JP4632159B2 - Vehicle hood hinge and vehicle front structure including the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a hood hinge that rotatably supports a hood of an automobile and to which a front fender panel is attached, and in particular, has a two-part structure of a first bracket that is fixed directly to a vehicle body and a second bracket that is fixed to the first bracket. The present invention relates to a hood hinge and a vehicle front structure including the same.

  The hood that covers the engine compartment at the front of the vehicle body is supported by hood hinges that are fixed to the vehicle body at both ends in the vehicle width direction at the rear end. This type of conventional hood hinge includes a hinge arm attached to the hood, a hinge bracket attached to the vehicle body, and a connecting means such as a pin that pivotally supports the hinge arm on the hinge bracket. . The hinge brackets of the left and right hood hinges are fixed to a skeleton member at the front of the vehicle body.

  On the other hand, a front fender panel is disposed on the side surface of the front portion of the vehicle body. The front fender panel includes a vertical wall apron portion that forms a design surface of the vehicle body outer surface region excluding the front wheel region, and a flange portion that hangs down from the upper end portion of the apron portion and protrudes toward the engine room side. Yes.

This type of front fender panel is attached to the vehicle body as follows.
FIG. 7 is a view of the right-side peripheral area of the conventional vehicle front portion as viewed from the engine room side. The front fender panel 110 has a flange portion as a distance of about 2/3 of the total length from the front of the panel toward the rear. A first flange portion 110A extending up to a first flange portion 110B and a second flange portion 110B provided at a position away from the rear end of the first flange portion 110A are provided. The first flange portion 110A is attached to a body bracket 120 whose intermediate portion (hereinafter referred to as a first attachment portion 110C) is erected from the body, and the second flange portion 110B is attached to the hinge bracket 131 of the hood hinge 130. ing. The first flange portion 110 </ b> A and the second flange portion 110 </ b> B are fixed to the body bracket 120 and the hinge bracket 131 using fastening means such as bolts and nuts screwed to the bolts. In FIG. 7, the display of the hinge arm of the hood hinge and the hood supported by the hood hinge is omitted, and the vehicle body skeleton member to which the body bracket 120 and the hinge bracket 131 are attached is simply represented by dotted lines.

Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose hood hinges, and Patent Document 3 discloses a structure in which a front fender panel is supported by a bracket erected from a body.
JP 2001-354164 A JP 2002-145121 A JP 2005-14763 A

  In a vehicle in which the apron portion forming the design surface of the front fender panel has a long vertical width, the distance D (see FIG. 7) between the body and the first mounting portion 110C becomes long, so the body bracket 120 that connects them is configured to be high. There is a need. However, if the body bracket 120 becomes too high, a positional shift occurs between the upper end portion of the body bracket 120 and the first attachment portion 110C to be fixed thereto, and the installation accuracy of the front fender panel 110 is lowered.

  The present invention has been created in view of the above points, and has as its first object to provide a hood hinge for adjusting the position of a front fender panel without attaching a body bracket to the body. . A second object is to provide a vehicle front structure to which the hood hinge is applied.

  In order to achieve the first object, a hood hinge of a vehicle according to the present invention includes a hinge arm that supports the hood, a hinge bracket that is attached to the vehicle body, and a connection that pivotally supports the hinge arm on the hinge bracket. A first bracket that is attached to the vehicle body and rotatably supports the hinge arm via the connecting means, and a second bracket that is joined to the first bracket and supports the front fender panel. It is characterized by being divided into two parts.

In the hood hinge of a vehicle of the present invention, the second bracket is vehicle longitudinal provided with two front fender mounting portions apart in the direction, before lateral rigidity stiffness near the front fender mounting portion near the front fender mounting portion of the rear Is configured lower than . For example, a flange and / or a bead is provided around the front fender mounting portion behind the second bracket.

In order to achieve the second object, a vehicle front structure according to the present invention includes a front fender panel provided on a side surface of a vehicle body, and a hood that covers an engine room defined between the left and right front fender panels. A hood hinge attached to the vehicle body to which the front fender panel is attached and which rotatably supports the hood, the hood hinge supporting the hood, a hinge bracket attached to the vehicle body, and a hinge arm A first bracket that pivotally supports the hinge bracket so that the hinge bracket is attached to the vehicle body and that pivotally supports the hinge arm via the coupling means. a second bracket which is joined to the bracket, is composed of a second bracket spaced longitudinal direction of the vehicle Two front fender attachments are provided, and a front fender panel is attached to these front fender attachments. Among the two front fender attachments, the rigidity around the front front fender attachment is around the rear front fender attachment. It is characterized by being configured to be lower than the rigidity .

