JPH0443385Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea] [Industrial application field]

This invention relates to a support structure for an automobile instrument panel, and relates to a resin instrument panel that is made of resin to reduce its weight, and in particular, to a structure that dramatically reduces resonance during idling vibration.

[Conventional technology]

Many of the interior accessories of automobiles are already being made of resin in order to reduce the weight of the vehicle body and improve its aesthetics, and instrument panels are one of them.
In particular, the instrument panels of low-class automobiles are made to be as lightweight as possible, and almost all of them are made of resin molding. A conventional support structure for such a resin instrument panel is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The instrument panel 1 has a substantially L-shaped cross section with an upper wall 3 extending rearward from a cowl 2 and a standing wall 4 hanging down from the rear end of the upper wall 3. A tray etc. is formed on the upper wall on the passenger seat side, and instruments are arranged on the vertical wall on the driver's seat side.
There is also a glove box located on the wall on the passenger side. To attach this instrument panel to the vehicle body, screw the front edge of the upper wall 3 at multiple locations to the cowl 2, and also attach screws to the back side of the lower edge of the standing wall over the entire length of the instrument panel in the left and right direction. This is done by screwing both ends of the attached instrument panel reinforcement 5 to the vehicle body side panel. The reason why such a reinforcement 5 is attached to the lower edge of the vertical wall portion 4 is to avoid an instrument cluster or a glove box provided in the vertical middle portion of the vertical wall portion 4. Further, the reinforcement 5 described above also functions as a member that supports the heater 6 disposed below the center of the instrument panel 1. That is, the heater 6 is screwed to the dash panel 7 at the back, screwed to the cowl 2 at the top, and screwed to the instrument panel reinforcement 5 at the front.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

By the way, the instrument panel 1 supported by the vehicle body as described above is extremely thin, so even if a reinforcement is attached to the back of the lower edge of the vertical wall, the overall rigidity will be reduced. Furthermore, since part of the weight of the heater 6 is supported at the center of the reinforcement 5, the resonance frequency of the instrument panel support structure including the heater 6 or the reinforcement 5 is relatively low, for example, about 20Hz. becomes. This resonant frequency may coincide with the idling frequency of the engine, and in this case, during idling, the vicinity of the center of the reinforcement resonates and vibrates greatly. In order to reduce vibrations caused by such resonance, it is sufficient to increase the rigidity of the above-mentioned instrument panel support structure. One way to do this is, for example, to change the reinforcement 5 to one with a thicker wall and higher rigidity, but this would increase the weight of the entire instrument panel support structure and push up the vehicle weight, so it cannot be easily adopted. . It is also possible to increase the support rigidity of the heater 6 to the vehicle body by interposing a support rod between the heater 6 and the floor panel, thereby increasing the rigidity of the entire instrument panel support structure. However, this would restrict the living space under the occupant's feet, so it cannot be easily adopted. This idea was devised under the above circumstances, and without increasing the weight of the car body,
Moreover, the objective is to dramatically improve the rigidity of the instrument panel support structure and suppress resonance during idle vibrations as described above, without constricting the living space.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problem, this invention takes the following technical measures. That is, an upper wall portion extending rearward from the cowl;
The instrument panel includes a standing wall portion that hangs down from the front edge of the upper wall portion, and the front edge of the upper wall portion of the instrument panel is fixed to the cowl, and the lower edge of the standing wall portion is attached to the side panel of the vehicle body. An instrument panel that is supported by being fixed to instrument panel reinforcements having both ends fixed, and a front part of a heater whose back or top surface is fixed to a dash panel or cowl is supported by an intermediate part of the reinforcement. In the support structure, a tip of a first brace extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body from the intermediate portion of the reinforcement is connected to the cowl, and a second brace extending in the vehicle width direction from the intermediate portion of the reinforcement is connected to the pedal bracket. ing.

[Action and effect]

The middle part of the instrument panel reinforcement, that is, the part where the front of the heater is supported, is the part farthest from the cowl, dash panel, or vehicle body side panel, and is the part that is most displaced by external force. In this invention, first, by connecting the tip of the first brace extending from the middle part of the instrument panel reinforcement in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body to the cowl,
Displacement of this part in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body is effectively restricted. Then, by connecting the tip of the second brace extending in the vehicle width direction from the middle part of the instrument panel reinforcement to the pedal bracket, displacement of this part in the vehicle width direction is effectively restricted. .
Note that this pedal bracket is a member that is rigidly connected to the cowl or dash panel and extends rearward.
In order to support the pedals and steering wheel, the mounting rigidity to the vehicle body is extremely high. In this way, by restricting the displacement of the part of the instrument panel reinforcement where the front of the heater is supported in the vehicle body longitudinal direction and vehicle width direction, the vibration itself of this part is effectively suppressed, and as a result, This is equivalent to significantly increasing the rigidity of the instrument panel support structure. Furthermore, since the first brace and the second brace each share the direction of preventing displacement of the instrument panel reinforcement, the connection of their ends to the reinforcement and the vehicle body structural member is not a rigid connection. Therefore, the assembly work is simple and the weight of the vehicle does not increase significantly. It goes without saying that the effects of the present invention will be further enhanced if both ends of these braces are rigidly connected. Further, since the first brace and the second brace are arranged in the interior space of the instrument panel, a living space for the occupant's feet is still secured in the space under the heater. As described above, according to the present invention, two
With the extremely simple configuration of adding two braces, idle resonance of the instrument panel support structure can be effectively avoided without significantly increasing the vehicle weight.
Moreover, the living space is not compressed.

