JP4606073B2 - Car cowl structure - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an automobile cowl structure.

  A cowl top cover is provided in front of the front window panel. A number of air introduction holes are formed in the cowl top cover. A space is formed between the cowl top cover and the rear end of the hood that covers the engine room, and a swingable wiper arm is accommodated in the space.

  The front side of this space is shielded by a vertical wall-shaped seal panel formed upward from the cowl top cover. At the upper end of the seal panel, a seal portion that abuts against the lower surface of the hood is provided.

The space is shielded by such a sealing panel, so that hot air and odor in the engine room are prevented from entering the vehicle interior via the cowl top cover, and foreign substances (dead leaves, snow, etc.) accumulated in the space are prevented. Etc.) are prevented from entering the engine room (for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent No. 3006152

  However, in such a conventional technique, since the seal panel has a simple vertical wall shape, foreign matter such as snow accumulates in the space, and when it is pushed further forward by the wiper arm, the seal panel falls to the front side. As a result, a gap may be formed between the seal portion at the upper end and the hood. When a gap is generated, hot air and odor in the engine room enter the vehicle compartment from there.

  Therefore, it is conceivable to increase the rigidity of the entire seal panel so that the seal panel does not fall forward. However, if the rigidity of the seal panel is too high, the hood is difficult to move downward when a large downward load is applied to the hood during a vehicle collision, and the collision energy cannot be sufficiently absorbed.

  The present invention has been made by paying attention to such a conventional technique, and reliably prevents the seal panel from falling to the front side when the vehicle receives a downward load during a vehicle collision. An automobile cowl structure that allows the hood to move downward is provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a space for accommodating a swingable wiper arm is formed in front of the front window panel, the bottom surface of the space is formed by the cowl top cover, and the cowl top cover is provided in front of the cowl top cover. A seal panel comprising a fixed part fixed to the top cover and a shielding wall standing upright from the rear end of the fixed part toward the front side of the automobile is integrated with or separate from the cowl top cover. An automotive cowl structure formed and provided with a seal portion that abuts the lower surface of the hood at the upper end of the shielding wall of the seal panel, the vehicle width between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall A plurality of triangular ribs that expand downward from the upper side inclined in the direction are formed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a space for accommodating a swingable wiper arm is formed in front of the front window panel, a bottom surface of the space is formed by a cowl top cover, and the cowl top cover is provided in front of the cowl top cover. A sealing panel comprising a fixing part fixed to the top cover and a shielding wall standing upward from the rear end of the fixing part is formed integrally with or separate from the cowl top cover, and the shielding wall of the sealing panel The cowl structure of an automobile provided with a seal portion that contacts the lower surface of the hood at the upper end of the hood, and a position spaced from the upper end of the shielding wall of the seal panel between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall A plurality of triangular ribs expanding from the upper side to the lower side are formed, and the shielding wall is inclined toward the front side of the automobile.

The invention described in claim 3 is characterized in that the seal panel is formed of resin.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of ribs are formed between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall that is inclined and inclined toward the front side of the automobile. Even if stagnation occurs and the shielding wall is pushed forward, the shielding wall does not fall forward. Therefore, the sealing state with the hood by the sealing part at the upper end of the shielding wall is maintained. Also, when a large downward load is applied to the hood at the time of a vehicle collision, the ribs have a triangular shape that expands downward from above and are inclined, so that the shielding wall is deformed (flexed) in a predetermined direction. Thus, the collision energy can be absorbed with certainty.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the triangular rib that expands downward from above between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall standing upward from the rear end of the fixed portion. Since multiple foreign objects such as snow accumulate in the space and the shielding wall is pushed forward, the shielding wall does not fall forward, and the cross-sectional area of the rib increases as it goes down, Can be efficiently absorbed . Therefore, the sealing state with the hood by the sealing part at the upper end of the shielding wall is maintained. In addition, when a large downward load is applied to the hood at the time of a vehicle collision, the shielding wall is inclined toward the front side of the automobile, so that it can be deformed in a predetermined direction to reliably absorb the collision energy. it can. Moreover, since it is provided in a triangular shape from a position apart from the upper end of the shielding wall, but away from the upper end, the rigidity of the shielding wall increases as it goes down, and the load applied from the hood can be absorbed efficiently. .

