JP6744068B2 - Vehicle structure - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle structure capable of improving pedestrian protection performance.

For example, as shown in FIG. 6, when the front part of the vehicle V collides with a pedestrian and the lower half of the pedestrian is wiped off by the front part of the vehicle V, the pedestrian can see the hood 19 on the front part of the vehicle V. Often there is a secondary collision that climbs up. At the time of this secondary collision, the pedestrian's body may collide with the front three-pronged portion 12 of the vehicle V. Here, the three-pronged portion 12 is a portion located at the upper end portion of the front pillar 11, and is an important portion for ensuring the strength of the roof portion 10 of the vehicle V and preventing the deformation of the passenger compartment. For this reason, it is customary that the three-pronged portion 12 has a sufficiently high rigidity, such as by using a reinforcement (not shown).
Therefore, at the time of the secondary collision, when the body of the pedestrian collides with the trifurcation 12, the injury value of the pedestrian is likely to be large. It is desired to eliminate such a problem appropriately.

Conventionally, as described in Patent Document 1, an airbag is disposed in a folded state below a lower end portion of a front pillar of a vehicle, and when a front portion of the vehicle collides with a pedestrian, There is a means for deploying the airbag along substantially the entire outer surface of the front pillar. However, according to such means, it is necessary to use a large size airbag, and the inflator for deploying the airbag also becomes large. Therefore, the size and weight of the entire airbag unit are increased, and the manufacturing cost is increased. Further, in Patent Document 1, since the inflator is set inside the cowl, the time required for the airbag to cover the trifurcation becomes long. If the size of the inflator is increased in order to prevent this, the size and weight of the entire inflator will be further increased. This cannot be properly applied to a small car from the viewpoint of layout and manufacturing cost.

JP, 7-108903, A

The present invention has been devised under the circumstances as described above, and it is assumed that the injury value increases due to a pedestrian colliding with the three-pronged portion in the front part of the vehicle during a secondary collision It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle structure that can be appropriately prevented by a simple and inexpensive means.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

The vehicle structure provided by the present invention is provided with an airbag unit which is arranged in the vicinity of the three-pronged portion of the upper end of the front pillar of the vehicle and which can deploy the airbag when the vehicle collides with a pedestrian. At the time of deployment of the airbag, the airbag has three surfaces: a top surface of a roof portion of the vehicle as a peripheral region of the trifurcated portion, a front surface of a windshield, and a vehicle side surface facing outward in a vehicle width direction. It is characterized in that each of them is provided with a surface facing or approaching each other so as to cover the three forks in a state of covering the three surfaces .

With such a configuration, the following effects can be obtained.
First, even if the pedestrian's body advances toward the trifurcation at the time of a secondary collision, the pedestrian's body is prevented from hitting the trifurcation directly by the airbag, and the pedestrian can be protected.
Secondly , when a pedestrian rushes into the airbag, the airbag is less likely to be unjustly displaced. As a result, the reliability of pedestrian protection using the airbag can be increased.
Thirdly, since the airbag unit is arranged in the vicinity of the three-forked portion, the airbag can be quickly deployed to the position of the three-forked portion even when a small inflator is used. Therefore, the inflator can be downsized, the size and weight of the entire airbag unit can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced, and the design for assembling the airbag unit to the vehicle can be facilitated. As a result, it is also suitable for small cars.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(A) is a principal part perspective view showing an example of a vehicle structure concerning the present invention, and (b) is a principal part perspective view showing an example of the operating state. It is the schematic which shows the relationship between the airbag and vehicle body in FIG.1(b), (a) is equivalent to IIa-IIa schematic sectional drawing of FIG.1(b), (b) is IIb-IIb schematic sectional drawing. And (c) corresponds to a schematic cross-sectional view of IIc-IIc. It is a schematic sectional drawing which shows the other example of the relationship between an airbag and a vehicle body. (A) is a principal part perspective view which shows the other example of this invention, (b) is IVb-IVb sectional drawing of (a). FIG. 5 is a main part perspective view showing an example of an operating state of the configuration shown in FIG. 4. It is a schematic perspective view which shows an example of a prior art.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
In the following description, the same or similar parts as those shown in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals.

The vehicle structure Aa shown in FIG. 1 includes a roof carrier 2 fixedly mounted on a roof portion 10 of a vehicle V, and an airbag unit U arranged inside a front portion of the roof carrier 2. There is.

The roof carrier 2 is attached using, for example, a Mohican groove 13 into which a molding 9 to be described later is fitted, and the leg portion 21 which is erected upward at a position near the outer edge of the roof portion 10 in the vehicle width direction, and the leg portion 21. A rod portion 23 supported by the portion 21 and extending in the vehicle front-rear direction is provided. A space 20 for accommodating the airbag unit U is formed inside the roof carrier 2 near the front end.

The airbag unit U is a combination of an airbag 3 and an inflator 4 that supplies inflation gas to the airbag 3. The airbag 3 is compactly folded and has legs 21 of the roof carrier 2. It is located inside. The front wall of the leg portion 21 is formed with a lid portion 22 for normally closing an opening that allows the airbag 3 to escape to the front of the leg portion 21 when the airbag 3 is inflated. The inflator 4 is arranged inside the rod portion 23 of the roof carrier 2, for example. The inflator 4 is configured to operate when a collision with a pedestrian is detected by a pedestrian collision detection sensor provided in the front bumper of the vehicle V or in the vicinity thereof.

