JP2611989B2 - Wheel cover mounting device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wheel cover mounting device for mounting to a hub of a disk wheel using a mounting fastener (bolt or nut).

[Background of the Invention]

As a conventional wheel cover mounting device using a mounting fastener, for example, there is a device shown in US Pat. No. 4,123,111. This has an edge that comes into contact with an undercut surface (tapered surface) of a mounting fastener (mounting bolt), and snap-fits the edge by pressing the edge with the elasticity of the wheel cover (entire). Then, there is shown a measure for setting the snap fit easily by reducing the spring constant of the pressing elasticity. However, in such a conventional wheel cover mounting device,
There are two problems. The first problem is that, in the case of a plastic wheel cover, the pressing force is reduced due to its creep property. That is, although the internal stress of the material is reduced by reducing the spring constant of the pressing elasticity, the creep property cannot be eliminated. The second problem is that the resonance frequency is also reduced by reducing the elastic spring constant. However, the frequency of the vibration applied to the vehicle wheel is extremely wide, and it is impossible to lower the resonance frequency until it escapes from this range.

In view of the above, the first problem is a characteristic inherent to the plastic material. Therefore, a means for backing up the pressing force with a metal material has been proposed.
No. 2 gazette. According to this, a decrease in the pressing force due to the creep property can be avoided, but the metal spring must fully back up the entire pressing force, and it is necessary to increase the pressing itself, and the snap fit Must be hard.

Further, depending only on this means, no measure is taken against the second problem. In addition, since the metal governs the main elasticity of the pressing force, the resonance Q (resonance sharpness) is high. That is, when resonating, it becomes much more likely to deviate than the all-plastic structure (damping effect due to viscoelasticity).

As described above, in the conventional wheel cover mounting device, since it is a system-wide elastic pressing that acts on a plurality of fasteners (bolts or nuts) as a whole, a single resonance system is formed. However, there has been a problem that the resonance frequency cannot be escaped from the vibration frequency range applied to the wheel, and is easily deviated by one of the frequency components.

[Object of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of such a conventional problem, and in mounting a wheel cover with each undercut surface of a plurality of bolts or nuts as an object to be mounted, a bolt or nut has to be provided for each. Local elastic deformation by the sandwiching member, elastic deformation of the connecting body, and surface bending elastic deformation of the entire wheel cover, so as to snap-fit to the undercut surface, thereby forming a double elastic system as a whole. Thus, it is intended to solve the above problems at once.

[Configuration of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, a wheel cover mounting device according to the present invention mounts a disk wheel on a hub using a plurality of bolts or nuts having an undercut surface that forms a spherical surface or a tapered surface. In a wheel cover mounting device, each of the undercut surfaces is elastically held by a plurality of elastically deformable holding members provided on the rear surface side of the wheel cover with each undercut surface being an object to be mounted. The members are provided at the ends of the cylinders arranged at a plurality of locations on the rear surface of the wheel cover, and each of the holding members opens toward the center of the wheel cover at a required narrow angle, and Has a two-sided strip that elastically clamps the undercut surface of the bolt or nut from these. Providing a connecting body that connects all of the holding members and elastically presses each holding member inward, and in mounting the wheel cover, local elastic deformation of the holding member with respect to each of the bolts or nuts and And snap-fitting to the undercut surface with elastic deformation of the connecting body and surface bending elastic deformation of the entire wheel cover exerted on the connecting body and the wheel cover main body through each of the cylindrical bodies. It is.

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment FIGS. 1 to 5 are views showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view of the entire structure, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the bottom body in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view of FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the operation at the time of mounting, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of a resonance state.

