JPH09132089A - Seal member installing structure of cowl top cover - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To install a seal member in a cowl top cover easily and rigidly without increasing the number of installing part items. SOLUTION: In a seal member 14, a seal part 15 which consists of a soft material, and an installing part 16 which consists of a hard material, are composed integrally, and the seal part 16 is formed in the C-shape section along the full length of the seal part 14. The seal part 14 is fitted and locked to a locking part 11a formed at the front end edge of a cowl top cover 11 at the installing part 16. That is, since the seal part 14 and the cowl top cover 11 are both of the fitting structures of hard material, they are not removed easily at the installing position, so as to form a rigid installing structure.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mounting structure of a seal member which is fixed to a vehicle body panel of an automobile and seals between a front windshield and an engine hood (bonnet). The present invention relates to a seal member mounting structure that is mounted along an edge (front edge).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A cowl top cover is equipped with a seal between a lower edge of a front windshield and an engine hood, and has a through hole through which a rotary shaft of a wind wiper is inserted, as shown in FIG. At the same time, it has a slit for ventilation and a drainage guide shape. The cowl top cover is fixed to the vehicle body panel at its front end (lower part in FIG. 1). The front end edge of the cowl top cover is formed in conformity with the shape of the vehicle body panel, and the rear end edge (upper edge in FIG. 1) is formed in a gentle curve in conformity with the shape of the lower end edge of the front windshield. .

The upper surface of the front end edge of the cowl top cover,
That is, a sealing member made of a soft material is attached to the sealing surface of the engine hood over substantially the entire length,
The cowl top cover made of a hard material prevents damage to the engine hood by directly contacting the engine hood, and naturally prevents water droplets from entering the engine room. The mounting structure of this seal member is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-90800. The seal member is a tubular body having a substantially triangular cross section, and a mounting hole is formed on one wall surface of the seal member. Mounting holes are respectively formed in the lower surface of the engine hood and the insulator, and the seal member is mounted on the lower surface of the engine hood and the insulator. Further, in the same publication, mounting holes are also formed in the vehicle body panel and the cowl top cover, respectively, as prior art, and the corresponding mounting holes of the seal member are aligned with the mounting holes of the vehicle body panel and the cowl top cover, A mounting structure in which a clip or the like is pushed into the mounting holes from the inside of the seal member and the seal member is mounted on the vehicle body panel and the cowl top cover is introduced.

According to the above-mentioned mounting structure, the seal member is provided with both the engine hood and the insulator.
Alternatively, both the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel are attached by fixing components such as clips. Therefore, the mounting of the seal member and the mounting of the vehicle body panel and the cowl top cover, the engine hood, and the insulator are not separately performed, and the vehicle body panel and the cowl top cover and the like are fixed and the sealing member is fixed by a common fixing component. The number of fixed parts such as a clip, a clip, etc. can be reduced, and the number of working steps is reduced.

However, in the above-described mounting structure, the plurality of mounting holes formed in the different types of different members must be aligned with each other, and the work efficiency is reduced. Further, although the clip is pushed into the mounting hole from the inside of the seal member to be mounted, the cross-sectional area of the substantially cylindrical seal member is small, and it is difficult to position the fixed component inside the seal member.

[0006] On the other hand, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-127837
The publication discloses a seal member mounting structure that is easy to mount and has good work efficiency. According to this mounting structure, the seal member is entirely made of a soft material, and has a substantially cylindrical seal portion and a fitting portion and a sandwiching portion extending from the seal portion. On the other hand, the cowl top cover has a front end edge formed with an engagement recess into which the fitting portion of the seal member is fitted and locked. The fitting portion of the seal member is fitted and locked in the engaging recess of the cowl top cover, and the sandwiching portion is inserted between the bottom surface of the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel.

[0007]

However, even though the sealing member disclosed in the above publication is made of a soft synthetic resin material, one cowl top cover is made of a hard synthetic resin, Due to the deformation of the seal member due to the opening and closing of the engine hood, the fitting portion of the seal member easily comes off from the engaging recess of the cowl top cover.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a mounting structure capable of easily and firmly mounting a seal member to a cowl top cover without increasing the number of mounting parts.

[0009]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a seal member mounting structure for sealing between an upper surface of a cowl top cover and a lower surface of a hood.
The seal member is composed of a seal portion made of a soft material and an attachment portion made of a hard material, which are integrated over the entire length, and the attachment portion has an engaging means for a counterpart member. The main structure is the mounting structure of the members. In this mounting structure, since the mounting portion of the seal member is made of a hard material, it does not easily come off at its mounting portion to the cowl top cover, and can be firmly mounted to the cowl top cover.

