from the whole manufacturing process of the instrument panel member 1 in order to increase the production efficiency of the instrument panel member 1. And process S21 and process S22 may be in the reverse order.

  As welding having higher welding strength than spot welding, for example, laser welding may be used in step S2.

  Next, the effect of the instrument panel member assembling method according to the above-described embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, in the spot welding step S1, various attachment parts 8 and 18 corresponding to the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 are spot welded to the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4, respectively. Therefore, the welding time can be shortened by spot welding with a short welding time.

  Further, in the spot welding process S1, the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 are provided in parallel in separate welding processes S11 and S12, respectively, and various attachment parts 8, 18 are spot welded in parallel. Therefore, the production efficiency can be surely increased.

  Further, in the arc welding step S2, before the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 are joined to each other, various attachment parts 8, 18 and the like are individually spot-welded to the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4, respectively. As a result, the welding time can be shortened and the production process can be shortened by spot welding, which has a shorter welding time than arc welding.

  Further, before joining the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 to each other, spot welding electrodes (arm side shank 34, arm side electrode 38) are respectively applied to the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and small diameter instrument panel member 4. Therefore, the length of the shank 34 of the spot welding electrode can be shortened. Therefore, the welding failure caused by the pressure drop of the spot welding electrode 38 accompanying the deflection of the shank 34, and the electrode It is possible to suppress welding failure due to the diversion caused by contact between the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4.

Further, in the arc welding process S2 after the spot welding process S1, the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 are assembled to each other, and the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member are arc welded with higher welding strength than spot welding. 4 are joined to each other, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the rigidity of the instrument panel member 1 itself.
Therefore, according to the method for assembling the instrument panel member according to the embodiment of the present invention, the instrument panel member 1 can be shortened by spot welding of the various attachment parts 8 and 18 while suppressing the decrease in rigidity of the instrument panel member 1 itself. The production efficiency can be increased.

  Further, spot welding electrodes (arm-side shank 34, arm-side electrode 38) are respectively inserted from both ends of the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 so as to spot-weld various attachment parts 8, 18 and the like. Therefore, the total time required for the welding process of the various attachment parts 8 and 18 can be shortened, and as a result, the production efficiency of the instrument panel member 1 can be increased.

  Further, since the spot welding electrodes (arm-side shank 34, arm-side electrode 38) are respectively inserted from both ends of the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4, the length of the shank 34 for the spot welding electrode The welding failure due to the pressure drop of the spot welding electrode 38 due to the bending of the shank 34 and the welding failure due to the shunt due to the contact between the electrode 38 and the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 It can suppress more reliably.

  Further, in the step S22 of the arc welding step S2, the column bracket EPAS (electric power steering) mounting steering bracket 6 which is a high welding strength mounting part that requires high welding strength to the large diameter instrument panel member 2 is obtained by spot welding. In addition, since the welding is performed on the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 by arc welding with high welding strength, it is possible to increase the support rigidity of the electric power steering and the like that increase the weight.

  In the arc welding step S2, the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 are arc-welded to each other, and the steering bracket 6, which is a high weld strength mounting component, is arc-welded to the large-diameter instrument panel member 2. In addition, it is possible to efficiently weld a high weld strength attachment part that requires high weld strength during the production process of the instrument panel member 1. That is, production efficiency can be increased.

  Further, in the arc welding step S2, since the step S21 and the step S22 are performed continuously, welding requiring high welding strength can be efficiently performed during the assembly process of the instrument panel member 1. Note that the order of step S21 and step S22 may be reversed. As described above, since the process S22 is performed continuously before or after the process S21, various attachment parts are transferred to the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 of the steering bracket 6 that requires welding having higher welding strength than spot welding. The arc welding can be performed efficiently.

  In addition, since the steering bracket 6 as a high welding strength attachment component is supported by the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 having high rigidity, wobble of the electric power steering that is attached to the bracket 6 and is heavy is suppressed.

  Further, in the arc welding step S2, arc welding having higher welding strength than spot welding is employed, and therefore, the joining portion A (see FIG. 1) between the large diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small diameter instrument panel member 4 is more reliably performed. In addition, the welding strength of the welded portion of the steering bracket 6 to the large-diameter instrument panel member 6 as a high welding strength attachment component can be ensured.

  Further, the arc welding process S2 includes the welding of the steering bracket 6 to the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 that requires high welding strength and the joining of the large-diameter instrument panel member 2 and the small-diameter instrument panel member 4 to the spot welding process S1. The production efficiency of the instrument panel member 1 can be improved by dividing the spot welding process and the arc welding process, which are performed collectively after the process.

  In the conventional instrument panel member assembling process, all the attachment parts are all welded by arc welding. However, as described above, in this embodiment, the attachment parts requiring high welding strength in the spot welding process S1. Other parts are welded by spot welding, and the time required to assemble the instrument panel member is shortened by that amount. (It takes about 4 seconds for arc welding, while it takes about 1 second for spot welding. Assembly time is shortened).

  Conventionally, since arc welding is used for welding in all processes, it takes time to temporarily weld members having the same welding direction as a group and prevent temporary welding between welding processes. However, in this embodiment, since at least many of the various attachment parts are welded by spot welding in the spot welding step S1, such a problem does not occur, and the production efficiency of the instrument panel member can be improved.

1 Instrument panel member 2 Large diameter instrument panel member 4 Small diameter instrument panel member 6 Column EPAS mounting steering bracket 8 Body cowl mounting steering bracket 10 Body tunnel mounting panel bracket 12 Left knee bolster 14 Right knee bolster 16 Right side bracket 18 Globe hinge Instrument mounting bracket 20 Side bracket 31 Spot welding device 32 Welding gun 34 Arm side shank 36 Rod side shank 38 Arm side spot welding electrode part 40 Rod side spot welding electrode part S1 Spot welding process S11 Large diameter instrument panel member Welding process by spot welding of various mounting parts S12 Welding process by spot welding of various mounting parts to small diameter instrument panel members S2 Arc welding process S22 High welding strength Welding process by arc welding to diameter instrument panel member

Claims (4)

An instrument panel member assembly method in which a small-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which various attachment parts are welded and a large-diameter instrument panel tubular member to which various attachment parts are welded are assembled and joined together.
Before joining the small-diameter instrument panel cylindrical member and the large-diameter instrument panel cylindrical member to each other, spot welding electrodes are inserted into the instrument panel cylindrical members, respectively, and predetermined corresponding to each instrument panel cylindrical member. A first welding step of spot-welding each of the various attachment parts to each instrument panel tubular member,
After the first welding step, a second welding step is performed in which predetermined welding is performed by welding having higher welding strength than spot welding, and the small diameter and large diameter instrument panel tubular members are assembled to each other and welded more than the spot welding. A second welding step including joining the small diameter and large diameter instrument panel tubular members to each other by welding with high strength;
An instrument panel member assembling method characterized by comprising:   The said 1st welding step inserts the electrode for spot welding from the both ends of each instrument panel cylindrical member in each of the said small diameter and large diameter instrument panel cylindrical member, respectively, and spot-welds various attachment components. Instrument panel member assembly method. The various mounting parts include high welding strength mounting parts that require high welding strength to the large-diameter instrument panel tubular member,
2. The instrument panel member assembling method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined welding in the second welding step includes welding the high weld strength attachment component to the large-diameter instrument panel tubular member.   The instrument panel member assembling method according to claim 1 or 3, wherein the welding having higher welding strength than spot welding in the second welding step is arc welding.

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