JPH11159206A - Fixing clip for key cylinder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fixing clip without the possibility of coming off a key cylinder. SOLUTION: A U-shape cutout hole 2 is opened in a body 1. Bridge wall parts 4 and insert wall parts 5 are formed at both side pieces 3 defining the cutout hole 2, and both side pieces 3 are inserted in slits provided in opposed whirl-stop protrusions of a key cylinder. While bringing the insert wall parts 5 into contact with a panel face, the bridge wall parts 4 are brought into elastic contact with jaw parts of the slits to fix the key cylinder to a panel. The opposed inner edges of a pair of insert wall parts 5 brought into contact with the panel face are provided with slip-stop arms 6 protruded toward the inside of the cutout hole 2. The locked state of the slip-out stop arms 6 to the end faces of the whirl-stop protrusions can therefore be ensured as it is without being influenced by flexure on the bridge wall part 4 side, so that there is no anxiety about a fixing clip coming off the key cylinder even if the bridge wall parts 4 are bent flat onto the panel side and deformed due to the change with elapse of time or the like.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a fixing clip for fixing a key cylinder used for, for example, an automobile door to a corresponding body panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional fixing clip of this kind, there is one disclosed in JP-A-9-170360. In the conventional fixing clip, as shown in FIG. 5, a U-shaped notch hole 12 is opened in a main body 11 formed into a rectangular shape with an elastic metal plate to define the U-shaped notch hole 12. In the longitudinal direction of the side pieces 13, a pair of raised bridge wall portions 14 and a pair of insertion wall portions 15 continuing downwardly from the respective bridge wall portions 14 are formed. An expansion preventing piece 16 having a hook-shaped tip hook portion 16a serving as a retaining preventing means is integrally and continuously provided on the opposed inner edge in a standing state.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, a key cylinder 21 fixed by the fixing clip is usually provided with two pairs of rotation preventing projections 2 on its outer peripheral surface on the enlarged flange 22 side.
3 and 24 are protrudingly provided, and the horizontal slit 25 and the vertical slit 2 communicating with one of the opposing detent protrusions 23 therein.
6 are provided so as to intersect with each other, the side slits 13 forming the bridge wall portion 14 and the insertion wall portion 15 of the fixed clip are facing the horizontal slit 25, and the vertical slit 26 is facing the vertical slit 26. The expansion preventing piece 16 provided on the bridge wall portion 14
It is a configuration that looks at. In addition, a mounting hole 32 for inserting the key cylinder 21 is formed in the vehicle body panel 31, and each of the detent protrusions 2 is formed at a hole edge of the mounting hole 32.
It is configured to form a concave portion 33 for fitting 3.24.

Accordingly, when the key cylinder 21 is actually fixed to the vehicle body panel 31, the key cylinder 21 is inserted into the mounting hole 32 of the vehicle body panel 31 while each of the detent projections 23 of the key cylinder 21 is fixed. .24 and mounting holes 32
After the concave portions 33 are fitted to each other to obtain a detented state of the key cylinder 21, each of the insertion wall portions 15 formed on the both side pieces 13 of the fixing clip is connected to one of the opposing detent projections 23. When inserted into the horizontal slit 25, the expansion preventing piece 16 on the bridge wall 14 side is guided into the vertical slit 26 in response to this, and in the same direction while maintaining the engagement state with the vertical slit 26. Slide.

[0005] The tip hook portion 1 of the expansion preventing piece 16
At the point when 6a has completely passed through the vertical slit 26, FIG.
As shown in (2), since the tip hook 16a is released from its restraint and is locked on the end face of the corresponding detent projection 23, the inner edge side of each bridge wall 14 elastically contacts the upper jaw 25a of the lateral slit 25. The key cylinder 21 is fixed to the vehicle body panel 31 by the reaction force accompanied by the bending of the bridge wall portion 14. In addition, in such a fixed state, the engagement of the expansion preventing piece 16 in the vertical slit 26 causes
In addition to preventing the side pieces 13 from being unnecessarily expanded, the front hook 16a is locked to the end face of the rotation preventing projection 23, so that the fixing clip does not come off from the key cylinder 21 in this state. .

[0006]

