JPH07101256A - Propeller shaft support structure - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To quickly remove the propeller shaft from the vehicle body in the event of a collision. A propeller shaft 12 is rotatably supported by a bearing 19 held by a rubber mount 16, and the rubber mount 16 is held by a bracket 14 fixed to a vehicle body. In the above support structure, a protrusion 24 protruding in the axial direction of the propeller shaft 12 from the end of the rubber mount 16 in the axial direction of the propeller shaft 12 is provided integrally with the bracket 14, and the propeller shaft 12 A stopper portion 23, which is opposed to the protruding portion 24 with a predetermined gap δ in the axial direction, is formed on the outer peripheral portion 12 so as to protrude outward in the radial direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a propeller shaft support structure used in a vehicle, and more particularly to a propeller shaft support structure which is configured to easily remove the propeller shaft support when subjected to a collision load. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The body of an automobile is constructed to absorb the load at the time of a collision by deformation to protect the occupants. For example, as in a FR vehicle (front engine / rear drive vehicle), the front of the vehicle is In the structure where the propeller shaft that connects the power plant on the side with the rear wheel drive shaft is arranged along the front-back direction of the vehicle body, this propeller shaft will be stretched at the time of a collision and the degree of shock absorption will be reduced. . In order to eliminate such an inconvenience, conventionally, the intermediate support portion of the propeller shaft is configured to be detached from the vehicle body by the load at the time of collision.

An example of this is described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-46925. This will be briefly described. In FIG. 4, the rubber mount 2 is provided at the middle portion of the propeller shaft 1.
The bearing 3 held by is fitted, and the rubber mount 2 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the bracket 4. The rubber mount 2 is for supporting the propeller shaft 1 in a state where the propeller shaft 1 is allowed to move in the axial direction and the radial direction.
As shown in FIG. 4, the rubber sleeve is formed into a double annular member, and the bearing 3 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the sleeve, and the outer peripheral portion of the bearing 3 is fixed to the bracket 4. Therefore, a part of the rubber mount 2 projects toward the front side of the vehicle body along the axial direction of the propeller shaft 1. On the other hand, a stopper plate 5 having an outer diameter equal to or larger than the outer diameter of the rubber mount 2 is attached to the propeller shaft 1. Further, the mounting hole 7 into which the bolt 6 for fixing the bracket 4 to the vehicle body is inserted is formed as a hole opened to the front side of the vehicle body by the notch portion 8.

Therefore, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, when the collision load acts on the propeller shaft 1, the rubber mount 2
The deformation causes the propeller shaft 1 to move to the rear side of the vehicle body. Along with this, the stopper plate 5 comes into contact with the rubber mount 2 and further moves while deforming the rubber mount 2, and finally the stopper plate 5 comes into contact with the bracket 4. At this point, a load due to a collision acts on the bracket 4 from the propeller shaft 1, and as a result, the mounting hole 7 opens from the notch portion 8 and comes off from the bolt 6, and the propeller shaft 1 separates from the vehicle body.

[0005]

As described above, in the propeller shaft 1 of the vehicle, the bearing 3 is held by the rubber mount 2 so that the propeller shaft 1 can move in the axial direction at the time of sudden braking and the like. A gap is set between the stopper plate 2 and the stopper plate 5 that corresponds to the front-back movement dimension that can occur during normal traveling. Further, in the above-mentioned conventional supporting device, after the stopper plate 5 moves by the gap at the time of collision, the rubber mount 2 is pushed to deform it, and then the stopper plate 5 pushes the bracket 4. In the above-described conventional supporting device, the stroke of the stopper plate 5 is increased before the load due to the collision acts on the bracket 4. That is, after the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft 1 is disengaged from the vehicle body, transmission of a collision load to the vehicle body is avoided via the propeller shaft 1. If it takes a long time to disengage, the collision load applied to the vehicle body may become large, or the collision energy that can be absorbed by the deformation of the vehicle body may decrease, which may cause inconvenience.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a support structure capable of quickly disengaging a propeller shaft from a vehicle body in the event of a collision.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention rotatably supports a middle portion of a propeller shaft for transmitting a driving force by a bearing held by a rubber mount, and the rubber mount thereof. In a propeller shaft support structure held by a bracket fixed to a vehicle body, a protrusion protruding in the axial direction of the propeller shaft from an end of the rubber mount in the axial direction of the propeller shaft is integrally formed with the bracket. And a stopper portion that is provided on the propeller shaft and that opposes the protruding portion with a predetermined gap in the axial direction and that projects outward in the radial direction. .