When the airbag 3 is deployed, the airbag 3 is configured to cover the three-pronged portion 12 located at the upper end of the front pillar 11 of the vehicle V and its peripheral portion in a compact state. In the vicinity of the three-way portion 12 of the vehicle V, there are three surfaces extending in directions intersecting with each other, the upper surface S1 of the roof portion 10, the front surface S2 of the windshield, and the vehicle side surface S3 facing outward in the vehicle width direction. In the present embodiment, when the airbag 3 is deployed, a part of each of the three surfaces S1 to S3 is covered by the airbag 3. More preferably, the airbag 3 has a curved or curved surface in the airbag 3 in a structure that covers the upper surface S1 of the roof portion 10 and the front surface S2 of the windshield, as schematically shown in FIG. Is formed so that the airbag 3 is brought into contact with or close to these two surfaces. Similarly, in the structure that covers the upper surface S1 of the roof portion 10 and the vehicle side surface S3 shown in FIG. 7B and the structure that covers the front surface S2 of the windshield and the vehicle side surface S3 shown in FIG. The curved surface 3 is formed so as to come into contact with or come close to those surfaces.

FIG. 3 shows a structure in which the airbag 3 protrudes from the upper surface S1 of the roof portion 10 in a state where it is not bent or curved forward of the vehicle, and a part of the airbag 3 only covers the upper side of the front surface S2 of the windshield. No. 3 is in a state of being substantially parallel to the front surface S2 of the windshield and is not in close proximity to or in opposite contact . The present invention does not include such a configuration.

Next, the operation of the vehicle structure A described above will be described.

When the front part of the vehicle V collides with a pedestrian, the inflator 4 is actuated, and the airbag 3 thus deployed covers the three-pronged part 12 and its peripheral region as shown in FIG. 1B. .. Therefore, at the time of a secondary collision in which the pedestrian rides on the front hood of the vehicle V, it is possible to appropriately prevent the pedestrian's body from directly colliding with the highly rigid three-forked portion 12 and its peripheral region. .. The airbag unit U is disposed in the vicinity of the three-fork portion 12, and the airbag 3 can be quickly deployed to the three-fork portion 12. Therefore, even when the small inflator 4 is used, the deployment operation of the airbag 3 can be prevented from being delayed. Further, if the airbag unit U is near the three-forked portion 12, it is possible to reach the three-forked portion 12 while making the airbag 3 relatively small in size. Because of this, it is possible to reduce the size of the airbag unit U as a whole. Further, since the miniaturization can be achieved, the airbag unit U can be appropriately arranged in the roof carrier 2. By disposing the airbag unit U inside the roof carrier 2, there is no problem that the appearance of the vehicle V is deteriorated.

As described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2C, when the airbag 3 is deployed, it is in contact with the upper surface S1 of the roof portion 10, the front surface S2 of the windshield, and the vehicle side surface S3, respectively. Since they are covered in the state of being close to each other, this can prevent the airbag 3 from being largely displaced in various directions after the pedestrian enters. As a result, it is possible to further improve the pedestrian protection performance.
As a means for further enhancing such an effect, the outer surface of the airbag 3 is coated with a substance having a high friction coefficient such as rubber to make the airbag 3 less likely to slip on the outer surface of the vehicle V. It is also possible to employ means.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, elements that are the same as or similar to those in the above-described embodiment are assigned the same reference numerals as those in the above-described embodiment, and redundant description will be omitted.

In the vehicle structure Ab shown in FIG. 4, the airbag unit U is housed in the Mohican groove 13 formed in the roof portion 10 of the vehicle V. As shown in FIG. 2B, the Mohican groove 13 is an open-top groove formed at the joint J between the roof panel 14 and the side panel 15, and extends in the vehicle front-rear direction. At the bottom of the Mohican groove 13, a roof panel 14 and a side panel 15 are overlapped and welded by spot welding or the like. As shown in FIG. 4A, a molding 9 made of resin or the like is fitted into the mohican groove 13 and the appearance thereof is adjusted. However, in the present embodiment, a part of the mohican groove 13 is replaced with the molding 9. The airbag unit U is accommodated.
When the inflator 4 is actuated, the airbag unit U is deployed so as to cover the trifurcated portion 12 and its peripheral region as shown in FIG. Preferably, the configuration as described with reference to FIG. 2 is adopted when the airbag 3 is deployed.

In the present embodiment as well, the airbag 3 can be deployed from the position near the trifurcated portion 12 to the trifurcated portion 12 and the peripheral region thereof, so that the overall size of the airbag unit U can be suitably reduced. Is. Since the airbag unit U is arranged in the Mohican groove 13, there is no problem that the appearance of the vehicle V is deteriorated.

The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-mentioned embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the vehicle structure according to the present invention can be modified in various ways within the scope intended by the present invention.

When a part of the airbag 3 is opposed to the vehicle side surface S3, the size of this part can be increased to function as a curtain shield for protecting an occupant in a vehicle side collision.

The airbag unit U can be arranged inside the roof carrier 2 or at a position different from the Mohican groove 13. For example, an airbag unit is installed inside the vehicle V at the three-pronged portion 12 or a portion in the vicinity thereof, and when the airbag is deployed, the three-pronged portion or a portion in the vicinity thereof is pierced upward to protrude outside the vehicle. By doing so, the airbag can be configured to cover the three-pronged portion or its peripheral region.

Aa, Ab Vehicle structure U Airbag unit S1 Roof top surface S2 Windshield front surface S3 Vehicle side surface 11 Front pillar 12 Three-pronged portion 3 Airbag 4 Inflator

Claims (1)

The vehicle is provided with an airbag unit that is arranged near the upper fork of the front pillar of the vehicle and is capable of deploying the airbag when the vehicle collides with a pedestrian,
When the airbag is deployed, the airbag is provided on each of the three surfaces of the roof portion of the vehicle, which is a peripheral region of the three-forked portion, the front surface of the windshield, and the vehicle side surface facing outward in the vehicle width direction. A vehicle structure, characterized in that it is configured to form a surface facing or approaching each other, and covering the three forks in a state of covering the three surfaces .

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