Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Door or window with specified vehicle feature
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-09
2001-06-19
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Door or window with specified vehicle feature
C296S202000, C016S388000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06247744
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to structurally integrating members between vehicle bodies and closures. More particularly, this invention is directed to self-aligning structural key members and mating receptacles incorporated with vehicle component sub-assemblies, such as hinges and latches, to structurally integrate vehicle closures with a vehicle body.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
While known conventional vehicle closure members, such as vehicle doors, are attached to a vehicle body, the closure members are not structurally integrated with the vehicle body. Consequently, the closure members, which are of considerable mass, are simply hanging on the vehicle body. Thus, stiffness and overall strength of the vehicle body is reduced, which results in a noticeable feeling to a vehicle occupant of shuddering and bouncy ride. Idle shake may also be experienced, along with an increase in noise and vibration, producing a poor ride and poor vehicle handling. Further, in the event of impact or collision with other vehicles, a non-integrated closure member can “pop out” from the vehicle body, or cave in, such that the closure member is separated from its attachment points. Separation of the closure member from the vehicle body causes loss of a significant amount of energy absorption that is necessary to protect the vehicle occupants from injury during a collision.
To address these problems, it has been previously proposed to structurally integrate a vehicle door with a vehicle body. The door and body integration technology as applied to vertically sliding doors is disclosed in the following U.S. Patents issued to John A. Townsend: U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,172 issued Jan. 31, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,282 issued Jul. 10, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,036 issued Jan. 3, 1995; and applied to a conventional hinged door in U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,917 issued Sep. 15, 1998. These disclosures are incorporated herein by reference.
In operation, when the vehicle doors of the above patents are closed, structural key members formed on the edges of the door engage with mating receptacles formed in the door jambs of the vehicle body that frame a door opening. In the engaged position, each key member and mating receptacle pair is able to transmit compressive, tensile and torsional forces between the door and the vehicle body, thereby contributing to the overall stiffness of the vehicle body.
However, with current technology precise manufacturing dimensional tolerances of a large closure member, such as the vehicle door, that incorporate the structural keys and receptacles are difficult to achieve such that when the vehicle door is aligned with the vehicle body by adjusting hinges and latches on the vehicle door and vehicle body, the keys and receptacles are not always properly aligned for mating engagement. To insure proper alignment of the keys and receptacles, it has been proposed to form the receptacles so as to be considerably larger than the keys. With such an arrangement, the keys could be loosely accommodated within the receptacles once the closure member had been adjusted into its correct position with respect to the vehicle body by means of the hinge and latch assemblies. Fast curing metallic epoxy resin was then applied to the inside of the receptacles and a resist compound to the keys. The closure member was then closed in its final adjustment position with reference to the vehicle body. After curing, the keys were mated precisely with the key impressions made in the resin within the receptacles. Once the keys and receptacles were properly aligned, the keys and receptacles provided an excellent structural link between the closure member and the vehicle body, due to the precise fit of the keys with the epoxy filled receptacle.
However, the addition of the epoxy resin to the receptacles required an additional alignment process on the production line, thereby disadvantageously increasing manufacturing time, which translates into increased costs. Further, as it is necessary to add the epoxy resin to the receptacles on the production line, the alignment of the structural keys and receptacles could not be performed by outside suppliers.
Another disadvantage associated with known structural keys and receptacles is that closure members and door jambs are traditionally manufactured by stamping metal of a constant gage, such that the thickness of the closure member and the door jamb are constant. Consequently, to successfully design the keys and receptacles into a closure member and vehicle body, the area around the keys and receptacles require considerable localized re-enforcing by adding additional metal of a heavier gage, thereby increasing production costs.
While prior art use of the closure member and vehicle body integration technology improves the structural integrity of the overall vehicle body structure, there are disadvantages with the known use of structural keys and mating receptacles. Therefore, there exists a need for improved structural integration of a vehicle closure member and vehicle body that eliminates special alignment and the reinforcing steps while introducing a new metal epoxy technology in the manufacturing process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve excellent structural integration of closure members and bodies while overcoming production difficulties, the present invention is directed to vehicle component sub-assemblies that incorporate self-aligning structural key members and mating receptacles. Hinges, latches and other vehicle components are provided with integral structural keys and receptacles such that the keys and receptacles are integrated with the hinges, latches, and strikers, as opposed to the closure member or body.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, wedge-shaped structural key members and mating receptacles are manufactured as a precision fit integral with and during the same manufacturing operation as a door plate and mating body plate of a door hinge, respectively. Once formed the entire hinge sub-assembly is connected to the vehicle in a conventional manner by bolting the door plate to a closure member, such as a vehicle door, and the attached body plate to a vehicle body. The closure member and body plates are provided with traditional adjustment capability during assembly of the closure member to the vehicle body to insure their proper alignment.
The structural key members and mating receptacles may also be incorporated with other vehicle component sub-assemblies having mating parts such as brackets and door and hood latch sub-assemblies. For example, when the structural keys and receptacles are incorporated into latch and striker sub-assemblies, when a latch is in the correct location for mating engagement with a striker, the structural keys and receptacles formed thereon, will automatically be aligned to a precise fit.
The incorporation of the structural keys and receptacles with the vehicle component sub-assemblies provides important technical and manufacturing benefits over the prior art keys and receptacles. First, hinges, latches and strikers are traditionally manufactured in a heavier gage than the vehicle closure member and corresponding body structure. Therefore, the component sub-assemblies are sufficiently strong for the keys and receptacles cast therein to provided maximum structural integration of the vehicle closure member with the vehicle body without requiring any additional reinforcement.
Further, the manufacture of the structural keys and mating receptacles within the hinges, latches and bracket sub-assemblies is greatly simplified as compared to the prior art practice of manufacturing the structural keys and receptacles as part of the closure member and vehicle body as these component sub-assemblies are simple enough to allow for traditional tolerances that will permit the necessary precision fit of the structural keys to the mating receptacles. Because the hinges, latches and brackets sub-assemblies are usually either cast or forged, it is possible to form the structural keys and receptacles as large as may be ne
El-Sayed Mohamed
Townsend John A.
Joalto Design Inc.
Pedder Dennis H.
Rader & Fishman & Grauer, PLLC
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