Motor vehicles – Power – Radiators and condensers – mounting
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-30
2003-09-02
Rice, Kenneth R. (Department: 3627)
Motor vehicles
Power
Radiators and condensers, mounting
C267S141000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612387
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the mounting of motor vehicle equipment on a part of this vehicle.
In particular, it relates to the mounting of heat exchangers, for example the radiator of the cooling circuit of the engine, or in addition the radiator for heating the passenger compartment or the condenser of the air-conditioning circuit.
It applies in particular—but in a non-restrictive manner—to the mounting of these items of equipment on a front face of a vehicle, in particular produced in the form of a single-unit module provided with various items of equipment, prepared and provided by the supplier, ready to be mounted on the vehicle by the manufacturer.
Until present, the heat exchanger has been fixed to the structural element of the vehicle by means of metal springs fixed at the upper region of the structural element, on the one hand, and elastic cushioning blocks in the lower portion, on the other hand.
The springs enable the various dimensional tolerances to be accommodated and allows the mounting of different types of radiators by virtue of their flexibility. With respect to the blocks, they ensure the cushioning and centering on the support.
However, this mounting technique requires the positioning of mounted elements (springs and fixing pins) implying a additional cost by virtue of the necessity of providing supplementary parts and the time required for mounting them in the assembly process.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One of the objects of the invention is to remove this difficulty, by proposing a new mounting configuration that allows the number of parts necessary for assembly to be reduced, rapid mounting to be ensured and adequate flexibility to be retained in order to accept several types of different items of equipment.
For this purpose, the invention proposes a device for mounting an item of equipment for a motor vehicle on a structural element of said motor vehicle, which forms the support for this item of equipment, in which the item of equipment and the support are joined at one point at least by two matching cooperating elements, and in which the cooperating element of the item of equipment is elastically deformable as it is moved away from or brought closer to the support, to enable, by direct interlocking at the said point, mounting with the cushioning of the item of equipment on the support.
The item of equipment may in particular be a heat exchanger comprising an array of tubes assembled at each of their opposite ends by a collector plate closed by a fluid tank, the cooperating element of the equipment then being a structural part of the fluid tank.
In particular, the fluid tank may be formed so as to have a recess turned towards the support and cooperating with a matching finger borne by said support and received by the recess, or vice versa, so as to have a stud turned towards the support and cooperating with a matching aperture formed on said support and receiving the stud.
The recess or the stud of the fluid tank may be situated at the site of a counter-curve formed either at the ends, or at the top of the fluid tank.
This counter-curve is advantageously adjacent to a main curve, so as to form a curve inversion. This main curve may comprise at least one arc that comes to join the counter-curve.
The invention very advantageously applies to the case in which the structural element of the vehicle is a front module.
From another viewpoint, the invention relates to a structural element of a motor vehicle, comprising a mounting device as defined above.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2755874 (1956-07-01), Adloff
patent: 3121467 (1964-02-01), Bryant
patent: 4269400 (1981-05-01), Jensen
patent: 4651839 (1987-03-01), Isobe
patent: 4834348 (1989-05-01), Jordens et al.
patent: 4869479 (1989-09-01), Colonel et al.
patent: 21 37 121 (1973-02-01), None
patent: 195 24 668 (1998-03-01), None
patent: 0 843 146 (1998-05-01), None
International Search Report dated Jan. 21, 2000.
Guyomard Jean-Nicolas
Naty Jean-Claude
Sigonneau Jacques
Gort Elaine
Morgan & Finnegan , LLP
Rice Kenneth R.
Valeo Thermique Moteur
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