Further, the engaging means is an engaging groove having a substantially C-shaped cross section formed over the entire length of the mounting portion, the counterpart member is a cowl top cover, and the engaging member is provided over the entire length of the front edge thereof. It has a locking portion which is fitted and locked in the locking groove. In this case, the attachment of the seal member to the cowl top cover is performed by arranging the engaging portion of the cowl top cover in parallel with the engaging groove of the seal member having a substantially C-shaped cross-section. The work is easy because you only have to push the into the engaging groove to attach it. Moreover, since the seal member is continuously attached over the entire length thereof, the seal member is firmly attached.

In another preferred aspect, the engaging means is a plurality of locking pieces projecting on the lower surface of the mounting portion of the seal member, and the mating member is a cowl top cover and / or a vehicle body panel. On the other hand, it has fixing holes to which the locking pieces engage in a plurality of portions of the counterpart member corresponding to the protruding positions of the locking pieces. In this case, the seal member may be attached to the cowl top cover by pressing the locking piece of the seal member into the fixing hole of the cowl top cover and / or the vehicle body panel from above, which facilitates the attachment work. Done. Further, in this mounting structure, it is possible to use the existing fixing holes formed in the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel, and in this case, the cowl top cover is also fixed to the vehicle body panel at the same time. It is possible to reduce the number of processes and reduce costs.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Representative embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a cowl top cover 1 which is an embodiment provided with a mounting structure of the present invention.

The cowl top cover 1 has a main body 11 which is molded from a hard thermoplastic resin such as ABS resin or modified PPO by an injection molding method and has a through hole through which a rotary shaft of a wind wiper is inserted and which is used for ventilation. It has an external shape suitable for slits and drainage guides. The cowl top cover main body 11 has its rear (upper side in FIG. 1) edge formed in a gentle curve in conformity with the shape of the lower edge of the front windshield, and the rear edge is made of a soft synthetic resin. End rubber 12 is attached. The front of the cowl top cover body 11 (see FIG.
The (lower side) edge is formed in conformity with the shape of the vehicle body panel, and a seal member 14 formed separately is attached over substantially the entire length thereof.

Hereinafter, in the mounting structure of the present invention, the seal member 14 when the counterpart member is the cowl top cover.
The attachment structure of the cowl top cover main body 11 will be mainly described. 2 and 3 show a mounting structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The cowl top cover body 11, which is a counterpart member, includes a front flat surface portion 11d, a rear flat surface portion 11e, and a connecting portion 11f, and the rear edge (the right edge in FIG. 2) of the front flat surface portion 11d and the front edge of the rear flat surface portion 11e ( The left edge of FIG. 2) is connected in a step-like manner via the connecting portion 11f, and a weir portion 11b that extends substantially vertically upward is provided upright along the bent edge of the rear flat surface portion 11e and the connecting portion 11f. Has been done. A plurality of screw holes 11c for the vehicle body panel 3 are formed at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction of the front flat surface portion 11d, and the front end portion of the screw hole 11c has a locking portion 11a on its lower surface. It is formed in the shape of (jimbo).

The seal member 14 has a long pipe shape composed of a seal portion 15 made of a soft material and a mounting portion 16 made of a hard material. Examples of the soft material include vinyl chloride and various elastomer resins. Using a thermoplastic resin such as, synthetic resin foam, natural rubber, etc., as the hard material,
For example, a hard thermoplastic resin such as polypropylene or polyamide is used. The seal portion 15 and the mounting portion 16 are integrally extruded through a single extrusion port. The mounting portion 16 has an engaging groove 16 'having a substantially C-shaped cross section, an upper opening piece 16a thereof is formed in a flat plate shape, and a lower opening piece 16b thereof protrudes into the engaging groove 16'. It has a hook-shaped engaging piece 16b '. The cross section of the sealing portion 15 is formed of a substantially triangular tubular body in which a part of the bottom surface 15a is cut out in the length direction, and the upper opening piece 16a of the mounting portion 16 is formed in the cutout portion. The cross section of the seal part is integrated into a completely triangular shape.

