Vertical realignment device

Abstract

The invention relates to an eccentric (5) comprising a first fixed part (50) and a second rotating part (51) arranged in the first fixed part (50), characterized in that the second rotating part (51) comprises, on one side, a concave recess (513) with an axis A and, on the other side, a cylindrical head (514) with an axis B, characterized in that these axes A and B are parallel and at a non-zero distance d from each other, characterized in that the second rotating part (51) comprises two opposite arms (511, 512), one end of which is provided with two teeth (5111) which cooperate with snaps (504, 505) arranged on the first fixed part (50), and characterized in that the ends of these arms (511, 512) are elastically deformable. Thus, the eccentric (5) can be rotated with a tool such as a "plum blossom" tool and thus allows height adjustment when the eccentric is placed in a door trim without protruding from the trim. The elastically deformable end of the arm makes it possible to release the teeth from the catch by pressure and to automatically lock them to the catch by the return of the end to its rest position, in this way preventing the second part from rotating in the desired position.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of motor vehicle doors and more particularly to the positioning of a trim element on said door relative to the instrument panel. Background Art

[0002] Today, the lines of the dashboard continue on the door trim; therefore, the geometry of this door trim must be determined in order to avoid a noticeable defect between the two front doors and the dashboard. It is therefore important to make sufficiently precise adjustments. Each component that makes up the door and the dashboard has manufacturing tolerances, and when these components are installed, these tolerances can accumulate and produce relatively large offsets between the installed elements. In addition, the trim is installed on the housing of the door before the door is installed on the body of the vehicle. The geometric installation of the door is carried out relative to the body and by giving priority to the external gaps that the consumer sees, because these gaps will be seen first when viewing the vehicle at the dealer. As a result, the interior, where the trim is placed, may have a large gap, which gives the consumer a poor finishing impression. This gap is even more obvious when the trim involves a color change: a vertical step in the line is immediately recognizable. Summary of the invention

[0003] The object of the present invention is to respond to the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art documents and in particular to propose an eccentric, a door and a method allowing the height of the trim to be adjusted once the door has been mounted on the vehicle body at the end of the line.

[0004] To this end, a first aspect of the invention relates to an eccentric comprising a first fixed part and a second rotating part arranged in the first fixed part; characterized in that the second rotating part comprises, on one side, a concave recess with an axis A and, on the other side, a cylindrical head with an axis B, characterized in that these axes A and B are parallel and at a non-zero distance d from each other, characterized in that the second rotating part comprises two opposite arms, one end of which is provided with two teeth and which cooperate with a snap provided on the first fixed part, and characterized in that the ends of the arms are elastically deformable. Thus, the eccentric can be turned with a tool such as a "plum blossom" tool and thus allows height adjustment when the eccentric is placed in a door trim without protruding from the trim. The elastically deformable ends of the arms allow the teeth to be released from the snap by pressure and automatically lock them on the snap by the end returning to rest, thereby preventing the second part from rotating in the desired position.

[0005] Advantageously, this distance d is equal to 3 mm. This distance of 3 mm allows the height of the decorative element to be adjusted by ±2 mm.

[0006] Advantageously, the second rotary component is in one piece and comprises a seal. Thus, the seal is integral with the rotary component and can ensure sound insulation of the eccentric on the door shell when the door shell is mounted.

[0007] Advantageously, the elastic deformation of the arm is obtained by a through cutout provided at the end. This cutout gives the end of the arm a spring effect.

[0008] Advantageously, the catches on the fixed part are arranged at intervals of 1 mm on both sides of the rotating part, with an adjustment distance of 0 to ±2 mm on one side and an adjustment distance of ±0.5 mm to ±1.5 mm on the other side. The second part can thus be rotated in steps of 0.5 mm, with the engagement of the teeth with the catches adjusting the distance by a whole millimeter on one side and by a half millimeter on the other side.