  According to invention of Claim 3, since the rib is formed in the front side of the shielding wall, a shielding wall cannot fall easily to the front side.

  According to invention of Claim 4, since a sealing panel is resin, it can shape | mold easily and can achieve weight reduction. Further, the seal panel can be integrally formed with the cowl top cover.

Providing an automobile cowl structure that reliably prevents the seal panel from tipping forward and that allows the downward movement of the hood when the vehicle receives a downward load during a vehicle collision. The purpose is to form a space for storing a swingable wiper arm in front of the front window panel, and the bottom of the space is formed by a cowl top cover, and fixed to the cowl top cover in front of the cowl top cover. A sealing panel comprising a fixing part and a shielding wall standing upright from the rear end of the fixing part toward the front side of the automobile , and is formed integrally with or separate from the cowl top cover. A cowl structure for an automobile in which a seal portion that abuts the lower surface of the hood is provided at the upper end of the shielding wall of the panel. In, it was achieved by the formation of the triangular ribs expanding from the upper inclined in the vehicle width direction downward. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected about the part which is common in each following example, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

  1-6 is a figure which shows 1st Example. A front-opening type hood 1 is disposed above the engine room E. A space S is formed in front of the front window panel 2, and the bottom surface of the space S is formed by a resin cowl top cover 3 that extends forward from the lower end of the front window panel 2.

  A front end of the cowl top cover 3 is engaged with a cowl top front 5 constituting the vehicle body by a locking piece 4. The cowl top cover 3 has a large number of air introduction holes 6 through which air can be introduced into a room (not shown). Further, the wiper arm 7 protrudes from the cowl top cover 3 toward the space S side. The wiper arm 7 is swingable along the front window panel 2, and the lowest end position of the swing operation is stored in the space S and also in the space S when not in use.

  On the front side of the space S, a resin seal panel 8 is formed. Since the seal panel 8 is made of resin, it can be easily molded and can be reduced in weight. The seal panel 8 basically includes a fixing portion 9 fixed to the front end of the cowl top cover 3 and a shielding wall 10 erected upward from the rear end of the fixing portion 9. At the upper end of the shielding wall 10, a seal portion 11 made of an elastic material that comes into contact with the lower surface of the hood 1 is provided. In addition, a plurality of ribs 12 are formed between the fixed portion 9 and the shielding wall 10 at predetermined intervals.

  The fixing portion 9 of the seal panel 8 is fixed in a state of being sandwiched by a folded portion 13 formed from the front end of the cowl top cover 3. A notch 14 is formed in a portion corresponding to the rib 12 of the folded portion 13.

  The shielding wall 10 of the seal panel 8 is inclined forward by an angle θ1 with respect to the vertical (see FIG. 4). The angle θ1 is preferably in the range of 10 to 45 °. The rib 12 is also inclined to the right in the vehicle width direction by an angle θ2 with respect to the vertical (see FIG. 5). The angle θ2 is also preferably in the range of 10 to 45 °.

According to this embodiment, foreign matter such as snow 15 accumulates in the space S and is pushed forward by the wiper arm 7 (on the left side in FIG. 2) to forward load F1 with respect to the shielding wall 10 (see FIG. 2). Since the triangular rib 12 that expands downward from above is formed between the fixed portion 9 and the shielding wall 10, the shielding wall 10 does not fall forward. In particular, since the rib 12 is formed on the front side of the shielding wall 10, the effect of preventing the shielding wall 10 from falling to the front side is high. Therefore, the sealing state with the hood 1 by the sealing portion 11 at the upper end of the shielding wall 10 is maintained, and no gap is generated between the sealing portion 11 and the hood 1.

  Further, when a large downward load F2 (see FIG. 2) is applied to the hood 1 at the time of a vehicle collision, the ribs 12 are inclined in the vehicle width direction, and the shielding wall 10 itself is also inclined forward. Therefore, the shielding wall 10 is deformed (flexed) to the front side and allows the hood 1 to move downward. Therefore, the collision energy due to the downward load F2 can be reliably absorbed. Moreover, the connection part with the fixing | fixed part 9 of the rib 12 may incline in the vehicle front-back direction. Further, the ribs 12 may be provided in a dogleg shape or a curved shape.