In this embodiment, in order to attach the seal member 14 to the cowl top cover body 11, as shown in FIG. 3, the engaging portion 11a of the cowl top cover 11 is engaged with the engaging groove 16 'of the seal member 14. With the end edges of the locking portions 11a arranged in parallel, the entire length of the locking portion 11a is pushed in the direction of the arrow B toward the locking groove 16 'to lock the hook-shaped locking piece 16b' of the lower opening piece 16b. It is fitted and locked to the portion 11a and fixedly attached. In this mounting work, it is not necessary to perform a fine positioning work such as aligning a plurality of corresponding holes formed in the seal member, the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel as in the past, so the mounting work is easy and Efficiency is also high. Further, since the mounting portion 16 of the seal member 14 is made of a hard material, it is not easily deformed and can be firmly and long-term mounted without being locally separated from the cowl top cover 11. Further, in the mounting portion 16, the engagement groove 1 extending over the entire length of the seal member 14 is provided.
Since 6'is formed, the seal member 14 is continuously fitted and fixed over the entire length of the cowl top cover main body 11, thereby enabling more firm attachment.

A screw hole (not shown) is formed in a portion of the vehicle body panel 3 corresponding to the screw hole 11c formed in the cowl top cover body 11. The cowl top cover body 1 to which the seal member 14 is attached as described above.
As shown in FIG. 2, 1 is arranged between the inner panel 2a of the engine hood 2 and the vehicle body panel 3, and both are fixed by fixing means such as a screw through the screw hole.

In this mounted state, the lower opening piece 16b formed in the mounting portion 16 of the seal member 14 is sandwiched between the cowl top cover body 11 and the vehicle body panel 3. Therefore, the cowl top cover body 11 of the seal member 14
The attachment to the will be more robust. In addition, the seal portion 15 of the seal member 14 elastically deforms and abuts the inner panel 2a of the engine hood 2 at its apex, and the vehicle body panel 3 at the rear end (right end in FIG. 2) of the engine hood 2 is in contact.
And close the opening. Therefore, for example, the rainwater flowing in the direction of the arrow A1 is first guided to the side of the vehicle body by the weir portion 11b to prevent the rainwater from entering the engine room, and the outside air and the rainwater that exceeds the weir portion 11b are sealed by the seal member 14. This completely prevents the inside from entering. In addition, the internal air flow from the engine room in the direction of the arrow A2 is also prevented from leaking to the outside by the seal member 14, and is prevented from flowing toward the front windshield WS to eliminate fogging of the front windshield WS, and at the same time Prevents thermal effects on the room.

Further, for example, the cowl top cover body 11
4 has a bent shape, the seal member 14 of the cowl top cover main body 11 is formed only by forming a cut 16c only in the mounting portion 16 made of a hard material of the seal member 14, as shown in FIG. It can be bent along the front edge and can be easily attached according to the shape of the front edge. Further, at this time, it is not necessary to deform the seal portion 15 of the seal member 14 at all, and there is no fear of impairing the sealing performance. Therefore, the number of parts is significantly reduced as compared with the conventional mounting method using a plurality of fixing members such as clips, and the number of processing / mounting steps can be reduced, resulting in a significant reduction in cost.

In the first embodiment described above, the mounting portion 16
The upper opening piece 16a of the engaging groove 16 'having a substantially C-shaped cross section is formed in a flat plate shape. As shown in FIG. 5, the upper opening piece 16a has the same shape as the lower opening piece 16b. It is also possible to form a hook-shaped engaging piece 16a 'that projects toward the inside of the engaging groove 16'. In this case, the locking portions 11a, 11 are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the front end portion of the cowl top cover body 11.
By forming it in the shape of a barb having "a" and engaging both the locking portions 11a with the hook-shaped engaging pieces 16a ', 16b' respectively, a stronger attachment than the above-described embodiment is made. .

6 to 8 show a second embodiment in which the counterpart members of the present invention are both the cowl top cover body 21 and the vehicle body panel 3. Even in this example,
The cowl top cover body 21 has a front flat surface portion 21d,
The rear flat surface portion 21e and the connecting portion 21f are formed, and the rear edge of the front flat surface portion 21d and the front edge of the rear flat surface portion 21e are connected in a stepped manner via the connecting portion 21f, and the rear flat surface portion 21e and the connection are formed. A weir portion 21b is provided upright along the connection edge with the portion 21f and extends substantially vertically upward. The front plane portion 21d is spaced apart in the longitudinal direction by a predetermined distance from the vehicle body panel 3
A plurality of fixing holes 21c are formed, and the front end edge is bent downward. Further, a plurality of fixing holes 3a are formed in the front end portion of the vehicle body panel 3 so as to correspond to the fixing holes 21c.

