JP6541176B2 - Vehicle secondary latch mechanism - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a secondary latch mechanism of a vehicle.

A vehicle provided with a hood that covers the front space of the vehicle in an openable / closable manner is provided with a secondary latch mechanism in addition to a primary latch mechanism that locks the hood in a fully closed state where the hood covers the front space.
The secondary latch mechanism prevents the hood from being fully opened when the hood is unlocked by the primary latch mechanism due to an erroneous operation in the vehicle compartment during high speed traveling.
As a secondary latch mechanism, a striker (hook) provided on the vehicle body side, a lock arm provided swingably on the hood and locking the striker to prevent the hood from fully opening, and provided swingably on the hood It is known to have a secondary lever for swinging the lock arm so that the hood can be fully opened (see Patent Document 1).
The secondary lever extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, and the operation end of the secondary lever is located near the front end of the hood.
When the lock of the hood by the primary latch mechanism is released by the operation in the vehicle compartment, the hood is half-opened, and in this half-open state, the operating end of the secondary lever is shaken from the gap formed between the front end of the hood and the vehicle body The movement operation makes it possible to fully open the hood.

Patent No. 5136702

By the way, it is necessary to secure a large deformation stroke of the front end of the hood from the viewpoint of suppressing an obstacle value when a collision body (impactor) collides with the hood from the front of the vehicle.
In the above-mentioned prior art, the secondary lever is provided so as to be engageable with and disengageable from the support shaft.
As a result, when a stress from the front acts on the secondary lever at the time of a collision, the deformation stroke of the front end portion of the hood is secured by the secondary lever dropping off from the support shaft.
However, in the above-mentioned prior art, the secondary lever and the lock arm are connected by a pin, and the secondary lever and the lock arm are supported by a common support shaft.
Therefore, at the time of the front collision, the displacement of the secondary lever along the moving direction of the collision body may be restrained by the lock arm, and the rearward displacement of the secondary lever may be inhibited.
Therefore, the deformation of the front end portion of the hood is suppressed, and there is a limit in securing the deformation stroke of the front end portion of the hood, and there is room for improvement in reducing the failure value.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a secondary latch mechanism of a vehicle that is advantageous in reducing a fault value at the time of a collision.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is a secondary latch of a vehicle provided with a striker provided on one of a vehicle body or a hood, and a lock arm and a secondary lever provided on the other of the vehicle body or the hood. The lock arm is a mechanism that can be locked to the striker and prevents the hood from being fully opened by locking to the striker, and a retraction where the lock arm is released from the striker and enables the hood to be fully opened. The secondary lever is swingably provided via an arm coupling portion between the positions, and the secondary lever forms a locking position lockable to the lock arm located at the half open forming position; via the lever coupling portion in a state locked to the locking arm between the position of the lock release position for swinging said retracted position Together provided rotatably so, the engagement from locking position via the lever coupling portion in a direction opposite to the unlocked position is provided away from said locking arm and swings, the lever coupling portion and the arm coupling portion When the external force acts on the secondary lever so as to swing the secondary lever from the locking position in a direction opposite to the unlocking position, And the lever coupling portion is provided with a coupling release portion that is disengaged from the lever coupling portion.
The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that when the secondary lever is swung from the locking position of the secondary lever in the direction opposite to the unlocking position to the vehicle body or the hood, the secondary lever abuts against the secondary lever and swings. And a stopper that makes it impossible to
In the invention according to claim 3, the lever coupling portion is configured to include a support shaft provided on the other, and the secondary lever has a bearing hole connected to the support shaft, and the bearing hole is formed in the bearing hole. When an external force acts on the secondary lever in a direction in which the secondary lever is swung from the locking position in a direction opposite to the unlocking position, there is provided a notch from which connection with the support shaft is released. And the said missing part.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when an external force acts on the secondary lever in the direction of swinging in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, the secondary lever and the lever joint portion are disconnected, and the secondary lever is locked. Remove from the arm.
Therefore, when the collision body collides with the hood from the front of the vehicle and the front end of the hood is displaced backward along the collision direction of the collision body, the secondary lever is locked without being restrained by the lock arm. The arm can be smoothly moved along the moving direction of the collision body while being separated from the arm.
In addition, since the arm joint portion and the lever joint portion are separated in the vehicle width direction, the secondary lever and the lock arm may be arranged so that the area of the overlapping portion of the secondary lever and the lock arm is minimized. it can.
Therefore, it is advantageous in securing the deformation stroke of the hood at the time of the front collision, and advantageous in reducing the failure value.
According to the second aspect of the invention, the secondary lever is provided with a stopper that disables the secondary lever from pivoting when the secondary lever pivots from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position. Is advantageous in securing the deformation stroke of the hood at the time of the front collision, and in reducing the failure value.
According to the invention of claim 3, the lever connecting portion is configured to include the support shaft, the secondary lever has the bearing hole connected to the support shaft, and the notch portion forming the connection release portion in the bearing hole is Since it is provided, the secondary lever can be easily manufactured, which is advantageous in that the secondary lever can be repeatedly used even when the support shaft and the bearing portion are separated.

