Vehicle rear structure

Details Vehicle rear structure Vehicle rear structure

2003-08-19

2004-11-23

Coletta, Lori L. (Department: 3612)

Land vehicles: bodies and tops

Bodies

Door or window with specified vehicle feature

C296S146120, C049S386000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06820920

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle rear structure and, more particularly, to an improved door structure in which a rear opening of the vehicle is closed by an upper door and a lower door.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A vehicle arranged to close its rear opening with upper and lower doors is known. Such a vehicular tailgate structure is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-87066 entitled “VEHICLE REAR STRUCTURE.” The disclosed vehicle rear structure will be described briefly with reference to
FIG. 15
hereof.
As shown in
FIG. 15
, a vehicle
100
has a large opening
103
provided in a rear surface
102
of a vehicle body
101
, an upper door
104
swingable in a rearward and upward direction for opening and closing an upper half
103
a
of the opening
103
, and a lower door
105
swingable in a rearward and downward direction for opening and closing a lower half
103
b
of the opening
103
. The lower door
105
attached to a lower edge
103
c
of the opening
103
by hinges
106
,
106
is driven for opening and closing via two pairs of link arms
108
and
109
rotatably connected to drive motors
107
. Reference numeral
111
denotes a slope board.
When the lower door
105
of the vehicle
100
is opened, the link arms
108
and
109
are extended outside of the vehicle
100
. The link arms
108
and
109
extended outside are likely to obstruct loading and unloading of objects. There is a room for improvement to increase the workability of loading and unloading.
The lower door
105
is not provided with a damper mechanism (not shown) for slowing the opening and closing movements. Even if a damper mechanism is provided to the lower door
105
, consideration is required to prevent the damper mechanism from obstructing loading and unloading of objects with the lower door
105
opened.
It is thus required for a vehicle arranged to close a rear opening of the vehicle with upper and lower doors to increase the workability of loading and unloading of objects through the rear opening.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle rear structure which comprises: a vehicle body having an opening at a rear portion of the vehicle; an upper door and a lower door for closing the rear opening; and a damper mechanism placed between an outer panel and an inner panel forming a wall of the vehicle body and attached to at least the lower door for slowing opening and closing movements of the lower door.
The damper mechanism for slowing opening and closing movements of at least the lower door is placed between the outer panel and the inner panel constituting the wall of the vehicle body, so that the damper mechanism is prevented from extending out to the rear opening of the vehicle or to the vehicle outside when the lower door is opened. The damper mechanism is thus prevented from obstructing loading and unloading of objects with the lower door opened. Workability in loading and unloading through the rear opening can thus be increased. In addition, the damper mechanism does not appear when the lower door is opened, improving the appearance of the vehicle.
Preferably, the damper mechanism comprises: a hinge support provided within the wall in the vicinity of a lower edge portion of the rear opening; a hinge shaft rotatably mounted to the hinge support, the hinge shaft having a distal end extending from the wall toward the vehicle transverse center to be mounted to a lower portion of the lower door; a hinge arm extending from the hinge shaft radially of the hinge shaft; and a damper stay having a first end and a second end, the first end being connected to a distal end of the hinge arm in a vertically swingable manner, the second end being connected to a stay support within the wall in a vertically swingable manner.
By virtue of the damper mechanism which has the hinge support disposed within the wall closely to the lower edge portion of the rear opening, and a lower side portion of the lower door attached to the distal end of the hinge shaft rotatably mounted to the hinge support, the lower door is supported on the hinge support via the hinge shaft in an openable and closable fashion. The hinge arm is extended from the hinge shaft radially of the hinge shaft, and the first end of the damper stay is connected to the distal end of the hinge arm, whereby the lower door can move slowly when opened or closed. That is, the hinge shaft supporting the lower door in an openable and closable manner can also serve as a transmission member for transmitting opening and closing movements of the lower door to the damper stay. This is further advantageous in preventing the damper mechanism from extending out to the rear opening of the vehicle or to the vehicle outside when the lower door is opened. In addition, this allows the structure of the damper mechanism to be simplified with a reduced number of components.
In a preferred form, the damper mechanism comprises: a hinge support provided within the wall in the vicinity of a lower edge portion of the rear opening; a hinge shaft rotatably mounted to the hinge support, the hinge shaft having a distal end extending from the wall toward the vehicle transverse center to be mounted to a lower portion of the lower door; a hinge arm extending from the hinge shaft radially of the hinge shaft; a first link having a first end connected to a distal end of the hinge arm in a vertically swingable manner; a second link having a first end connected to a second end of the first link in a vertically swingable manner; a link support provided within the wall for mounting a central portion of the second link thereto so that the second link is vertically swingable about the central portion; a damper stay having a first end connected to a second end of the second link in a vertically swingable manner; and a stay support provided within the wall to which a second end of the damper stay is connected in a vertically swingable manner.
With the first end of the damper stay connected to the hinge shaft via the hinge arm and the first and second links, the positional relationship of the damper stay with respect to the hinge shaft can be relatively freely determined. When vehicle accessories or vehicle body components including a tail lamp are arranged close behind the damper mechanism, the damper mechanism can be freely designed not to interfere with those components.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2433169 (1947-12-01), Stephenson
patent: 2796287 (1957-06-01), Moyes
patent: 3010760 (1961-11-01), Trautmann
patent: 3336070 (1967-08-01), Jackson
patent: 3398985 (1968-08-01), Rhoades
patent: 3612601 (1971-10-01), Himka et al.
patent: 4688844 (1987-08-01), Hirose et al.
patent: 6217097 (2001-04-01), Rogers et al.
patent: 6397836 (2002-06-01), Pelletier et al.
patent: 2001/0013710 (2001-08-01), Pommeret
patent: 0 718 134 (1996-06-01), None
patent: 2002-87066 (2002-03-01), None

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Vehicle rear structure does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Vehicle rear structure, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle rear structure will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3352433