JPS61163070A - Door assembly for automobile, method of assembling door and method of assembling automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of assembling a motor vehicle door and to the door assembly itself. The present invention also extends to a method of assembling a motor vehicle on an assembly line.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Typically, vehicle doors are constructed from two main components: an inner panel and an outer panel. The outer panel forms the "skin" of the door. The outer and inner panels are secured together about their peripheries so as to define the window frame in the upper region above the waistline and the door body below the waistline. In the area of the door body,
The inner panel and outer panel are spaced apart to form an interior void therebetween. The cavity is used to house the window operating mechanism and door locking mechanism. These mechanisms are placed in place in the cavity through openings formed in the inner panel. The various openings in the panels, often very large and irregularly shaped, are covered by interior panels that form the final interior surface of the door.

Manipulating the various internal components of the door in place within the cavity is extremely difficult and time consuming.

It is also practically impossible to have a robot perform this work. Due to the presence of voids, it is essential to install a water barrier, usually a resin sheet, between the metal of the inner panel and the interior panel.

When assembling a door onto a vehicle, the unpainted door is usually attached to the unpainted outer skin of the vehicle body, and after the entire vehicle body is painted, the door is opened wide enough to allow assembly line workers to access the inside of the vehicle body. This is done by transporting the car body to the assembly line.The doors are susceptible to damage in this state, and the extra width of the car skin caused by an open door requires extra space on the production line and the assembly process Workers waste time having to walk around doorways to perform their tasks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present FJiJK, a door frame having an inner frame is provided, internal components of the door are attached to the inner panel from the outside of the door, and a void space in which the internal components are arranged is surrounded by the inner panel. A method of assembling a vehicle door is provided which includes the steps of attaching a door skin to a frame.

Due to the assembly being carried out before the door skin is fitted, this assembly of the door from the outside greatly facilitates the assembly, since it may no longer be necessary to manipulate the components in an already closed cavity. do. Assembly can be easily performed by robots. Moreover, the only holes required in the inside panel of the door are holes for the shafts or fasteners to pass through. Therefore,
The panel is more durable than previously and a separate water barrier to prevent water from entering the interior of the vehicle is no longer necessary. Moreover, since the exposed surface of the inner panel is continuous, it itself serves as a reinforcement to support the necessary interior panel, so that the interior panel does not have to be formed as a rigid panel and the interior It may be a flexible material that can be attached directly to the metal of the panel.

The outer skin of the door may be made of resin that can be bolted to the door frame during assembly. The skin may incorporate reinforcing bars as required by various regulations to increase the strength of the door against side impacts.

Forming the skin as a molded part allows for the incorporation of features that previously had to be formed separately. For example, a cylindrical socket housing a rotatable door lock cylinder can be integrally molded into the door skin to allow support for pivoting the outer layer handle. There is also the possibility of integrally molding the housing of the door-mounted rearview mirror as part of the outer panel.

The door frame may include a peripheral member extending around the entire length of the J% edge, and an inner panel member fixed to the peripheral member.

The invention also provides a door assembly comprising a door frame having a window frame and an inner panel that is continuous over its entire surface area, and a door skin attached to the door frame and separate from the window frame. do.

The invention further provides a method for assembling a motor vehicle, in which the vehicle body is painted without any doors being installed, the vehicle assembly and the door assembly are completed on separate lines, and the door assembly is completed on separate lines. are installed on the vehicle at a late stage of assembly.

If the door assembly proceeds as described above, the door frame with the inner panel and window frame may be painted to the standard color for all vehicles, and the door skin then matched to the vehicle body color. It may be painted differently. The standard color used for the door frame is glossy black. In the finished vehicle, the only part of the frame that is exposed is the window frame, and the glossy black paint makes it difficult for casual observers to tell where the glass ends and the metal begins. This improves the "perfectly shiny" appearance of the vehicle. Therefore, the vehicle is a feature that the vehicle dayday is keen to achieve. It appears to have a very large glass area.

The invention will be described below by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG.