[0008]

Also in the supporting structure of the present invention, the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft is rotatably supported by the rubber mount held by the bracket and the bearing held by the rubber mouton. Further, according to the present invention, the bracket is formed with a protrusion that protrudes in the axial direction of the propeller shaft. The position of its tip projects beyond the tip of the rubber mount, so if the propeller shaft moves in the axial direction due to a collision, it will exceed the gap, which is the axial movement dimension that occurs during normal running. When moved, the stopper portion comes into contact with the protruding portion.
At this point, the load due to the collision immediately acts on the bracket through the protrusion, and finally the bracket comes off the vehicle body,
The propeller shaft disengages from the vehicle body. That is, the moving dimension of the propeller shaft until the load due to the collision is applied to the bracket is only the above-mentioned gap, and as a result, the time required for the propeller shaft to separate from the vehicle body is shortened.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, the example shown here is an example of a center support 13 of a propeller shaft 12 having a front-side shaft 10 and an intermediate shaft 11 connected thereto.
A cylindrical sleeve 15 is fixed to an inner peripheral portion of a bracket 14 fixed to a vehicle body (not shown) by means such as welding. The inner peripheral side of the sleeve 15 is made of an elastic material such as rubber. The rubber mouton 16 is held. The rubber mount 16 is formed in a double annular shape so as to be elastically displaced in both the radial direction and the axial direction, and the metal ring 17 attached to the outer peripheral portion of the rubber mount 16 is attached to the inner peripheral surface of the sleeve 15. It is held by the bracket 14 by being fixed to the surface. A bearing case 18 is attached to the inner peripheral portion of the rubber mount 16, and the bearing 19 fitted to the outer peripheral portion of the intermediate shaft 11 is fitted to and held by the inner peripheral portion of the bearing case 18. ing.

The front shaft 10 and the intermediate shaft 11 have flanges 20 and 21 formed at their ends opposed to each other, and these flanges 20 and 21 are bolts 22.
And a nut 23 for fastening and coupling. An annular member 24, which is a protrusion, is attached to the end portion of the sleeve 15 on the side of the flanges 20 and 21, that is, the end portion on the front side of the vehicle (left side in FIG. 1) by means of press fitting or the like. There is. The annular member 24 has a certain length in the axial direction, and its right end in FIG. 1 abuts the stepped portion of the sleeve 15 with the flange portion of the rubber mount 16 interposed therebetween, and It does not move to the right in FIG. The end of the annular member 24 on the front side of the vehicle projects in the axial direction of the propeller shaft 12 beyond the rubber mount 16, and the outer diameter of this end fastens the flanges 20 and 21. The diameter is set to be equal to or smaller than the diameter of the circle connecting the outermost peripheral portions of the nut 23. That is, in this embodiment, these nuts 23 form the stopper portion. The distance δ between the stopper portion and the tip of the annular member 24 is set to such a dimension that they do not interfere with each other when the propeller shaft 12 moves back and forth during normal traveling.

Further, the bracket 14 is integrally formed with a flange portion 25 protruding in the left-right direction (left-right direction with respect to the front-back direction of the vehicle body). A long hole 26 for inserting a bolt (not shown) for fixing to the vehicle body at the displaced position
Are formed. That is, the dimension of the front end side of the flange portion 25 is small, and this portion is a weak portion, and a cutout portion 27 for promoting breakage is formed in the weak portion.

Explaining the operation of the above-mentioned support structure, the propeller shaft 12 is rotatable because it is supported by the bearing 19, and when bumps, rebounds, sudden braking or sudden start occur during traveling, Due to the elastic deformation of the rubber mount 16, the propeller shaft 12 is allowed to move in the radial direction and the axial direction. In that case, since the gap of the predetermined dimension δ is set between the nut 23 that serves as the stopper portion and the tip end portion of the annular member 24 that is the protruding portion, the nut 23 does not contact the annular member 24.

