JP7610910B2 - Vehicle structure with sliding doors - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle structure, such as an automobile, that is equipped with a sliding door.

Specific examples of vehicle structures equipped with sliding doors include those described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-233699 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-233699.
These vehicle structures are equipped with a sliding door for opening and closing an opening for getting on and off provided on the side of the vehicle. This sliding door is capable of so-called automatic opening and closing operations, and as a means for this, a driving force imparting mechanism for the sliding door is provided on a slide rail (center slide rail) for supporting and guiding the sliding door. This driving force imparting mechanism is a mechanism for imparting a driving force to the sliding door for moving the sliding door in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, and is configured by combining a belt (moving member) that is connected to the sliding door via a connecting part and moves using a motor as a driving source, and a belt guide (moving member guide) that guides the movement of this belt.
According to this configuration, the driving force of the motor is used to move the belt, and the sliding door is moved in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle in conjunction with the movement of the belt, thereby enabling the so-called automatic opening and closing operation of the sliding door.

However, there is room for improvement in the above-mentioned conventional technology, as described below.

That is, the motor and its accessories of the driving force imparting mechanism for the sliding door are provided on the inside of the rear side outer panel in the vehicle width direction (inside the vehicle compartment). Therefore, an opening is provided in the rear side outer panel in a portion near the motor attachment location, and a part of the belt (moving member) set on the outer surface side of the rear side outer panel is inserted into the vehicle compartment through the opening to impart driving force from the motor.
When such a configuration is adopted, attempts have been made to reinforce the periphery of the opening with a reinforcing member, but conventionally, this reinforcing member has only reinforced the periphery of the opening.
In order to make the opening and closing action of a sliding door stable, smooth, and reliable, it is necessary to effectively increase the strength of the mounting points of the slide rail and the driving force applying mechanism. If the strength of these points is low, the relative positional relationship between the related members will be misaligned, which may impair the smoothness of the sliding door when it moves.
However, in the past, no means have been proposed that can adequately prevent or suppress such problems, and there is room for improvement in this regard.

JP 2019-100081 A JP 2019-108740 A

The present invention was conceived in light of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its objective is to provide a vehicle structure equipped with a sliding door that effectively increases the strength of the mounting points of the slide rail and the driving force imparting mechanism using a simple means, thereby improving the smoothness of the opening and closing operation of the sliding door.

To solve the above problems, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

The vehicle structure provided with a sliding door according to the present invention comprises a slide rail attached to the outer surface side of the rear side outer panel of the vehicle, extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and supporting and guiding the sliding door so that the sliding door can move in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and a driving force imparting mechanism that imparts to the sliding door a driving force for moving the sliding door in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The driving force imparting mechanism comprises a belt or wire-shaped moving member that is connected to the sliding door and moves using a motor as a driving source, and a moving member guide that guides the movement of the moving member. One part of the moving member is located on the outer surface side of the rear side outer panel, while the other part is located on the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The sliding rail is configured to enter the vehicle width direction inside the rear side outer panel through an opening provided in the rear side outer panel and to receive a driving force from the motor, and a reinforcing member is superimposed around the opening of the rear side outer panel to reinforce this area. The reinforcing member has an extension that extends from the periphery of the opening along the slide rail to the front side and/or rear side of the vehicle, and the slide rail, the motor, and the moving member guide are attached to the reinforcing area of the rear side outer panel that is reinforced by superimposing the reinforcing member.