EXAMPLE The door shown in FIG. 1 has seven frames 10 formed by an intermediate outer panel or peripheral frame 12 and an inner panel 14.
'fr-have. In FIG. 1, only the intermediate outer panel of these two panels is shown. however,
Both panels are visible in Figures 2 through 5.

A middle outer panel 12 extends around the perimeter of the door.

The inner panel 14 also extends around the perimeter of the door, but also extends across the entire interior of the door below the waistline.

What are the intermediate outer panel 12 and the inner panel 14?

Spot welded together, the traps, as seen particularly in FIGS. 4 and 5, together form a box-shaped support around the window frame.

In the preferred embodiment, this door frame 10, formed by the intermediate outer panel 12 and inner panel 14, is suitable for all vehicles on the production line regardless of the final paint color applied to any particular vehicle. Painted a glossy black.

As can be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the lath running channel 16 is attached to a 7-runway formed in the door 7-frame. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the structure of the channel is as follows:
This allows the movable pane 27 to virtually match in height to the outer surface of the door, as is desirable for aerodynamic reasons.

The glass running channel 16 is provided with a flexible sealing tongue 18 which serves the dual function of pushing and retaining the window glass 27 towards its outside and providing a seal between the glass and the door frame. may be provided.

Figures 4 and 5 also show an R-shaped seal 19t attached to the other 7 lances 21 formed by the intermediate outer panel 12 and inner panel 14. In the drawing, the strip or seal is shown without the compression that actually occurs when the door is closed onto the vehicle body. Adjacent parts of the vehicle body are indicated by dotted lines, and when the door is closed,
It is clear that the sealing strips 7° 19 are compressed towards these adjacent parts. These adjacent parts are a roof 20 with a gutter 22 and an A-shaped column 24 with a windshield 26.

The intermediate outer panel 12 forms the outside of the door above the waistline and surrounds the window opening.

To assemble the door, the intermediate outer panel 12 and inner panel 14 are first secured together by full point welding around their periphery. The next step in door assembly is to attach the internal door latch, window pane, etc. to the door frame. This is done from the outside of the door and is very easily carried out as there is not yet an outer skin attached to the door frame.

The holes that must be provided in the inner panel are limited to holes for inserting fasteners that attach the inner component to the inner panel, and no proximal openings that allow the inner component to be installed by hand into the interior space of the door. Provision is not necessary, so that this assembly can be performed by a robot.

Once all internal components are properly installed, the outer skin panel 28 is attached to the assembly. FIG. 2 shows how this mounting is carried out. The outer panel 28 has 5 convenient features.
It may also be a resin molded product that has already been painted to match the color of the vehicle to which it will be installed. The outer panel is then secured to the boundary solid by bolts 30 inserted through holes 32 in the frame 10.

Resin outer panels have several advantages over metal panels.Resin panels are resilient and therefore are not permanently damaged by small impacts. Also, resin panels are more lightweight.

However, the invention is not limited to the use of resin panels as the outer panels 28; it is within the scope of the invention to use metal panels 28. A beam 34 configured to resist partial pressure may be integrated into the outer panel 28 and secured to the door frame 10 by the outer panel.

Another advantage of the resin outer panel 28 is that the panel can be formed by molding, providing the possibility of leading to complex shapes that cannot be manufactured by metal stamping methods. FIG. 1 shows a door-mounted exterior rearview mirror housing 36 that can be manufactured in a special streamlined configuration. Additionally, the mounting members for door locks and latches.

May be integrated into the outer panel. FIG. 6 shows the embodiment in which the cylindrical socket 3B accommodating the cylinder lock 40 can be molded in one piece into the outer panel itself. The socket 38 may have the necessary internal structure, such as a longitudinal groove 42, which accommodates the cylinder's tongue when the cylinder is locked. When the cylinder is unlocked, the tangela is of course retracted into the cylinder (when the correct key 44 is inserted into the cylinder) and the cylinder is rotatable. Similarly, the door latch hinge bin support may be molded on the opposite side of the outer panel 28.

