JP2017114310A - Vehicle structure - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle structure which surely suppresses the generation of a tertiary collision in addition to the suppression of the damage of a collision object caused by a secondary collision by a simple constitution.SOLUTION: A vehicle structure comprises an impact sensor 10 which detects a front collision of a vehicle, and an actuator 20 for lifting a hood rear part by the detection of the front collision which is performed by the impact sensor 10. The vehicle structure has a long-length protection member 30 whose both ends are separated to a vehicle width direction, and fixed to the vehicle. When the impact sensor 10 does not detect the front collision, the protection member 30 is accommodated in the vicinity of the hood rear part, and when the impact sensor 10 detects the front collision, the protection member is deployed to an upper part of the vehicle 100 in conjunction with the actuator 20.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle structure suitable for protecting a collision target. In particular, the present invention relates to a vehicle structure suitable for reducing the occurrence of a tertiary collision caused by a collision target riding on a hood and then falling on the ground.

  In a frontal collision in which the front of the automobile hits a collision target such as a pedestrian, three types of collisions may occur: a primary collision, a secondary collision, and a tertiary collision. The primary collision is a collision in which the collision target hits the front of the automobile. The secondary collision is a collision in which the collision target rides on the hood and hits the hood or the windshield after the primary collision. The tertiary collision is a collision in which the collision target falls from the hood and hits the ground following the secondary collision.

  As a measure to reduce damage to the collision target, buckling of the bumper and the front end of the hood can be cited for the primary collision. For secondary collisions, pop-up hoods, wiper pivot buckling, cowl buckling, and the like. Measures described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 can be cited for tertiary collisions. The countermeasure described in Patent Document 1 includes a first airbag that is deployed on the hood and a second airbag that is deployed later than the first airbag, and suppresses damage to a collision target due to a secondary collision with the first airbag. At the same time, the secondary airbag suppresses the fall of the collision target to the ground to reduce the occurrence of the tertiary collision. The countermeasure described in Patent Document 2 protects a collision target from a tertiary collision by deploying a ground airbag in front of the vehicle close to the ground during a forward collision.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-156749 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-199787

  In addition to suppressing the damage of the collision target due to the secondary collision, it is desired to develop a technique that more reliably realizes the occurrence of the tertiary collision with a simple configuration. This is because all of the techniques according to the above-mentioned patent documents require a large-scale device and have low reliability with respect to the reduction in the occurrence of tertiary collisions.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and one of its purposes is to more reliably suppress the occurrence of a tertiary collision with a simple configuration in addition to the suppression of damage to a collision target due to a secondary collision. The object is to provide a vehicle structure to be realized.

The vehicle structure which concerns on 1 aspect of this invention is provided with the impact sensor which detects the front collision of a vehicle, and the actuator which raises a hood back by the detection of the front collision by an impact sensor. This vehicle structure has a long protective member whose both ends are separated from each other in the vehicle width direction and fixed to the vehicle. This protective member is housed in the vicinity of the rear of the hood when the impact sensor does not detect a forward collision, and is deployed above the vehicle in conjunction with the actuator when the impact sensor detects a forward collision.

  The vehicle structure described above includes an actuator that lifts the rear of the hood by detecting the front collision of the impact sensor, thereby expanding the space on the lower surface of the hood and suppressing damage to the collision target due to the secondary collision. Furthermore, by providing a long protective member that expands above the hood in conjunction with this actuator, it is possible to hook a collision target that has run on the hood with the expanded protective member. Thereby, the fall to the ground of the collision object can be prevented and the tertiary collision can be reduced.

1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a vehicle structure according to a first embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which shows the behavior of the protection member at the time of the front collision in the vehicle structure which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG.

  A vehicle structure according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. In the figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same names.

Embodiment 1
-Whole structure The vehicle structure of Embodiment 1 is provided with a pop-up hood apparatus. The pop-up hood apparatus includes an impact sensor 10 that detects a frontal collision of the vehicle 200 and an actuator 20 that lifts the rear of the hood by detecting the forward collision by the impact sensor 10. One of the features of this example is that a long protective member 30 is provided in addition to the pop-up device. The protection member 30 is deployed above the hood 210 in conjunction with the actuator 20 in accordance with a forward collision. The collision target 100 is prevented from falling to the ground by hooking the collision target 100 that has been placed on the hood by the deployed protective member 30. Hereinafter, details of the vehicle structure will be described for each component.

Pop-up hood device Impact sensor The impact sensor 10 is a sensor that detects the impact of a forward collision. Specific examples include a pressure sensor and an acceleration sensor. The impact sensor 10 is installed in front of the vehicle 200, for example, a bumper. A plurality of impact sensors 10 are juxtaposed at a predetermined interval in the vehicle width direction so as to detect the impact of a frontal collision over the entire region in the vehicle width direction, or a long chamber is disposed over the entire region in the vehicle width direction, It is preferable to monitor the pressure of the chamber with a pressure sensor. The impact sensor 10 that has detected the forward collision outputs a detection signal to the control unit 40 described later.

