WO2018212066A1 - Pillar upper portion for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

This pillar upper portion (12) for an automobile is provided with a structure member (20) which has a closed cross-section and in which a plurality of constituting members (22, 24) are assembled together through a joint extending in a longitudinal direction. An outer cover member (30) for covering the joint of the structure member is provided on the outer side of the pillar upper portion (12), which faces the outside of the automobile. In one embodiment, the plurality of constituting members each have an outer flange (22a, 24a) protruding toward the outside of the automobile. The outer flanges are joined together to form the joint. The outer flange of each of the constituting members extends to the inside (30a) of the outer cover member.

Description

Car pillar top

The present invention relates to an automobile pillar. More specifically, the present invention relates to a structure of an upper part of a pillar that can ensure strength and rigidity while reducing the blind spot outside the vehicle as viewed from the driver's seat.

The pillars in the car body may interfere with the driver's visual inspection of passers-by. A region outside the vehicle that is hidden behind the body such as a pillar and is not directly visible from the left or right eye is called a blind spot (see FIG. 5). The blind spot is generated not only by the front pillar but also by the center pillar and the rear pillar, and these can be an obstacle when it is desired to visually confirm a pedestrian or another vehicle on the side or rear. In order to ensure traffic safety when driving a car, it is important to reduce the blind spots caused by the body structure such as pillars. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-006836 describes a front pillar of a small truck having a narrow width when viewed by a driver while maintaining rigidity. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2016-159786 describes a vehicle front pillar that improves the driver's field of view and has sufficient bending strength.

On the other hand, it is necessary to increase the rigidity and strength of the pillars constituting the body frame in order to secure a living space in the passenger compartment when the automobile collides or rolls over. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-351387 discloses a vehicle body structure that can improve the rigidity of the front side surface of the vehicle body against an impact load from the front or side of the vehicle body.

¡To narrow the pillar width as viewed from the driver's position to reduce blind spots, the pillar's cross-sectional area is also reduced, and the pillar's rigidity is reduced. Moreover, if the strength and rigidity of the pillar are increased by using a high-strength material or filling a foam material, the cost increases. Therefore, it is desired to secure the strength and rigidity of the pillar while reducing the blind spot outside the vehicle as viewed from the driver's seat.

One aspect of the present invention is an upper part of a pillar of an automobile, and includes a structural member having a closed cross section in which a plurality of constituent members are combined via joints extending in the longitudinal direction, and the joints of the structural members are provided on the outside of the vehicle. An outer covering member that covers the surface is disposed.

As one embodiment, each of the plurality of constituent members has an outer flange that protrudes outward from the vehicle, and the outer flanges are joined together to form the joint portion. It enters the inside of the covering member.

As one embodiment, the plurality of constituent members are two members, each having an inner flange that protrudes inward of the vehicle on the diagonal side of the structural member with respect to the outer flange, and the inner flanges are joined together. Yes.

As an example, the surface formed by the outer flange and the surface formed by the inner flange form an angle of 25 to 40 degrees with respect to the vertical surface.

As an example, the surface formed by the outer flange and the inner flange of each component is substantially parallel.

As one example, the surfaces formed by the outer flange and the inner flange of each component are displaced from each other.

In one embodiment, each of the two components has a hat-shaped cross section.

In various embodiments of the present invention, as compared with the structure in which the flange of the structural member at the upper part of the pillar protrudes from the left and right when viewed from the direction of the driver's seat, the width can be reduced without reducing the cross-sectional area of the upper part of the pillar. Is good.

It is the figure which looked at the front pillar on the right side of a general automobile from the inside of the car. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 1 of the front pillar as one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the conventional front pillar taken along line BB in FIG. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1 of the front pillar of the embodiment of FIG. 2 for explaining a blind spot when the driver looks outside the vehicle. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1 of the conventional front pillar of FIG. 3 for explaining a blind spot when the driver looks outside the vehicle.

Hereinafter, various embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is generally directed to a pillar that constitutes a body frame of an automobile and supports a roof. In various embodiments, the pillar is preferably a front pillar (A pillar) on the front side of the front door, but may be a center pillar (B pillar) or a rear pillar (C pillar).

FIG. 1 shows a front pillar 10 on the right side of a right-hand drive vehicle as one embodiment. Roughly speaking, the front pillar 10 is divided into a pillar upper portion 12 between the windshield 50 (front glass) and the front door glass (see FIG. 2), and a pillar lower portion 14 continuous downward therefrom. The pillar lower portion 14 extends in a substantially vertical direction, but the extending direction of the pillar upper portion 12 forms various angles with respect to the vertical direction according to the vehicle type in accordance with the inclination angle of the windshield 50. In the present application, for convenience of explanation, a horizontal direction crossing the pillar upper portion 12 is defined as an X axis, and a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in a vertical plane including the longitudinal direction of the pillar upper portion 12 is defined as a Z axis. It can also be considered that the X axis is substantially in the width direction of the automobile. A plane orthogonal to the pillar upper portion 12 (a plane including the cross section shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) is an XZ plane.