The seal member 24 is the same as the first embodiment described above in that it is composed of the seal portion 25 made of a soft material and the mounting portion 26 made of a hard material, and the material used is also the first.
This is the same as the embodiment. The mounting portion 26 is a thin flat plate portion 26b.
And a plurality of engaging pieces 26 protruding from the lower surface of the flat plate portion 26b
a. The plurality of engaging pieces 26a are
The cowl top cover main body 21 is vertically projected from the lower surface of the flat plate portion 26b corresponding to the fixing hole 21c, and the front and rear surfaces of the engaging piece 26a are formed in a zigzag shape. On the other hand, the cross section of the sealing portion 25 is formed of a substantially triangular tubular body in which a part of the bottom surface 25a is cut out in the lengthwise direction, as in the first embodiment, and the mounting portion is attached to the cutout portion. The flat plate portion 26b of the portion 26 is integrally formed so that the entire cross section of the seal portion has a substantially triangular shape.

The seal member 24 includes a seal portion 25 and a mounting portion 2.
6 and 6 are continuously extruded and integrally formed. At this time, the attachment portion 26 is formed as a continuous plate material having a T-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. After the molding is performed and after cutting to a predetermined size, the broken line portion of FIG. 7 is cut off with a cutter blade or the like to form the engaging piece 26a. Here, the cutting line is shown in FIG. 7 as a broken line by shifting it slightly downward from the bottom surface 25a of the seal portion 25, for the purpose of clearly showing the cutting portion.
In practice, it is preferable to cut the seal portion 25 so as to form a surface substantially flush with the bottom surface 25a. In this excision step, the seal portion 25 is deformed so as not to come into contact with the cutting blade, so that excision processing can be performed so that a large step does not occur in the cut portion when the seal portion 25 is restored. The cut scrap is crushed in the process, blended with the virgin material in the material supply line of the extruder and reused, so that the material is not wasted. Further, since the engaging piece 26a can be formed in a series by the processing steps that are easy to automate as described above, it is possible to save labor.

In the second embodiment, in order to attach the seal member 24 to the cowl top cover body 21, the engaging piece 26a is pushed into the fixing hole 21c of the cowl top cover body 21, and the zigzag surface of the engaging piece 26a is attached. The zigzag surface is locked to the fixing hole 21c to securely prevent it from falling off, as long as it is engaged with the hole 21c.
At this time, at the same time, the fixing hole 21c of the cowl top cover main body 21 is overlapped with the fixing hole 3a formed in the vehicle body panel 3, and the engaging piece 26a of the seal member 24 is pushed in to fix the engaging piece 26a. Both mounting holes 21 on the zigzag surface
The cowl top cover body 21 can be fitted to the c and 3a.
Are simultaneously attached to the vehicle body panel 3, the working process and the number of parts can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced. The fixing hole 2 of the cowl top cover body 21
If 1c is formed to be slightly larger than the fixing hole 3a of the vehicle body panel 3, the work of stacking these fixing holes 21c and 3a can be facilitated.

In the second embodiment described above, the flat plate portion 26b of the mounting portion 26 of the seal member 21 constitutes the central portion of the bottom surface 25a of the seal portion 25.
As shown in FIG.
It is also possible to deviate from the center of 5a 'and to extend a part of the flat plate portion 26b' in the width direction from the bottom surface 25a '. At this time, the engaging piece 26a 'is projected downward from the vicinity of the lower end of one inclined surface of the seal portion 25', so that the mounting position of the seal member 24 'on the cowl top cover body 21 is closer to the center of the cowl top cover body 21. In addition, the seal portion 25 ′ can be located closer to the front end edge of the cowl top cover body 21.

10 and 11 show a modification of the seal member of the second embodiment described above. In this modification, the counterpart member of the seal member 35 is the vehicle body panel 3. In this modification, the mounting portion 26 has the same structure as that of the above-described second embodiment, and therefore its description is omitted. Note that the substantially same members are designated by the same reference numerals.

