Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Structural detail
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-28
2001-11-27
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Structural detail
C296S192000, C296S202000, C296S182100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322124
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a cowl side portion of automobiles and, more particularly, to a reinforcement structure for such a cowl side portion, the reinforcement structure being designed to change a locking structure between the cowl side portion and two front pillars, thus giving improved structural strength to a side portion of the automobile body and allowing the side portion of the body to effectively protect passengers in the passenger compartment from impact in the case of a side collision or a front collision of the automobile.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of the body of an automobile. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the front portion of the automobile body comprises an engine compartment for seating an engine and a power transmission mechanism, with a hood
1
openably covering the engine compartment. A longitudinal front pillar
3
upwardly, rearwardly extends from around each of the left and right corners of the hood's rear portion and holds the side edge of a windshield. Two front fenders
5
are provided along the left and right side edges of the hood
1
and are mounted over the two front wheels
4
.
FIG. 2
shows the interior structure of the portion “P” of FIG.
1
. As shown in the drawing, the two front pillars
3
are welded to opposite ends of a cowl portion
6
through a welding process, with the cowl portion
6
transversely extending in the automobile body to partition the passenger compartment from the engine compartment.
FIG. 3
shows the welded junction between the front pillar
3
and the cowl side portion
6
. As shown in the drawing, each front pillar
3
comprises inside and outside pillar panels
3
a
and
3
b,
which are welded together with an outside door panel
7
into a single body with a cavity having a predetermined volume. In addition, a front cowl panel
6
a
of the cowl portion
6
is integrated with the front junction of the two pillar panels
3
a
and
3
b
of the front pillar
3
. On the other hand, a rear cowl panel
6
b
of the cowl portion
6
is integrated with the inside pillar panels
3
a
of the front pillar
3
into a single body using a cowl side extension panel
8
.
A door hinge reinforcing bracket
9
is mounted to the interior surface of the outside pillar panel
3
b
of the front pillar
3
. In such a conventional structure, the bracket
9
reaches the inside pillar panel
3
a
of the front pillar
3
, but undesirably is not welded to the panel
3
a.
In order to weld the bracket
9
to the panel
3
a
inside the front pillar
3
, the bracket must be extended and it is necessary to allow a welding gun G to reach the inside and outside portion of the panel
3
a
as shown by the phantom line of FIG.
3
. However, the interior of the front pillar
3
is completely closed, and so it is impossible for the welding gun G to reach the inside portion of the panel
3
a.
Therefore, the bracket
9
is not welded to the panel
3
a.
In the conventional automobile body with the cowl portion
6
being welded to the front pillars
3
as described above, it is impossible to firmly assemble the cowl portion
6
with the front pillars
3
or to effectively distribute impact to the parts in the case of an unexpected side collision or an unexpected front collision of the automobile. In addition, each front pillar
3
of the conventional structure is not provided with a separate member designed to connect the two panels
3
a
and
3
b,
and so each front pillar
3
merely has low torsion strength.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a reinforcement structure for a cowl side portion of automobiles, which is designed to change a locking structure between the cowl side portion and two front pillars so as to form a plurality of independent cavities at the junction between the cowl side portion and each front pillar, thus improving the structural strength of the cowl side portion of the automobile body and effectively distributing impact to the parts in the case of an unexpected side collision or an unexpected front collision of an automobile, and which is also designed to allow the door hinge reinforcing bracket to be welded to both the inside and outside pillar panels, thus improving the torsion strength of the two front pillars.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a reinforcement structure for a cowl side portion of automobiles with a front pillar welded to a cowl portion, comprising: inside and outside pillar panels of each front pillar integrated with front and rear cowl panels of the cowl portion at the front junction of the pillar panels through a welding process; a cowl side extension panel integrating the rear cowl panel of the cowl portion with the inside pillar panels of the front pillar; and a door hinge reinforcing bracket integrated with the inside and outside pillar panels of the front pillar at its opposite ends while dividing a cavity formed between the pillar panels.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4550948 (1985-11-01), Hamada et al.
patent: 5042872 (1991-08-01), Yoshii
patent: 5586799 (1996-12-01), Kanemitsu et al.
Christie Parker & Hale LLP
Hyundai Motor Company
Pape Joseph D.
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