[Explanation of Examples]

The embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 shows the instrument panel 1 of the present invention.
The support structure of is schematically shown with the instrument panel 1 represented by a virtual line. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the main part. In these figures, the same or equivalent members as in the conventional example shown in FIG. 4 are given the same reference numerals. The instrument panel 1 is a member having a substantially L-shaped cross section, and includes an upper wall 3 extending rearward from the upper end of the cowl 2, and a standing wall 4 hanging down from the rear edge of the upper wall 3. The basic part is integrally molded with resin. A meter cluster is mounted on the vertical wall portion 4 on the driver's seat side, and a glove box is mounted on the passenger's seat side. The above-mentioned instrument panel 1 is screwed to the cowl 2 at a suitable position on the front end of the upper wall 3, and both ends of the instrument panel reinforcement 5 attached to the back side of the lower edge of the vertical wall 4 are attached to the front. Bend it to
It is screwed to the side panel of the vehicle body. Note that the instrument panel reinforcement 5 in this example is formed in the shape of a strip having a long cross section in the vertical direction in order to secure the interior space of the instrument panel and increase bending rigidity against vertical loads. On the other hand, below the center of the instrument panel 1, a stay 8 provided on the back is connected to the needle panel 7.
The main body of the heater 6 is arranged such that the stays 9 provided on the upper surface are respectively fixed to the cowl 2. The front surface of the heater 6 is supported by a portion 5a bent approximately in the center of the reinforcement 5 to correspond to the front shape of the heater 6. Thus, in the present invention, first, the base end of the first brace 10 extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body is connected to the vicinity of the heater support part in the middle part of the reinforcement hopper 5, and the distal end is connected to the cowl 2. are doing. This brace 10 may be screwed to the reinforcement 5 and cowl 2 at both ends thereof. Furthermore, a second brace 11 is provided extending in the vehicle width direction from the vicinity of the heater support portion of the reinforcement 5, and its tip is connected to the pedal bracket 12. Both ends of the second brace 11 may also be screwed to the reinforcement 5 and the pedal bracket 12. The pedal bracket 12 is a member whose base end is rigidly connected to the cowl 2 or dash panel 7 and extends rearward, and has extremely high rigidity in order to stably support the clutch pedal, brake pedal, and steering mechanism. It is something that exists. Next, the operation of this example will be explained. First, the first and second braces 10, 11
Assuming that there is no heater support portion 5a in the instrument panel reinforcement 5, it should be easily understood that the heater support portion 5a of the instrument panel reinforcement 5 is the farthest from the vehicle body structural member and will be displaced the most when an external force is applied. In the present invention, the first brace 10 suppresses the displacement movement of the heater support portion 5a in the front-rear direction itself. Furthermore, as is clear from Figure 2,
If the vertical height position of the cowl side connection part of the first brace 10 is set higher than the connection position of both ends of the reinforcement 5 to the vehicle body inner panel, when viewed from the side, the relationship between the vehicle body and the reinforcement 5 is , and the first brace 10 form a triangular truss, vertical displacement of the heater support portion 5a is also effectively prevented. Further, it is clear that the second brace 11 suppresses displacement of the heater support portion 5a in the vehicle width direction. Therefore, in this example, two braces 1
By simply adding 0 and 11, it is possible to effectively prevent displacement of the heater support portion 5a in the instrument panel reinforcement 5 in the longitudinal direction, vertical direction, and vehicle width direction. This greatly contributes to suppressing structural resonance. That is, according to the present invention, as shown in the graph of FIG. 3, the peak of the resonance point of the instrument panel support structure is significantly lowered, and
By shifting the frequency to the higher frequency side, resonance at idle can be effectively avoided. This effect is comparable to the effect obtained by changing the instrument panel reinforcement 5 to one with high rigidity and large weight.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration of a positional embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the - line in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a comparison of the resonance frequency characteristics of the instrument panel support structure of the present invention with a conventional one. 4 are explanatory views of the conventional example, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the conventional example. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Instrument panel, 2... Cowl, 3... Upper wall part, 4... Standing wall part, 5... Instrument panel reinforcement, 6... Heater, 7... Dash panel, 10... First brace, 11...second brace, 12...pedal bracket.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] The instrument panel includes an upper wall extending rearward from the cowl and a standing wall hanging down from the front edge of the upper wall, the front edge of the upper wall being fixed to the cowl, The lower edge of the standing wall is supported by being fixed to the instrument panel reinforcement whose both ends are fixed to the side panel of the vehicle body, and the front part of the heater whose back or top surface is fixed to the dash panel or cowl is attached to the reinforcement. In the support structure of the instrument panel supported by the intermediate part,
The tip of the first brace extending from the intermediate part of the reinforcement in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body is connected to the cowl, and the second brace extending from the intermediate part of the reinforcement in the vehicle width direction is connected to the pedal bracket. , instrument panel support structure.