Electrical transmission or interconnection systems – Vehicle mounted systems – Automobile
Patent
1999-02-12
2000-07-25
Jackson, Stephen W.
Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Vehicle mounted systems
Automobile
B60L 100
Patent
active
06093977&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a vehicle electronic equipment apparatus and its assembling method.
BACKGROUND ART
In a vehicle, especially, an automobile, the number (variety) of vehicle electric device components which operate in accordance with passenger's operations is growing, and such electric device components are concentratively arranged in the middle of an instrument panel between the driver seat and front passenger seat. More specifically, air-conditioner and audio control vehicle electric device components are disposed in this portion, and a console including switches and the like operated by a passenger, and a display unit such as a display for displaying the operation states of the vehicle electric device components are mounted on its front surface, i.e., the surface facing the passenger room. Recently, the variety of audio units (car accessories) has increased, and the number of audio units including an AM/FM radio receiver, cassette deck, CD player, MD player, equalizer, and the like alone is considerable. In addition to these units, a navigation unit is also popularly mounted, and a display for displaying the map for the navigation unit is required.
Conventionally, vehicle electric device components having different functions (contents of information processing) are independent of each other, and have consoles operated by the passenger and display units for the passenger on their front surfaces, i.e., the surfaces facing the passenger room in units of independent vehicle electric device components. In order to concentrate or commonly use the display units and a large number of consoles as much as possible, a plurality of vehicle electric device components having different functions are sometimes configured into a single unit.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-244636 proposed a frame that configures a plurality of independent vehicle electric device components having different functions into one set. More specifically, this reference proposed method of configuring a plurality of vehicle electric device components into one set using a frame which comprises a chassis portion for coupling a plurality of vertically stacked vehicle electric device components into a single set, and a front surface panel portion that forms a wall surface facing the passenger room. However, the individual vehicle electric device components independently have display units and consoles, and the front surface panel portion is formed with only openings that allow observation of these display units from the passenger room, and openings that allow operation of the consoles from the passenger room. That is, the frame merely serves as a fastening component for configuring a plurality of independent vehicle electric device components into one set.
As described above, when many vehicle electric device components are concentrated on a narrow space, the layout of the display units and many consoles is considerably limited, and it is not preferable in terms of operability and visibility. As the number of vehicle electric device components becomes larger, the operability and visibility for some vehicle electric device components worsen.
As a method of improving operability and visibility, as described above, different functions are combined to build a single unit. However, in this case, since the number and variety of vehicle electric device components to be mounted (the number and variety of functions) vary depending on grades even in an identical model of vehicle, a considerable number of combinations exist for the number and variety of vehicle electric device components to be mounted. For this reason, when sets of units are prepared in correspondence with these many combinations, the number (variety) of sets becomes considerable. This fact limits formation of such sets, and the number of sets manufactured per kind becomes small, resulting in high cost.
Especially, in recent vehicles, a console for an air conditioner is arranged in the middle portion of an instrument panel in the widthwise direction of the
REFERENCES:
patent: 5175926 (1993-01-01), Chapman
patent: 5339362 (1994-08-01), Harris
patent: 5397160 (1995-03-01), Landry
patent: 5889337 (1999-03-01), Ito et al.
patent: 6032089 (2000-02-01), Buckley
Fujita Nagahisa
Ohmura Hiroshi
Otsubo Yoshinori
Shouji Futoshi
Jackson Stephen W.
Mazda Motor Corporation
Roberto Rios
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