JP5911738B2 - Cowl louver - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cowl louver that is disposed between a windshield of a vehicle and an engine hood and closes between the two.

  The cowl louver is arranged between the windshield of the vehicle and the engine hood (bonnet) that covers the top of the engine room to define the engine room and the vehicle compartment, and to take outside air into the vehicle interior. It is arranged. As this type of cowl louver, for example, there is Patent Document 1 below.

  A cowl louver disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a concave frame-shaped cowl to which an air conditioner unit is connected, a louver that covers an upper surface of the cowl and has an outside air intake, and a cylindrical cowl duct disposed between the cowl and the louver. And is composed of. The cowl duct has an intake port that communicates with the outside air intake port of the louver and an exhaust port that faces the air intake port of the air conditioner unit. The outside air (air) taken into the cowl louver from the outside air inlet formed in the louver reaches the inlet of the cowl duct and flows in the cowl duct toward the outlet and the air inlet of the air conditioner unit facing it. It is introduced into the passenger compartment through the air conditioning unit.

JP-A-2006-205967

  By the way, the cowl louver also has a function to prevent the sound and heat generated by the engine rules from being directly transmitted to the vehicle interior. However, the cowl louver is affected by the heat generated in the engine room, so The air may be heated and the temperature may be higher than the outside air. In this case, there arises a problem that the vehicle interior is unnecessarily heated by the heated air in the cowl louver, or the air conditioning efficiency of the vehicle interior by the air conditioner unit is hindered.

  In general, the outside air inlet provided in the louver is formed wider in the vehicle width direction than the air inlet of the cowl duct. From the outside air inlet, not only the outside air but also moisture such as rain and snow and foreign matters (dust) such as dust, dust and gravel can enter. In this case, there is a possibility that the environment in the vehicle interior is deteriorated due to the introduction of moisture or foreign matter into the vehicle interior. In order to avoid this, it is conceivable to reduce the opening width of the outside air intake. However, if the opening width of the outside air intake is reduced, the outside air intake efficiency and the cooling effect of the cowl louver are lowered.

  Therefore, the present invention solves the above-described problem, and is a cowl in which air, moisture, foreign matter, and the like heated by heat from the engine room are suppressed from being introduced into the vehicle interior via the cowl duct. The purpose is to provide louvers.

  As means for that purpose, the present invention provides a concave frame-like cowl to which an air conditioner unit is connected, a louver that covers the upper surface of the cowl and has an outside air intake, an air inlet that communicates with the outside air intake of the louver, and the air conditioner And a cylindrical cowl duct disposed between the cowl and the louver. The cowl louver has both sides in the vehicle width direction of the intake port of the cowl duct. A shielding plate that closes a space between the cowl duct and the louver is arranged between the edge and the louver.

  According to this, the inside of the cowl louver is divided into the inner and outer regions of the cowl duct in the vehicle width direction by the shielding plate. Accordingly, moisture, foreign matter, or air heated in the region in the cowl duct in the outer region in the vehicle width direction is shielded by the shielding plate so that the inside of the cowl duct passes through the intake port. As a result, it can be prevented from being introduced into the passenger compartment.

  The shielding plate is preferably formed of a soft material. According to this, if the compressive load at the time of a vehicle collision acts, a shielding member can change easily. That is, it does not function as a stay that hinders the deformability of the cowl louver. Therefore, even if the shielding plate is provided, the cowl louver is denatured in the same manner as in the past in the event of a vehicle collision, so that it is possible to avoid a reduction in the protective action for passengers and pedestrians.

  The shielding plate is preferably directly formed on the cowl duct or the louver. Since the shielding plate is provided, the number of parts is increased as compared with the conventional cowl louver. However, if the shielding plate is directly formed on the cowl duct or the louver, the trouble of assembling the shielding plate can be saved.

  According to the cowl louver of the present invention, it is possible to suppress the introduction of air, moisture, foreign matter, and the like heated by heat from the engine room into the vehicle compartment via the cowl duct.

It is a perspective view of a vehicle front part. It is a disassembled perspective view of a cowl louver. It is sectional drawing of a cowl louver.

  Hereinafter, representative embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings as appropriate. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. is there. In particular, the specific shape of the cowl, louver, and cowl duct is not particularly limited as long as the shield plate is arranged between the both side edges of the cowl duct inlet in the vehicle width direction and the louver. It can be applied to all known cowl louvers. The cowl louver of the present invention can be applied to various automobiles such as ordinary automobiles, light automobiles, and large automobiles.

(Embodiment 1)
As shown in FIG. 1, the cowl louver 10 is arranged in the vehicle width direction so as to close a space between the lower end edge of the windshield 1 and the rear end edge of the engine hood 2. The cowl louver 10 covers a non-illustrated wiper motor and the like. An outside air intake port 11 composed of a plurality of slits is formed on the upper surface of the cowl louver 10, and the outside air is taken from the outside air intake port 11 and introduced into the vehicle interior. As shown in FIG. 2, the cowl louver 10 includes a concave frame-shaped cowl 12, a louver 13 that covers the upper surface of the cowl 12, and a cylindrical cowl duct 14 that is disposed between the cowl 12 and the louver 13. And the shielding plate 15.