As shown in FIG. 2, the pillar upper portion 12 includes a cylindrical metal structural member 20 having a closed cross section at the center. The structural member 20 is configured by joining several longitudinal constituent members 22 and 24 having a predetermined thickness. Any of the constituent members 22 and 24 plays a role different from that of the conventional hinge reinforcement member (for example, the hinge reinforcement member 128 of FIG. 3) in the front pillar 10, but may be called hinge reinforcement depending on circumstances. An outer covering member 30 is disposed outside the structural member 20 so as to cover a joint portion extending in the longitudinal direction. Since the central structural member 20 is mainly responsible for the rigidity and strength of the pillar, the outer covering member 30 can be made thinner than the structural member 20. The pillar upper portion 12 is connected to the pillar lower portion 14 and the roof side portion (not shown) via the outer covering member 30.

As shown in FIG. 2, the structural member 20 is preferably composed of two structural members 22 and 24. Preferably, the two components 22, 24 each have a grooved or hat-shaped cross section with a flange. With such a configuration, a closed cross-sectional structure can be easily formed. However, as another embodiment (not shown), the structural member 20 can be composed of three or more structural members. The two component members 22 and 24 have outer flanges 22a and 24a that protrude toward the outside of the vehicle, respectively, and the outer flanges 22a and 24a are welded to form the above-described joint portion. The outer covering member 30 has a shape having an inner portion 30a such as a groove-shaped cross section or a hat-shaped cross section, and the outer flanges 22a and 24a to which the constituent members 22 and 24 are joined enter the inner 30a of the outer covering member 30. The outer covering member 30 can be fixed to the outer wall surfaces 22d and 24d of the constituent members 22 and 24 at both edges. Preferably, the two component members 22 and 24 have inner flanges 22b and 24b respectively protruding toward the inside of the vehicle, and the inner flanges 22b and 24b are also welded. Accordingly, the inner flanges 22b and 24b are arranged on the diagonal side of the structural member 20 with respect to the outer flanges 22a and 24a. By adopting such a configuration, the inner flanges 22b and 24b also do not interfere with external visual recognition, and contribute to improving the bending rigidity of the pillar upper portion 12. Further, the inner flanges 22b and 24b and the outer flanges 22a and 24a can freely obtain necessary rigidity and strength by adjusting the protruding width.

FIG. 3 shows a cross section of an upper portion of a conventional pillar as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2016-159786. In this conventional configuration, the flanges of the outer member 130, the inner member 126, and the hinge reinforcement member 128 forming the upper part of the pillar are directed toward the windshield 150 and the front door glass 152, that is, toward the left and right as viewed from the direction of the driver's seat. It was sticking out. Compared with the conventional configuration, the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 2 can narrow the width of the flange of the structural member 20 without reducing the cross-sectional area of the pillar upper portion 12, and the visibility outside the vehicle is good. Furthermore, the inventor conducted strength analysis on the upper part of each pillar of the configuration of the example and the conventional configuration. For the embodiment, the structural member 20 composed of the two structural members 22 and 24 of FIG. 2 is analyzed, and for the conventional structure, the closed cross-sectional structure 120 composed of the inner member 126 and the hinge reinforcement member 128 of FIG. The cross-sectional shape of each member shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 was actually used. Further, since the area of the closed cross section has a correlation with the strength, the area was made equal between the example and the prior art to make the conditions equal. According to the analysis results, it was found that the bending rigidity of the upper portion of the pillar, particularly around the Z-axis, can be improved by about 4 times compared to the conventional case by adopting the cross-sectional shape of the pillar upper portion 12 of the embodiment. The bending rigidity around the Z-axis of the pillar upper portion 12 is important, for example, for securing the occupant's living space when the automobile rolls over. Arrows M _Z in FIG. 1 is bent around the Z-axis, an arrow M _X denotes the bending about the X axis.

As shown in FIG. 2, the surfaces formed by the outer flanges 22a and 24a and the inner flanges 22b and 24b are at an angle of 25 to 40 degrees with respect to the vertical plane including the length direction of the pillar upper portion 12. Good. In other words, in the cross section of the pillar upper portion 12 in the XZ plane shown in FIG. 2, the angles α and β formed by the mating surfaces of the outer flanges 22a and 24a and the mating surfaces of the inner flanges 22b and 24b with respect to the Z axis are 40 degrees. The inventor further analyzed the strength of the upper portion 12 of the pillar by changing the angle of the flange surface variously while maintaining the cross-sectional shape shown in FIG. Again, only the two structural members 22 and 24 in FIG. 2 were analyzed. According to the analysis results, setting the flange surface in the above angle range of 25 to 40 degrees provides a good balance of bending rigidity about the X axis and the Z axis, and one of them does not become too low. all right. Further, if such an angle range is set for the front pillar 10 on the same side as the driver's seat (for example, the right front pillar in the case of a right-hand drive vehicle), the width of the pillar upper portion 12 particularly when viewed from the driver's seat is sufficiently large. It can be narrowed to reduce blind spots. Regardless of whether the vehicle is a right-hand drive vehicle or a left-hand drive vehicle, the angle of the flange may be the same or changed between the left and right front pillars. The preferable angle range can be applied to a rear pillar that is often inclined like the front pillar 10. The surfaces formed by the outer flanges 22a and 24a and the inner flanges 22b and 24b may be substantially parallel (that is, α = β when the angle defined above is used). Thereby, the press formability at the time of flange formation can be improved.

