WO2005073002A1

WO2005073002A1 - Projecting door with hinge with offset fulcrum

Info

Publication number: WO2005073002A1
Application number: PCT/IT2005/000041
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alberto Paini
Original assignee: Idea Project S.A.G.L
Priority date: 2004-01-30
Filing date: 2005-01-27
Publication date: 2005-08-11
Also published as: ITTO20040045A1

Abstract

A door (1) is disclosed for a vehicle (20) comprising a closing door (10) of a side access opening of the vehicle (20), at least one arm adapted to connect the door (10) to a hinge having a substantially vertical rotation axis connected to a structural member of the vehicle (20), wherein the hinge is arranged longitudinally more spaced than traditional hinges from a jamb of said opening that is nearest thereto.

Description

PROJECTING DOOR WITH HINGE WITH OFFSET FULCRUM

The present invention refers to a projecting door with hinge with offset fulcrum, that ca be applied in particular to motor vehicles as replacement or integration of traditional doors and their respective opening and closing kinematism. As well known in the art, traditional motor vehicle doors are equipped with one or more hinges interposed between door and door opening jamb. This configuration brings about some disadvantages, above all as regards vehicle accessibility; in fact, door opening difficulties not rarely occur, and consequently vehicle access difficulties occur due to the door thickness, that does not allow obtaining a sufficient opening angle between door and vehicle, taking into account that, in many cases, on the contrary, the perpendicularity between an open door and a vehicle would be highly comfortable and necessary, above all, but not only, when elderly people, disabled people or people with motion problems must access the vehicle. Moreover, in the latest years, the motor vehicle field has demanded the development of particular cars, such as those of the "mono-volume" type: in such vehicles, it would be rather comfortable, in addition to stylistically appreciated, to be able to use a door opening equipped with two counter-abutting doors, with or without central jamb; this arrangement, however, due to what has been stated above, by using known door hinges, would be scarcely practical since once opened, the two doors would live a relatively too small access space to the vehicle. Object of the present invention is solving the above prior art problems, by providing a projecting door with hinge with offset fulcrum that allows a better vehicle access comfort. The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained with a projecting door with hinge with offset fulcrum as disclosed in claim 1. Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims . The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non- limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:

- FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the door according to the present invention;

- FIG. 2 shows a side view of an opening step of the door according to the present invention applied to a vehicle; - FIG. 3 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 2; - FIG. 4 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 2; - FIG. 5 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 2; - FIG. 6 shows a rear view of a vehicle equipped with a door according to the present invention in an open position; - FIG. 7 shows a side view of an opening step of another embodiment of the door according to the present invention applied to a vehicle; ^■

- FIG. 8 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 7;

- FIG. 9 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 7;

- FIG. 10 shows a side view of another opening step of the door in FIG. 7;

- FIG. 11 shows a rear view of a vehicle equipped with the door of FIG. 7 open;

- FIG. 12 shows a schematic sequence showing the kinematism of a door according to the present invention;

- FIG. 13 shows a perspective view copuled with a top schematic representation of another embodiment of the door according to the present invention;

- FIG. 14 shows a perspective view coupled with a schematic representation of an opening step of the door in FIG. 13;

- FIG. 15 shows a perspective view coupled with a schematic representation of another opening step of the door in FIG. 13;