The seal portion 35 has a substantially triangular cross section, and the central portion of the bottom surface 35a thereof is constituted by a mounting portion 26 made of a hard material. The front and rear portions of the seal portion 35 forming the bottom surface 35a are respectively formed with protrusions 35b extending in the length direction. Therefore, when removing the engaging piece 26a, the side surface of the cutter blade can be brought into contact with the ridge 35b to cleanly cut the root of the engaging piece 26a. Further, in the state where the seal member 34 is attached to the cowl top cover body 21 and the vehicle body panel 3, the protrusion 35b abuts on the peripheral edge of the fixing hole 21c of the cowl top cover 21 to attach the engaging piece 26a. Since the urging force is applied in the direction of the arrow D, it is possible to prevent the engagement piece 26a from loosening, prevent the generation of abnormal noise, and improve the sealing performance with the peripheral edge of the fixing hole 21c. In FIG. 11, the fixing hole 21c formed in the cowl top cover body 21 is larger than the fixing hole 3a provided in the vehicle body panel 3, and the engaging piece 26a of the seal member 35 is the fixing hole provided in the vehicle body panel 3. Attach to 3a. In addition, the diameter of the fixing hole 3a of the vehicle body panel 3 is set to the cowl top cover body 2
The fixing piece 26a of the seal member 35 is made larger than the fixing hole 21c of the cowl top cover body 21.
It is possible to engage only with 1c, or as in the second embodiment, the engaging piece 26a is attached to the fixing hole 3 of the vehicle body panel 3.
It can also be attached to both the a and the fixing hole 21c of the cowl top cover body 21.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the seal member is composed of the seal portion made of the soft material and the mounting portion made of the hard material, and the cowl top cover in which the seal member is made of the hard material. Since it is attached to the cowl top cover, the attachment is firm and does not easily come off at the attachment site, and the seal member can be firmly attached to the cowl top cover.

According to the present invention, the mounting portion of the seal member has a substantially C-shaped cross section over the entire length of the seal member,
When the cowl top cover has a locking portion that fits and locks on the mounting portion of the seal member over the entire length of the front end edge of the cowl top cover, the locking portion of the cowl top cover faces the mounting portion of the seal member. By simply pushing the entire length of the locking portion into the mounting portion while directing it in parallel, the mounting is easy and the work is easy, and the production efficiency is improved without increasing the number of parts. Further, since the sealing member is fixed continuously over the entire length, more firm mounting is possible.

Further, according to the present invention, the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel have a plurality of fixing holes for both of them, and a plurality of mounting portions of the sealing member are fitted and locked in corresponding portions of the fixing holes in the fixing holes. If you have the engagement piece of, match the fixing holes of the cowl top cover and the body panel,
By pushing the engaging member of the seal member into the fixing hole from above, the seal member is attached to the cowl top cover and the cowl top cover is fixed to the vehicle body panel at the same time, and the work is easy. In this mounting structure, the existing fixing holes formed in the cowl top cover and the vehicle body panel are used, and the number of working steps can be reduced, and the productivity and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a cowl top cover provided with a seal member mounting structure of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a vehicle is equipped with a cowl top cover having a mounting structure according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a mounting operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a modification of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another modification of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a seal member having a mounting structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a state immediately after extrusion molding of the seal member according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a vehicle is equipped with a cowl top cover having a mounting structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a modification of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a mounting operation of another modification of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing a mounting state of another modification of the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 cowl top cover 2 hood 2a inner panel 3 vehicle body panel 3a fixing hole 11 cowl top cover body 11a, 11a 'wedge-shaped locking part 11b weir part 11c fixing hole 11d front flat part 11e rear flat part 11f connecting part 14 seal member 15 seal Part 15a Bottom face 16 Mounting part 16 'Engagement groove 16a Upper opening piece 16b Lower opening piece 16d Hook-like edge 21 Cowl top cover body 21b Weir part 21c Fixing hole 21d Front flat part 21e Rear flat part 21f Connecting part 24, 24' Seal member 25, 25 'Seal portion 25a, 25a' Bottom surface 26, 26 'Mounting portion 26a, 26a' Attachment piece 26b, 26b 'Flat plate portion 35 Seal portion 35a Bottom surface 35b Protrusion

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A mounting structure of a seal member for sealing between an upper surface of a cowl top cover and a lower surface of a hood,
The seal member is composed of a seal portion made of a soft material and an attachment portion made of a hard material, which are integrated over the entire length, and the attachment portion has an engaging means for a counterpart member. Member mounting structure. 2. The engaging means is an engaging groove having a substantially C-shaped cross section formed over the entire length of the attachment portion, the counterpart member is a cowl top cover, and the engaging member is provided over the entire length of a front end edge thereof. The mounting structure according to claim 1, further comprising a locking portion that is fitted and locked in the locking groove. 3. The engaging means is a plurality of locking pieces projecting on the lower surface of the mounting portion of the seal member, and the counterpart member is a cowl top cover and / or a vehicle body panel, 2. The mounting structure according to claim 1, wherein fixing holes to which the locking pieces engage are provided at a plurality of portions of the counterpart member corresponding to the protruding positions of the locking pieces.