In FIG. 1, from a wheel cover main body 10 of a wheel cover 1, a wheel mounting fastener (here described as a wheel nut) 2 for mounting a wheel to a hub.
The cylindrical body 100 is extended toward each of the above to form a bottom body 11 at the bottom thereof. Accordingly, there is a hole 101 in the surface of the wheel cover body 10 through which the bottom body 11 can be viewed as shown in FIG. 2 and this hole 101 is also used for die cutting. be able to. On the bottom body 11, a pair of two-sided strips in which a pair of tangent lines open at a narrow angle θ toward the center 0 of the wheel cover body 10 in contact with the undercut surface forming the tapered surface 20 of the wheel nut 2 110, 110 are provided. The cross-sectional shape of the strip 110 is such that the tangential direction along the tapered surface 20 of the wheel nut 2 is a longitudinal direction, and the lower end thereof has a flat surface.
110 ′ is formed, and the strips 110, 110 are formed by holes 111
The hole 111 is formed by cutting the surface of the wheel cover together with the hole 101 into the hole 112.
Is formed by stamping the back surface of the wheel cover together with the plate surface 110 '. Therefore, this wheel cover can be easily formed only by the male and female combination type.

As shown in FIG. 4 (a), the mounting operation of the wheel cover having this structure is performed by aligning the respective bottom bodies 11 with the respective wheel nuts 2, 2,..., As shown in FIG. 4 (b). When a pressing force is applied to the center of the main body 10 as indicated by the arrow F, the entire wheel cover expands and flexes,
Due to the local bending of the two strips 110, 110 due to the action of the illustrated dish surface 110 ', the two strips 110, 110 ride over the hexagonal outer shape of the wheel nut 2 as shown in FIG. The strips 110, 110 are snap-fitted and fitted to the tapered surface 20 of the wheel nut 2.

The pressing force at the time of fitting is firstly adjusted by the wheel nut 2 backed up to the bottom body 11 via the bending elasticity of the strip 110.
A local elastic system by individual strips 110, 110, and an elastic system mainly by the surface deflection of the entire wheel cover, which is applied to the wheel cover body 10 from each bottom body 11 to each wheel nut 2 through each cylinder 100 to be engaged with all the wheel nuts 2. And are dependent on an elastic crimping force formed by connecting both in series. When this is schematically drawn, it can be expressed as shown in FIG. 5 (a). Of course, these components are integrally molded from, for example, a plastic material, and have mass, elasticity,
Although a viscous system cannot be clearly distinguished, a substantial motion analysis can be considered in this way.

Here, the exciting force is transmitted from the road surface to the wheel via the tire, and is applied from the wheel nut 2 to the two strips 110, 110. Therefore, the local elastic system formed by the two strips 110, 110 and the elastic system formed by the surface deflection of the entire wheel cover exerted on the wheel cover body 10 are greatly separated from each other in resonance frequency. And their respective resonance characteristics are shown in, for example, FIG. 5 (b).
Even when R ₁ and R ₂ are used, the whole system has a compressed characteristic of the resonance peak height such as Re. Therefore, when in the conventional single resonance systems it appears for example that properties of R _1, but is also the residue pressing force of more than a peak has been requested at the time of its resonance peak when according to the invention Since the height is compressed, there is an effect that the wheel cover attaching force is satisfied with a correspondingly small pressing force.

Along with this, the wheel cover can be easily attached and detached, and the operability is greatly improved. Further, in the case of a plastic material, the aging of the crimping force cannot be avoided due to the stress relaxation phenomenon which is the reverse of the creep characteristics, but long-term mounting stability is guaranteed by the remarkable effect of reducing the required crimping force.

In order to completely prevent the aging of the crimping force, a means for bridging using a ring spring locking groove 102 is adopted as the connecting body 3 of the bottom body 11 group shown in FIG. 1 according to this embodiment. You. In this case, if a normal metal wire is used as the ring spring,
Since the metal material is almost a perfect elastic body, the resonance characteristic has a high Q peak as shown by R _R in FIG. 5 (b). Although it is necessary, the present embodiment has a great effect that even in that case, the peak height can be effectively suppressed and the required pressure-bonding force can be reduced.

In addition, as shown in FIG.
0 is the tapered surface 20 of the wheel nut 2 and the wheel cover 10
And has a so-called wedge effect, which has a reinforced mounting effect. This not only has a remarkable effect as a stopper for detaching the wheel cover, but also has an effect of reliably preventing the rotation of the wheel cover.

Note that the smaller the value of the narrow angle θ is, the more the above-mentioned effect is improved. However, there is a limit in the following two points. First, the amount of deflection at the time of crossing the hexagonal outer shape shown in FIG. The second is the limitation due to the compressive fracture stress (crushing) of the material because the surface pressure increases as the wedge effect occurs, contrary to the wedge effect. Since the latter can also take measures to increase the contact area, it will be shown in later examples,
The actual value of θ is preferably in the range of 60 ° to 120 °.