According to this configuration, the following effects can be obtained.
That is, the reinforcing member not only reinforces the periphery of a predetermined opening in the rear side outer panel, but also effectively reinforces the mounting portion of the slide rail. Therefore, the strength of the mounting portion of the slide rail can be increased, and the stability and smoothness of the movement of the sliding door supported by the slide rail can be improved. Furthermore, if the slide rail, the motor, and the guide for the moving member are mounted in a reinforced area reinforced by a single reinforcing member, it is possible to prevent the relative positional relationship of the three from being displaced when some force acts on these areas. Therefore, it is possible to further improve the smoothness and stability of the opening and closing movement of the sliding door and increase the reliability of the operation.
In the present invention, an extension portion is provided on a part of a reinforcing member for reinforcing the periphery of a predetermined opening provided in a rear side outer panel, but such a configuration can be easily realized and there is no need to, for example, significantly increase the number of reinforcing members or significantly increase the thickness of the reinforcing members, etc. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately suppress increases in vehicle weight and manufacturing costs.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic side view showing a main portion of an example of a vehicle structure equipped with a sliding door according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of the vehicle in a state where the sliding door of FIG. 1 is omitted. 3A is a cross-sectional view taken along line IIIa-IIIa in FIG. 2, and FIG. 3B is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main portion of FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2. This is a cross-sectional view taken along line VV of Figure 2. 3 is a schematic perspective view of the essential parts of the vehicle shown in FIG. 2 with a body side cover removed. FIG. 7A is a cross-sectional view taken along line VIIa-VIIa in FIG. 6, and FIG. 7B is a cross-sectional view taken along line VIIb-VIIb in FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the main part of FIG. 6 . 9 is a schematic perspective view of the essential parts showing the configuration in a state where the slide rail and the driving force applying mechanism in FIG. 8 have been removed (rear side outer panel and reinforcing member). FIG. 7A is a side view of the main parts of the vehicle structure equipped with the sliding door shown in FIG. 2 as seen from inside the vehicle compartment (corresponding to the view of arrow X in FIG. 7A), FIG. 7B is a side view of the main parts in a state in which the motor unit is omitted in FIG. 7A, and FIG. 7C is an exploded side view of the main parts of FIG.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

In the vehicle structure A with a sliding door shown in FIG. 1 (hereinafter, appropriately abbreviated as "vehicle structure A"), a sliding door 11 is provided that can move back and forth in the vehicle longitudinal direction to open and close an opening 10 for getting on and off provided on the side of the vehicle 1. An upper roller 12a, a lower roller 12b, and first and second rollers 51, 52 as center rollers (details will be described later with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG. 5) are attached near the upper end and lower end of the front of the sliding door 11, and at the middle part in the vertical height direction of the rear. These are supported by and can move along upper, lower, and center slide rails 14a, 14b, 2 that are provided on the vehicle body and extend in the vehicle longitudinal direction. The center slide rail 2 corresponds to a specific example of the slide rail referred to in the present invention (claim 1), and the other slide rails 14a, 14b do not correspond to it.

As can be clearly seen in Figures 2 to 8, vehicle structure A is equipped with a driving force imparting mechanism B for the sliding door in addition to the aforementioned center slide rail 2 as a means for enabling the sliding door 11 to move in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle. It also has a body side cover 3 and a reinforcing member 4 as members or parts associated with or corresponding to these. The details of these are explained below.

The slide rail 2 is attached to the outer surface of the rear side outer panel 15 of the vehicle 1 and extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. However, as shown in FIG. 8, the front area of the slide rail 2 is curved along the curved surface of the rear edge 10a of the opening 10 for getting on and off. As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the slide rail 2 has a bottom wall 20, a side wall 21, and an upper Π-shaped portion 22, and has a cross-sectional shape that opens outward in the vehicle width direction. In contrast, the first and second rollers 51, 52 fitted into the slide rail 2 are attached to a curved arm 50 attached to the slide door 11. The first roller 51 can roll on the bottom wall 20 (can rotate around the horizontal axis La in FIG. 3(b)), and the weight of the slide door 11 is supported by the slide rail 2 via the first roller 51. The second roller 52 can roll within the upper π-shaped portion 22 (can rotate around the vertical axis Lb in FIG. 3(b)), and the presence of this second roller 52 prevents the sliding door 11 from falling over.

