JP3385891B2 - Sensor mounting structure for side collision airbag device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sensor mounting structure for a side impact airbag device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a side impact airbag device that protects an occupant by deploying an airbag against a side impact (for a similar technique, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-50052). This kind of side impact airbag device is mounted on a door or a seat in order to deploy the airbag between the door and an occupant. Further, the vehicle body is provided with a plurality of sensors for detecting a side collision and transmitting a signal to the airbag device on a side portion of the vehicle body. One of them is provided in the center pillar.

Further, an opening is formed in the pillar inner of the center pillar, and a retractor of the seat belt is inserted through the opening and fixed in the center pillar. Before mounting the retractor, the sensor of the airbag device is attached to an embossed portion formed in the reinforcement in the center pillar.

The embossed portion is provided with a welding bolt projecting into the center pillar. After the sensor mounting hole is inserted into the welding bolt and temporarily fixed in a hanging state, a nut is fastened to the welding bolt to attach the sensor. To fix. A long welding bolt is used in order to obtain a reliable temporary fixing state, and the tip of the welding bolt is in a state of largely protruding to the inside of the center pillar.

For this reason, the welding bolt is mounted at a position offset below the retractor so that the tip of the welding bolt does not interfere with the retractor to be mounted in the opening later. Therefore, the mounting position of the sensor is also lowered.

The opening formed in the pillar inner is used not only for mounting a sensor or a retractor, but also for assembling the center pillar.
For example, it is used when a welding gun is inserted from the opening and welding work is performed between the lower end of the pillar inner and the upper end of the sill inner below the pillar inner.

[0007]

However, in such a conventional technique, since the position of the sensor is low, it is difficult to mount the sensor. Also, by lowering the position of the welding bolt, interference between the welding bolt and the retractor can be avoided, but since the tip of the welding bolt is still protruding into the center pillar, insert a welding gun etc. from the opening. When carrying out the work, the welding bolt interferes with the workability.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to such a conventional technique, and it is possible to mount the sensor on the upper side and to mount the sensor on the airbag apparatus for a side collision, which facilitates the work using the opening. It provides the structure.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an embossed portion is formed on a reinforcement located on a pillar outer side in a center pillar, and an airbag is provided with respect to a welding nut provided in the embossed portion. A sensor mounting structure for a side impact airbag device, in which a sensor of the device is mounted by a bolt, a temporary fixing hole is provided in an embossed portion, and a protruding piece to be inserted into the temporary fixing hole is formed in the sensor,
The projecting piece projects toward the pillar outer side from the tip of the bolt.
It is characterized in that it has a sensor mounting structure for a side impact airbag device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a reinforcement located on the outer pillar side is provided in a center pillar formed by joining a pillar outer and a pillar inner, and the embossing convex to the inside of the center pillar is provided on the reinforcement. A base plate to which a retractor to be inserted into the center pillar from the opening is fixed, is attached to an opening formed near the lower end of the pillar inner, and the sensor of the airbag device is an embossed portion of the reinforcement. A sensor mounting structure for a side impact air bag device attached to a vehicle, wherein a welding nut is provided in the embossed portion of the reinforcement, the sensor is attached to the weld nut with a bolt, and the temporary force is applied to the embossed portion. A stopper hole is provided and the sensor is formed with a protrusion that is inserted into the temporary stopper hole. A.

According to the first and second aspects of the invention, the welding nut is provided in the embossed portion, and the sensor is attached to the welding nut with a bolt. Only the head of the bolt projects from the center pillar. Therefore, even if the position of the welding nut (sensor) is raised, it does not interfere with the retractor, and does not interfere with the work performed by inserting the welding gun or the like through the opening. Further, when the mounting position of the sensor is at the upper side, the work for mounting the sensor is easier to perform than when the position of the sensor is too low as in the conventional case.

Further, even though the welding nut is provided inside the embossed portion, the sensor can be temporarily fixed to the embossed portion by inserting the sensor protrusion into the temporary fixing hole of the embossed portion. it can. Therefore, the workability of attaching the sensor does not decrease.

In addition, since the tip of the bolt or the projecting piece to which the sensor is attached is located closer to the pillar outer side than the embossed portion, when the obstacle collides from the lateral side of the center pillar, the bolt or the projecting piece is projected. The impact can be detected early through the piece. Therefore, the deployment timing of the airbag can be advanced, and the occupant protection performance of the airbag is improved.

