JPH1086751A - Door mirror for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To heighten a strength against wind pressure and vibration during running of a car as the softness of a contact face in the case of coming into contact with a pedestrian is kept by setting the shore hardness of a visor being a mirror casing less than a specified value on a D-scale and more than the specified value on a A-scale. SOLUTION: A stay 1 is equipped with a base plate 2, and a shaft 3 is fixed to the base plate 2. A bracket 4 is rotatably fitted to the shaft 3, and a visor 5 is fixed to the bracket 4. The visor 5 is formed of such materials as polyurethane resin, urethane foam resin, EPDM (copolymer composed of ethylene- propylene and diene class), polyester-system elastomer, and soft vinyl chloride. These materials have a shore hardness being less than 70 on a D-scale and more than 50 on a A-scale. Thus, a pain which a pedestrian feels in the case where he/she comes into contact with a door mirror is reduced, and moreover strength so much as the visor can bear up against wind pressure and vibration during running of a car is assured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automobile door mirror.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an automobile door mirror is configured such that a visor (casing of a door mirror) falls forward and backward even when a pedestrian comes into contact with the door mirror when, for example, a car and a pedestrian pass each other. We aim for pedestrian safety. As described above, the automobile door mirror is configured so that the impact on the pedestrian is small even at the time of contact, but the pedestrian may still feel pain at the time of contact. Therefore, it is desired to further enhance the safety for pedestrians by configuring the door mirror so as to reduce pain at the time of contact.

[0003]

One of the reasons that a pedestrian feels pain when coming into contact with a door mirror of an automobile is that the visor of the door mirror is generally formed of hard plastic and is hard, so that the visor is hard. It is possible to relieve the pain if it is made of a soft material. But,
If only a soft material is used, there is a possibility that the visor may be deformed by wind pressure or vibration when the automobile is running, and thus there is a problem in practicality.

[0004] Therefore, a technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the safety by forming the visor of the door mirror from a soft material and specifying the minimum value of its hardness to guarantee the necessary strength. To enable the practical use of automotive door mirrors.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, a door mirror for an automobile according to the present invention has a visor as a mirror casing having a Shore hardness of 70 or less on a D scale and an A scale. Is 50 or more.

In the above configuration, the upper limit of the hardness of the visor is set to a value smaller than the conventional value of 70 on the D scale Shore hardness. Pain felt is reduced. In addition, since the lower limit of the hardness of the visor is set to 50 as the Shore hardness of the A scale, the strength enough to withstand wind pressure and vibration during running of the automobile is guaranteed. Therefore, according to the above configuration, it becomes possible to put a more secure automobile door mirror into practical use. In the above configuration, since the visor is formed of a soft material, when the visor is provided with an electric storage mechanism for the door mirror and an electric adjustment mechanism for the mirror surface angle, the effect of reducing the operating noise of these mechanisms is provided. Is also obtained.

In the above structure, it is preferable to provide a reinforcing material inside at least one of the upper and lower wall surfaces of the visor. Since the upper and lower walls of the visor are parts that do not normally come into contact with pedestrians, this configuration makes it possible to maintain the softness of the contact surface when contacting pedestrians while maintaining the wind pressure during traveling. And vibration resistance.

In the above structure, it is preferable that the space between the drive mechanism provided inside the visor and the inner surface of the visor is filled with a polyurethane foam resin. According to this configuration, the effect of reducing the space between the drive mechanism and the inner surface of the visor and the synergistic effect of using the foamed polyurethane resin further enhances the effect of reducing the operation noise of the drive mechanism.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a vehicle door mirror according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view of a door mirror of a type having an electric storage mechanism. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a stay fixed to a door of an automobile. The stay 1 includes a base plate 2, and a shaft 3 is fixed to the base plate 2. A bracket 4 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 3, and a visor 5 is fixed to the bracket 4. An electric storage mechanism 6 (detailed structure is not shown) is provided at a connection portion between the bracket 4 and the shaft 3. By operating this mechanism, the visor 5 can be rotated together with the bracket 4. Has become. A mirror 8 is attached to the bracket 4 via a mirror angle adjusting mechanism 7.

The visor 5 is made of a material such as polyurethane resin, foamed polyurethane resin, EPDM (copolymer of ethylene / propylene and dienes), polyester elastomer, and soft vinyl chloride. These materials have a Shore hardness of 70 or less on the D scale and 50 or more on the A scale. Therefore, the pain felt by the pedestrian when the pedestrian comes into contact with the door mirror is reduced, and the strength that the visor 5 withstands against the wind pressure and the vibration during the running of the automobile is guaranteed. Therefore, it becomes possible to commercialize an automobile door mirror with higher safety.
Also, since the visor 5 is formed of a soft material,
There is also an effect of reducing the operating noise generated by the electric storage mechanism 6 provided in the visor 5 and the electric adjustment mechanism 7 for the mirror surface angle.