- FIG. 16 shows a side view of an opening step of a further embodiment of the door according to the present invention applied to a vehicle; - FIG. 17 shows a side view of another opening step of the door of FIG. 16; - FIG. 18 shows a side view of another opening step of the door of FIG. 16; and - FIG. 19 shows a side view of another opening step of the door of FIG. 16. With reference to FIG. 1, it is possible to note that the door 1 according to the present invention is composed of a closing door ' 10 connected through at least one arm (FIG. 1 shows, as a non-limiting example, two arms 121 and 122) to at least one hinge (FIG. 1 shows, as a non-limiting example, two hinges 141 and 142) whose rotation axis is substantially vertical and in turn connected to a structural member (not shown) of the vehicle in a longitudinally further away position from the door opening jamb related to the door 10 itself with respect to what can be found in traditional doors. Such configuration of the door 1 allows, as can be noted from FIG. 2 - 6, guaranteeing, with the same door opening width, an access space and angle that are greater than those allowed by traditional doors since, should the door 1 according to the present invention not be able to reach a perpendicularity with respect to the vehicle 20, the space removed by the residual slanting of the door would not insist onto the access opening, that therefore would have a space that is at least perpendicular to the vehicle itself, but on the vehicle side body. Moreover, as can be noted from FIG. 2 - 6, the arms 121, once the door 10 is closing the access opening, are completed integrated into the vehicle 20 body. The door 1 according to the present invention further allows, obviously, guaranteeing a vehicle access space that is greater with respect to traditional doors, even when it is not possible to completely open the door 1 itself, such as for example in narrow spaces or in parkings . Obviously, the door 1 according to the present invention can be assembled on a vehicle 20 both with right-hand hinges, as shown inthe Figures, and with left-hand hinges with respect to the side view of the vehicle 20 itself, thereby allowing opening the door 10 both in an upwind and in a downwind position. In an application (not shown) of the door 1 according to the present invention to a vehicle with two or three^' doors, sensible advantages can be obtained: in fact, the adoption of the door 1 assembled upwind onto such vehicle allows the occupants, due to the access spaces that it guarantees, to be able to access the rear vehicle seats without having to overturn the front seats, with high increase in easiness and comfort and an interesting reduction of refurbishing costs for the vehicle seats. From this, it results that the present invention allows increasing a vehicle accesss comfort even for those that occupy seats not equipped with a respective door. As can .be further noted from FIG. 2 - 5, the door 1 can be associated with a second traditional door counter-abutting thereagainst, to allow covering a wider access opening to vehicle 20, though keeping the doors with technically acceptable sizes. Obviously, the scope of the invention also comprises the chance (not shown) of coupling the door 1 with another door 1 according to the present invention counter-abutting thereagainst . In particular, FIG. 2 - 5 show a door 1 according to the present invention assembled upwind and associated with a downwind door conceived as safety strap 22: such strap 22 in fact is aimed, when closing, to be partially overlapped to the door 1> as shown in the sequence in FIG. 12, with the effect of being able to open the door 1 only after the strap 22 has been opened, this being allows only in case of an unmoving car. FIG. 7 - 11 show another embodiment of the door 1 according to the present invention, in which the door 30 comprises the connection arm with at least one hinge arranged as previously described. In this case the door 1 arm is or is covered by a body member of the vehicle 20. Also in FIG. 7 - 11, the door 1 is associated, as a non-limiting example, with a strap 22 counter- abutting thereagainst having the previously-described characteristics . FIG. 13 - 15 show a possible variation of the door 1 according to the present invention in which the door 30, when closing, is overlapped to an intrusion- preventing protection member 40 anchored to the vehicle, that is adapted to protect the seats and, consequently, their occupants, from side impacts effects. Moreover, it can be provided that the same door 30 is equipped, in its internal structure, with a further intrusion-preventing protection member (not shown) , that is adapted to overlap, when closing the door 1, to the member 40, thereby doubling the side protection of vehicle occupants. Another particularly interesting aspect of the door 1 according to the present invention deals with the chance of providing for the elongation of the rear vehicle projection without having to perform a following testing: in fact, if a vehicle has to be elongated by operating on its rear projection with the aim of adding one door per side, such elongation, in order to be able to allow installing a traditional door, would be greater than what is permitted by the laws in force to avoid a new testing of the modified vehicle; instead, by using a door 1 according to the present invention, the rear elongation could be smaller since the access opening could have more reduced sizes due to the characteristics of the present invention as previously described. FIG. 16 - 19 show some opening steps of a door 1 applied to a vehicle 20 subjected to rear projection elongation as previously described.

Claims

1. Door (1) for a vehicle (20) characterised in that it comprises a closing door (10) of a side access opening of said vehicle (20) , at least one arm adapted to connect said door (10) to an hinge having a substantially vertical rotation axis connected to a structural member of said vehicle (20) , said hinge being arranged longitudinally more spaced than traditional hinges from a jamb of said opening that is nearest thereto.

2. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it comprises two arms (121, 122) .

3. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said arm is a body member of said vehicle (20) .

4. Door (1) according to claim 2, characterised in that said arms (121, 122) are integrated in said body of said vehicle (20) .

5. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is assembled on said vehicle (2) upwind and/or downwind with respect to a main motion direction of said vehicle (20) .

6. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is associated with a traditional door (22) counter-abutting thereagainst.

7. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is associated with another door (1) counter- abutting thereagainst.

8. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is associated to a safety strap (22) couter- abutting thereagainst, adapted to prevent its opening when said vehicle (20) moves.

9. Door (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that, when closing, it is overlapped to a first intrusion-preventing member (40) anchored to said vehicle (20) .

10. Door (1) according to claim 9, characterised in that it comprises a second intrusion-preventing member that, when closing, is overlapped to said first intrusion-preventing member (40) .

11. Door (1) according to claim 1, adapted to allow an elongation of a rear projection of a vehicle (20) without having to perform a following testing of said modified vehicle.