The material of the link is not limited to metal,
A plastic material having various means for reducing the creep characteristic can be used, and a complicated shape can be easily and economically set from the moldability, which is effective. The most widely used creep characteristic reducing means is a fiber reinforcing means, and a liquid crystal polymer equivalent in principle to this is in the stage of practical use.

[Second Embodiment] The second embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 has a specific configuration in which all the molding processes are completed using only male and female molds. Since the configuration is almost the same as that of the first embodiment, the same reference numerals are given and the description of the common items is omitted. In the figure, the locking groove 102 of the ring spring 3 which is a connecting body is provided with a step between the cylindrical body 100 and the bottom body 11 (see FIG. 7), and the groove is easily formed by male and female sliding. As a result, the locking point 102 'of the ring spring 3 becomes as shown in FIG. 6, so that the ring spring 3 is supported at a position farther than the point at which the strip 110 is crimped to the wheel nut 2, so that the ring spring 3 It has the effect of improving the adhesion. Along with this, the crimped portion of the strip 110 to the wheel nut 2 is formed in a conical surface along the tapered surface of the wheel nut 2, and the surface pressure can be reduced by increasing the area. Therefore, for the same reason as described in the first embodiment, the clamping angle θ can be substantially reduced, and the wedge effect is remarkably promoted and the wheel cover mounting force can be improved. This means that the required value of the wheel cover attachment force is not constant, and consequently the pressure force due to the bending elasticity of the connecting body or the entire wheel cover can be set small.

[Third Embodiment] In FIGS. 9 to 12, FIGS. 9 (a), (b),
(C) is a partially cut-away exploded perspective view, and FIGS. 10 to 12 are a front view, a longitudinal cross-sectional view, and a rear view of a main part of the mounting portion. The gist of the third embodiment is to provide specific means for adding the center decoration 4.

In the mounting method for a wheel mounting fastener (nut or bolt), it is a common practice to have a hole 101 (see FIG. 1). For example, saloon-like vehicles do not harmonize with each other, so there are many cases in which a central decorative body is provided which closes a hole and gives a metallic glitter or a transparent texture. In the third embodiment, in response to this demand, a measure for satisfying the demand while applying the same mounting means as in the above-described embodiment is shown. Therefore, the structure of the mounting portion is denoted by the same reference numeral as in the previous example, and description thereof is omitted.

A pair of projections 14 are provided on the inner surface of the cylindrical body 100 on the wheel cover main body 10 side. The number of the projections 14 may be one,
As is apparent from FIG. 12, an example is shown in which a pair is provided to secure a space for the insertion hole of the wheel nut 2. The molding of this projection is also possible only with a male and female combination type.

On the other hand, the central decorative body 4 is formed by chemical plating or metal deposition or a transparent material, and the crescent-shaped cross-section leg 41 is extended from the decorative body main body 40 to a position corresponding to the hole 101, and a nail 411 is provided at the tip thereof. Provide. This nail 411 is the central decoration 4
11 is engaged with the protrusion 14 as shown in FIG. 11 to restrain the removal of the central decorative body 4. The outer edge 42 of the center decorative body 4 is engaged with an annular rib 102 provided on the wheel cover main body 10 to prevent mutual deviation in the eccentric direction. As a result, the two are integrated, but when, for example, additional tightening of the wheel nut is required, the two can be handled separately.

In this example, when locking the ring spring 3 which is a connecting body,
This is performed using a groove 131 provided in the reinforcing rib 13 in the vertical direction outside the cylindrical body 100. The formation of the groove 131 is similar to the above-described claw 411,
If the oblique knockout is used, the formability of only the male and female molds is still maintained.

The means of this example, of course, responds to the intuitive demands as mentioned above, but also has the effect of suppressing the resonance due to the elasticity of the center decoration and the different materials of the center decoration in terms of mounting performance. There is an effect that large and reliable mounting can be expected. The reinforcing rib 13 is an effective means for shifting the resonance frequency to a higher direction by increasing the rigidity.