  According to the present invention, in assembling the vehicle front structure, the front fender panel is not directly fixed to the bracket fixed to the vehicle body, but the position relative to the first bracket is set in advance so that the front fender panel is disposed at an appropriate position. The front fender panel is attached to the second bracket that is adjusted and attached to the first bracket. Since the hinge bracket is divided into two members in this way, when the second bracket is fixed to the first bracket, the position can be adjusted according to the vehicle type, for example, and fixed to the first bracket. Therefore, the installation of the front fender panel can be adjusted by changing the relative position of the second bracket with respect to the first bracket. Thereby, for example, even in a vehicle having a high apron portion that forms the design surface outside the vehicle body, the second bracket that supports the front fender panel is fixed to the first bracket so that the position of the front fender panel is increased. It can respond by doing.

  By providing two mounting portions for the front fender panel on the hood hinge, the body bracket in the conventional structure shown in FIG. 7 can be eliminated. Furthermore, since the front peripheral portion of the second bracket is set to be lower in rigidity than the rear peripheral portion thereof, for example, when a collision object hits the front peripheral region of the second bracket from above, The front end portion of the second bracket is bent outward. By easily deforming in this way, it is possible to increase the stroke of the colliding object after the vehicle collision. That is, the energy absorption stroke of the second bracket increases. Therefore, the impact on the collision object can be further reduced. Therefore, according to the present invention, pedestrian protection performance can be improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a vehicle front structure 10 to which a hood hinge 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In the figure, Fr represents the front of the vehicle, Up represents the upper side of the vehicle, and Out represents the direction outside the vehicle width.

First, the vehicle front structure 10 will be schematically described.
A front fender panel 20 is disposed on the front side surface of the vehicle body, and an engine room R is defined between the left and right front fender panels. A hood 30 that covers the engine room R is attached to the left and right apron upper members 40, which are skeleton members at the front of the vehicle body, via the hood hinge 1 in the vicinity of both ends at the rear part. The front fender panel 20 is also attached to the hood hinge 1. In FIG. 1, the front fender panel 20, the hood 30, and the apron upper member 40 are partially displayed. In the figure, 31 is a hood upper panel, and 32 is a hood inner panel.

  The front fender panel 20 includes a vertical wall-shaped apron portion 21 that forms a design surface of the vehicle body outer surface region excluding the front wheel region, a flange portion 22 that hangs down from the upper end portion of the apron portion 21 and protrudes toward the engine room side, It has.

  An apron upper member 40 is provided below the flange portion 22 of the front fender panel 20. The apron upper member 40 is disposed with its longitudinal direction along the vehicle front-rear direction. The apron upper member 40 includes a hat-shaped upper panel 41 and an L-shaped lower panel 42, and a closed section S is defined by joining the flanges of both panels. The hood hinge 1 is attached to the upper surface of the apron upper member 40.

  FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the hood hinge 1 according to the present embodiment. The hood hinge 1 includes a hinge arm 2 that supports the hood 30, a hinge bracket 3 that is attached to the vehicle body, and a connecting means 4 that pivotally supports the hinge arm 2 on the hinge bracket 3.

The hinge arm 2 is formed at a longitudinal arm body 2A extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, a first hole 2B formed at the base portion (one end portion) of the arm body 2A, and a distal end portion of the arm body 2A. The second hole 2C. The arm body 2A is formed in a plate shape, and is formed to extend in the front-rear direction so that its surface faces the vehicle width outside, and a flange 2D perpendicular to the surface protrudes from the periphery of the arm body. A mounting piece 2E protrudes from the edge of the distal end of the arm body 2A toward the engine room R, and two second holes 2C and 2C are arranged in parallel in the front and rear of the mounting piece 2E.
A third hole 32A corresponding to these second holes 2C, 2C is provided in the hood inner panel 32 of the hood 30, and the attachment piece 2E of the hinge arm 2 is attached to the hood inner panel 32 as shown in FIG. The bolt 51 is inserted into the holes 2C and 32A from below with the center of the two holes 2C and 32A coaxially disposed on the mounting surface, and the nut 61 is fastened from the opposite side to tighten the end of the hinge arm 2 Is fixed to the hood 30. In addition, in FIG. 1, the display of the volt | bolt 51 and the nut 61 is simplified.