[0009] According to a second aspect, the invention relates to a motor vehicle door comprising: a trim having a front fastening hole arranged in the top part and a fastening hole in the rear part, near a finishing zone to be adjusted relative to the dashboard; a door housing having holes provided with grooved blocks intended to receive fastening screws, which fastening screws connect the trim to the housing through said fastening blocks; characterised in that the housing comprises a grommet arranged in a cylindrical hole in the middle part of the top front corner of the door facing the trim, into which an eccentric having at least one of the above-mentioned characteristics is inserted. The positioning of the eccentric at the front of the door allows the front of the trim to be raised or lowered so as to align it with the dashboard. Adjustment by snap-fit ​​allows a uniform adjustment, regardless of the operator on the assembly line, and allows saving execution time.

[0010] Advantageously, the elongated front fastening holes have an axis-to-axis distance of 8 mm and a diameter of 16 mm. This allows the decorative element to be positioned higher or lower on the housing.

[0011] Advantageously, the front fastening hole is 50 mm away from the buttonhole. The proximity of the fastening hole to the buttonhole allows for a more precise adjustment and makes the operator's work easier.

[0012] Advantageously, the vehicle door comprises a baffle. The baffle allows the adjustment and fastening area to be hidden from the view of the consumer.

[0013] According to a third aspect, the invention relates to a method for adjusting the height of a door trim of a motor vehicle on a housing; the method comprising the following steps:

[0014] - remove the fastening screws from the front fastening holes of the trim in the top front corners of the housing,

[0015] - rotating the eccentric having at least one of the above mentioned characteristics by a multiple of half a millimeter,

[0016] -Screw the fixing screw back in place.

[0017] This method allows for uniform adjustment of the housing regardless of the operator.

[0018] Advantageously, the method comprises a step of removing a plate covering the front fastening screw and a step of refitting said plate.

[0019] Advantageously, the eccentric moves the trim piece by ±2 mm. The adjustment range allows the instrument panel to be aligned with the housing without defects appearing on the door window.

[0020] Advantageously, the method comprises a step of verifying the height adjustment of the trim relative to the dashboard by closing the door. Once the first adjustment has been made, the operator closes the door to verify the alignment of the housing with the dashboard; if it is correctly aligned, the adjustment is complete, otherwise he restarts the operation.

[0021] The invention also relates to a motor vehicle comprising two doors having at least one of the above-mentioned features. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will become more clearly apparent on reading the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention given by way of non-limiting example and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0023] [ Figure 1 ] A view showing a poor connection between the instrument panel and the door trim;

[0024] [ Figure 2 ] is an interior view of the car door;

[0025] [ Figure 3 ] is an interior view of the door details;

[0026] [ Figure 4 ] shows the steps of unscrewing the decorative element according to the method;

[0027] [ Figure 5 ] is a front view of a rotating component of an eccentric member according to the present invention;

[0028] [ Figure 6 ]yes Figure 5 A rear view of the rotating component in FIG.

[0029] [ Figure 7 ] is a front view of a fixing part of an eccentric member according to the present invention;

[0030] [ Figure 8]yes Figure 7 A three-dimensional diagram of a fixing component in FIG.

[0031] [ Fig. 9 ] is a stereogram of the interface component;

[0032] [ Fig.10 ] shows the mounting of the rotating part on the fixed part;

[0033] [ Fig.11 ] shows the zeroing of a rotating part on a stationary part;

[0034] [ Fig.12 ] shows the installation of the eccentric on the interface component;

[0035] [ Fig.13 ] shows Fig.12 Installation of the components in the vehicle door housing;

[0036] [ Fig.14 ] shows height adjustment by means of an eccentric;

[0037] [ Fig.15 ] is the detail that locks the arm of the rotating part to the fixed part;

[0038] [ Fig.16 ] is a detailed view of the adjustment mechanism with the fastening block. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0039] In the remainder of this specification, front will be considered to correspond to the front of the vehicle and rear to the rear of the vehicle. In the same way, top corresponds to the top of the vehicle and interior corresponds to the interior of the vehicle. Conventionally, a vertical offset will be considered to be a Z defect along the Z axis, and a depthwise offset or the space between the trim and the instrument panel will be considered to be an X+Y defect along the X and Y axes, such as Figure 1 Only Z defects are considered.

