JP5382929B2 - Protective frame structure - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a protective frame structure for use in mounting heavy objects on a vehicle.

In recent years, with the development and popularization of electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like, it has been necessary to mount heavy objects such as batteries having a large capacity on vehicles.
These heavy objects need to be protected when the vehicle collides, and particularly when the heavy object to be mounted is a power supply part, it is necessary to prevent damage to the power supply part at the time of the collision.
Therefore, when a heavy object is mounted on a vehicle, a protective frame structure for protecting the heavy object at the time of a vehicle collision is required.
On the other hand, if the protective frame structure is heavy, it becomes an obstacle to reduce the weight of the vehicle.
Patent Document 1 discloses a protective case for a vehicle battery using an aluminum extruded material, but simply welds each wall material and the like, and has a problem of lack of connection strength and reliability.

JP, 2008-285150, A

  An object of the present invention is to provide a protective frame structure that is lightweight and has excellent rigidity, which is used for mounting a heavy object on a vehicle.

The protective frame structure according to the present invention connects a pair of left and right side frames that are fixed to a vehicle floor panel, a front frame that connects between the vicinity of the front side end portions of the left and right side frames, and a portion between the vicinity of the rear side end portions. And a heavy frame to be mounted on the vehicle to a frame material composed of the left and right side frames, the front frame and the rear frame, and the side frame is made of an aluminum extruded material , It has a rising section having a hollow cross-sectional shape, and the rising section integrally forms a bracket section for fixing to the floor panel on the outside, and connects the front frame and the rear frame to the inside of the rising section. Yes integrally formed a fitting recess for, Saidofu of the left and right front frame and the opposite ends of the rear frame, respectively Characterized in that are linked by swallowed fitting recess formed in the over arm.
In this specification, the front side of the vehicle is referred to as the front side, and the width direction of the vehicle is expressed as the left-right direction.
Here, the floor panel of the vehicle refers to a bottom panel portion constituting the vehicle body, and the floor panel is attached to a side member that is a structural member of the vehicle.
The protective frame structure according to the present invention refers to a frame used for the purpose of fixing the heavy object to the vehicle and protecting it during a collision when the heavy object is mounted on the vehicle.
As an example of a heavy article, it has a weight of approximately 50 kg or more and needs to be fixed when mounted on a vehicle. For example, a battery in a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle can be given as a representative example.
It should be noted that the heavy objects according to the present invention do not include transported heavy objects such as loaded luggage.

In the present invention, the protective frame structure may be formed by integrally having a rising portion with the side frame rising upward, and connecting an upper member to the upper portion of the rising portion.
A heavy object is fixed to the side frame or the front and rear frames, but if the upper part between the side frames is connected so that the upper part of the heavy object is covered with the upper member, the protection against a vehicle collision is improved.
Therefore, the structure of the upper member is not particularly limited, and may be a panel member or a frame member that frames the frame.
In addition, when the side frame is made of aluminum extruded material, the degree of freedom of the cross-sectional shape is high, so not only the fitting recess for connecting the front and rear frames to the side frame, but also the upper side for connecting the vertical frame An opening fitting recess may be formed at the same time, and the lower end portion of the vertical frame may be inserted into the fitting recess and connected.
In that case, the upper part of the vertical frame may be connected by an upper member.

  The aluminum extruded material used in the present invention refers to a member obtained by processing an aluminum alloy by extrusion molding, and various alloys for extruded materials such as JIS 6000 series and 7000 series can be adopted as the aluminum alloy.

As a method for forming the fitting recess, it is possible to form the fitting recess between the opposing ribs by extending the two ribs facing each other from the base portion of the extruded material.
Further, the expression of the fitting recess means that the end of the front frame, the rear frame or the vertical frame can be fitted so as to be sandwiched between a pair of opposed ribs.
Further, the fixing method of the front frame, the rear frame, or the end portion of the vertical frame that is inserted into the fitting recess may be bolt fastening or welding joining.

In the protective frame structure according to the present invention, the pair of left and right side frames are fixed to the floor panel constituting the vehicle body, and both ends of the front frame and the rear frame are inserted into the fitting recesses formed in the side frame. When the heavy objects are fixed to this protective frame, the weight of the heavy objects will be supported by the vehicle side member via the floor panel, and the weight of the protective frame can be reduced. The connection strength of the connection portion is high, and the reliability of the connection strength is high compared to the conventional butt welding.
As a result, it is possible to achieve both weight reduction and rigidity ensuring of the protective frame structure, and it is possible to protect the vehicle-mounted object in the event of a vehicle collision.

The protection frame structure fixed to the floor panel of the vehicle is shown as a perspective view. 1 shows a first embodiment of a protective frame structure according to the present invention. The enlarged view of a connection part is shown. The example of a connection structure of the 2nd example is shown.

