Movable or removable closures – Panel with closure feature – With means to accommodate window accessory; e.g.,...
Patent
1998-11-24
2000-08-15
Stodola, Daniel P.
Movable or removable closures
Panel with closure feature
With means to accommodate window accessory; e.g.,...
2961465, B60J 504
Patent
active
061017655
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention;
The present invention relates to a vehicle door, more particularly to a vehicle door and a method for assembling the same, which can make assembly easy at a body rigging line for vehicles.
2. Discussion of The Background
A typical vehicle body is provided by welding, stamped steel plate parts together at a body welding line to prepare several subassemblies and by assembling the subassemblies into a white body. After the white body is painted at a body painting line, equipment is attached to the painted body at a body rigging line, completing the vehicle body.
A vehicle door to be assembled to a vehicle body is mainly constituted by a door outer panel arranged on an exterior side thereof and a door inner panel arranged on an interior side thereof. Both panels are stamped steal plate parts. The door outer panel and the door inner panel are assembled in a door subassembly by hemming and spot-welding at the body welding line. After the door subassembly is assembled to the body using hinges, painting including electrocoating, intermediate coating and finish coating is applied to the door subassembly at the body painting line. Finally, door equipment such as a door widow glass and a window regulator are assembled to the door at the body rigging line.
With regard to such a vehicle door made of stamped steal plates, attaching the door equipment is carried out with respect to a painted body, i.e., in such a situation that the door outer panel and the door inner panel have jointed together to provide a vehicle door panel 1 as shown in FIG. 4. It is usual that the required door equipment is attached to the door through an access opening 3 formed in the door inner panel 2.
When the door equipments, in particular, large parts such as the window regulator are attached to the door through the narrow access opening 3 in the door inner panel 2, it is necessary to carry out attachment into the door, handling such large parts at the body rigging line. This operation has required a lot of time and could damage the completely painted body. The attaching operation of such large parts through the narrow access opening involves complicated steps. It is extremely difficult to automatize the operation even if an excellent industrial robot is used for instance.
There have been some proposals wherein door equipments are attached to a single plate to provide a module and the module is attached to a door panel. These proposals can eliminate the complication caused by attachment of the respective door equipment through the access opening in a door inner panel.
For example, the following proposal has been disclosed in JP-A-6353112. The door disclosed in the publication has a door outer panel formed from a synthetic resin, and door equipment is mounted to a skeleton sandwiched between the door outer panel and a door inner panel to improve the door assembling operation.
In the vehicle door disclosed in the publication, the skeleton has a window glass sash, and the skeleton is mounted to a body through hinges, functioning as the main portion of the door. Since the door inner panel and the door outer panel work as only covers for covering the interior side and the exterior side of the skeleton, there is created a problem in that the operation for handling the door equipments in mounting the door equipments to the skeleton degrades.
If a fault in the door equipment is found after the skeleton has been attached to the body (irrespectively of prior to and after completion of the vehicle), or if maintenance of the door equipment is carried out in the future, it is difficult to carry out repairing operation without additional operation. The repairing operation is made more difficult since the door equipment have already been mounted to the skeleton. In such a case, if the skeleton itself is removed from the body, poor handling of the skeleton makes the repairing operation for the door equipments difficult because the skeleton functions as the main portion of the door.
Since the skeleton func
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Microfilm of the Specification and Drawings Annexed to the Request of Japanese Utility Model Application No. 116709/1986 ( Laid--open No. 23446/1988 ), (Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. ) Feb. 16, 1988.
Microfilm of the Specification and Drawings Annexed to the Request of Japanese Utility Model Application No. 173804/1981 ( Laid-open No. 78377/1983 ), (Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. ), May 27, 1983.
Hashimoto Hideyuki
Ishikawa Ken-ichi
Nakagomi Kimito
Asahi Glass Company Ltd.
Cohen Curtis A.
Stodola Daniel P.
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