It is a side sectional view showing the composition of the secondary latch mechanism of the vehicles concerning an embodiment. It is an A arrow line view of FIG. FIG. 2B is a view as viewed from the arrow B of FIG. 1, in which (A) shows a state in which the secondary lever is at the locking position and the lock arm is at the half open forming position in the fully closed state of the hood; The figure shows a state in which the secondary lever is located at the locking position and the lock arm is located at the half-open forming position in the half-opened state of 1; (C) is a situation where the secondary lever is positioned at the unlocked position with the hood half-opened It is a figure which shows the state located in the position. It is a perspective view which shows operation | movement of the secondary latch mechanism of the vehicle which concerns on embodiment, (A) is a figure which shows the state which the secondary lever was located in the latching position, and the lock arm was located in the half open formation position, (B). It is a figure which shows the state which the secondary lever was located in the lock release position, and the lock arm was located in the retracted position. It is a perspective view which shows operation | movement of the secondary latch mechanism of the vehicle which concerns on embodiment, (A) is rock | fluctuated in the opposite direction to a lock release position from the latching position by an external force, and the axis of the secondary lever is a stopper of a bracket. FIG. 6B is a view showing a state in which the secondary lever abuts on the secondary lever and the connection between the secondary lever and the second spindle is released. It is a perspective view of a secondary lever.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1 to FIG. 5, the symbol FR denotes the front of the vehicle, the symbol RR denotes the rear of the vehicle, the symbol UP denotes the upper direction of the vehicle, the symbol DOWN denotes the lower direction of the vehicle, and the symbol HL denotes the vehicle width direction.
As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle 10 has a front space 12 partitioned by a dash panel in front of a cabin.
When the vehicle 10 is an electric vehicle, an inverter is disposed in the front space 12, and when the vehicle 10 uses an internal combustion engine as a drive source, a radiator and an engine are disposed.
The front space 12 is covered by a front-opening type hood 14, and the hood 14 is attached at its rear end to the vehicle body side so as to be able to open and close via a hinge (not shown).
The hood 14 includes a hood outer panel 1402 that forms the outer surface of the vehicle body and a hood inner panel 1404 that forms the surface on the front space 12 side.
A reinforcement reinforcement 16 is attached to the inside of the hood outer panel 1402.
A front grille 18 extending in the vehicle width direction is located at the front of the front space 12 and the front end 14A of the hood 14 and the upper surface 18A of the front grille 18 seal the seal member 20 when the hood 14 is fully closed. It is superimposed through.

