Door structure for vehicle

Details Door structure for vehicle Door structure for vehicle

2002-06-25

2003-12-09

Patel, Kiran (Department: 3612)

Land vehicles: bodies and tops

Bodies

Door or window with specified vehicle feature

C296S146120, C296S182100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06659537

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a door structure for a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A car body side portion has a passenger entrance/exit opening opened and closed by a side door. The side door mostly has a front side door for the front seat and a rear side door for the rear seat. In some cases, the opening opened and closed by the front and rear side doors does not have a so-called center pillar and accordingly forms one large opening continuous in the car body back-and-forth direction (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-20423).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-20423 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,930,836) discloses a door structure in which the front side door opens backward and the rear side door opens forward. A structure in which the rear end of a front side door in a closed state overlaps the front end of a rear side door in a closed state to cover it externally in the direction of car body width, that is, a door structure in which the rear side door can be opened provided that the front side door is opened, is also disclosed. This door structure is employed in small trucks having a large car body strength.
Recently, in order to improve safety in case of side collision where the car body is collided at the side, techniques for preventing the side door from being largely displaced internally in the direction of car body width, i.e., into the car compartment, are often employed. As such technique for regulating large displacement of the side door into the car compartment in the case of side collision, one called a catcher pin structure is available (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-40259). According to this structure, a projection serving as an engaging portion is formed on either one of the side door and car body, and a hole serving as an engaging target portion to engage with the projection is formed in the other one of the side door and car body. When side collision occurs, the engaging portion and the engaging target portion engage with each other so the side door engages with the car body better.
More specifically, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-40259, an engaging pin projects backward from the rear end of a rear door, and the corner of the periphery of the wheel housing of the rear fender is reinforced by a reinforcement. An engaging pin
10
and an engaging hole are formed at this corner. The engaging hole engages with the engaging pin
10
so that the movement of the rear end of the rear door forward and toward the car compartment is regulated. The lower end of the reinforcement is connected to the side sill.
An impact bar is sometimes disposed in the side door to extend in the back-and-forth direction of the car body, in order that deformation of the side door itself is prevented as much as possible (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-250370).
More specifically, according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-250370, impact bars are provided to the lower portion and upper end, respectively, in the door main body. The lower impact bar corresponding to the height of the fender is arranged on the outer side in the direction of thickness of the door with respect to the upper impact bar, and is inclined downward to the back.
In a passenger car-type vehicle, it has been discussed to employ a structure in which an opening in a car body side portion, which is opened and closed by front and side rear doors, forms one large opening continuous in the back-and-forth direction. A passenger car, however, does not often have a sufficiently large car body strength when compared to a truck, and it is important how to prevent or reduce effectively a large deformation of a side door into the car compartment in the case of side collision. Particularly, when a high-rigidity vehicle side member such as a center pillar does not exist, it is preferable to improve the rigidity of the front and rear side doors in the vicinity of their boundary.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and has as its object to provide a door structure for a vehicle, in which when a door is open, a large partition-less opening can be formed in a car body side portion, while the strength of the car body side portion can be ensured against an impact applied to the car body side portion in case of side collision or the like.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a door structure for a vehicle, in which when an opening opened and closed by front and rear side doors is continuous in the back-and-forth direction, the rigidity of the front door, particularly the rigidity of the front and rear side doors in the vicinity of their boundary, is increased, so deformation into the car compartment can be prevented or reduced effectively.
In order to achieve the above objects, a door structure for a vehicle according to the present invention has the following arrangement. More specifically, there is provided a door structure for a vehicle, in which one opening (
1
) formed in a car body side portion and continuous in a back-and-forth direction is opened and closed by a front side door (
11
) and rear side door (
12
), and which has a lap portion (
15
) where a rear end of the front side door (
11
) and a front end of the rear side door (
12
) overlap each other in a direction of car width when the front and rear side doors (
11
,
12
) are closed, wherein at the lap portion (
15
), the rear end of the front side door (
11
) overlaps the front end of the rear side door (
12
) to be located on an outer side in the direction of car width with respect to the front end of the rear side door (
12
), a front impact bar (
27
) extending in the back-and-forth direction of the car body is disposed in the front side door (
11
), and a rear end of the front impact bar (
27
) extends to the lap portion (
15
).
According the above arrangement, when side collision occurs, the front impact bar itself prevents or reduces deformation of the front side door toward the car compartment. In addition, the rear end of the front impact bar extends to the overlapping portion with the rear side door, that is, to a high-rigidity portion. Thus, a large deformation of the front side door into the car compartment is further prevented or reduced while the rigidity of the front and rear side doors in the vicinity of their boundary is increased.
With the above arrangement as a premise, a door structure for a vehicle according to the present invention has the following arrangement. More specifically, a reinforcing member (
25
) is disposed in the front end of the rear side door (
12
) to extend in a vertical direction, a rear impact bar (
26
) is disposed in the rear side door (
12
) to extend in the back-and-forth direction, and a front end of the rear impact bar (
26
) extends to the reinforcing member (
25
).
According the above arrangement, when side collision occurs, the rear impact bar itself prevents or reduces large deformation of the rear side door toward the car compartment. In addition to an increase in rigidity of the lap portion, the front end of the rear impact bar extends to the high-rigidity reinforcing portion. Thus, a large deformation of the rear side door into the car compartment is further prevented or reduced.
With the above arrangement as a premise, a door structure for a vehicle according to the present invention has the following arrangement. More specifically, the rear end of the front impact bar (
27
) and the front end of the rear impact bar (
26
) extend to the lap portion (
15
) or to a portion in the vicinity of the lap portion (
15
) to be close to each other.
According to the above arrangement, the front and rear impact bars can be disposed close to each other, that is, the rigidity of the front and rear side doors in the vicinity of their boundary is increased, and a side-colliding force is received by both the front and rear impact bars as much as possible. Thus, a large deformation of the side door into the car compartment can be prevented or reduced.
With the above arrangement as a premise

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Door structure for vehicle does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Door structure for vehicle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Door structure for vehicle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3149381