  The hinge arm 2 has its base overlapped with an arm mounting portion (described later) 72A provided on the hinge bracket 3, and the center of the first hole 2B and the fifth hole (described later) 74 formed in them is coaxial. As shown in FIG. 1, the hinge pin 4 as a connecting means is inserted in both holes 2B and 74 so as to prevent the hinge arm 2 from rotating up and down. The hinge bracket 3 is pivotally supported.

  Next, the hinge bracket 3 will be described. In the present embodiment, the hinge bracket 3 is composed of two members. That is, the hinge bracket 3 is attached to the vehicle body and supports the front fender panel 20 by being joined to the first bracket 70 and rotatably supporting the hinge arm 2 via the connecting means 4. 2 brackets 80.

  First, the first bracket 70 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the first bracket 70 includes a base portion 71 that is fixed to the upper surface of the apron upper member, and a vertical wall portion 72 that rises from a side edge of the base portion 71, and has an L-shaped cross section. Present. The base portion 71 is a narrow flat panel member that extends in the vehicle front-rear direction, and is formed by partially cutting the front. In the base portion 71, two fourth holes 73 and 73 are arranged side by side. The vertical wall portion 72 extends upward from the side edge of the base portion 71 on the engine room R side, the intermediate portion in the vehicle front-rear direction is formed to be the highest, and the front and rear are formed to gradually become lower as the distance from the middle increases. Has been. An upper portion of the intermediate portion of the vertical wall portion 72 is formed as an arm attachment portion 72A, and a fifth hole 74 is formed in the plane. Further, the surface of the vertical wall portion 72 facing the vehicle outer side is formed as a vertical wall surface 75 in which a front region A1 and a lower region A2 in the middle portion are flat. As will be described later, the vertical wall surface 89B of the second bracket 80 is fixed to the flat surface 75 by spot welding.

  A sixth hole 41A (see FIG. 1) corresponding to the fourth hole 73 of the first bracket 70 is formed on the upper surface of the apron upper member, and as shown in FIG. 1, the base portion 71 is placed on the apron upper member. And the bolts 52 are inserted into the holes 73 and 41A from above with the centers of the holes 73 and 41A coaxially arranged, and the nut 62 is fastened from the opposite side, whereby the first bracket 70 is It is fixed to the vehicle body, that is, the apron upper member 40. In FIG. 1, the display of the bolt 52 and the nut 62 is simplified.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the second bracket 80 has a vertical panel 81 that is long in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and a width that extends from the upper edge of the vertical panel 81 toward the vehicle width outward direction. A narrow projecting piece 82. The surface of the vertical panel portion 81 is widened so as to face the outside of the vehicle. Further, the upper edge of the vertical panel portion 81 is formed such that an intermediate region A3 in the front-rear direction is recessed downward. The protrusions 82 at the front end F and the rear end B of the second bracket 80 are formed on flat surfaces. These front and rear flat portions are used as front fender mounting portions 83 and 84 as described later. For this reason, the front fender attachment portions 83 and 84 are provided with holes, that is, a front seventh hole 85 and a rear eighth hole 86.

As shown in FIG. 3, a flange 87 protruding outward from the lower edge of the vertical panel portion 81 in the rear region is formed around the rear front fender mounting portion, and the vertical panel above the flange 87 is formed. On the surface, a bead 88 is formed in a streak shape from the center side of the bracket toward the rear. The bead 88 has a convex shape with a cross section projecting outward in the vehicle width direction.
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, there is no flange at the lower edge of the vertical panel portion in the front region, and no bead is formed around the front front fender mounting portion.
Therefore, the rigidity around the front front fender attachment part is set to be lower than that around the rear front fender attachment part.

  As shown in FIG. 2, in the middle region of the vertical panel portion 81 of the second bracket 80, bulging portions 89 </ b> A projecting toward the engine room side are provided at two front and rear locations. A flat vertical wall surface 89B is formed on the bulging portion 89A. In the illustrated example, it is formed as a circular surface 89B. A step is formed around the circular region so as to reinforce the circular region. These vertical wall surfaces 89B are joined to the vertical wall surface 75 of the first bracket 70 by spot welding or the like, and the second bracket 80 is fixed to the first bracket 70. An X mark in FIG. 2 indicates a spot welding location.