As shown in FIG. 2, the vehicle 10 is provided with a primary latch mechanism 22 and a secondary latch mechanism 24 according to the present invention.
The primary latch mechanism 22 and the secondary latch mechanism 24 are arranged side by side in the vehicle width direction at the front of the front space 12. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 14B indicates the front end of the hood.
The primary latch mechanism 22 includes a striker 26 and a lock arm (not shown).
The striker 26 is attached to the hood inner panel 1404.
The lock arm is attached to the vehicle body.
The lock arm is provided swingably between a lock position where the hood 14 is locked in a fully closed state where the hood 14 covers the front space 12 by engaging the striker 26 and a release position where the lock is released. It is done.
The lock arm is swung from the lock position to the release position by the operation from the vehicle compartment, the lock arm is swung to the release position, and the hood 14 can be fully opened by operating the secondary lever 32 described later.
Note that various configurations conventionally known can be adopted as such a primary latch mechanism 22.

The secondary latch mechanism 24 prevents the hood 14 from being fully opened when the lock arm of the primary latch mechanism 22 is swung from the lock position to the release position due to an erroneous operation from the vehicle compartment during high-speed travel.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5, the secondary latch mechanism 24 includes a striker 28, a lock arm 30, and a secondary lever 32.
The striker 28 is attached to the vehicle body via a bracket 34.
The lock arm 30 and the secondary lever 32 are disposed via a bracket 36 attached to the hood inner panel 1404.

The lock arm 30 is swingably provided via a first support shaft 38 attached to the bracket 36. The first support shaft 38 extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 10.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, since the first support shaft 38 constitutes the arm coupling portion 38A of the lock arm 30, and the first support shaft 38 is provided via the bracket 36, arm connection is performed. The portion 38A is provided to the hood 14.
As shown in FIG. 3 (C), the lock arm 30 can be locked to the striker 28 and is locked to the striker 28 to prevent the hood 14 from fully opening as shown in FIG. 3 (B). It is swingably provided between the striker 28 and a retracted position which enables the hood 14 to be fully opened.

More specifically, FIG. 3A shows the relationship between the striker 28 of the secondary latch mechanism and the lock arm 30 when the hood 14 is in the fully closed state.
In the fully closed state of the hood 14, when the lock arm of the primary latch mechanism 22 is swung from the lock position to the release position by an operation from the vehicle interior, the striker 26 of the primary latch mechanism 22 is operated by the lock arm of the primary latch mechanism 22. A first half open state of the hood 14 which can be pushed up and into which the finger can be inserted below the front end of the hood 14 is formed.
FIG. 3B shows the relationship between the striker 28 of the secondary latch mechanism and the lock arm 30 in the first half open state of the hood 14.
In the first half open state, the lock arm 30 is located at a half open forming position that can be locked to the striker 28 and is locked to the striker 28 to thereby prevent the hood 14 from being fully opened.
That is, when the lock arm of the primary latch mechanism 22 is swung from the lock position to the release position due to an erroneous operation from the vehicle compartment during high speed traveling, the lock arm 30 positioned at the half open forming position shown in FIG. 28 is locked, and the hood 14 is in a second half-opened state which is more open than the first half-opened state, and the hood 14 is prevented from being fully opened.
When the secondary lever 32 is operated below the front end of the hood 14 in the first half-opened state, the lock arm 30 is disengaged from the striker 28 as shown in FIG. Swing to