Assembly of the door, as described above, results in a perforated inner panel once all internal components are installed. this is%
It has two main advantages. First, there is no need to provide an additional moisture barrier to prevent moisture from entering the interior of the vehicle through the openings in the panel. Typically, the barrier is provided by sandwiching a sheet of resin film between the interior panel and the metal of the inner panel. Second,
Since the inner panel is continuous, it can itself act as a support or reinforcement for the interior panel to be attached to the door. The interior panel is usually installed to hide the surface of the interior panel from view. Because the regular interior panel has large holes, after the interior panel is attached to the reinforcing material, It is also necessary to fix the interior panel to the door. In the present invention, the interior panel may be a flush molded sheet 48 that is fixed directly to the door without reinforcement.

The boundary solid body described above may be assembled separately from the vehicle body.The door and the vehicle body are assembled separately on a separate production line, and the door is attached to the vehicle only at a later stage of vehicle assembly. is proposed. In the assembly process, the outer skin of the vehicle body is painted without attaching outer panels;
All boundary solids are painted a glossy black color, regardless of the color of the vehicle they are eventually attached to. Assembly of the vehicle body proceeds as usual, but is facilitated by the lack of doors, which allows for less space on the assembly line, since there are no laterally projecting doors to allow.

The assembly line may be parallel to the vehicle body assembly line.

The door may be assigned to a particular vehicle body only at the end of both assembly lines at the stage when the outer panel 28 has to be attached to the boundary solid, and the hinge 50 may have a flange 51 that is bolted to the vehicle body. .

The skin panel 28 has reinforcing ribs 52t as required.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a schematic exploded view of the door of the invention omitting the inner panel, FIG. 2 is a partially exploded view of the door of the invention, and FIG. 6 is a schematic exploded view of the door of the invention in the area of the door hinge. 4 is a sectional view along the line IV--IV of FIG. 1; FIG. 5 is a sectional view along the line v--■ of FIG. 1 with the adjacent A-shaped column of the vehicle; FIG. 1 shows a detailed sectional view along the line VI--VI in FIG. 1; 10...Door frame 12...Middle outer panel (peripheral frame) 14...
・Inner panel 16...Glass running channel 28...Outer panel (outer skin panel) 34...Reinforcement beam 36...Rearview mirror housing 38...Cylindrical socket

Claims (17)

[Claims] (1) formed by two metal stampings secured together to form a door frame configured to support interior components and having a periphery of a glass running channel to be formed; an interior panel having an arrangement for supporting internal door components and an attachment arrangement for the door hinge;
A door assembly for a motor vehicle comprising an outer panel removably attached to the inner panel and extending only below the waistline of the door. 2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the outer panel includes reinforcing beams to resist side pressure. (3) The assembly according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the outer panel is formed of resin. (4) The assembly of claim 6, wherein door components other than the outer panel itself are molded integrally with the outer panel. 5. The assembly of claim 4, wherein the exterior rearview mirror housing is integrally molded with the outer panel. 6. The assembly of claim 4, wherein the cylindrical lock housing is integrally molded with the outer panel. 7. The assembly of claim 4, wherein the door latch handle pivot support is integrally molded with the outer panel. 8. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the outer panel is bolted to the door frame. (9) the inner panel is formed for fasteners securing the inner door component to the inner panel and for an operable portion of the door interior component to extend into the interior of the vehicle in use; 2. An assembly according to claim 1, which is substantially unperforated except for the holes. 10. The assembly of claim 9, further comprising a door interior material attached directly to the inner panel. (11) In a method for assembling a door of a type of automobile that has a window hole located above the waist line that defines the end of the door body, a door frame having an inner door panel but no outer door panel is provided, and the door frame is completed. A method comprising the steps of: attaching the internal components of the door to the inner panel from the side hidden by the outer door panel, and then attaching the outer door panel to the frame. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the outer panel does not extend above the waistline. 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the door is assembled remotely from the vehicle. (14) A method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the door frame is painted a glossy black color before assembly. 15. The method of claim 11 or 12, wherein the door frame is formed of an intermediate outer component and an inner panel. 16. The method of claim 11, wherein a soft interior material is applied directly to the inner panel. (17) A method of assembling a motor vehicle in which a vehicle body is painted and assembled without an attached door, the door is assembled separately, and the assembled door is later attached to the assembled vehicle body. .