The reinforcing member 4 is formed by pressing a metal plate or the like, and is overlapped and joined to the inner surface (the interior side of the vehicle) of the rear side outer panel 15. This joining is achieved by welding such as spot welding.
As can be seen clearly in Figure 9, this reinforcing member 4 has an opening 40 formed therein that corresponds to an opening 16, described below, provided in the rear side outer panel 15, and has a main portion 41 that is arranged opposite the periphery of the opening 16, and an extension portion 42 that is connected to the rear side of the vehicle of this main portion 41 and extends in the fore-aft direction of the vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 4, the slide rail 2 is attached to the rear side outer panel 15 by using bolts and nuts 9a, 9b at the location where the bulging portion 15b of the rear side outer panel 15 is formed.
However, the extension 42 of the reinforcing member 4 is disposed so as to overlap the attachment portion of the slide rail 2, thereby increasing the strength of the attachment portion of the slide rail 2. The reinforcing member 4 is provided with a bolt insertion hole 43 corresponding to the bolt/nut 9a, 9b.

The body side cover 3 covers almost the entire area of the slide rail 2 and the driving force imparting mechanism B for the slide door located above it, and serves to protect them and improve the appearance of the vehicle 1. The body side cover 3 has bracket legs 31 (see Figures 3 and 5) with multiple locking projections 30 at their tips on the inner surface side. The body side cover 3 is attached to the rear side outer panel 15 by inserting and locking the locking projections 30 into multiple holes 15e provided in the rear side outer panel 15.

2 to 8, the driving force imparting mechanism B for the sliding door is a mechanism that imparts to the sliding door 11 a driving force for moving the sliding door 11 in the front-rear direction of the vehicle along the slide rail 2. The driving force imparting mechanism B includes a belt 6, a belt guide 7, a belt cover 68, and a motor unit 8 including a motor M shown in FIG.
Among these, the belt 6 and the belt guide 7 correspond to specific examples of the "moving member" and the "guide for the moving member" in the present invention (claim 1), respectively.

The belt 6 is, for example, an endless timing belt.
The belt guide 7 is for guiding the belt 6 along a fixed path, and as shown in Fig. 7, is configured such that front and rear pulleys 71a, 71b and a plurality of intermediate pulleys 71c are provided on the upper surface of a belt guide main body 70 extending in the vehicle front-rear direction. The belt 6 is wound around the front and rear pulleys 71a, 71b and can circulate between them in both forward and reverse directions.

The belt guide 7 is disposed and fixed on the outer surface of the rear side outer panel 15, above the slide rail 2. For example, the fixing means may be a bolt fastening means for bracket portions 76a, 76b provided at both front and rear ends of the belt guide 7 to other bracket portions 26a, 26b provided at both front and rear ends of the slide rail 2. In addition, an upwardly extending bracket portion 76c is provided midway in the front-rear direction of the belt guide 7, and this bracket portion 76c is attached to the rear side outer panel 15 and the reinforcing member 4 using a bolt 9c and a screw hole portion 9d.

As described above, the belt guide 7 is attached to the outer surface of the rear side outer panel 15, but the belt guide 7 has an auxiliary area 72 located on the vehicle widthwise inward side (inside the vehicle compartment) of the rear side outer panel 15 (see FIG. 7). The auxiliary area 72 is an area that partially protrudes inward in the vehicle width direction from the other parts of the belt guide 7 and passes through the opening 16 of the rear side outer panel 15 into the vehicle compartment. A part of the belt 6 enters the auxiliary area 72, and a pulley 71d for driving the belt is attached thereto. The pulley 71d is driven and rotated by the motor unit 8 shown in FIG. 10, causing the belt 6 to circulate along a predetermined path.

A connecting member 67 is attached to the belt 6, which is movable in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle in association with the movement of the belt 6, and the connecting member 67 is connected to the arm 50 of the sliding door 11 via a bolt fastening means or the like. Therefore, when the belt 6 is driven (moved) by the motor unit 8, the sliding door 11 moves in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.

