Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Structural detail
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-18
2002-08-13
Gordon, Stephen T. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Structural detail
C296S146100, C296S152000, C174S068300, C174S1520GM, C174S15300A
Reexamination Certificate
active
06431642
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a grommet and a fixing structure of the grommet. More particularly, it relates to a grommet to be used for the wiring of a vehicle door harness and a fixing structure of the grommet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A grommet used for the wiring of the vehicle door harness is shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (kokai) No. 8-318796, as shown in FIG.
1
. In this figure, the grommet
1
is attached to a side face
21
of a door inner panel in a vehicle door
2
, the side face
21
being arranged on a hinge attachment side of the door inner panel. The grommet
1
comprises a substantially-rectangular grommet body
11
, a cylindrical part
12
projecting from the body
11
and allowing a door harness
3
to pass therethrough, and an attachment plate
13
insert-molded into the body
11
and made of synthetic resin, for attaching the body
11
to the side face
21
. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the attachment plate
13
is provided with four claw-shaped clips
13
A projecting from the inside of the body
11
outward. On the other hand, four engagement holes
21
A are formed on the side face
21
of the door
2
, for engagement with the clips
13
A. On the back side of the grommet
11
, a pair of lid parts
11
A,
11
A are formed for allowing the door harness
3
to be accommodated in the attachment plate
13
when the parts
11
A,
11
A are closed upon the arrangement of the door harness
3
therebetween.
On condition that the door harness
3
is accommodated in the attachment plate
13
, the clips
13
A of the grommet
1
are inserted into the engagement holes
21
A on the side face
21
of the door
2
, for fixing the grommet
1
to the door
2
. As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 3
, a weather strip
4
is arranged along the side face
21
so as to pass over the grommet
1
fixed on the face
21
.
In this grommet
1
, however, there is a problem that the projecting amount of the clips
13
A varies corresponding to the situation of the door harness
3
being accommodated in the plate
13
due to the arrangement where the clips
13
A of the plate
13
are engaged in the engagement holes
21
A in the side face
21
while interposing the door harness
3
between the attachment plate
13
and the lid parts
11
A of the body
11
. Therefore, the bonding force between the clips
13
A and the engagement holes
21
A is unstable. For example, if the door harness
3
is a collapsed one, then the projecting amounts of the clips
13
A are increased to cause the grommet
1
to wobble with respect to the side face
21
.
Additionally, since the above grommet
1
is fixed on the side face
21
through the plural (four) clips
13
A, the wobbling may arise when even one clip
13
A is not certainly engaged in the engagement hole
21
A, so that a problem of easiness for water to permeate into the grommet
1
is caused. Therefore, it is necessary for a worker to assemble the grommet
1
with a skilled technique, so that the certain assembling cannot be effected quickly and easily.
Further, in the grommet
1
, it is necessary to machine and form the plural engagement holes
21
A in the side face
21
of the door
2
, in positions corresponding to the clips
13
A of the grommet
1
, thereby causing the machining process of the door
2
to be complicated.
Further, since the conventional grommet
1
has the door harness
3
fixed thereon with no winding tapes, there arises a dispersion in the dimensions of the door harness
3
, so that it may be easily slacked or pulled. In such a case, the resulting slack of the door harness
3
causes it to be caught by the closing or opening door
2
. Alternatively, the pull of the door harness
3
causes it to be broken down. On the contrary, if desiring to fix the door harness
3
onto the grommet
1
with the winding tapes, then it is difficult for the worker to carry out the fixing operation of the door harness
3
on a flattened jig since the door harness
3
is L-shaped wired along the grommet
1
. That is, in the conventional grommet
1
, it is not easy to fix the door harness
3
on the grommet
1
by means of winding tapes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Under such a circumstance, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a grommet which can be assembled to a panel constituting a door body quickly and which can simplify the processing of the door body, and a fixing structure for the grommet. Again, another object of the present invention is to provide a grommet which is advantageous in assembling the wire harness thereon and which facilitates the dimensional management of the wire harness and also reduces a possibility that the wire harness is bitten into the opening or closing door.
The objects of the present invention described above can be accomplished by a grommet to be attached on a panel constituting a vehicle, for holding a wire harness wired on the panel between a grommet body and the panel in waterproof manner, the grommet comprising; an elastic clip to be inserted into an engagement hole formed in the panel, for engagement with the engagement hole, the elastic clip having a base part and being capable of deforming elastically; and
a waterproof lip formed around the base part of the elastic clip; wherein the elastic clip is formed so that a plane configuration thereof is larger than the engagement hole and the elastic clip is provided, on the base part, with a narrow part for contact with an opening margin of the engagement hole.
With the above constitution of the grommet, the engagement of the grommet with the panel can be accomplished by press-fitting the elastically deformed clip into the engagement hole formed in the panel. The mere insertion of the clip into the single engagement hole allows the grommet to be installed to the panel. Further, since the clip is larger than the engagement hole, the clip once elastically deformed and subsequently inserted into engagement hole does return to the original configuration on the hidden side of the engagement hole, while the panel portion around the engagement hole is engaged in the narrow part of the clip. Consequently, it becomes difficult to withdraw the grommet from the panel, whereby the grommet can be fixed on the panel securely.
In the above-mentioned grommet, the peripheral surface of the elastic clipmay be tapered.
In this case, the tapered surface of the clip facilitates the worker's pushing the clip into the engagement hole thereby improving the workability in assembling the grommet to the panel.
The above-mentioned grommet may further comprise an inner member in the form of a cylindrical body allowing the wire harness to pass therethrough,
wherein the elastic clip is formed on the inner member and the inner member is adapted so as to support the grommet body provided with a protection cylinder allowing the wire harness to pass therethrough.
In this case, it is possible to wire the wire harness through the inner member and the grommet body. Additionally, since the inner member and the grommet body can be provided independently of each other, it is possible to simplify the respective structures thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the grommet.
In the above grommet, the inner member may be provided, on a lateral part thereof, with a flange part which is inserted into the grommet body.
In this case, the insertion of the flange part into the grommet body allows the inner member to be fixed to the grommet body with ease.
From another aspect of the invention, there is also provided a fixing structure for attaching a grommet on a panel constituting a vehicle, the fixing structure comprising:
the panel provided with a hollow part for accommodating the grommet in the panel, the hollow part having an engagement hole formed in a bottom of the hollow part; and
the grommet provided with an elastic clip having a base part and a waterproof lip formed around the base part of the elastic clip;
wherein the elastic clip is pressure-fitted and engaged into the engagement hole, while the waterproof lip is b
Kawamata Mamoru
Ogino Yoshiki
Sora Masahiro
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Gordon Stephen T.
Gutman Hilary
LandOfFree
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