The secondary lever 32 is swingably provided via a second support shaft 40 attached to a pair of support pieces 3602 of the bracket 36.
Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the first support shaft 38 and the second support shaft 40 are disposed apart in the vehicle width direction when viewed from the front of the vehicle 10. In the present embodiment, the second support shaft 40 extends in the vehicle width direction, and when viewed in plan, the first support shaft 38 and the second support shaft 40 are orthogonal to each other.
Therefore, at the time of front collision, the secondary lever 32 is advantageous in moving smoothly along the moving direction of the collision body 2 in a state of being separated from the lock arm 30 securely.
In addition, it is advantageous in minimizing the area of the overlapping portion of the secondary lever 32 and the lock arm 30 when viewed from the front of the vehicle 10, and in a state in which the secondary lever 32 is separated from the lock arm 30 reliably. It is advantageous to move smoothly along the moving direction.
As shown in FIG. 4A, the secondary lever 32 has a locking position where it can be locked to the lock arm 30 located in the half open forming position, and as shown in FIG. 4B, the lock arm 30 is half open formed. It is provided so as to be pivotable between a position where it is pivoted to a retracted position and a lock release position.
That is, when the secondary lever 32 is operated below the front end of the hood 14 and the secondary lever 32 is swung from the locking position shown by symbol (A) in FIG. 1 to the unlocking position shown by symbol (B) in FIG. The lock arm 30 swings from the half open position to the retracted position as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, and the hood 14 is fully openable. Here, by lifting the front of the hood 14, the hood 14 is fully opened.

Next, the lock arm 30 and the secondary lever 32 will be described in detail.
As shown in FIG. 4A, the secondary lever 32 extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 10, and the bearing portion 33 (see FIG. 6) of the intermediate portion in the longitudinal direction of the secondary lever 32 and the second support shaft 40 Are rotatably coupled.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, since the second support shaft 40 constitutes the lever connection portion 40A of the secondary lever 32, and the second support shaft 40 is provided via the bracket 36, the lever connection is achieved. The portion 40A is provided to the hood 14.
As shown in FIG. 6, the bearing portion 33 is configured by bearing holes 3302 inside of a plurality of annular shaped portions arranged at intervals in the width direction of the secondary lever 32.
The bearing hole 3302 is provided with a notch 3304 that disengages from the second support shaft 40 when an external force is applied to the secondary lever 32 in a direction in which it is swung from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position. It is done.
Therefore, in the present embodiment, when external force is applied in a direction to swing secondary lever 32 from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, the coupling between secondary lever 32 and lever coupling portion 40A is disengaged. The release unit 3304A is configured of a notch 3304.

When the hood 14 is fully opened, a portion located at one side of the bearing portion 33 in the longitudinal direction of the secondary lever 32, that is, a portion located ahead of the bearing portion 33 in the vehicle 10, swings below the hood 14 It is formed as an operated part 3202.
An end portion of the secondary lever 32 in the longitudinal direction located on the other side of the bearing portion 33, that is, an end portion of the portion located rearward of the bearing portion 33 in the vehicle 10 is formed as a locking portion 3204 that locks onto the lock arm 30. ing.
In the present embodiment, the locking position of the secondary lever 32 is a position where the locking portion 3204 locks to the lock arm 30, and the secondary lever spring 42 urging the secondary lever 32 to the locking position is the second position. Are mounted on the support shaft 40 (see FIG. 4 (B)).
Further, a shaft 3220 projecting in the vehicle width direction is provided at a position located in front of the second support shaft 40 in the vehicle 10. The shaft 3220 abuts against the stopper 3620 of the bracket 36 when it is swung from the locking position of the secondary lever 32 in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. The rocking of the secondary lever 32 is disabled, and the bearing hole 3302 and the second support shaft 40 are smoothly disengaged through the notch 3304.

As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the lock arm 30 is supported at its longitudinal middle portion by a first pivot 38. More specifically, it has a portion 30A extending in the vertical direction and a portion 30B extending in the vehicle width direction from the top of the portion extending in the vertical direction, the portion 30A extending in the vertical direction and the vehicle width A portion of the boundary with the direction extending portion 30 B is supported by the first support shaft 38.
As shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, a stroke groove 30C extending vertically is formed at the top of the vertically extending portion 30A, and the stroke groove 30C projects from the bracket 36. The projection 3604 is inserted.
As shown in FIG. 3B, in a state where the projection 3604 is locked to the upper end of the stroke groove 30C, the lock arm 30 is in the half open position, and as shown in FIG. 3C, the projection 3604 is a stroke groove. The lock arm 30 is in the retracted position in a state where it is locked to the lower end of 30C.
Further, as shown in FIG. 4A, a lock arm spring 44 is provided between the lock arm 30 and the bracket 36 to urge the lock arm 30 to the half open position.

As shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, at the end of the portion 30B of the lock arm 30 extending in the vehicle width direction, a long groove 30D extending in the vertical direction is formed.
The extending direction of the long groove 30D is the direction in which the locking portion 3204 of the secondary lever 32 swings, and the locking portion 3204 is locked at the position of the lock arm 30 located at the lower end in the extending direction of the long groove 30D. To be engaged portion 30E.
FIG. 4A shows a state in which the lock arm 30 is located at the half open forming position and the secondary lever 32 is located at the locking position, and FIG. 4B shows the lock arm 30 located at the retracted position. , And the long groove 30D, as shown in FIGS. 4 (A) and 5 (A), shows a state in which the secondary lever 32 is at the locking position opposite to the locking release position as shown in FIGS. 4 (A) and 5 (A). When an external force acts in the direction of swinging in the direction, the secondary lever 32 is formed as an allowance portion for allowing movement in the opposite direction.
The tolerance portion may be formed by an open space above the lock portion 3204 extending in the direction away from the locked portion 30E in the locking position, although various modes are conceivable, but the tolerance portion Forming the long groove 30D into which the secondary lever 32 is inserted as in the embodiment is advantageous in simplifying the assembly of the secondary lever 32 and the lock arm 30.
Therefore, when the secondary lever 32 swings from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, the locking portion 3204 is separated from the locked portion 30E, and the secondary lever 32 is separated from the locking arm 30. There is.

Next, functions and effects will be described.
The collision body 2 collides with the hood 14 from the front of the vehicle 10, the front end 14A of the hood 14 is displaced rearward along the collision direction of the collision body 2, and the front end 14A of the hood 14 engages with the secondary lever 32. An external force is applied to swing from the stop position in the direction opposite to the lock release position.
By this external force, as shown in FIG. 5A, the secondary lever 32 pivots from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, and the locking portion 3204 separates from the locked portion 30E, and the shaft 3220 is It abuts on the stopper 3220.
When the shaft 3220 abuts against the stopper 3220, the secondary lever 32 is in a non-pivotable state, and as shown in FIG. 5 (B) and as shown by a symbol (C) in FIG. The hole 3302 and the second support shaft 40 are disengaged, and the secondary lever 32 is displaced rearward along the collision direction of the collision body 2.

In this embodiment, the secondary lever 32 is provided so as to be separated from the lock arm 30 when it pivots from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, and the first pivot 38 and the second pivot 40 are provided. Are separated in the vehicle width direction, and the bearing portion 33 is provided with a notch 3304.
Therefore, when the collision body 2 (impactor) collides with the hood 14 from the front of the vehicle 10 and the front end portion 14A of the hood 14 is displaced rearward along the collision direction of the collision body 2, as shown in FIG. ), The secondary lever 32 is disengaged from the second support shaft 40, and the secondary lever 32 is in collision with the lock arm 30 without being restrained by the lock arm 30. It can move smoothly along the moving direction of 2.
Therefore, it is advantageous in securing the deformation stroke of the hood 14 at the time of frontal collision, and advantageous in reducing the failure value.
Further, since the first support shaft 38 and the second support shaft 40 are separated in the vehicle width direction, the area of the overlapping portion of the secondary lever 32 and the lock arm 30 is minimized so as to minimize the area. The lock arm 30 can be disposed, which is advantageous in securing the deformation stroke of the hood 14 at the time of the front collision, and advantageous in reducing the failure value.

  Further, when the secondary lever 32 swings in the direction opposite to the unlocking position from the locking position, the secondary lever 32 is not provided with the stopper 3620 so that the stopper 3620 is not provided. In comparison, the bearing hole 3302 and the second support shaft 40 smoothly separate from each other through the recess 3304, which is advantageous in securing the deformation stroke of the hood 14 at the time of the frontal collision, and is advantageous in reducing the failure value. It becomes.