The motor unit 8 comprises a motor M, a rotary drive shaft 80 rotated at an appropriate speed by the motor M, and a unit case 81 that holds the motor M and its accessories together. As shown clearly in FIG. 10(c), the unit case 81 is attached to both the reinforcing member 4 and the belt guide 7 by screwing it into a weld nut 9f welded to the reinforcing member 4 using a bolt 9e, and into a threaded portion 9h of the auxiliary region 72 of the belt guide 7 using another bolt 9g. The rotary drive shaft 80 of the motor unit 8 is drivingly connected to a pulley 71d for driving the belt.

As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the belt guide main body 70 includes an upper wall 70a, an upright wall 70b, an auxiliary wall 70c, and a lower wall 70d. The upper wall 70a is a generally horizontal strip extending in the vehicle longitudinal direction. The upright wall 70b is a wall located between two parallel parts of the belt 6 and standing up in the vertical height direction, and is provided continuously or intermittently below the upper wall 70a. The auxiliary wall 70c plays a role in preventing the belt 6 from rising. The lower wall 70d is a portion provided so as to bend inward in the vehicle width direction from the lower end of the upright wall 70b, and is provided in a continuous manner extending in the vehicle longitudinal direction. As will be described later, this lower wall 70d plays a role in preventing the belt 6 from getting wet. This lower wall portion 70d is provided continuously over almost the entire length of the belt guide 7, but instead, it can be provided only in a location corresponding to the bead portion 15a (described later), i.e., in the area rearward of the opening 16.

The belt cover 68 (moving member cover) is a member that covers the upper side of the belt guide 7 and the belt 6 of the driving force imparting mechanism B, and is made of, for example, resin. Since there is a small gap between the upper part of the body side cover 3 and the rear side outer panel 15, there is a risk that water such as rainwater may enter the inside of the body side cover 3 through such a gap, as shown by the arrow N2 in FIG. 3(a). The belt cover 68 is a member for preventing the belt 6 from getting wet with such water. This belt cover 68 is fixed and attached to the belt guide 7. As a means for this purpose, as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of additional upper wall parts 70a' having, for example, a horizontal L-shaped or U-shaped cross section are provided at appropriate intervals in the front-rear direction of the vehicle on the upper wall part 70a of the belt guide 7. The belt cover 68 has an upwardly protruding portion 68a that rests on the multiple additional upper wall portions 70a', and the upwardly protruding portion 68a is fixed to the additional upper wall portion 70a' using a pin-shaped locking clip 90.

In this embodiment, the rear side outer panel 15 is provided with a bead portion 15a that protrudes outward in the vehicle width direction and extends in the vehicle front-rear direction. This bead portion 15a is a portion for preventing water (such as splash water while the vehicle is moving or water during a car wash) that has entered the gap C formed between the rear side outer panel 15 and the slide rail 2 with force from passing through the gap C and getting on the belt 6, as shown by the arrow N1 in Figures 3 and 5. If the belt 6 gets wet and freezes in the cold season, it can cause a problem that makes it difficult to open and close the sliding door 11, but the bead portion 15a helps to prevent such a problem. In other words, the bead portion 15a blocks water that has advanced upward through the gap C, preventing much water from rising above the bead portion 15a, or changing the direction of water's advance to the outside in the vehicle width direction so that it does not get on the belt 6.

Next, we will explain the operation of the vehicle structure A described above.

First, the periphery of the opening 16 of the rear side outer panel 15 is reinforced by the main portion 41 of the reinforcing member 4, making it difficult for deformation to occur due to the influence of the torque of the motor M, etc. Also, the mounting portion of the slide rail 2 is reinforced by the extension portion 42 of the reinforcing member 4. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 10, the motor unit 8 (motor M) is mounted to the main portion 41 of the reinforcing member 4 by using a bolt 9e and a welded nut 9f. As shown in Figs. 6 and 8, the bracket portion 76c at the longitudinal middle portion of the belt guide 7 is mounted to the main portion 41 of the reinforcing member 4 by using a bolt 9c and a screw hole portion 9d.

