Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-01
2003-09-23
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
C296S214000, C029S430000, C029S897200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06623068
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing a vehicle body with a roof unit containing an outer skin and an inward facing ceiling, or an outer skin and an inward facing ceiling with a ceiling frame, whereby the roof unit is in the form of a unit ready for installation and, a basic structure, and the ceiling and the outer skin along with the basic structure feature configurations for joining that mate with each other at their mutual places for joining, this for a body of a road-bound vehicle fitted together horizontally, and particular roof units.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known that manufacturing concepts for powered vehicles make use of individual modules that can be assembled separately. This concerns in particular the whole of the dashboard including the cockpit. Further, described in the book Horst Pippert, Karosserie-technik, Vogel-Fachbuch, Vogel Publishers, Würzburg, 1989, pp 242 and 244, is that horizontal separation of the roof and base units can be useful. Before final assembly, individual fittings may be readily added to the base unit. A process for manufacturing a horizontally separated vehicle body is described in EP-B 0 250 678.
Known from DE 79 29 367 U is a roof structure for powered vehicles having an outer skin and a roof frame that form a unit which can be attached to the columns of the vehicle body. The outer skin of the roof is joined along its edges to a profiled section frame, which is attached to the columns of the vehicle body.
Separate manufacture of roof and floor units or basic structure was hardly adopted for series production purposes as the fitting together and joining of the roof to the base unit is difficult, or at least complicated, and the overall stability of a vehicle body—and with that its structural strength—is made worse compared with a body with side walls reaching up to the roof.
Methods of manufacturing the rough bodywork from floor units and outer sheets suffer the disadvantage that the subsequent fitting out of the vehicle, e.g. installing all components in the region of the roof and the window posts, involves mounting or fitting these from the inside of the body frame. The freedom of movement for a person or a machine in a finished vehicle body is very limited. Consequently, manual work is tiresome, and in some cases it is not possible to make use of robots.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to propose a process for manufacturing a vehicle body with a roof unit and a base unit or basic structure for a horizontally joined body of a road-bound vehicle, such that the roof unit makes manufacturing simple, and the joining of the roof unit and the basic structure is easy, in particular in conveyor-belt series production.
Preferably, at least the outer side of the roof unit bears a coating of paint, wholly or partially, on the parts that are visible from the outside or are exposed to weathering. The paint may be a single or multi-layer coating e.g. of undercoat, filler, top coat and/or a transparent organic coating etc. The paint can therefore already be applied to the roof unit prior to joining the basic structure and roof unit.
The roof unit may contain e.g. the outer skin or the outer skin with longitudinal and/or cross member(s) and the ceiling, if desired also a frame for the ceiling. The roof unit may also be essentially a single shaped part making up the outer skin and the ceiling. Further, the roof unit may feature means for joining the longitudinal frame, the transverse frame and/or the side wall columns such as A, B, C and if present, D columns, window frames, especially those for fixed stationary windows or frameless windows in the doors. The roof unit may also contain components such as roofs that slide open, can be raised, folded and lamella type roofs, or rigid or moveable glass roofs and their frame parts, also elements for moving the same, roof-rack rails, antennae, and interior fittings such as covering materials, hand grips in the roof area, sun blinds, interior lighting, cables, operating and display elements, modules for series-type airbags at the sides, window airbags, head/shoulder airbags etc.
The base unit or basic structure may e.g. be in any prefabricated for Preferred is a base unit—with respect to the interior fittings—such featuring wiring, floor covering, seats, operating elements, instruments etc.—to a large degree prefabricated, in order to minimise further work-steps in the vehicle interior formed by joining the roof and base units or basic structure.
The outer roof skin and also the ceiling frame may be made up of one or more parts and of various materials. Suitable materials are metals, plastics or combinations thereof Preferred metals are ferrous and non-ferrous materials, in particular light weight metals. Included in the group of light weight metals are aluminium and its alloys and magnesium and its alloys. The outer skin of metal may be in the form of sheet or—in particular in the case of aluminium or magnesium—in the form of a foamed shaped body or extruded section. Ceiling frames may be e.g. of metal in particular aluminium or magnesium or their alloys and as stamped, pressed or extruded parts. Examples of plastic-based materials for outer roof skins, ceiling and ceiling frames are polyamides, including polyamides of diamines and aromatic dicarbonic acid (Aramides), polyesters, epoxy resins, polyurethanes, polyvinylchlorides, polycarbonates, acrylnitrile-styrene copolymers, acrylnitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers (ABS), polyolefins etc. The plastics may be fibre-reinforced plastics—such as plastics reinforced with glass or carbon fibres. The plastics may contain filler materials. The plastics may be in foamed of non-foamed state, including closed cell and open cell foams and may be present both as hard or soft foams. The outer roof skin, the ceiling and the ceiling frames may also be made up of a combination of metals and plastics such as composites, also known as laminates or sandwich materials. The composites may have various plastic layers or feature at least one sheet or section of metal and at least one plastic layer. The ceiling frame may be a shaped part of plastic such as in injection moulded part, a foamed shaped part or may be of metal in particular light weight metals such as aluminium or magnesium in the form of a stamped, pressure diecast part or as an extruded section, or a combination of plastic and metal. The ceiling frame may be painted or covered with material.
The outer roof skin may be in the form of a laminate with a metal or plastic layer forming the outer side and, facing inwards, at least one foamed or non-foamed plastic layer. The outer roof skin and the ceiling and possibly the ceiling frame, as one and the same shaped part or as separate shaped parts, may also be shaped parts with integral foam with a closed, solid edge region that—moving away from the edge, gradually has the form of a fine-pored structure. Also, fibre matting with fibres of glass, cotton, flax or coconut etc. may be provided between the roof outer skin and the ceiling, or as ceiling itself or within a ceiling-laminate, from case to case as desired. By appropriate choice of layer thickness and materials laminates may in particular be designed for optimal dampening of resonance and noise.
The ceiling may be a covering e.g. of leather, artificial leather, textiles, plastic films etc. These materials may be drawn over e.g. A shape-determining support of plastic, metal, foamed mats, foamed bodies, stiffened fibre matting etc. The ceiling may e.g. also be a shaped part of plastic, foamed plastic or integral foam such as e.g. mentioned above for the roof outer skin. The ceiling may have a sandwich structure comprising a middle layer of foam e.g. polyurethane foam, fibre mats or fibre-glass fleece etc., on one or both sides and, may feature on one or both sides, plastic films, cover film and/or decorative or functional covers. The ceiling may also include a ceiling frame.
The basic structure is clos
Deflorin Duri
Möller Wolfgang
Wieschermann Jochen
Alcan Technology & Management AG
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
Pape Joseph D.
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