However, in the conventional fixing clip, although the distal end hook 16a of the above-mentioned expansion preventing piece 16 is locked to the end face of the rotation preventing projection 23, the fixing clip is not provided. The locking position is the key cylinder 2
1, since the bridge wall portion 14 of the fixing clip is flattened and deformed toward the vehicle body panel 31 due to aging or the like.
Due to its structure, the expansion preventing piece 16 also moves following the deformation of the bridge wall section 14 in accordance with the movement, and the tip end hook section 1 of its own.
Since the locking state of the rotation preventing projection 23 with respect to the end face of the rotation preventing projection 6a is easily released, it is conceivable that the fixing clip comes off the key cylinder 21 this time. Therefore, conventionally, in order to prevent such a problem, the use of a highly durable material or an increase in the thickness of the sheet has been taken, and this has been a factor in increasing the cost.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been developed to effectively solve the problems of the conventional fixing clip, and the invention according to claim 1 is formed of an elastic metal plate. A U-shaped notch hole is opened in the main body, a pair of bridge wall portions protruding on both side pieces defining the U-shaped notch hole, and a pair of insertion wall portions continuing from the respective bridge wall portions are formed. Then, by inserting both side pieces into the slits provided on the opposing detent projections of the key cylinder, and bringing the respective insertion wall portions into contact with the panel surface, the respective bridge wall portions are fitted to the jaws of the slits. In the fixing clip that fixes the key cylinder to the panel by elastic contact, a retaining arm that protrudes toward the inside of the notch hole is provided on the opposing inner edges of the pair of insertion wall portions that abut on the panel surface, This retaining arm is A horizontal portion projecting horizontally from the edge,
A configuration having a vertical portion that rises from the horizontal portion and an extended portion that extends to the inner side of the notch hole because the distance from the vertical portion to the inner edge is increased is adopted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, based on the first aspect, a guide protruding piece protruding toward the inside of the notch hole is formed at an inner edge of the pair of insertion walls on the tip side of the retaining arm. The guide arm is provided at the same height as the horizontal portion of the retaining arm, and the guide protrusion and the retaining arm define a continuous insertion guide surface.

Therefore, in the first aspect of the present invention,
Even if the bridge wall portion of the fixed clip is flattened and deformed toward the panel due to aging or the like, a retaining arm is provided independently on the insertion wall portion that contacts the panel surface. In this connection, the locking state of the locking arm with respect to the end face can be secured as it is without being affected by the bending on the bridge wall side, so that there is no fear that the fixing clip comes off the key cylinder. Also, the fact that the retaining arm has a horizontal portion, a vertical portion, and an extended portion makes the spring action as a whole good, and of course elastically flexing when passing through the slit, A reliable locking state with elastic force on the end face of the rotation preventing projection can be guaranteed.

In addition to the above, when the insertion wall portion is inserted into the slit of the detent projection, a continuous guide defined by the guide projection and the retaining arm is provided. Since the surface can be inserted using the surface, the work of mounting the fixed clip itself to the key cylinder is also greatly improved.

[0011]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a fixing clip according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG. A U-shaped notch 2 is formed in the molded body 1 and
In the longitudinal direction of the two side pieces 3 defining a U-shaped notch hole 2,
It is assumed that a pair of protruding bridge wall portions 4 and a pair of insertion wall portions 5 that are inclined downward from the respective bridge wall portions 4 and are formed.

In this embodiment, on the premise of such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 2, opposing inner edge sides of the pair of insertion wall portions 5 which come into contact with the vehicle body panel surface. Is raised one step, and a retaining arm 6 is integrally connected to the step-shaped inner edge. The retaining arm 6 is horizontally extended from the inner edge of the insertion wall portion 5. And a vertical portion 6b rising from the horizontal portion 6a, and an extending portion 6c extending from the vertical portion 6b to the inner side of the cutout hole 2 while increasing the distance from the inner edge. doing. Accordingly, the retaining arm 6 connected to the pair of insertion wall portions 5 protrudes toward the inside of the notch hole 2. In particular, each of the vertical portion 6b and the extension portion 6c is c-shaped. It is in the shape of "" and faces each other.

In addition, an arc-shaped guide protruding piece 7 similarly protruding toward the inside of the notch hole 2 is provided on the inner edge of the pair of insertion wall portions 5 on the tip side of the retaining arm 6. A configuration in which the height of each of the guide projections 7 and the height of the horizontal portion 6a of the retaining arm 6 are set to be equal to each other is also adopted. Therefore, under the present embodiment, the inner peripheral surface of the guide projection 7 and the inner peripheral surface of the retaining arm 6 define a continuous insertion guide surface, and at the same time, the guide projection 7
And the lower surface of the horizontal portion 6a of the retaining arm 6 also form a continuous insertion guide surface. In the figure,
Reference numeral 8 denotes an expansion preventing piece provided on the opposed inner edges of the pair of bridge walls 4, and 9 denotes a gripping piece formed by folding back on the base end side of the main body 1.

Therefore, when the above-described key cylinder 21 shown in FIG. 6 is fixed to the vehicle body panel 31 by using the fixing clip having the above structure, basically, the vehicle body panel 31 in the mounting hole 32 of the key cylinder 21
Is inserted, and each detent projection 2 of the key cylinder 21 is inserted.
3 · 24 and each concave portion 33 of the mounting hole 32 are fitted to each other,
After the key cylinder 21 is prevented from rotating, the pair of insertion wall portions 5 formed on the both side pieces 3 are guided by the guide projections 7 while holding the grip pieces 9 so as to face one side. The rotation preventing projection 23 is inserted into the horizontal slit 25.

Then, in the present embodiment, the retaining arms 6 facing each other in a C-shape are guided into the vertical slits 26 while elastically bending the respective extension portions 6c, and the vertical slits 26 are provided. When completely passing through the inside of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, at the same time when the pair of insertion wall portions 5 abut on the surface of the vehicle body panel 31, each retaining arm 6 returns to its original shape by its own spring action, and the tip of the extension portion 6 c rotates correspondingly. Since the inner edges of the pair of bridge wall portions 4 elastically contact the upper jaw portions 25a of the lateral slits 25 and the expansion preventing pieces 8 are engaged with the vertical slits 26 while being locked to the end surfaces of the stopper projections 23, The key cylinder 21 is fixed to the vehicle body panel 31.