[Fourth Embodiment] In FIG. 13, the gist of the fourth embodiment is that the bottom body 11 described in the previous example is separated and molded to produce a bottom body 51 forming the bottom body 5, and this is fitted to the bottom of the cylindrical body 100. Both the bottom body and the cylindrical body are locked and locked by being fitted to the end and also serving as the connecting body 3.

A square hole 130 is provided at the bottom end of the cylindrical body 100, and reinforcing ribs 13, 13 having grooves 131 on both sides thereof are erected. A depression 151 is formed in the inner surface of the opposing surface of the square hole 130.

The bottom body 51 is an annular body having a strip similar to the strip 110 described in the previous example, and an overhang 511 having a groove 512 therefrom.
And a projection 513 having a hook 514 is extended. Ring spring 3
Is a closed spring made of metal or reinforced plastic material.

When attaching the bottom body 51, the hook 514 of the projection 513 is hooked into the recess 151 and the overhang 511 is inserted into the square hole 130, and the bottom body 51 comes into close contact with the end face 103 of the cylindrical body 100 and the groove 131 and the groove are formed. Since the ring spring 3 is dropped here, the bottom body 51 and the cylindrical body 100 are aligned.
Are assembled by the spring 3 and integrated into three members. At this time, when the ring spring 3 is inserted along the slopes 132 and 515, the assembly is easily completed.

The first effect of the fourth embodiment is that a ring spring originally provided for the purpose of reinforcing the crimping force can also be used as a means for fitting and locking the bottom body. There is no need for a special part for locking both. In addition, the original effect of the ring spring is not impaired at all, and in addition, the locking function works sufficiently.

The second effect is derived from the separation of the bottom body. Firstly, even if the bottom body has a complicated shape, it can be divided freely, such as three-way punching or four-way punching, so that it can be molded separately. It is possible. Secondly, it is possible to easily cope with various shapes of the wheel fastener such as a spherical seat and a tapered seat. Thirdly, the standard of the value of the pitch circle of the wheel fastener is a combination of the value converted from inches and the rounded value and the approximate value of the millimeter size, for example, 114.3 and 110 and 139.7 and 140. According to the example, both of these can be dealt with simply by shifting the center of the bottom body 51 (regardless of the main body). Therefore, it can be used for various kinds of small-lot production. Fourth, since the bottom body is formed separately, the material can be freely selected without affecting the material of the main body, and the bottom body can be set in consideration of heat resistance, elasticity or abrasion resistance while reducing economic burden. Fifth, when the wheel cover is attached and detached very poorly, there is a risk that the bottom body, which is the mounting portion, may be damaged when it is handled roughly. However, in this example, there is an effect that only the bottom body can be replaced and repaired easily.

[Fifth Embodiment] In FIGS. 14 and 15, the gist of the present embodiment is that the bottom body is separated and formed in the same manner as in the previous example, and another method of assembling and integrating the bottom body is used. It shows the law. In addition, a modified example of the strip is also shown.

At the end of the cylindrical body 100 extending from the wheel cover main body 10, as shown on the left side of FIG. 14, a half cut and a circumferentially extending rib 104 are provided. Hole 106
And a long hole 107 are provided. On the bottom body 52, the hooked piece 522 and the hooked piece 523 that are hollowed out are projected outward, and the inside of the strip 52
One is meandering. The strip 521 is different from that described in the previous example in that the overhang portion 521 'is separated from the semi-annular portion 524 to be independent. Bottom body 52 has hooking pieces 522, 52 as shown on center line 01.
3 is fitted to each of the square hole 106 and the long hole 105 by utilizing the elasticity of the material, thereby being assembled to the end of the cylindrical body.

There are a plurality of cylindrical bottom integrated portions configured as described above for each wheel cover, and these are connected around a ring spring 3 that forms a linked body by surrounding them. At this time, the ring spring 3 is dropped into the long holes 107 provided in the respective cylinders 100, and a part thereof is exposed on the inner surface of the cylinder 100.