.. Actuator The actuator 20 is a mechanism that lifts the rear of the hood 210 based on the detection signal when the impact sensor 10 detects a front collision. For example, a known configuration including an inflator 22, a lifter 24, and a hood hinge can be used. The inflator 22 is ignited based on the detection signal, and generates gas for operating the lifter 24. The lifter 24 includes a pin housed in the cylinder, and the pin is pushed upward by gas generated by ignition of the inflator 22. The hood hinge includes a pivotable hinge arm. The hinge arm rotates when the pin of the lifter 24 hits when the hood 210 pops up, and pushes the hood 210 up following the angle change of the hood 210 while turning. A pair of such actuators 20 is usually provided at both ends in the vehicle width direction below the hood 210. In addition, the front of the hood is connected to the vehicle body side by a hood lock device, and this connection location becomes the rotation center of the hood 210 when the hood 210 is popped up. In this example, an actuator 20 in which an inflator 22 and a lifter 24 are combined with an X-type link mechanism 26 is used. The X-type link mechanism 26 is connected to the vehicle body side at the lower side and to the back surface of the hood 210 at the upper side. The lifter 24 is provided substantially in parallel with the hood 210, and when the pins of the lifter 24 are pushed out by the ignition of the inflator 22, the X-type link mechanism 26 is operated so that the vertical crossing angle of the link becomes small. Accordingly, the rear of the hood 210 is pushed up.

-Protective member The protective member 30 is a long member that expands above the hood 210 together with the pop-up of the hood 210 at the time of a forward collision, and hooks the collision target 100 that rides on the hood 210. Both ends of the long member are fixed apart in the vehicle width direction. The length of the protective member 30 is such that an annular space can be formed above the hood 210 when the protective member 30 is unfolded. When the pop-up hood device is not in operation, the protective member 30 is stored in the vicinity of the rear of the hood 210. Specifically, it is stored below the hood 210 or on the cowl. A specific example of the protective member 30 is a long airbag. In the case of an airbag, the inflator 22 for inflating and deploying the airbag preferably uses the inflator 22 of the actuator 20. By doing so, it is possible to push up the rear of the hood 210 and inflate / deploy the airbag with a single inflator 22. Of course, an airbag inflator may be provided separately from the inflator 22 of the actuator 20.

Control Unit The impact sensor 10, the pop-up hood device, and the protection member 30 are controlled so as to be interlocked by the control unit 40 (FIG. 2A). An ECU can be used for the control unit 40. When receiving the detection signal from the impact sensor 10, the control unit 40 commands the ignition of the inflator 22 of the actuator 20. Thereby, the lifter 24 is operated to push up the rear of the hood 210. If the protection member 30 is an airbag, the airbag is also inflated and deployed as the inflator 22 of the actuator 20 is ignited. When an airbag inflator is provided separately from the actuator 20, the airbag inflator may be commanded to be ignited based on the detection signal.

-Operation | movement of a protection member In said vehicle structure, a pop-up hood apparatus operate | moves as mentioned above, and the protection member 30 operate | moves as shown in FIG.
(1) At the time of a front collision, the output of the detection signal of the impact sensor 10 causes the hood 210 to pop up, and the protective member 30 is deployed above the hood 210 (FIG. 2A). Since both ends of the protection member 30 are separated from each other in the vehicle width direction and are fixed to the vehicle 200, the protection member 30 is developed in an arc shape in a space above the hood 210. Therefore, an annular space surrounded by the rear of the hood 210 and the protection member 30 is formed at the stage of the primary collision.
(2) During a secondary collision in which the collision target 100 rides on the hood 210, the collision target 100 enters the annular space (FIG. 2B). The deployed protection member 30 falls onto the hood 210 by gravity. As a result, the collision target 100 is sandwiched between the protective member 30 and the hood 210 or the windshield.
(3) Although the collision target 100 riding on the hood 210 tries to fall from the hood 210, the collision target 100 is caught on the protection member 30, and thus is held on the hood 210 in a caught state. Therefore, damage to the collision target 100 due to the tertiary collision can be suppressed.

-Effect The vehicle structure mentioned above has the following effects.
By providing the pop-up hood device that lifts the rear of the hood at the time of a frontal collision, the space on the lower surface of the hood can be widened and damage to the collision target 100 due to the secondary collision can be suppressed.
By providing the long protective member 30 that expands above the hood 210 in conjunction with the actuator 20 of the pop-up hood device, it is possible to hook the collision target 100 riding on the hood 210 with the expanded protective member 30. Thereby, the fall of the collision object 100 to the ground can be prevented, and the tertiary collision can be reduced.
If the protection member 30 is an airbag, when the collision target 100 is caught by the protection member 30, the protection member 30 becomes a cushion with respect to the collision target 100, and the impact load with respect to the collision target 100 can be reduced.

≪Modification≫
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be considered. In the first embodiment, an airbag is used as the protective member 30, but a belt may be used instead. Even in the case of a belt, it can be expected that the belt is deployed above the hood 210 at the time of a front collision, so that the collision target 100 riding on the hood 210 is caught and dropped to the ground.

  The vehicle structure of the present invention can be suitably used for a bonnet-type vehicle that is expected to reduce tertiary collisions.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Impact sensor 20 Actuator 22 Inflator 24 Lifter 26 X-type link mechanism 30 Protection member 40 Control part 100 Collision object 200 Vehicle 210 Hood

Claims (1)

A vehicle structure comprising: an impact sensor that detects a frontal collision of the vehicle; and an actuator that lifts the rear of the hood by detecting the forward collision by the impact sensor,
Both ends have long protective members that are fixed to the vehicle apart in the vehicle width direction,
The protection member is housed near the rear of the hood when the impact sensor does not detect a front collision, and is deployed above the vehicle in conjunction with the actuator when the impact sensor detects a front collision. Construction.

Images