The component members 22 and 24 of the structural member 20 included in the pillar upper portion 12 and the outer covering member 30 can be usually manufactured by performing appropriate press molding from a steel plate. The flanges of the plurality of constituent members 22 and 24 constituting the structural member 20 may be joined by any method as long as a welding method considered appropriate by those skilled in the art. However, the flange edge is preferably continuously welded by plasma welding or laser welding. As a result, it is not necessary to secure a wide area required for the spot welding in the flange, so that not only the rigidity can be improved but also the weight can be reduced. As long as the outer covering member 30 is welded to the structural member 20, any welding method may be used as long as it can be applied from the outer side of the structural member 20 having a closed cross section. However, it is preferable to weld by plasma welding, laser welding, arc welding or the like.

4 and 5 show the pillar upper portions 12 and 112 of the embodiment and the conventional configuration, respectively, in a cross section cut along a horizontal plane (AA line in FIG. 1) including the driver's line of sight. In the embodiment, the width of the pillar upper portion 12 can be freely changed for each vehicle type. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, in order to reduce the blind spot S as it moves away from the pillar, the width of the pillar upper portion 12 when viewed from the driver's seat is set to at least the width of the human eyes E. It needs to be narrower than the interval (which is considered to be roughly constant). Actually, the width of the pillar upper portion 12 is preferably set so that at least one eye E can see one point outside the vehicle at a certain distance from the driver (each part of the pedestrian or another vehicle). On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, in the conventional structure, the width of the pillar upper portion 112 is widened to obtain a required strength, and the blind spot S tends to increase as the distance increases.

As shown in FIG. 2, a garnish 40 can be attached to the pillar upper portion 12 as an interior material inside the structural member 20. Since the garnish 40 is usually opaque, it is preferable to prevent further blind spots along the bottom surfaces 22c and 24c of the components 22 and 24 having a hat-shaped cross section as much as possible. As an example, the garnish 40 may have a narrow U-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. Further, a windshield 50 is fixed to the pillar upper portion 12 along the constituent member 22 on the front side of the structural member 20. A resin cover 42 can be attached to the pillar upper portion 12 as an exterior material further outside the outer covering member 30. The side edge of the windshield 50 is covered with the resin cover 42. A weather strip 44 for preventing rainwater from entering along the rear component 24 of the structural member 20 is attached to the pillar upper portion 12. When the front door is closed, the front door glass 52 or the sash is sealed by the weather strip 44. It contacts the pillar upper part 12 in the state. In the space formed inside the garnish 40, the airbag 60 can be accommodated or the wire harness 70 can be routed. In this case, the inner flanges 22b and 24b are shifted laterally with respect to the outer flanges 22a and 24a (for example, closer to the front structural member 22 as shown in FIG. 2), so that the garnish 40 is not increased without increasing the width of the pillar upper portion 12. It is also possible to secure a sufficient storage space for the airbag 60 inside. Moreover, you may enable it to fix the airbag 60 and the wire harness 70 to this extension part by extending inner flange 22b, 24b of one or both component members more than the width | variety required for joining. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the inner flange 22 b of the front component 22 is extended beyond the inner flange 24 b of the rear component 24. 2 and 3, the chain lines indicating the weather strips 44 and 144, the airbags 60 and 160, and the wire harnesses 70 and 170 describe only rough positions, and do not represent actual shapes.

In addition to the above-described structural member 20, the pillar upper portion 12 may include a reinforcing member for enhancing rigidity and strength as necessary in the whole or a part of the longitudinal direction.

Although various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and those skilled in the art can make various modifications, substitutions, and improvements without departing from the spirit of the invention. Can do.

Claims (7)

1. It is an upper part of a pillar of an automobile, and includes a structural member having a closed cross-section in which a plurality of structural members are combined through joints extending in the longitudinal direction, and an outer covering member that covers the joints of the structural members is disposed outside the vehicle. The upper part of the pillar.
2. The pillar upper portion according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of constituent members has an outer flange projecting outward of the vehicle, and the outer flanges are joined to form the joint portion. The upper part of the pillar in which the outer flange enters the inside of the outer covering member.
3. The upper part of the pillar according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of constituent members are two members, and each has an inner flange on the diagonal side of the structural member with respect to the outer flange and projecting toward the inside of the vehicle. The top of the pillar is also joined.
4. The pillar upper portion according to claim 3, wherein the surface formed by the outer flange and the surface formed by the inner flange form an angle of 25 to 40 degrees with respect to the vertical plane, respectively.
5. The pillar upper portion according to claim 3, wherein the surface formed by the outer flange and the inner flange of each component is substantially parallel.
6. The pillar upper portion according to claim 5, wherein the surfaces formed by the outer flange and the inner flange of each component are shifted from each other.
7. The pillar upper portion according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein each of the two constituent members has a hat-shaped cross section.

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