When the pair of insertion walls 5 are inserted into the corresponding horizontal slits 25, a continuous guide surface defined by the inner peripheral surface of the guide projection 7 and the inner peripheral surface of the retaining arm 6 is provided. The vertical slit 2 while ensuring a smooth insertion
The insertion wall is formed by a continuous guide surface defined by the lower surface of the guide protrusion 7 and the lower surface of the horizontal portion 6a of the retaining arm 6, which promotes the elastic bending of the retaining arm 6 in the retaining arm 6. In any case, a smooth insertion into the horizontal slit 25 on the side of the part 5 can be ensured.
Is also very easy. In particular, in this case, as described above, the inner edge of the insertion wall portion 5 has a stepped shape in which the inner edge is raised by one step. Can also be effectively avoided.

Then, in such a fixed state, temporarily
In the present embodiment, even if the bridge wall portion 4 of the fixing clip is deformed by flat bending toward the vehicle body panel 31 due to aging (creep) or the like, the vehicle body panel 31 does not
Since the retaining arm 6 is provided independently on the side of the insertion wall portion 5 that comes into contact with the surface, the rotation preventing projection of the retaining arm 6 is not affected by the bending of the bridge wall portion 4 at all. 23
Can be secured as it is with respect to the end face, so that there is no fear that the fixing clip comes off the key cylinder 21 at all. Therefore, there is no need to cope with the problem by using a highly durable material or increasing the thickness of the sheet as in the related art.

In addition, since the retaining arm 6 faces in a C-shape, the greater the external force applied, the more the distal end of the extension 6c will be brought into contact with the end face of the detent projection 23 and the body of the key cylinder 21. The elastic member is elastically expanded toward the base portion of the fixing clip and firmly bites the base portion, so that it is possible to reliably prevent the fixing clip from coming off.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the bridge wall portion of the fixing clip flexes flatly toward the panel due to aging, etc. Even if it is deformed, the retaining arm is provided independently on the side of the insertion wall that comes into contact with the panel surface, so that the arm around the retaining arm is not affected at all by the bending on the bridge wall side. Since the locking state with respect to the end face of the stopper projection can be secured as it is, there is no fear that the fixing clip comes off the key cylinder. Also, the fact that the retaining arm has a horizontal portion, a vertical portion, and an extended portion makes the spring action as a whole good, and of course elastically flexing when passing through the slit, A reliable locking state with elastic force on the end face of the rotation preventing projection can be guaranteed.

In addition, when the insertion wall portion is inserted into the slit of the rotation preventing projection, a continuous guide surface defined by the guide projection and the retaining arm is used. As the fixing clip itself can be inserted, the work of mounting the fixed clip itself to the key cylinder is also greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a fixing clip according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A is a plan view of the fixing clip, FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of an essential part showing a state in which the key cylinder is fixed to the vehicle body panel with a part cut away.

FIG. 4 is a partial front view showing a state in which the key cylinder is fixed to the vehicle body panel, with a part cut away.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conventional fixing clip.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view showing a relationship between a commonly used key cylinder and a vehicle body panel.

FIG. 7 is a front view of an essential part showing a state in which a key cylinder is fixed to a vehicle body panel using a conventional fixing clip.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 2 Notch hole 3 Side piece 4 Bridge wall part 5 Insertion wall part 6 Retaining arm 6a Same horizontal part 6b Same vertical part 6c Same extension part 7 Guide projection piece 8 Expansion prevention piece 9 Grip piece 21 Key cylinder 23 Around Stop projection 25 Horizontal slit 25a Upper jaw 25b Same lower jaw 26 Vertical slit 31 Body panel 32 Mounting hole 33 Recess

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A U-shaped notch hole is formed in a main body formed of an elastic metal plate, and a pair of bridge walls protruding from both side pieces defining the U-shaped notch hole, and each of the bridge walls. Forming a pair of insertion wall portions continuing from the part, inserting both side pieces into the slits provided in the opposing detent projections of the key cylinder, while contacting each of the insertion wall portions with the panel surface, In each of the fixing clips for fixing the key cylinder to the panel by elastically contacting the bridge wall portions with the jaws of the slits, a notch hole is formed at a facing inner edge of the pair of insertion wall portions abutting on the panel surface. A retaining arm protruding inward is provided, and the retaining arm includes a horizontal portion extending horizontally from an inner edge of the insertion wall portion, a vertical portion rising from the horizontal portion, and an inner edge from the vertical portion. Since the distance is increased, the extension extending A fixing clip for a key cylinder, comprising a long part. 2. A guide projecting piece projecting toward the inside of the notch hole is provided at an inner edge of the pair of insertion wall portions on the inner edge of the tip end side of the retaining arm at the same height as the horizontal portion of the retaining arm. 2. The key cylinder fixing clip according to claim 1, wherein the guide projection and the retaining arm define a continuous insertion guide surface.