Movable or removable closures – Closure seal; e.g. – striker gasket or weatherstrip – With corner or corner forming portions; i.e. – corner seal
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-09
2003-11-18
Thompson, Hugh B. (Department: 3634)
Movable or removable closures
Closure seal; e.g., striker gasket or weatherstrip
With corner or corner forming portions; i.e., corner seal
C049S506000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06647666
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sealing structure of an opening section in a vehicle, which is arranged to provide a seal between a front or rear door of a vehicle and a vehicle body by the use of a weather strip which is mounted on the peripheral portion of the front or rear door of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a sealing structure of this type has used a door weather strip which is mounted on the periphery of a front or rear door of a vehicle to provide a seal between the door and the vehicle body. Then, as the door weather strip which is mounted on the front door, for example, there is cited the one shown in
FIGS. 13 and 14
.
FIG. 13
is a side view of the same weather strip.
FIG. 14A
is a sectional view taken along line Ia—Ia of FIG.
13
.
FIG. 14B
is a sectional view taken along line Ib—Ib of FIG.
13
. And
FIG. 14C
is a sectional view taken along line Ic—Ic of FIG.
13
. In the weather strip of this type, its mainly substantially straight part is formed by extrusion, and its corner part small in the radius of curvature is formed by using a mold (cf. Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 1-168346, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei. 2-26934, or the like). The weather strip fundamentally comprises a base section which is mounted on the periphery of a door, and a hollow sealing section which is extended from the base section, and is formed, for instance, with EPDM solid rubber or sponge rubber.
As shown in
FIG. 13
, a front door weather strip
100
includes a plurality (three in this example) of substantially linearly extrusion sections, i.e., a first extrusion section
101
, a second extrusion section
102
, and a third extrusion section
103
. Then, the individual extrusion sections
101
to
103
are connected to each other at the respective ends by a plurality (three in this example) of molded sections
104
. Here, the first extrusion section
101
is formed so as to correspond substantially to the upper portion of a front door not shown and substantially the upper half of the forward side portion of the front door, the second extrusion section
102
to substantially the lower half of the forward side portion of the front door, and the third extrusion section
103
to the lower portion and rearward side portion of the front door.
The reason why the molded sections
104
are provided is as follows: If the whole weather strip is formed by extrusion suffers from the following trouble: In the case where the corner is small in the radius of curvature, and it is desired to curve the extrusion section along the corner part, the corner part is deformed in such a manner that the hollow sealing section collapses; that is, a predetermined sealing force cannot be obtained. The extrusion sections are greatly different in sectional configuration from each other, the molded section is provided at the junction of the extrusion sections.
As shown in
FIGS. 14A
to
14
C, the front door weather strip has each extrusion section
101
to
103
thereof provided with a base section
105
, a hollow sealing section
106
, and the back seal
107
projecting outwardly from the sealing section
106
in common. Further, although not shown in the figures, the front door weather strip also has each molded section
104
provided with the base section, the sealing section, and the back seal which are connected respectively to the base section
105
, sealing section
106
, the back seal
107
of the extrusion section
101
to
103
which is connected to the molded section
104
.
The sealing lip
108
outwardly extended from substantially the middle of the back seal
107
of the first extrusion section
101
is formed integrally with the first extrusion section
101
. However, the sealing lip
108
is not formed on the second or third extrusion section
102
,
103
, and is continuously gradually changed in length in the molded section
104
which connects the first and second extrusion sections
101
and
102
to each other.
When the front door is changed from an open state to a closed state, such a front door weather strip
100
is subjected to elastic deformation with the sealing section
106
in contact with the peripheral portion
110
of the opening section of the vehicle body. Thus, between the vehicle body and the front door, the inside and outside of a vehicle cabin is sealed air-tight and water-tight via the front door weather strip
100
.
However, the molded section
104
has a borderline in making the sealing section thereof thinner, and the sealing section of the molded section
104
tends to become thicker than the sealing section
106
of the extrusion section
101
to
103
. Thereby, the sealing section of the molded section
104
becomes large in rigidity, and the reaction force by the sealing section of the molded section
104
, i.e., the force acting in the direction in which the front door is changed from the closed state to the open state becomes large relative to the door closing force upon closing the front door. Consequently, the resistance upon closing the front door becomes large, and there is a possibility of deteriorating the feeling of closing the front door. Particularly, in case a plurality of molded sections
104
are provided as in the front door weather strip shown in
FIGS. 13 and 14A
, the deterioration in feeling of closing the door becomes more remarkable.
The above-described weather strip
100
has the following problems: The front door weather strip needs three extrusion sections
101
,
102
and
103
, and three molded sections
104
. Therefore, those sections
101
,
102
,
103
and
104
must be formed in different manufacturing steps, and accordingly the number of manufacturing steps is considerably large; that is, the manufacturing work is low in efficiency, and the manufacturing cost is large.
Further, in those front door weather strips, with the one shown in
FIGS. 13 and 14A
cited as an example, when the sealing section
106
and the peripheral portion
110
of the opening section
110
are brought into contact with each other in order to close the front door, the sealing section
106
of the front door weather strip
100
is arranged, for example in the mode shown dotted in
FIG. 14A
, to be elastically deformed with the whole thereof being inclined toward one side with respect to a center line
m
. Thus, a sliding friction is generated in the contact portion between the sealing section
106
and the peripheral portion
110
of the opening section of the vehicle of the vehicle body, and a more resistance comes to be generated upon closing the front door. Hence, there is a problem that the door closing force is increased upon closing the door, and also the feeling of closing the door is further deteriorated. Also, because of the two-dimensional pressure contact between the peripheral portion
110
of the opening section and the side wall portion of the hollow sealing section
106
, sealing properties are deteriorated due to wear-out compression-set, durability, etc.
Further, not only in case of the front door, but also in case of the rear door, such actual circumstances have generally been common.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is made by paying attention to such problems as lying in the conventional sealing structure. An object of the invention is to provide a sealing structure of the opening section in the vehicle by which the feeling of closing the front or rear door is improved, and also the movement of the sealing section is prevented against compression-set, durability, abrasion, etc., thus enabling improvement in sealing properties.
Another object of the invention is to provide a door weather strip and its manufacturing method which are designed as follows: The manufacturing work is high in efficiency, and manufacturing cost is low, and substantially the same sealing force is obtained at any point of the weather strip.
In order to attain the aforesaid object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a s
Hanabusa Hisao
Kawai Katsunori
Kogiso Harumi
Nakajima Takao
Posz & Bethards, PLC
Thompson Hugh B.
Toyoda Gosei Co,., Ltd.
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