When a load is applied to the propeller shaft 12 from the front due to a collision of the vehicle or the like, the propeller shaft 12 largely moves rearward of the vehicle with the deformation of the rubber mount 16. When the amount of movement exceeds the gap δ between the nut 23 and the annular member 24, the end surface of the nut 23 comes into contact with the tip of the annular member 24. Therefore, the load due to the collision acts on the bracket 14 from the annular member 24, and as a result, the fragile portion formed on the tip end side of the flange portion 25 is broken and the bracket 14 is disengaged from the vehicle body. That is, the intermediate portion of the propeller shaft 12 is separated from the vehicle body.

As described above, in the above support structure, since the load due to the collision acts on the bracket 14 after the gap δ between the nut 23 which is the stopper portion and the annular member 24 which is the protruding portion is closed, a load acts on the bracket 14. The time until the collision load acts becomes shorter. So in the above structure,
Since the propeller shaft 12 is disengaged from the vehicle body and bent in a short time after the collision, it is possible to reduce the collision that acts on the vehicle body and reduce the shock, or effectively generate the collision energy due to the deformation of the vehicle body. You can

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but may be constructed as shown in FIG. 2 or 3. That is, the example shown in FIG. 2 is an example in which the axial length of the sleeve 15 is shortened while the cylindrical portion on the inner peripheral side of the bracket 14 is lengthened, and the annular member 24 is directly attached thereto. Other configurations are the same as those shown in FIG. Therefore, even with the configuration shown in FIG. 2, if the propeller shaft 12 moves by the gap δ between the nut 23 and the annular member 24 at the time of collision, both of them abut and the collision load acts directly on the bracket 14. Thus, the propeller shaft 12 can be promptly detached from the vehicle body.

The example shown in FIG. 3 is an example in which the protrusion is directly formed on the bracket 14. That is, the bracket 14
A cylindrical portion 14a into which the sleeve 15 is fitted projects from the rubber mount 16 toward the front side of the vehicle body.
On the other hand, a nut with a seat is used as the nut 23 that serves as a stopper portion, and the diameter of the circle connecting the outermost peripheral portions of these nuts is set to be equal to or larger than the outer diameter of the cylindrical portion 14a. With such a configuration, the nut that is the stopper portion comes into contact with the cylindrical portion 14a before coming into contact with the rubber mount 16 at the time of collision,
The disengagement of the propeller shaft 12 from the vehicle body can be caused quickly.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the flange portion 25
In order to promote the breakage of the vehicle, the dimension of the vehicle front side portion of the long hole 26 is reduced, and the notch portion 27 is formed here. Instead, the vehicle front side portion of the long hole 26 is
The structure may be cut open like the conventional structure shown in FIG. 4, or the size may be simply reduced without providing such cut-out portions or notches 27. Further, the stopper portion may be configured so as to also serve as the flange portion 22 of the intermediate shaft 12, or may be configured by attaching a special plate.

[0018]

As described above, according to the support structure of the present invention, the protruding portion that comes into contact with the stopper portion provided on the propeller shaft protrudes from the rubber mount in the axial direction of the propeller shaft, and the bracket. Since it is provided substantially integrally, when the propeller shaft moves in the axial direction due to a collision, the stopper portion can abut the protruding portion in a short time to apply a load due to the collision to the bracket, As a result, the propeller shaft can be quickly detached from the vehicle body due to the breakage of the bracket, and the impact acting on the vehicle body at the time of a collision can be mitigated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing an example of a conventional propeller shaft support structure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 Propeller shaft 13 Center support 14 Bracket 16 Rubber mount 19 Bearing 23 Nut 24 Annular member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A propeller shaft support structure in which an intermediate portion of a propeller shaft for transmitting driving force is rotatably supported by a bearing held by a rubber mount, and the rubber mount is held by a bracket fixed to a vehicle body. A protrusion that protrudes in the axial direction of the propeller shaft from the end of the rubber mount in the axial direction of the propeller shaft is provided integrally with the bracket, and the propeller shaft has a protrusion with respect to the protrusion. A propeller shaft support structure, characterized in that stopper parts facing each other with a predetermined gap in the axial direction are formed to project outward in the radial direction.