Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Structural detail
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-24
2001-05-22
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Structural detail
C296S070000, C296S072000, C296S192000, C280S779000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234569
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a subassembly for a cockpit of a motor vehicle. The present invention also relates to a method of producing a subassembly for a cockpit of a motor vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
German Patent document DE 197 53 877 discloses a cockpit for motor vehicles having an air-conditioning system arranged in the area of the center console and underneath a crossmember, with the crossmember serving as an air guide duct. For this purpose, the crossmember is formed of a hollow design and has dividing walls to feed the air to the different air outlet openings, namely the defrost outlet, side outlets and center outlet. The complete integration of the crossmember into the cockpit and air-conditioning system has a number of disadvantages. A crossmember of this type must have a very complicated shape, since it must have dividing walls which are shaped and arranged aerodynamically in order to guide the air from the air-conditioning system to the outlets without a major pressure loss. For example during the development of the vehicle model, or in the event of a model change to the vehicle, it may be necessary to change the air-conditioning system and the air guides may therefore need to be changed. Thus, the internal construction of the crossmember would have to be adapted to the new air-conditioning system which could involve complicated modifications. The crossmember must also be shaped with an aesthetic form, since the outlet openings are visible from the interior of the vehicle. Crossmembers, which typically extend between the A columns of a motor vehicle and hold the cockpit, are generally formed of metal because of its rigidity. Since the metal crossmember conducts heat well, during the feed of warm air in the winter and cool air in the summer into the interior of the vehicle, in the German Patent, the crossmember first has its temperature controlled and only then does air at the desired temperature emerge from the crossmember into the vehicle cavity. Also, condensation of humidity in the crossmember can occur in hot and moist climatic zones, which is undesirable and may lead to corrosion and unpleasant odors due to the formation of bacteria. Overall, the air-conditioning system of the German Patent cannot be fabricated without the crossmember on the vehicle side.
European Patent No. 713,798 discloses a dashboard arrangement which includes three main components: an air-conditioning system which is open toward the top, a shell-like component which forms the upwardly open air guide ducts from the air-conditioning system to side outlets, center outlets and the defrost outlet, and a decorative part, visible from the interior of the vehicle, which closes the open top of the air-conditioning system and air guide ducts. The European Patent relates to the combination of air-conditioning system and air guidance system with the decorative covering. The air-conditioning system and the air guide paths are determined by the design of the covering decorative part such that the functioning of the air-conditioning system and the design of the dashboard must be changed or coordinated together. It may then occur that, because of design configurations, the air-conditioning system may operate inadequately. Furthermore, this arrangement can only function as an air-conditioning unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the known art. Another object of the invention is to provide an improved subassembly for a cockpit of a motor vehicle which can be produced simply and cost-effectively. The subassembly according to the invention has as few parts as possible and permits, in particular, the heating or air-conditioning system to be coordinated to the greatest possible extent without having to take into account other predefinitions, such as, for example, the specific vehicle design. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method of producing the subassembly for a cockpit. The forgoing objects and other objects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and can be achieved in accordance with the present invention as described herein.
The design of the cockpit can be made irrespective of the functions of the cockpit, which are predefined by the functional components, by simply covering a T-shaped component with the decorative parts configured from an aesthetic point of view. In this way, the formation of various cockpits for different vehicles can be carried out with changes to the particular design needed only very late in the production process and due primarily to the interior design of the vehicle. By using the subassembly according to the invention, standardization in the production of cockpits can be achieved, by which costs can be saved, since it is not necessary at each design change, to redesign and coordinate the functional components of the heating or air-conditioning system with the associated air paths.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, the subassembly includes at least one air guide duct that has a shell-like duct component which can be covered to form the air guide duct. The housing of a heating or air-conditioning system and the shell-like duct component form a T-shaped structural unit, on which a large number of functional components of the cockpit, such as, for example, an operating device of the heating or air-conditioning system; audio and/or visual devices, such as a sound system or navigation device; air outlet nozzles; instrumentation devices; a steering column; an airbag; storage compartments, or the like can be mounted. The present invention achieves the integration of these functional units into a structural unit, which has a considerable cost-reducing effect, thereby reducing the need for multiple parts and improving the logistics of cockpit design. Furthermore, as a result of the integration of the functional components on or in the structural unit, an optimum separation between the functional requirements and the design/configuration requirements of the cockpit is obtained.
It yet another embodiment of the invention, a first of at least two housing parts of the heating or air-conditioning housing is formed to be in a single piece with the shell-like duct component, such that the first housing part can be produced cost-effectively with the shell-like duct part combined to form a T-shaped structural unit. A second housing part is then used to close the heating or air-conditioning system housing.
In another embodiment of the invention, a parting plane between the first and second housing parts extends in such a way that the second housing part can be separated from the first housing part in the direction of the interior of the vehicle. In this way, the components of the heating or air-conditioning system can be easily reached for repair or maintenance purposes after the cockpit is installed in a vehicle. In another embodiment of the invention, the parting plane is designed in such a way that the second housing part forms a bottom pan of the housing.
In another aspect of the invention, the housing parts are preferably held together and reinforced by antivibration struts, which connect to a crossmember to the vehicle floor.
In a further embodiment, the parting plane can be arranged in such a way that the parting plane divides the T-shaped structural unit into two structural unit halves, each half having a housing half and a channel component half connected thereto in one piece. The T-shaped structural unit, or its parts, may be formed of any suitable material, but preferably are formed of plastic and are produced by an injection-molding process.
In another aspect of the invention, the T-shaped structural unit has a large number of areas to hold a wide range of functional components, such as, for example, an operating device of the heating or air-conditioning system, a radio, a navigation device, an airbag, or instruments, such as speedometer or other vehicle monitoring gauges. According to this embodiment, the T-
Derleth Martin
Ebner Guenter
Neuss Sabine
Wolf Walter
Behr GmbH & Co.
Foley & Lardner
Pape Joseph D.
Patel Kiran
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