JP2023152414A - vehicle undercover - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an undercover that has overcome problems of conventional undercovers that are liable to be damaged when subjected to an impact that interferes with undulations of a road surface, and that cannot provide sufficient sound insulation.SOLUTION: An undercover 1 for covering a protected area A on a vehicle bottom surface includes: a cover body 2 made of nonwoven fabric; and a resin protector 3 partially disposed on an outer surface of the cover body 2 on a vehicle front end side. The cover body 2 is fixed to the vehicle bottom surface with a space S formed between itself and the vehicle bottom surface. The protector 3 is configured to be fixed to the vehicle bottom surface together with the cover body 2 at the vehicle front end, as well as, fixed to the cover body 2 on a rear side of the vehicle front end, thereby, achieving enhancement of durability against impacts from a road surface and enhancement of sound insulation against running noise.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle undercover that is placed on the bottom of a vehicle and used to protect necessary parts.

As a conventional undercover for a vehicle, there is one described in Patent Document 1 under the name of automobile exterior material. The automobile exterior material described in Patent Document 1 includes a nonwoven fabric layer and a thermoplastic resin provided on one surface of the nonwoven fabric layer. This automobile exterior material is made by laminating a molten plastic resin sheet extruded from an extrusion molding machine over one entire surface of a nonwoven fabric layer to form a laminate, and pressing the laminate in the thickness direction. The nonwoven fabric layer and the thermoplastic resin are integrated by impregnating the nonwoven fabric layer.

The above automotive exterior materials are used for fender liners, engine undercovers, etc., and are installed with the nonwoven fabric layer facing the vehicle body and the thermoplastic resin layer facing outward, protecting the vehicle body from collisions with sand and pebbles thrown up by tires. protection and reduce running noise from the ground side.

Patent No. 5666143

However, the conventional automobile exterior materials as described above have a structure in which a sheet-like thermoplastic resin layer is provided on the entire outer surface of the nonwoven fabric layer. For this reason, when used as an undercover, the above automobile exterior materials can withstand the impact of sand and pebbles, but there is a risk of damage if they receive a large impact that interferes with the undulations of the road surface, etc. Moreover, there is a problem in that the outer resin layer does not provide sufficient sound insulation against running noise, and it has been an issue to solve this problem.

The present invention has been made by focusing on the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a vehicle undercover that can improve durability against impacts from the road surface and improve sound insulation against running noise. It is intended to.

The undercover for a vehicle according to the present invention is an undercover that covers a protected area on the bottom of the vehicle, and includes a cover body made of nonwoven fabric disposed on the bottom of the vehicle, and a portion of the cover body that is partially attached to the outer surface of the front end of the vehicle. It is equipped with a resin protector to be placed. In the above-mentioned undercover, the cover body is fixed to the bottom surface of the vehicle with a space formed between the cover body and the bottom surface of the vehicle, and the protector is fixed to the bottom surface of the vehicle together with the cover body at the front end of the vehicle. Additionally, it is characterized in that it is fixed to the cover body on the rear side of the front end of the vehicle.

When the undercover of a vehicle with the above structure interferes with the undulations of the road surface, the resin protector comes into contact first to reduce the frictional force, and the cover body deforms together with the protector, causing the protector and the cover to deform. Maintains integration with the main body. Further, in the above-mentioned undercover, the cover main body made of non-woven fabric is exposed below the vehicle body in an area other than the protector, so this cover main body absorbs running noise.

By employing the above structure, the vehicle undercover according to the present invention can achieve improved durability against road impacts and improved sound insulation against running noise.

1 is a sectional view (A) illustrating an embodiment of a vehicle undercover according to the present invention, and a sectional view (B) illustrating a state during shock absorption. FIG. 2 is a bottom view of a vehicle including the undercover of the vehicle shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams illustrating an embodiment of a vehicle undercover according to the present invention. The illustrated undercover 1 covers a portion A to be protected on the bottom surface of the vehicle, that is, the bottom surface of the floor member M. The protection target portion A is a portion of the floor member M having the smallest distance from the ground, and is, for example, a recessed portion where a battery is accommodated, and the bottom portion thereof bulges downward.

As shown in FIG. 2, the undercover 1 of this embodiment is disposed on the bottom surface of the floor member M on the rear side of the vehicle body (on the right side in FIG. 2) of the left and right front wheels W, W, respectively. As shown in FIG. 1(A), each undercover 1 includes a cover body 2 made of nonwoven fabric placed on the bottom surface of the floor member M (vehicle bottom surface), and a cover body 2 made of nonwoven fabric placed on the vehicle front end side (left end side in FIG. 1) of the cover body 2. ) is provided with a resin protector 3 partially disposed on the outer surface of the holder.