Thus, according to this embodiment, the reinforcing member 4 not only reinforces the periphery of the opening 16 of the rear side outer panel 15, but also effectively enhances the mounting strength of the members closely related to the opening and closing operation of the sliding door 11. As a result, not only can the supporting state of the sliding door 11 be stabilized, but also distortion occurring in the areas between the members and misalignment with each other can be suppressed.
In particular, since the slide rail 2, the motor M, and the belt guide 7 are all attached to one reinforcing member 4, even if some force is applied to the attachment areas, it is possible to make it even more difficult for the relative positional relationship of the three to become displaced. This improves the smoothness and stability of the opening and closing operation of the slide door 11, and increases the reliability of the operation.
In this embodiment, there is no need to increase the number of reinforcing members 4 or to significantly increase their thickness, so that increases in vehicle weight and manufacturing costs can be appropriately suppressed.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the vehicle structure equipped with the sliding door according to the present invention can be freely designed and modified in various ways within the intended scope of the present invention.

In the above embodiment, the moving member and the guide for the moving member in the present invention (claim 1) are a belt and a belt guide, but are not limited to this. The belt is not limited to a timing belt, and may be another type of belt, such as a chain belt. Also, instead of a belt, the moving member may be a wire-like member (a wire itself or a wire-like member). The configuration of the guide for the moving member can be changed as appropriate depending on the type of moving member.

The reinforcing member may be overlapped on the outer surface of the rear side outer panel instead of on the inner surface of the rear side outer panel. In the above embodiment, the extension portion of the reinforcing member extends in the vehicle longitudinal direction on the vehicle rear side of the opening (opening 16), but this is not limited thereto, and the reinforcing member may be positioned on the vehicle front side of the opening, or on both the vehicle front side and the vehicle rear side, and extend in the vehicle longitudinal direction.
The reinforcing member can also be used when attaching a member other than the members (such as the slide rail) in the above-described embodiment.
In the above-described embodiment, bolts and nuts, locking projections, and the like are used as means for connecting a plurality of members, but various other connecting means can also be used.

A: Vehicle structure equipped with a sliding door B: Driving force imparting mechanism for the sliding door M: Motor 11: Sliding door 15: Rear side outer panel 16: Opening 2: Slide rail 4: Reinforcing member 41: Main portion 42: Extension portion 6: Belt (moving member)
7 Belt guide (guide for moving parts)

Claims (1)

a slide rail attached to an outer surface of a rear side outer panel of the vehicle, extending in a front-rear direction of the vehicle, and supporting and guiding the sliding door so that the sliding door can move in the front-rear direction of the vehicle;
a driving force imparting mechanism that imparts a driving force to the sliding door for moving the sliding door in a vehicle front-rear direction;
It is equipped with
the driving force imparting mechanism includes a belt- or wire-shaped moving member that is connected to the sliding door and moves using a motor as a driving source, and a moving member guide that guides the movement of the moving member;
a portion of the movable member is located on an outer surface side of the rear side outer panel, while another portion of the movable member is configured to enter more inward in the vehicle width direction than the rear side outer panel through an opening provided in the rear side outer panel, and to receive a driving force from the motor,
A vehicle structure having a sliding door, wherein a reinforcing member is superimposed around the opening of the rear side outer panel to reinforce the area,
the reinforcing member includes an extension portion extending from a periphery of the opening along the slide rail toward a front side of the vehicle and/or a rear side of the vehicle,
A vehicle structure equipped with a sliding door, characterized in that the slide rail, the motor, and the guide for the movable member are attached to a reinforced area of the rear side outer panel that is reinforced by overlapping the reinforcing member.

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