  The louver 13 is an injection molded product made of synthetic resin, and is assembled above the cowl 12 to define the upper surface of the cowl louver 10, as shown in FIG. The louver 13 has an upper surface 13a that closes between the windshield 1 and the engine hood 2, a vertical wall portion 13b that continues downward from the front edge of the upper surface 13a, and a diagonally forward portion from the front edge of the vertical wall portion 13b. The slant wall portion 13c and the flange portion 13d provided at the front end edge of the slant wall portion 13c are integrally provided. An outside air intake 11 is formed on the upper surface 13a of the louver 13 so as to penetrate inside and outside. The rear end edge of the louver 13 (the rear end edge of the upper surface 13 a) is connected to the lower end edge of the windshield 1 through the molding 16. The front end edge portion of the louver 13 is connected to the rear end edge portion of the engine hood 2 via a seal member 17 made of an elastic body such as rubber provided on the flange portion 13d.

  The seal member 17 is a tube-shaped member disposed over both ends of the flange portion 13d in the width direction and is elastically deformed by being pressed by the engine hood 2. As a result, the sealing property (air tightness) between the cowl louver 10 and the engine hood 2 is ensured, and the intrusion of water from the cowl louver 10 side into the engine room and the sound and heat generated by the engine rules are transmitted to the vehicle compartment side It is prevented or suppressed. Further, since the air from the engine room can also be blocked by the seal member 17, only fresh outside air can be taken into the vehicle compartment from the outside air intake port 11. The louver 13 and the seal member 17 are formed with a plurality of clip holes (not shown) at predetermined intervals in the vehicle width direction, and the louver 13 and the seal member 17 are clipped in the clip holes.

  The cowl 12 is also an injection-molded product made of synthetic resin, and defines the front surface, the bottom surface, and the rear surface of the cowl louver 10 as a part of the body frame. A rear surface of the cowl 12 has a connection opening 12a to which an air intake port 30a of the air conditioner unit 30 is connected. The cowl 12 can be made of metal.

  The cowl duct 14 is also an injection-molded product made of synthetic resin, and has a hollow cylindrical shape when assembled in a state in which the upper frame and the lower frame of the substantially tray shape are in contact with each other. An intake port 14 a is formed on the front surface of the cowl duct 14, and an exhaust port 14 b is formed on the rear surface of the cowl duct 14. The cowl duct 14 is assembled and held in a state where a flange portion 14 c provided at the front end edge is sandwiched between the cowl 12 and the louver 13. A predetermined communication space is provided between the front surface of the cowl duct 14, the upper surface 13a of the louver 13 and the vertical wall portion 13b, and the outside air intake 11 and the intake port 14a communicate with each other through the communication space. The opening width of the outside air inlet 11 (slit formation region) is wider than the opening width of the intake port 14 a of the cowl duct 14. On the other hand, the exhaust port 14 b of the cowl duct 14 faces the air intake port 30 a of the air conditioner unit 30 through the connection opening 12 a of the cowl 12.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the shielding plate 15 is provided so as to shield the space in the cowl louver 10 in the vehicle width direction on both side edges in the vehicle width direction of the air inlet 14 a of the cowl duct 14. The shielding plate 15 is made of a soft material such as elastomer or rubber, and is directly formed on the cowl duct 14. As shown in FIG. 3, the shielding plate 15 is formed in a shape that just blocks the communication space between the outside air inlet 11 and the intake port 14 a.

  Next, the operation of the cowl louver 10 will be described. Outside air (air) taken in from the outside air intake 11 of the cowl louver 10 is introduced into the cowl duct 14 from the intake port 14a through the communication space, and further passes through the cowl duct 14 to pass through the exhaust port 14b and the air intake 30a. To the air conditioner unit 30 and finally blown into the vehicle compartment from the air outlet of the air conditioner unit 30 (not shown).

  Since the opening width of the outside air inlet 11 is wider than the intake port 14a, outside air is introduced into the cowl louver 10 even outside the cowl duct 14 in the vehicle width direction. At this time, moisture such as rain and snow, and foreign matters such as dust and gravel may also enter from the outside air inlet 11 together with outside air. Further, the heat from the engine room is basically blocked by the seal member 17, but the air in the cowl louver 10 may be heated by transferring heat through the louver 13. However, since the shielding plates 15 are arranged on both side edges of the air inlet 14 a, moisture, foreign matter, and heat from the outside of the cowl duct 14 in the vehicle width direction are shielded by the shielding plates 15. Thereby, it can suppress that the air heated through the cowl duct 14, the water | moisture content, and a foreign material are introduce | transduced into a vehicle interior.

(Embodiment 2)
The second embodiment is a modification of the first embodiment, and the basic configuration thereof is the same as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. Moreover, FIGS. 1-3 can also be seen as drawing which shows Embodiment 2. FIG. In addition, as a difference from the first embodiment, the shielding plate 15 is formed directly on the louver 13.

1 windshield 2 engine hood 10 cowl louver 11 outside air inlet 12 cowl 13 louver 14 cowl duct 14a air inlet 14b air outlet 15 shielding plate 17 seal member 30 air conditioner unit 30a air inlet

Claims (1)

A concave frame-shaped cowl to which the air conditioner unit is connected, a louver that covers the upper surface of the cowl and has an outside air intake, an air intake that communicates with the outside air intake of the louver, and an air outlet that faces the air intake of the air conditioner unit A cowl louver having a cylindrical cowl duct disposed between the cowl and the louver,
A shielding plate made of a soft material that closes a space between the cowl duct and the louver is disposed between both side edges in the vehicle width direction of the inlet of the cowl duct and the louver .
The said shielding board is a cowl louver arrange | positioned by carrying out the direct shaping | molding to the said cowl duct or the said louver.

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