The claw 431 of the leg 43 erected on the central decorative body 4 is hung on the exposed portion of the ring spring 3 exposed as described above. In this suspension, when the wheel cover is attached as shown in FIG. 4, the ring spring exposed portion also flexes as the cylinder 100 flexes largely in the centrifugal direction, and the suspension action is temporarily disabled. During this process, the central decorative body is also pressed in the pushing direction, so that the central decorative body does not come off against the will of the operator. Conversely, when removing the wheel cover, the center decoration can be separated if desired.

Among the effects of the fifth embodiment, those relating to the separation of the bottom body are the same as those of the previous example, and those relating to the attachment of the center decoration are the same as those of the third embodiment, but are simpler and less expensive.

The effect of separating the projecting portion 521 'of the strip 521 from the semi-annular portion 524 is that the stiffness of the strip can be reduced and the resonance frequency of this portion can be reduced. Generally, when using a plastic material reinforced with fibers or powder and filler, the resonance frequency of this part becomes too high, and the frequency range (300 to 500H
z). The cushion effect by the strip is the most effective when it is in a low frequency range, so when using a material with a large Young's modulus,
It is an effective means. For practical materials, strength, wear resistance,
A material having good physical properties such as heat resistance tends to have a high Young's modulus. Of course, there are exceptions such as PTFE, but problems arise in economic aspects.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the wheel cover mounting device of the present invention, due to the series double elastic system, resonance is small even in a wide vibration frequency range, mounting is reliable, and since there is little resonance, the pressing force on the wheel fastener can be reduced. The stress applied to the material is small, and the effect of creep can be reduced.

Since the mounting operation is a snap-fit method by direct press-fitting, it is possible to obtain an effect that alignment of the alignment is easy and direct viewing through a hole can be unnecessary.

[Brief description of the drawings]

Each of the drawings shows an embodiment of the wheel cover mounting apparatus according to the present invention, FIGS. 1 to 5 are explanatory views showing the first embodiment, and FIGS. 6 to 8 are second embodiments thereof. , FIGS. 9 to 12 are explanatory diagrams showing the third embodiment, FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the fourth embodiment, FIGS. 14 and 15 are fifth embodiments. FIG. 1 Wheel cover 2 Wheel mounting fastener (wheel nut) 3 Linked body 4 Central decorative body 5 Bottom body 0 Wheel center θ

Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] 1. A disk wheel is mounted on a hub by using a plurality of bolts or nuts having an undercut surface that forms a spherical surface or a tapered surface, and the undercut surface of each of the bolts or nuts is mounted on the back surface of the wheel cover. A wheel cover mounting device, wherein each of the undercut surfaces is elastically held by a plurality of elastically deformable holding members provided on the side, wherein the holding members are provided at a plurality of positions on the back surface of the wheel cover. Each of the holding members is provided at an end portion of the disposed cylindrical body, and each of the holding members opens toward the center of the wheel cover at a required narrow angle, and elastically removes the undercut surface of the bolt or nut from the outside. Has a two-sided strip that is pinched to all the pinching members. In order to attach the wheel cover, local elastic deformation of the holding member with respect to each of the bolts or nuts, and the connection exerted on the link and the wheel cover body through each of the cylinders are provided. A wheel cover mounting device, which snap fits to the undercut surface together with elastic deformation of the body and surface bending elastic deformation of the entire wheel cover. 2. The wheel cover mounting device according to claim 1, wherein said connecting member is a metallic annular spring. 3. The wheel cover mounting device according to claim 1, wherein said connecting member is an annular spring made of synthetic resin. 4. The wheel cover mounting device according to claim 3, wherein said synthetic resin is a fiber reinforced synthetic resin. 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said synthetic resin is a liquid crystal polymer. 6. The wheel cover mounting device according to claim 1, wherein the wheel cover has a structure in which a separately molded main body and a holding member are fitted and assembled to each other. 7. A wheel cover wherein a separately formed main body and a holding member are fitted and assembled to each other, and in the fitting and assembling, the connecting member of the holding member also has a locking function. The wheel cover mounting device according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 3, wherein: 8. The wheel cover mounting device according to claim 1, wherein the wheel cover has a double structure of a main body and a central decorative body. 9. A patent wherein the wheel cover has a double structure of a main body and a central decorative body, and the linking member of the holding member has both a function of fitting the main body and the central decorative body and / or a function of locking. The wheel cover mounting device according to any one of claims 1, 2 and 4.