Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Structural detail
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-07
2001-04-17
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Structural detail
C296S182100, C180S274000, C180S281000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06217108
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates generally to a hinged hood apparatus for covering a front engine room of a vehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle hood apparatus arranged such that when a vehicle employing the hood apparatus collided with an obstacle while running, it mitigates the collision impact applied to the obstacle.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
When an obstacle Is hit by a running vehicle, the obstacle is often hit first by a front bumper of the vehicle, flown up and then landed on the hood. At this time, the obstacle is imparted with an impact of collision with the hood.
For mitigating such a collision impact, a vehicle hood apparatus is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-9-315266. The proposed hood apparatus is arranged such that upon collision, a rear end of the hood is lifted to provide a gap between the hood and an engine compartment or room so that the hood can deform downward to thereby absorb collision energy. In the hood apparatus, the collision of the vehicle with the obstacle is detected by a collision sensor. Based on a collision signal output from the collision sensor, a control unit actuates a rod of a hood lifting/retaining mechanism to ascend to cause a flexible link mechanism to extend or stretch out to thereby lift a rear end of the hood so that a gap is provided between the hood and the engine room.
In the proposed vehicle hood apparatus, the rod has a hook for preventing downward movement of the rod upon arrival of the rod at its elevated or lifted position. The hook is rotatably attached to the rod by means of a support pin and is urged to extend outwardly from the rod by a compression spring. When the rod is elevated to its lifted position, the hook projects outwardly to lockingly engage with a vehicle body to thereby inhibit downward movement of the rod.
For retaining the hood at its lifted position, the vehicle hood apparatus has a complex hook-locking mechanism comprised of the compression spring and the hook, as explained above, which mechanism may be provided on the rod or built in the vehicle body. However, the hook-locking mechanism built in the rod makes the overall arrangement of the hood lifting/retaining mechanism complex and undesirably large in size. Further, the arrangement in which the hook-locking mechanism is built in the vehicle body requires due care to be taken for securely hook-locking the rod when the rod, which moves at an extremely high speed, is elevated a predetermined amount.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle hood apparatus which is simple in construction but can reliably keep retaining a vehicle hood at its lifted position.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle hood apparatus for, when a vehicle collided with an obstacle, lifting a hood at a frontal part of the vehicle a predetermined amount and retaining the hood at a lifted position by means of a hood-retaining mechanism, the hood-retaining mechanism comprising: a lower link having one end swingably connected to a body frame of the vehicle; an upper link having one end swingably connected to the hood; a hinged portion for pivotally connecting opposite ends of the lower and upper links with each other and being offset toward a back of the vehicle from a linear line passing over the one ends of the lower and upper links when the hood is lifted the predetermined amount; and stopper means for restricting bending of the lower and upper links so that the hinged portion does not move further from the offset position toward the back of the vehicle.
It is preferred that the hinged portion is designed to be offset such that it projects beyond longitudinal central axes of the upper and lower links toward the back of the vehicle.
Desirably, the stopper means comprises a lower link stopper provided projectingly at the one end of the lower link for releasably engaging with the body frame, and an upper link stopper provided projectingly at the opposite end of the upper link for releasably engaging with the opposite end of the lower link.
In a normal state in which the rear and of the hood is lowered, the flexible link composed of the lower and upper links is folded so that the hinged portion is positioned toward a front of the vehicle. At this time, the flexible link is held at a full-close angle. As the hood rear end is lifted higher, the flexible link opens wider about the hinged portion and moves toward the back of the vehicle. When the hood is lifted the predetermined amount, the flexible link is brought into a full-open state and inhibited from further opening by the lower and upper link stoppers. That is, although an operational force resulted from the weight of the hood is applied to the hinged portion in a direction toward the back of the vehicle when the lower and upper links are brought into an upright state, this upright state can be maintained owing to the stoppers. Thus, the lifted hood can be stably held in that state by the hood-retaining mechanism. Consequently, it is no longer necessary to separately provide on hood-retaining means a mechanism for retaining the lifted hood at that position.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3709316 (1973-01-01), Glance
patent: 4249632 (1981-02-01), Lucchini et al.
patent: 4572314 (1986-02-01), Anguera
patent: 4753475 (1988-06-01), Mochida
patent: 9-315266 (1996-05-01), None
patent: 10-258774 (1997-03-01), None
patent: 11-34925 (1997-07-01), None
Specification of Application No.: 09/610,187.
Specification of Application No.: 09/611,930.
Specification of Application No.: 09/613,125.
Specification of Application No.: 09/619,323.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Merchant & Gould P.C.
Pape Joseph D.
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