  Holes corresponding to the seventh hole 85 and the eighth hole 86 of the second bracket are formed in the flange portion 22 of the front fender panel 20. Here, FIG. 4A is a side view of the right front fender panel 20 as viewed from the engine room R side. The flange portion 22 of the front fender panel 20 is provided at a position away from the rear from the rear end of the first flange portion 22A, and a long first flange portion 22A extending rearward from the front portion to about 2/3 of the total length. And a narrow second flange portion 22B. The rear end portion 22C of the first flange portion 22A and the second flange portion 22B are used as attachment portions. Specifically, the rear end portion 22C of the first flange portion 22A corresponds to the front fender attachment portion 83 of the front end portion F of the second bracket 80, and the second flange portion 22B is the rear end of the second bracket 80. This corresponds to the front fender mounting portion 84 of the portion B. Therefore, a ninth hole 22D corresponding to the seventh hole 85 is formed in the rear end portion 22C of the first flange portion 22A as shown in FIG. 4B, and corresponds to the eighth hole 86. A tenth hole 22E is formed in the second flange portion 22B as shown in FIG. Accordingly, the front fender attachment portion 83 (84) of the second bracket 80 is applied to the attachment portion of the corresponding front fender panel, and the center of both the holes 22D and 85 (22E, 86) is arranged coaxially. 1, the front fender panel 20 is attached to the second bracket 80 by inserting the bolt 53 into the holes 22D and 85 (22E and 86) from above and fastening the nut 63 from the opposite side.

Furthermore, in the hood hinge 1 according to this embodiment, the position of the second bracket 80 with respect to the first bracket 70 is adjusted. That is, the mounting position is adjusted by shifting the second bracket 80 relative to the first bracket 70 in the vehicle front-rear direction or the vehicle vertical direction, and the second bracket 80 is fixed to the first bracket 70 by spot welding.
The position of the second bracket 80 with respect to the first bracket 70 is adjusted, for example, according to the vehicle type to which the hood hinge 1 is attached, and the front fender panel 20 attached to the hood hinge 1 is appropriate for the vehicle body. The position of the second bracket 80 relative to the first bracket 70 to be fixed to the vehicle body is determined for each vehicle type so as to be arranged at a proper mounting position. In consideration of such relative position adjustment of both brackets, the hood hinge 1 is, for example, a hinge arm 2, a hinge bracket 3 (first bracket 70, second bracket 80) for each vehicle type at a factory that manufactures the hood hinge 1. ), The connecting means 4 is assembled.

As described above, the vehicle front structure 10 and the hood hinge 1 applied thereto are configured. An example of the assembly procedure of the vehicle front structure 10 will be described.
In the process of the automobile production line, the hood hinge 1 formed by assembling the hinge arm 2, the hinge bracket 3 (first bracket 70, second bracket 80) and the connecting means 4 is attached to the vehicle body, and the hood 30 and the front fender panel 20 are attached thereto. Install. Specifically, (I) the first bracket 70 of the hood hinge 1 is attached to the apron upper member 40, (II) the front fender panel 20 is attached to the second bracket 80 of the hood hinge 1, and (III) the hood hinge 1 A hood 30 is attached to the hinge arm 2. Here, as the member attaching means, as described above, fastening means such as bolts 51 to 53 and nuts 61 to 63 screwed to the bolts 51 to 53 are used. Since the description of the specific mounting structure has been described above, it is omitted here. In this way, the vehicle front structure 10 is configured.

  FIG. 5 is a side view of the hood hinge 1 and the front fender panel 20 supported by the hood hinge 1 as viewed from the engine room R side. In this figure, the hood 30 and the hinge arm 2 are not shown. In the vehicle front structure 10, the front fender panel 20 has two flanges (the first flange portion 22A, the rear end portion 22C, the second flange portion 22B) attached to the second bracket 80. The second bracket It is fixed to the vehicle body via 80. In FIG. 5, the apron upper member 40, which is a skeleton member of the vehicle body, is schematically indicated by a two-dot chain line.

  In such a vehicle front structure 10, the first fender panel 70 is preliminarily arranged so that the front fender panel 20 is disposed at an appropriate position, instead of directly fixing the front fender panel 20 to the bracket fixed to the vehicle body. The front fender panel 20 is attached to the second bracket 80 that is attached to the first bracket 70 with the position thereof adjusted. Since the hinge bracket 3 is divided into two members (70, 80) in this way, when the second bracket 80 is fixed to the first bracket 70, the position thereof is adjusted according to the vehicle type and fixed to the first bracket 70. can do. Therefore, the installation of the front fender panel 20 can be adjusted by changing the relative position of the second bracket 80 with respect to the first bracket 70. For example, even if the apron portion 21 forming the design surface outside the vehicle body is a high vehicle, the first bracket 70 supports the second bracket 80 that supports the front fender panel 20 so that the position of the front fender panel 20 is increased. It can respond by fixing to. Further, since the hinge bracket 1 can be applied to a plurality of vehicles by changing the relative positions of the first bracket 70 and the second bracket 80, the types of hinge brackets to be manufactured can be reduced, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. Can be reduced.