The cover main body 2 made of nonwoven fabric contains resin to maintain its shape, and is molded into a felt shape. The illustrated cover main body 2 has a dish shape as a whole, and has a continuous sloped wall 2B having an upward slope around a bottom wall 2A, and a continuous outward flange 2C at the upper end of the sloped wall 2B. have a specific purpose. This cover main body 2 forms a space S between it and the bottom surface of the floor member M, and is fixed to the bottom surface of the floor member M by a plurality of screws 4 provided on the flange 2C.

The material of the protector 3 made of resin is not limited as long as it has durability against the impact assumed by a running vehicle and has a low coefficient of friction, and typically polypropylene (PP) is used. Can be mentioned. The illustrated protector 3 continuously includes a bottom wall 3A, an inclined wall 3B, and a flange 3C having the same cross-sectional shape as the cover body 2 on the vehicle front end side. Further, the protector 3 has a size corresponding to the area A to be protected. Therefore, the cover main body 2 has a larger area than the protector 3 in plan view.

In the undercover 1 described above, the protector 3 is fixed to the bottom surface of the floor member M together with the cover body 2 at the front end of the vehicle, and is fixed to the cover body 2 at the rear side of the front end of the vehicle. .

More specifically, in the undercover 1, the protector 3 is stacked on the outer surface (lower surface) of the cover body 2 on the vehicle front end side, and the flange 3C of the protector 3 and the flange 2C of the cover body 2 are attached to the floor member M with bolts 5. Fix it. Then, the undercover 1 fixes the bottom wall 3A of the protector 3 and the bottom wall 2A of the cover body 2 with a plurality of rivets 6.

At this time, the protector 3 and the cover main body 2 are fixed with rivets 6 at least at a plurality of locations in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, as also shown in FIG. Note that since FIG. 1 schematically shows the basic configuration of the undercover 1, the number and arrangement of rivets 6 are different from FIG. 2.

The undercover 1 having the above configuration can of course protect the protection target area A from collisions with sand, pebbles, etc. thrown up by the front wheels W while driving, and as shown in FIG. 1(B). When the cover interferes with an obstacle P such as an undulation of the road surface, the protector 3 made of resin with a low coefficient of friction comes into contact first to reduce the frictional force, and the cover main body 2 is deformed together with the protector 3.

As a result, the undercover 1 maintains the fixed state between the protector 3 and the cover main body 2 while absorbing the impact, and also slides backward to pass the obstacle P, thereby allowing the undercover 1 to pass through the protected area A of the floor member M. protect. Further, in the above-mentioned undercover 1, the cover body 2 made of nonwoven fabric is exposed on the lower side of the vehicle body in an area other than the protector 3, so that the cover body 2 absorbs running noise. In this way, the vehicle undercover 1 can achieve improved durability against road impacts and improved sound insulation against running noise.

Further, in the undercover 1 described above, the protector 3 and the cover main body 2 are fixed with rivets 6 at a plurality of locations in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. As a result, when the above-mentioned undercover 1 interferes with the road surface, force in the shearing direction is applied to the fixed point by the rivets 6, but the force is dispersed by the rivets 6 at multiple locations, and the protector 3 and the cover body 2 are fixed. The condition can be maintained more reliably.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned undercover 1 reliably protects the protection target area A by making the protector 3 sized to correspond to the protection target area A, and also secures a large area of the cover body 2 that functions as a sound absorbing material. As a result, sound insulation against running noise can be improved.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned undercover 1 protects the part that is most likely to interfere with the undulations of the road surface, since the protection target part A is the part with the smallest distance from the ground on the bottom surface of the vehicle (the bottom surface of the floor member M). be able to.

The structure of the vehicle undercover according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1 Undercover 2 Cover body 3 Protector 6 Rivet A Area to be protected M Floor member (bottom of vehicle)
S space

Claims (4)

An undercover that covers the area to be protected on the bottom of the vehicle,
a cover body made of nonwoven fabric disposed on the bottom of the vehicle;
and a resin protector partially disposed on the outer surface of the cover body on the vehicle front end side,
The cover body is fixed to the bottom surface of the vehicle with a space formed between the cover body and the bottom surface of the vehicle,
An undercover for a vehicle, wherein the protector is fixed to the bottom surface of the vehicle along with the cover body at a front end of the vehicle, and is fixed to the cover body at a rear side of the front end of the vehicle. 2. The undercover for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the protector and the cover main body are fixed with rivets at a plurality of locations in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The undercover according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the protector has a size corresponding to the area to be protected. The undercover according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the protected area is a part of the bottom surface of the vehicle that has the smallest distance from the ground.

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