  FIG. 6 is a graph showing the load-displacement characteristics when a downward load F2 is experimentally applied. The dotted line in FIG. 6 shows data in the case of a seal panel in which both the shielding wall and the rib are formed vertically as a comparative example. When the vertical shielding wall and the vertical rib are formed as in the comparative example, both the shielding wall and the rib exert the maximum resistance against the downward load F2, resulting in a yield. The peak value at the point P1 is very high.

  The solid line in FIG. 6 shows this embodiment. Since both the shielding wall 10 and the rib 12 are inclined as compared with the comparative example, the inclination of the shielding wall 10 and the rib 12 acts in the direction of releasing the load F2 with respect to the load F2. Therefore, the yield point P2 can be kept low as compared with the comparative example. Further, even after the yield point P2 is exceeded, the inclined rib 12 is tenaciously deformed, so that the waveform on the graph can continue to be deformed without changing the peak value of the yield point P2. By collapsing in this way, it is possible to achieve both the collision energy absorption performance and the shape retention performance of the wiper arm 7 against the snow pushing load.

  7 and 8 are views showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In the seal panel 16 according to the second embodiment, the ribs 17 and 18 are alternately inclined in opposite directions. Thus, even if the inclination direction of the ribs 17 and 18 is changed, the same effect as the previous embodiment can be obtained.

9 and 10 are views showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In the seal panel 22 according to the third embodiment , the shielding wall 10 is inclined to the front side by an angle θ1 as in the first embodiment, but the triangular rib 23 that expands downward from above is a fixed portion. 9 is formed vertically. As described above, even when the ribs 23 are perpendicular to each other, substantially the same effects as in the previous embodiment can be obtained because the shielding wall 10 is inclined. The material strength, plate thickness, etc. of the seal panel 22 are appropriately adjusted and adopted.

In the above embodiment, the cowl top cover 3 and the separate seal panels 8 , 16 and 22 are taken as an example, but may be formed integrally with the cowl top cover 3.

The perspective view which shows the cowl structure which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. Sectional drawing which shows the cowl structure of FIG. The perspective view which shows the seal panel of FIG. The side view which shows the seal panel of FIG. The front view which shows the seal panel of FIG. The graph which shows the load-displacement characteristic of the seal panel of FIG. The perspective view which shows the seal panel which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. The front view which shows the seal panel of FIG. The perspective view which shows the seal panel which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. The front view which shows the seal panel of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hood 2 Front window panel 3 Cowl top cover 7 Wiper arm 8 , 16 , 22 Seal panel 9 Fixing part 10,21 Shielding wall 11 Sealing part 12,17,18,23 Rib 15 Snow E Engine room S space θ1 Inclination of shielding wall Angle θ2 Tilt angle of rib F1 Forward load F2 Downward load

Claims (3)

A space for storing a swingable wiper arm is formed in front of the front window panel, and the bottom surface of the space is formed by a cowl top cover.
In front of the cowl top cover, there is provided a sealing panel comprising a fixing part fixed to the cowl top cover, and a shielding wall standing upright from the rear end of the fixing part toward the front side of the automobile , A cowl structure for an automobile that is formed integrally with or separately from a cowl top cover, and is provided with a seal portion that contacts the lower surface of the hood at the upper end of the shielding wall of the seal panel,
A cowl structure for an automobile, wherein a plurality of triangular ribs that expand downward from the upper side inclined in the vehicle width direction are formed between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall. A space for storing a swingable wiper arm is formed in front of the front window panel, and the bottom surface of the space is formed by a cowl top cover.
A seal panel including a fixed portion fixed to the cowl top cover and a shielding wall erected upward from the rear end of the fixed portion is integrated with or separate from the cowl top cover in front of the cowl top cover. An automotive cowl structure formed and provided with a seal portion that contacts the lower surface of the hood at the upper end of the shielding wall of the seal panel,
A plurality of triangular ribs are formed between the fixed portion of the seal panel and the front side of the shielding wall so as to expand from the top to the bottom at a position spaced from the upper end of the shielding wall of the sealing panel . An automobile cowl structure that is inclined toward the front side. An automobile cowl structure according to claim 1 or claim 2,
An automobile cowl structure characterized in that the sealing panel is made of resin .