[0014]

Further, according to the invention of claim 1 , since the projecting piece projects toward the pillar outer side from the tip of the bolt, the deployment timing of the airbag can be further advanced by the projecting piece. Occupant protection
improves.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the protruding piece is formed on the upper portion of the sensor.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the protrusion is formed on the upper portion of the sensor, the sensor can be temporarily fixed in a hanging state by inserting the protrusion into the temporary fixing hole. it can.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an upward bent portion slightly longer than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole is formed at the tip of the protruding piece.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since an upward bent portion slightly longer than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole is formed at the tip of the projecting piece, the bent portion is obliquely inserted into the temporary fixing hole. After that, when the slanted state is returned to the original state, the bent portion serves as a stopper, and the projecting piece is prevented from coming off the temporary fixing hole.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the projecting pieces are formed at both upper ends of the sensor.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the protruding pieces are formed at both upper ends of the sensor, the inclination of the sensor in the temporarily fixed state is prevented, and the position of the sensor and the welding nut is easily aligned.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3 are views showing a first embodiment of the present invention. Note that FIG. 1 shows the whole shape of the sensor, so that parts other than the sensor are shown by imaginary lines and the like, and FIG. 2 shows the cross-sectional structure by the solid line with other structures added.

The center pillar 1 has a hollow structure formed by joining a pillar outer 2 and a pillar inner 3. A reinforcement 4 is joined to the pillar outer 2 side in the center pillar 1. The reinforcement 4 is provided with a convex embossed portion 5 on the inner side of the center pillar 1. Below the pillar inner 3, a sill inner body 7 having a hat-shaped cross section and a sill inner 9 including a flat plate-shaped closing plate 8 are arranged in the front-rear direction, and the lower ends of the reinforcement 4 and the pillar outer 2 are the sill inner. It is joined to the lower end of 9.

The lower end of the pillar inner 3 is joined to the upper end of the sill inner 9, and an opening 10 is formed near the lower end of the pillar inner 3. Further, a welding nut 11 is provided on the back side of the upper portion of the sill inner body 7. In addition, welding nuts (not shown) are provided on both the left and right sides of the opening 10 of the pillar inner 3.

A retractor 12 is a device for winding the seat belt 13. The retractor 12 is attached to the base plate 15 while being covered by the cover 14. The base plate 15 opens the retractor 12 into the opening 10
It is attached to the opening 10 in a state of being inserted therein, and its lower end and left and right sides are fastened to the welding nut 11 by bolts 16 (both left and right bolts are not shown). Further, a partially bent claw 15a is provided on the upper portion of the base plate 15, and the claw 15a is engaged with a slit 3a formed at a corresponding position of the pillar inner 3. This claw 15a and slit 3a
Is a structure for temporarily fixing the base plate 15 to the pillar inner 3.

The seat belt 13 wound up in the retractor 12 exits upward from the insertion hole 14a of the cover 14 and is guided into the vehicle interior R from an unillustrated outlet formed in the upper portion of the pillar inner 3. A resin garnish 17 is provided on the passenger compartment R side of the center pillar 1, and a seatbelt anchor 18 is provided on the lower end portion of the centerpillar 1, so that the seatbelt 13 taken out to the passenger compartment R side. The terminal enters the inside through the insertion hole 17a and the seat belt anchor 1
It is fixed at 8. The seatbelt anchor 18 is attached to the floor 19 joined to the sill inner 9, and the seatbelt anchor 18 itself is located near the sill inner 9.

A laterally long temporary fixing hole 21 is formed in the embossed portion 5 in the center pillar 1 at the same height position as the retractor 12. Two welding nuts 22 are provided from the back side of the embossed portion 5 slightly below the temporary fixing hole 21.

Then, the sensor 20 of the side impact airbag device is attached to the embossed portion 5 at the portion where the temporary fixing hole 21 and the welding nut 22 are provided. The sensor 20 is attached to the embossed portion 5 before attaching the retractor 12. This sensor 20
Is composed of a main body 20a having a built-in acceleration detecting portion and a mounting portion 20b formed on the upper portion thereof, and is entirely formed by aluminum die casting. Two mounting holes 23 corresponding to the welding nuts 22 are formed in the mounting portion 20b, a projecting piece 24 is horizontally formed from the upper end of the mounting portion 23, and the tip of the projecting piece 24 is bent upward. Part 24
a is formed. The vertical length of the bent portion 24a is slightly longer than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole 21.

