Electricity: conductors and insulators – Conduits – cables or conductors – Single duct conduits
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-14
2002-11-12
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Conduits, cables or conductors
Single duct conduits
C174S135000, C174S1520GM, C174S15300A, C248S056000, C016S002100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06479748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a grommet for a door of an automobile. In particular, this invention relates to a grommet that improves waterproofness at a position where a wire harness is mounted to extend from an automobile body to a door body. This invention further relates to a method for mounting the grommet.
2. Description of Related Art
Since water travels along a glass that moves up and down, and intrudes into the interior of right and left door bodies of an automobile, a wire harness mounted to extend from the automobile body to the door body sometimes avoids the interior of the door body and passes through a passenger compartment side. The wire harness mounted as described above, passes through an opening provided in an inner plate portion, which is on a passenger compartment side of the door body, to provide a required connection. Further, a trim cover is mounted to cover an entire surface at the passenger compartment side of the inner plate portion of the door body so that the wire harness is prevented from being exposed to the exterior.
FIGS.
4
(A) and
4
(B) schematically show a mounting structure of a wire harness extending from the automobile body
1
to the passenger compartment side R of the door body, which is proposed by the Japanese Laid-Open Publication Nos. 7-179156 and 8-40155. In the mounting structure, an L-shaped recess
2
c
is formed to extend from a side plate portion
2
a
, which is a front side of the door body
2
and on which a hinge is attached, to an inner plate portion
2
b
at the passenger compartment side. Further, an attachment member
3
that covers the recess
2
c
is mounted by using bolts
8
.
The attachment member
3
includes an L-shaped plate
4
, such as an iron plate or a resin plate, which has a through-hole
4
a
, and a watertight packing
5
attached on the interior surface (facing the door body) of the L-shaped plate
4
. Further, a grommet
6
, in which a wire harness W/H is inserted, is mounted at the through-hole
4
a
. The wire harness W/H extending from the door side of the grommet
6
passes through a space K formed by the attachment member
3
and the recess
2
c
in the door body
2
, and extends toward the passenger compartment side R of the inner plate portion
2
b
of the door body
2
, so as not to pass through the interior
2
g
of the door body
2
, where water is likely to intrude. Further, a weather strip
7
is provided on the side plate portion
2
a
of the door body
2
so as to pass over the attachment member
3
. Further, after the completion of mounting the wire harness, a trim cover
9
, which covers the inner plate portion
2
b
, is attached to the passenger compartment side R of the inner plate portion
2
b
of the door body
2
.
Since the wire harness W/H provided as describe above is formed by bundling a predetermined number of wires, it has a constant (predetermined) cross section. Accordingly, in order to insert the wire harness W/H into the space K formed by the recess
2
c
of the door body
2
and the attachment member
3
, the cross section of the space K should be made larger than the cross section of the wire harness W/H. To make the cross section of the space K larger, two avenues can be considered, i.e., increasing the depth of the recess
2
c
, or increasing the vertical width of the recess
2
c
. However, since the door body
2
is formed by press molding, machining to increase the depth of the recess is difficult and requires high cost. Thus, it is more realistic to increase the vertical width of the recess. Accordingly, the width in a vertical direction of the recess
2
c
is increased so that the wire harness W/H can be inserted therein.
When the vertical width of the recess
2
c
is increased, it is necessary to increase the vertical width of the attachment member
3
, which covers the recess
2
c
. Generally, the vertical width T of the attachment member
3
is set between 120 and 150 mm. As a result, since an area in which the attachment member
3
is exposed to the exterior becomes large at the side plate portion
2
a
of the door body
2
, the appearance becomes worse. Further, since the weather strip
7
attached on the side plate portion
2
a
cannot be directly attached to the door body
2
at the position where it crosses over the attachment member
3
, the weather strip
7
might lose touch with the wide attachment member
3
, and it becomes difficult to ensure waterproofness.
Further, since the attachment member
3
itself is provided with the L-shaped (iron) plate
4
, the watertight packing
5
and the grommet
6
, the number of parts is large, and thus, the cost becomes high. Further, since the attachment member
3
is mounted on the door body
2
by fastening with the bolts
8
, the mounting operation takes a long time. Furthermore, because the path of the wire harness W/H to be mounted requires that it be bent about 90 degrees at two positions, i.e., at the side plate portion
2
a
and at the inner plate portion
2
b
of the door body
2
, the mounting operation becomes difficult and cannot be performed efficiently. In addition, the wire harness W/H itself, when bent to such an extent, is subject to increased stress. Further, if a gap occurs at the contact point S between the watertight packing
5
and the side plate portion
2
a
, due to the vibration of the automobile body or age deterioration, etc., water intrudes and splashes on the wire harness W/H, a short or the like might occur in the worst case.
To solve the problem described above, Japanese Laid-Open Publication No.9-76837 proposed a mounting structure of a wire harness (note FIG.
5
). In the mounting structure, an opening
2
d
′ is continuously notched from a side plate portion
2
a
′ to an inner plate portion
2
b
′ in the passenger compartment side of the door body
2
′, and a recessed portion
2
e
′ is provided at the periphery of the opening
2
d
′ in the side plate portion
2
a
′. Further, a grommet
6
′, which is an attachment member of the wire harness, is integrally formed with a weather strip
7
′ and has an L-shape. A bellows portion
6
b
′ extends from a front surface
6
a
′ and the wire harness W/H passing through the bellows portion
6
b
′ extends toward the side surface (passenger compartment side portion)
6
c′.
In the attachment structure described above, since the weather strip
7
′ and the grommet
6
′ are formed unitarily in one piece as a single unit, waterproofness is ensured. Further, due to the engaging structure between the grommet
6
′ and the door body
2
′, the efficiency of mounting of the grommet
6
′ to the door body
2
′ improves. However, due to the unitary structure of the weather strip
7
′ and the grommet
6
′, a molding die becomes large and complicated, and the manufacturing costs for the die become very expensive. To engage with the grommet
6
′, the recessed portion
2
e
′ is provided, which results in the shape of the cross section of the door body
2
′ being complicated. As a result, the cost of machining of the door body
2
′ becomes higher. Further, because the wire harness W/H is exposed to the exterior from the bellows portion
6
b
′ to a passenger compartment side portion
6
c
′, water that travels along a glass and intrudes into the interior of the door body
2
′ may splash on the wire harness W/H.
Accordingly, the present invention is provided in view of the above-described problems, and an objective of the present invention is to reduce the vertical width of the grommet mounted on the door body by diagonally mounting the wire harness from the front surface side to the passenger compartment side of the door body, so as to improve appearance when viewed from the outside and to improve waterproofness.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve the above and/or other goals, the present invention provides a grommet for a door in which a wire harness to be mo
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Patel Dhiru R
Reichard Dean A.
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