A structural example of the protective frame structure 10 (hereinafter simply referred to as a structure) according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which a protective frame structure 10 according to the present invention is fixed to a floor panel of a vehicle 1.
As shown in FIG. 2, the structure 10 includes a pair of left and right side frames 11R and 11L, a front frame 12 connecting the vicinity of the front end portion thereof, and a rear frame 13 connecting the vicinity of the rear end portion thereof. have.
The side frames 11R and 11L, the front frame 12, and the rear frame 13 are made of an aluminum extruded material.
In this embodiment, as the side frames 11R, 11L, in FIG. 2, an extruded material having a large vertical width is used, and the bracket portion 11a fixed to the floor panel 2, the end of the front frame 12, and the rear frame In this example, a rising space 14 is integrally formed from the fitting recess J that squeezes and connects the end portions of 13 and is mounted on the inner side of the left and right side frames.
In FIG. 2, the floor panel 2 is partially shown.

More specifically, the front frame 12 and the rear frame 13 and the side frames 11R and 11L are connected to each other by a fitting connection structure, and an enlarged view of the connecting portion between the front frame 12 and the side frame 11L is shown in FIG. .
The side frame 11L is an aluminum extruded material having a hollow cross-sectional shape in which the side walls 11e and 11f are connected to each other by ribs 11g in order to integrally form the rising portion 14, and in FIG. The flange portion 11a is formed on the outer side, and a pair of upper and lower connecting ribs 11c and 11d are extended on the inner side.
A fitting recess J is formed by the upper and lower opposing connecting ribs 11c and 11d, and the end 12a of the front frame 12 is squeezed into the fitting recess J.
The method for connecting the rib and the side wall of the front frame 12 may be bolt fastening or welding.
Since the opposite end portion of the front frame and both end portions of the rear frame 13 have the same structure, the description thereof is omitted.

The left and right side frames 11R and 11L are floor panels of the vehicle body as shown in FIG. 1, and can be fixed to both sides of the vehicle body in the width direction and in the vehicle front-rear direction.
The floor panel 2 is connected to a side member (not shown) of the vehicle.
A bracket portion 11a for fixing to the floor panel 2 is integrally formed on the side frames 11R and 11L by extrusion molding, and can be bolted on using the mounting holes 11b.
A heavy object such as a power source unit such as a secondary battery module is fixed to a frame material of the side frames 11R, 11L, the front frame 12, and the rear frame 13.
In the structure according to the present invention, the upper members 20 may be connected between the upper ends of the side frames 11R and 11L.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, an example in which a press-molded panel member is used as the upper member 20 is used, but a frame member may be framed.

By adopting such a structure 10, when a collision load is applied to a heavy object when the vehicle collides, the load is transmitted to the floor panel via the pair of left and right side frames 11R and 11L.
Further, since the corner connecting portions of the side frames 11R, 11L and the front frame 12 and the rear frame 13 have a fitting connection structure, the torsional rigidity is high, and not only the collision in the front-rear direction of the vehicle but also the side collision. Even protects the vehicle load.
As shown in FIG. 2, when the rising portion 14 is formed integrally with the side frames 11R and 11L, the protection effect against the side collision is further increased.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment as a frame connection structure.
The side frame 111L will be described as a representative example, but the connection parts of other frames are the same.
The bracket portion 111a is formed on the outer side from the side frame 111L, and the connecting ribs 111c and 111d are formed facing the inner side, and the connecting ribs 111e and 111f are arranged facing the upper side, and the connecting ribs 111e and 111f are formed. In this example, the lower end portion of the vertical frame 15 is inserted into a fitting recess formed between the two and the fitting recess.
Also in this case, the torsional rigidity is high because of the fitting connection.
In FIG. 4, the corner portion on the front side is partially shown, but a plurality of vertical frames 15 are arranged in the front-rear direction of the side frame 111L, and upper portions thereof are connected by an upper member.
The vertical frame 15 is made of an extruded material having a hollow cross section.
In the second embodiment, the vertical frame 15 is used instead of the rising portion 14 of the first embodiment, and it is easy to secure the rising height, and when the rising portion is high, the entire protective frame structure is lightweight. It is effective in achieving

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vehicle 2 Floor panel 10 Protection frame structure 11a Bracket part 11R, 11L Side frame 12 Front frame 13 Rear frame 14 Upright part 15 Vertical frame 20 Upper member 111L Side frame J Fitting recessed part

Claims (2)

A pair of left and right side frames fixed to the vehicle floor panel;
It has a front frame that connects the vicinity of the front end of the left and right side frames, and a rear frame that connects the vicinity of the rear end.
A heavy object mounted on a vehicle is fixed to a frame material composed of the left and right side frames, a front frame, and a rear frame.
The side frame is made of an aluminum extruded material, and has a rising portion having a hollow cross-sectional shape.
The rising portion is integrally formed with a bracket portion for fixing to the floor panel on the outside, and a fitting recess for connecting the front frame and the rear frame is integrally formed on the inside of the rising portion. A protective frame structure characterized in that both ends of the front frame and the rear frame are inserted into fitting recesses formed on the left and right side frames, respectively . 2. The protective frame structure according to claim 1, wherein an upper member is connected between upper portions of the left and right rising portions.

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