Next, how to attach the sensor 20 will be described. First, the sensor 20 is inserted into the center pillar 1 through the opening 10, and the bent portion 24a of the projecting piece 24 is inserted into the temporary fixing hole 21 while being slightly inclined. After inserting the protruding piece 24 into the temporary fixing hole 21, the entire sensor 20 is returned to the vertical state and brought into contact with the surface of the embossed portion 5.

Since the protrusion 24 is placed on the lower edge of the temporary fixing hole 21, the sensor 20 is temporarily fixed to the embossed portion 5. Further, once temporarily fixed, the bent portion 24a at the tip of the protruding piece 24 has a vertical length slightly longer than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole 21.
4 does not come out of the temporary fixing hole 21.

The sensor 20 temporarily fixed in this way
The bolt 25 is inserted into the mounting hole 23 of and is fastened to the welding nut 22 in the embossed portion 5. This completes the mounting of the sensor 20. In this embodiment, the sensor 20 is temporarily fixed, and the sensor 2
Since the position of 0 is relatively upward, the mounting work with the bolt 25 is easy.

After mounting the sensor 20, the opening 10
The retractor 12 is attached. Although the retractor 12 and the sensor 20 are at the same height position, the sensor 20
Since only the head of the bolt 25 projects from the center pillar 1 into the center pillar 1, there is no problem of interference with the retractor 12. Further, at the stage of assembling the center pillar 1, what is provided on the embossed portion 5 is the welding nut 22.
Therefore, the work of inserting the welding gun or the like through the opening 10 and welding the lower end of the pillar inner 3 and the upper end of the sill inner 9 can be easily performed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, in the case of the conventional sensor 26, since it is attached by the welding bolt 27 provided on the embossed portion 5, this welding bolt 2
The tip of 7 largely protrudes toward the inside of the center pillar 1 (the projection amount is increased to exert a temporary fixing function), and the tip of the welding bolt 27 hits the welding gun or the like and hinders workability. Since the interference problem also occurs with the upper retractor 12, the mounting position of the sensor 20 cannot be increased, but this does not occur in the present invention.

Also, the bolt 25 to which the sensor 20 is attached
In the embossed portion 5, the tip of the protrudes more toward the pillar outer 2 side than the welding nut 22. Further, the projecting piece 24 inserted into the embossed portion 5 from the temporary fixing hole 21 projects further toward the pillar outer 2 side than the bolt 25 by d.

Therefore, when the obstacle G collides from the side of the center pillar 1, the projecting piece 24 hits the obstacle G before the main body portion 20a of the sensor 20 and the bolt 25. Therefore, the impact of the obstacle G can be detected early, the deployment timing of the airbag can be advanced, and the occupant protection performance of the airbag is improved. If the welding nut 22 and the bolt 25 are attached as in the present invention, even if the protruding amount of the projecting piece 24 is smaller than the tip of the bolt 25, it is welded to the back side of the embossed portion 5 as in the conventional case. Compared with the case where only the head of the bolt 27 is located, the tip of the bolt 25 is located closer to the pillar outer 2 side than the head of the conventional welding bolt 27, so that the tip of the bolt 25 is on the obstacle G. In advance, the impact is transmitted to the sensor 20, enabling early detection of the impact.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the protrusions 29 are formed on both ends of the upper portion of the sensor 28. By doing so, the inclination of the sensor 28 in the temporarily fixed state is prevented, and the mounting 23 of the sensor 28 and the welding nut are easily aligned. Note that the other configurations and operational effects are the same as those of the previous embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the protrusion 31 is formed on the lower end of the sensor 30. When the protruding piece 31 is attached to the lower portion of the sensor 30, stable temporary fixing in the hanging state cannot be performed as in the embodiment, but temporary fixing to the embossed portion is possible. As in the third embodiment, the “projection piece” in the present invention does not select the mounting position of the “sensor” and can be temporarily fixed to the “embossed portion” at any position of the “sensor”. A piece may be provided. Note that the other configurations and operational effects are the same as those of the previous embodiment.