Next, a second embodiment shown in FIG. 2 will be described. This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a non-foldable type door mirror, and a visor 11
2 and are formed integrally. The same material as the visor 5 of the first embodiment is used for the visor 11. In the first embodiment, the rigidity of the visor 5 is secured to some extent by the bracket 4, but in this example, the bracket is not used, so that the visor 11 is formed to be thicker overall to secure the rigidity. .

The inner surface of the visor 11 is formed so as to enclose a mirror surface angle adjusting mechanism 14 for driving the mirror body 13, and the portion on the stay 12 side is made thinner than other portions by a relatively large concave portion 15. I have. Therefore, when a pedestrian comes into contact with the door mirror while the vehicle is running, the impact can be reduced by deformation of the base portion of the visor 11 on the stay 12 side. It is extremely effective to make the visor flexible in the non-retractable door mirror as described above in order to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

On the other hand, the space between the drive mechanism 14 provided inside the visor 11 and the inner surface of the visor 11 is filled with a foamed polyurethane resin 16. The foamed polyurethane resin 16 is filled in a liquid state in a state where the mirror body 13 is removed, so that the space is completely closed when cured. Accordingly, with this configuration, the material of the visor 11 itself has a sound absorbing effect, and the sound is hardly reflected by reducing the space between the drive mechanism 14 and the inner surface of the visor 11, so that the mirror surface The effect of reducing the operation sound of the angle adjusting mechanism 14 is further enhanced. In addition, it is effective to fill the door mirror of the first embodiment with the foamed polyurethane resin, so that the operation noise generated by the drive mechanism in the visor 5 can be further reduced. Filling with the foamed polyurethane resin can be performed by a simple construction method, and also increases the vibration damping effect.

Next, a third embodiment shown in FIG. 3 will be described. FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the door mirror.
This corresponds to the cross section taken along the line III-III in FIG. This door mirror is an electrically retractable door mirror similarly to the first embodiment, and its basic structure is the same as the door mirror of FIG. 1; therefore, the description is omitted, but the upper and lower wall surfaces 5a, 5b of the visor 5 are omitted.
Is provided with reinforcing members 9a and 9b extending substantially parallel to the mirror surface from the vehicle body side end to the non-vehicle side end.
This is different from the embodiment. This reinforcing material is formed of a rod-shaped member such as hard plastic or metal.

In this example, the upper and lower wall surfaces 5a and 5b of the visor 5 provided with the reinforcing members 9a and 9b are portions that do not contact the pedestrian. The softness is not impaired, and deformation of the visor 5 can be prevented against wind pressure and vibration during traveling. Therefore, both safety and strength can be achieved at a higher level. The reinforcing members 9a and 9b are provided on the upper and lower wall surfaces 5 respectively.
a, 5b may be provided.

Next, a fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described. In this example, the visor 21 has a double structure of the inner member 22 and the outer member 23, and the inner member 22 is formed of hard plastic, and the outer member 23 is formed of the same soft plastic as in the above embodiments. The electric storage mechanism 24 and the mirror angle adjustment mechanism 25 are both mounted on the inner surface of the inner member 22. Even with such a configuration, both the safety of the outer member 23 by the soft plastic and the strength of the inner member 22 by the hard plastic are compatible,
A highly safe door mirror can be put to practical use.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a first embodiment of an automobile door mirror according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a second embodiment of an automobile door mirror according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a third embodiment of the automobile door mirror according to the present invention, and corresponds to a section taken along line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a fourth embodiment of a vehicle door mirror according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 stay 2 base plate 3 axis 4 bracket 5 visor 5a, 5b wall surface 6 electric storage mechanism 7 mirror surface angle adjustment mechanism 8 mirror body 9a, 9b reinforcing material 11 visor 12 stay 13 mirror body 14 mirror surface angle adjustment mechanism 15 recess 16 foamed polyurethane resin 21 Visor 22 Inner member 23 Outer member 24 Electric storage mechanism 25 Mirror angle adjustment mechanism

Claims (3)

[Claims] A visor (5, 11,
23) An automobile door mirror, wherein the upper limit of the Shore hardness is 70 on the D scale and the lower limit is 50 on the A scale. 2. The vehicle door mirror according to claim 1, wherein reinforcing members (9a, 9b) are provided in at least one of upper and lower wall surfaces (5a, 5b) of the visor (5). 3. A foamed polyurethane resin (16) is filled in a space between a drive mechanism (14) provided inside the visor (11) and an inner surface of the visor (11). The automobile door mirror according to claim 1.