In the present embodiment, the case where the coupling release portion for disengaging the connection between the secondary lever 32 and the lever coupling portion 40A is configured by the notch 3304 has been described, but the configuration of the coupling release portion is variously known in the prior art. Structure can be adopted. For example, the second support shaft 40 is broken so that the second support shaft 40 is broken when an external force acts in a direction to swing the secondary lever 32 from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position. Alternatively, the bearing release portion of the secondary lever 32 may be formed when an external force acts on the secondary lever 32 in a direction in which the secondary lever 32 is swung from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position. It may be configured to break. However, the configuration as in the embodiment is advantageous in that it can be easily manufactured and can be repeatedly used even when the second support shaft 40 and the bearing portion are separated.
Further, since the first support shaft 38 and the second support shaft 40 are formed of different members, the secondary lever 32 is compared to the case where the lock arm 30 and the secondary lever 32 are supported by a common support shaft. The positional relationship between the lock arm 30 and the lock arm 30 is not restricted, which is advantageous in securing the freedom of the layout of the secondary latch mechanism 24.
Further, in the present embodiment, the lock arm spring 44 and the secondary lever spring 42 are separately provided, and the secondary lever spring 42 biases the secondary lever 32 to the locking position. When swinging 32 from the locking position to the unlocking position, the force required to operate the secondary lever 32 is a force obtained by subtracting the biasing force of the secondary lever spring 42 from the biasing force of the locking arm spring 44. This is advantageous in improving the operability of the secondary lever 32 because it does not require a force that exceeds the biasing force of the lock arm spring 44.

Reference Signs List 2 collision body 10 vehicle 12 front space 14 hood 22 primary latch mechanism 24 secondary latch mechanism 28 striker 30 lock arm 30D long groove
30E Locked part 32 Secondary lever 3202 Operated part 3204 Locked part 33 Bearing part 3302 Bearing hole 3304 Missing part 3620 Stopper 38 1st spindle 38A Arm coupling part 40 2nd spindle 40A Lever coupling part 42 Secondary lever Spring 44 Lock arm spring

Claims (3)

A secondary latch mechanism of a vehicle comprising a striker provided on one of a vehicle body or a hood and a lock arm and a secondary lever provided on the other of the vehicle body or the hood,
The lock arm is between a half open position where it can be locked to the striker and prevents full opening of the hood by locking to the striker, and a retracted position where it can be released from the striker and allows the hood to open fully. It is swingably provided via an arm joint ,
The secondary lever is locked between a locking position capable of locking to the lock arm located at the half-opened forming position and a lock releasing position for swinging the lock arm from the half-opened position to the retracted position. It is provided swingably via a lever connection portion in a state of being locked to the arm, and is separated from the lock arm when swinging from the lock position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position via the lever connection portion Provided as
The arm coupling portion and the lever coupling portion are disposed apart in the vehicle width direction,
When an external force acts on the secondary lever in a direction to swing the secondary lever from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position, the secondary lever and the lever coupling portion are disconnected. Department is provided,
A secondary latch mechanism of a vehicle characterized by The vehicle body or the hood is provided with a stopper that abuts against the secondary lever when the secondary lever is swung in the direction opposite to the unlocking position from the locking position of the secondary lever to disable the swing of the secondary lever. ing,
The secondary latch mechanism of a vehicle according to claim 1, characterized in that: The lever coupling portion is configured to include a pivot provided on the other,
The secondary lever has a bearing hole coupled to the support shaft,
The bearing hole is provided with a notch from which connection with the support shaft is released when an external force is applied to the secondary lever in a direction in which the secondary lever is swung from the locking position in the direction opposite to the unlocking position.
The coupling release unit is configured by the recess.
The vehicle secondary latch mechanism according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that:

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