[0039]

According to the first and second aspects of the invention, a welding nut is provided in the embossed portion, and the sensor is attached to the welding nut with a bolt. Only the head of the bolt protrudes from the mounting portion into the center pillar. Therefore, even if the position of the welding nut (sensor) is raised, it does not interfere with the retractor, and does not interfere with the work performed by inserting the welding gun or the like through the opening. Further, when the mounting position of the sensor is at the upper side, the work for mounting the sensor is easier to perform than when the position of the sensor is too low as in the conventional case.

Further, even though the welding nut is provided inside the embossed portion, the sensor can be temporarily fixed to the embossed portion by inserting the protrusion of the sensor into the temporary fixing hole of the embossed portion. it can. Therefore, the workability of attaching the sensor does not decrease.

In addition, since the tip of the bolt or the projecting piece to which the sensor is attached is located closer to the pillar outer side than the embossed portion, when the obstacle collides from the side of the center pillar, the bolt or the projecting piece is used. The impact can be detected early through the piece. Therefore, the deployment timing of the airbag can be advanced, and the occupant protection performance of the airbag is improved.

Further, according to the invention as set forth in claim 1 , since the projecting piece projects toward the pillar outer side from the tip of the bolt, the deployment timing of the airbag can be further advanced by the projecting piece. Occupant protection
improves.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the projecting piece is formed on the upper portion of the sensor, the sensor can be temporarily fixed in a hanging state by inserting the projecting piece into the temporary fixing hole. it can.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the upward bent portion slightly longer than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole is formed at the tip of the projecting piece, the bent portion is obliquely inserted into the temporary fixing hole. After that, when the slanted state is returned to the original state, the bent portion serves as a stopper, and the projecting piece is prevented from coming off the temporary fixing hole.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the protrusions are formed at both ends of the upper portion of the sensor, the inclination of the sensor in the temporarily fixed state is prevented, and the position of the sensor and the welding nut is easily aligned.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a center pillar portion showing a sensor mounting structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the structure of a center pillar.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a sensor.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a sensor according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a sensor according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 center pillar 2 pillar outer 3 pillar inner 4 Reinforce 5 Embossing section 10 openings 12 retractors 20, 28, 30 sensor 21 Temporary stop hole 22 Weld nut 24, 29, 31 protrusion 24a bent part 25 volts

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] Claim: What is claimed is: 1. An embossed portion is formed on a reinforcement located on the outer side of a pillar in a center pillar, and a sensor of an airbag device is attached to a welding nut provided in the embossed portion by a bolt, and the embossed portion is formed. A sensor for a side-impact airbag device, in which a temporary fixing hole is provided in the sensor and a protrusion that is inserted into the temporary fixing hole is formed in the sensor.
With the structure, the protrusion is more pillar-shaped than the tip of the bolt.
A sensor mounting structure for an airbag device for side impact, which is characterized in that it protrudes to the outer side . 2. A center pillar formed by joining a pillar outer and a pillar inner is provided with a reinforcement located on the outer pillar side, and a convex embossed portion is formed on the inside of the center pillar. A base plate, to which a retractor to be inserted into the center pillar from the opening is fixed, is attached to the opening formed near the lower end of the pillar inner, and a sensor of the airbag device is attached to the embossed portion of the reinforcement. A sensor mounting structure for a side impact airbag device, wherein a welding nut is provided in the embossed portion of the reinforcement, the sensor is attached to the welding nut with a bolt, and a temporary fixing hole is provided in the embossed portion. Air for side impact, characterized in that a projection piece to be inserted into the temporary fixing hole is formed on the Sensor mounting structure of Tsu grayed apparatus. 3. A contract in which a protrusion is formed on the upper part of the sensor.
The sensor of the airbag device for side impact according to claim 1 or 2.
Mounting structure. 4. The tip of the protrusion is smaller than the vertical dimension of the temporary fixing hole.
Any of claims 1 to 3, wherein an upward bent portion is formed which is long and dry.
Or the sensor mounting structure for the airbag device for side impact according to Item 1.
Structure. 5. Protrusions are formed at both upper ends of the sensor.
For a side impact according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Sensor mounting structure for airbag devices.