Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Door or window with specified vehicle feature
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-31
2002-03-12
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Door or window with specified vehicle feature
C296S152000, C296S146900, C296S208000, C296S146500, C049S502000, C174S1520GM, C174S15300A
Reexamination Certificate
active
06354651
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable arrangement structure of the door wire harness of a vehicle and a grommet used for cable arrangement.
2. Description of Background Information
Since the inside of a door frame of a vehicle becomes soaked in water which is transmitted past a glass, a door wire also gets soaked when the door harness is provided in the inside of the door frame. The sub-stream of the soaked door harness passes through an opening provided in the inner panel area of the door frame, and is further passed through a hole in a sealing screen between the inner panel area of the door frame and a trim cover, in order to connect to electrical equipment, such as a power window switch, etc., which is installed in the trim cover. Accordingly, the aforementioned electrical equipment is exposed to water splashing, between the sealing screen and the trim cover, due to soakage through the door harness. Accordingly, as
FIG. 6
illustrates, the door harness W/H is conventionally provided to the downward direction in the inside area of the door frame to release the water, and then, is passed through a penetration hole
1
a
in the inner panel area
1
and the opening in the sealing screen to be connected to the connector which is provided in a trim cover.
In the aforementioned structure, the door harness must be redundantly lengthened to get the door harness detoured to the downward direction, and also external equipment for protecting the detoured door harness to the downward direction is required. Moreover, even if a door harness is detoured in the downward direction, an operation for penetrating a hole in a sealing screen is necessary, which causes a problem as to the time required for the operation.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, proposed solutions are conventionally presented in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. (Hei)179156/1995, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. (Hei)48241/1997, and Japanese Unexamined Publication No. (Hei)40155/1996 etc. In any of these solutions, as briefly shown in
FIG. 7
, a depression
3
having an L-shape is formed extending from the side panel area
2
a
of a hinge installation area over to the inner panel area
2
b
of the door frame
2
, and an installation unit
4
covering the depression
3
is provided. The installation unit
4
is made up of an L-shaped steel plate
5
, or a resin plate, provided with a harness penetration hole
5
a
and a rubber material
6
, used for contacting the wire harness, is installed on the inside of the plate. A grommet
7
having the door harness W/H internally inserted in the penetration hole is installed, and the door harness W/H is pulled out from the grommet
7
at the door side and is provided in the external surface of the inner panel area of the door frame by precisely adjusting the internal surface of the installation unit
4
, in order not to pass through the inside of the door frame which gets soaked in water. In this construction, the installation unit
4
passes through a weather strip
8
which is vertically installed in the side panel area
2
a
of a hinge installation area, since the installation unit
4
extends to the inside panel area of the door.
In the aforementioned structure, the appearance may be damaged because the installation unit
4
, which is installed extends from the side panel area
2
a
over the inner panel area
2
b
of the door, can be seen. Since the installation unit
4
passes through the weather strip
8
, a gap caused by floating the position of the weather strip
8
can easily occur, and accordingly, water seepage through the gap into the inside of a vehicle is a possibility. Moreover, when the installation unit
4
is introduced, assembly costs increase due to the increase in the number of areas used. Also, together with greater time required for installing the installation unit
4
in the door harness W/H, even if the construction provides for installing the installation unit
4
in the door frame with a clamping bolt
9
, the operation performance will greatly deteriorate because an operator has to bring bolts and clamping tools with him while conducting the installation.
The present invention does not have the aforementioned problem that results from a depression provided extending from a side panel area toward an inner panel area of a door frame that is closed with an installation unit. However, by the construction of the present invention is such that a door harness pulled out to the external surface of the inner panel area is prevented from water splashing so that the conventional installation unit having a complicated structure is not required, and also prevents interference with a weather strip, and the main purposes are to reduce costs and decrease the number of operations, together with the improvement of appearance and waterproofing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, the present invention presents a cable arrangement for a door wire harness, including a door harness provided from a body side of a vehicle over a door side and reaching to an inside area of a door frame by passing through a first penetration hole provided in a body of the vehicle to a second penetration hole provided in a side panel area of a hinge installation area of the door frame. The harness is pulled out between the door frame and a trim cover by passing through a third penetration hole provided in an inner panel area of the door frame. The area of the door harness extends from the first penetration hole to the third penetration hole and is passed through the inside of consecutive grommets. Joint areas provided in the grommets are connected with the first penetration hole, the second penetration hole, and the third penetration hole, respectively.
As mentioned above, the door wire harness extends from a body side of the vehicle to the door side, where the door harness passes through the second penetration hole provided in a side panel area of the door frame to the inside of the door frame, and is pulled out from the third penetration hole provided in an inner panel area. The harness passes through the inside of consecutive grommets extending from the first penetration hole provided in the body of the vehicle to the third penetration hole provided in the inner panel area of the door frame. Thus, water soakage occurring between the door frame and a trim cover through which the door harness is pulled out from the inner panel area of the door frame can be prevented because the door harness is not exposed to water splashing.
Also, in the aforementioned construction, only one grommet is required together with the provision of penetration holes in just the side panel area and the inner panel area of the door frame. Accordingly, cost reduction will be attained by decreasing the number of areas and operations since an installation unit for closing the L-shaped depression, which is conventionally provided to extend from the side panel area to the inner panel area of a hinge installation side is not required. In addition, the aforementioned structure can be commonly provided for both left and right doors, and, together with the improvement of appearance, can prevent water soakage through a weather strip because the weather strip is not penetrated by this construction.
The diameter of the first penetration hole provided in the body of the vehicle is smaller than the diameter of the second penetration hole provided in the hinge installation area of the door frame, and the diameter of the second penetration hole is smaller than the diameter of the third penetration hole provided in the inside of the door frame. With these settings of the individual diameters, a grommet insertion operation can be easily conducted for installation of the grommet, having a door harness pass through, to the door frame and a body of a vehicle because the insertion operation starts at the third penetration hole, proceeds to the second penetration hole, and then to the first penetration hole.
Also, it is
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Sumitomo Wiring Systems Ltd.
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