  In the vehicle front structure 10 of the present invention, the body bracket 120 in the conventional structure shown in FIG. 7 can be eliminated by providing the hood hinge 1 with the two attachment portions 83 and 84 of the front fender panel 20. .

  In the vehicle front structure 10, the front peripheral portion of the second bracket 80 is set to be lower in rigidity than the rear peripheral portion thereof, so that, for example, the collision object Y is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the front end F of the second bracket 80 is bent outwardly by the load Z, as shown in FIG. By easily deforming in this way, the stroke of the collision object Y after the vehicle collision can be increased. That is, the energy absorption stroke of the second bracket 80 increases. Therefore, the impact on the collision object Y can be further reduced, and the pedestrian protection performance can be improved.

  On the other hand, since the rear peripheral part of the second bracket 80 is configured with high rigidity by the flange 87 and the bead 88 provided there, the rigidity of the mounting part of the front fender panel 20 can be ensured. For example, when the rear peripheral area of the second bracket 80 is pushed by hand from above, the user can feel that the front fender panel 20 in the area is firmly supported by the second bracket 80, The image can be improved.

  As described above, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, either the flange or the bead may be provided at the rear part of the second bracket, or the flange and the bead may be provided without being provided at the rear part of the second bracket. The assembly order of the vehicle front structure 10 is not limited to the above example. The shapes of the first bracket and the second bracket are not limited to the illustrated examples.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a vehicle front structure to which a hood hinge according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a disassembled perspective view of the hood hinge which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the rear part periphery area | region of the 2nd bracket which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the front fender panel which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the front fender panel supported by the hood hinge which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a front view of the fender attachment part of the front end part of the 2nd bracket concerning the embodiment of the present invention. It is a side view which shows the attachment structure of the conventional front fender panel.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hood hinge 2 Hinge arm 2A Arm main body 2B, 2C, 22D, 22E, 32A, 41A, 73, 74, 85, 86 Hole 2D Flange 2E Mounting piece 3 Hinge bracket 4 Connecting means 10 Vehicle front part structure 20 Front fender panel 21 Apron portion 22 Flange portion 22A First flange portion 22B Second flange portion 22C Rear end portion 30 Hood 31 Hood upper panel 32 Hood inner panel 40 Apron upper member 41 Upper panel 42 Lower panel 51-53 Bolt 61-63 Nut 70 First bracket 71 Base part 72 Vertical wall part 72A Arm attachment part 75, 89B Vertical wall surface 80 Second bracket 81 Vertical panel part 82 Projection piece part 83, 84 Front fender attachment part 87 Flange 88 Bead 89A Swelling part A1 Front part Range A2 lower area B rear end F front end R engine room S closed section

Claims (4)

A hinge arm that supports the hood;
A hinge bracket attached to the car body,
A hood hinge for a vehicle, comprising: a connecting means for pivotally supporting the hinge arm on the hinge bracket;
The hinge bracket is attached to the vehicle body and includes a first bracket that rotatably supports the hinge arm via the connecting means, and a second bracket that is joined to the first bracket and supports the front fender panel. Configured ,
The second bracket includes two front fender attachment portions separated in the vehicle front-rear direction, and the rigidity around the front fender attachment portion of the two front fender attachment portions is the rigidity around the rear front fender attachment portion. A hood hinge for a vehicle, characterized in that it is constructed lower than 2. The vehicle hood hinge according to claim 1 , wherein the second bracket includes a flange and / or a bead around a rear front fender mounting portion. Front fender panel provided on the front side of the vehicle body, a hood that covers the engine room defined between the left and right front fender panels, and the front fender panel attached to the vehicle body and the hood can be rotated A vehicle front structure comprising a hood hinge supported by
The hood hinge includes a hinge arm that supports the hood, a hinge bracket that is attached to the vehicle body, and a connecting unit that pivotally supports the hinge arm on the hinge bracket.
The hinge bracket includes a first bracket that is attached to a vehicle body and rotatably supports the hinge arm via the connecting means, and a second bracket that is joined to the first bracket .
The second bracket includes two front fender mounting portions separated in the vehicle front-rear direction, and the front fender panel is mounted on these front fender mounting portions, and the front fender mounting on the front of the two front fender mounting portions is mounted. The vehicle front structure is characterized in that the rigidity around the rear portion is lower than the rigidity around the rear front fender mounting portion. 4. The vehicle front structure according to claim 3 , wherein the second bracket includes a flange and / or a bead around a rear front fender mounting portion.

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