[0040] from Figure 1 It can be seen that when the trim 1 is mounted on the housing 3 of the door 4 and the door 4 is closed, the line 20 of the dashboard 2 and the line 10 of the trim 1 are not always aligned; in this case, a downward offset d1 of several millimeters in the Z direction is observed.

[0041] The trim 1 is positioned vertically on the housing 3 of the door by means of two fingers 5 and 19 housed in a first hole 13 and a second hole (not visible in the figure). These fingers are placed between 50 mm and 160 mm from the top 100 of the trim 1. The finger 5 is equipped with an eccentric system. When adjusting using the finger 5 equipped with an eccentric system, the rear finger 19 itself remains fixed and serves as the axis of rotation of the trim 1 in order to lower or raise the trim at the front so that it is aligned with the dashboard 2.

[0042] The decorative element 1 comprises a removable cover 11 which covers a front screw 12 screwed into a fastening hole 14 and a front screw 12 received in a grommet 13 (see Fig.13 ) in the trim 1. When the door 4 is closed, this baffle 11 is placed on the inner side of the overlapping line 101 of the instrument panel 2 on the trim 1. Therefore, this entire area 101 is not visible in the driving position and does not impair the aesthetics of the passenger compartment. The fastening hole 14 is provided in a recess 17 of the trim 1. In the example shown, the eccentric 5 with the rotation axis A is placed in the vicinity of and below the fastening hole 14.

[0043] The eccentric member 5 comprises a first fixing member 50 ( Figure 7 and Figure 8 ) and the second rotating member 51( Figure 5 and Figure 6 ). When the eccentric is in the door mounted position, the front face of the eccentric will be considered to be oriented towards the interior of the vehicle.

[0044] The second rotating member 51 is at its front 510 (see Figure 5 ) has a cutout 513 intended to receive a tool (in this example a "Torx" recess) and two arms 511 and 512 arranged on either side of the rotation axis A. The cutout 513 is located in a protrusion 516 on the front face 510; this protrusion 516 includes cutting facets 5160, in this case six cutting facets, which can be used to turn the rotating part 51 using a socket wrench. A cylindrical body 517 is arranged between the front face 510 and the protrusion 516.

[0045] The eccentric 5 is behind it (see Figure 6 ) has a conical head 514 located in the continuation of a cylinder 518 having an axis B offset by a distance d relative to the axis A. In the example shown, the conical head 514 has a cross-shaped section in order to make it easier to manufacture. A seal 515 is placed on the periphery of the rotating part 51 and is integral with the rotating part 51.

[0046] The first fixing part 50 comprises a cylindrical hole 501 which is delimited at its front face 500 by two flat surfaces 502 and 503; each surface 502 and 503 is provided with raised catches 504 and 505 which are distributed at intervals of 15°. The cylindrical hole 501 is opened by two diametrically opposite notches 5010 and 5011. One of the notches (in this case the top notch 5011) has two stops 5012 and 5013 on the front face 500, one on each side. One of the two sides 5014 of the notch is narrowed to a thickness of 1 mm and is separated from the support surface 503 along its length to make it flexible and allow it to deform elastically so as to allow the rotating part 51 to pass through. The diameter and thickness of the cylindrical hole 501 are substantially equal to the diameter and thickness of the cylindrical body 517 so as to be able to receive it.

[0047] The fixing member 50 is continued rearwardly by a cylindrical surface 507 coaxial with the cylindrical hole 501 .

[0048] The first fixing part 50 also comprises clips 506 on both sides so that it can be clipped onto the interface 53. In the example shown, there are three clips. The fixing part 50 is beveled on one side 508 to make it easier to mount it correctly on the trim 1, similar to a poka-yoke.

[0049] The intermediate part 52 comprises three lateral openings 520 cooperating with the clips 506 of the fixing part 50 and a cylindrical hole 521 intended to receive the cylindrical surface 507 of the fixing part 50. The intermediate part 52 has a profile complementary to the fixing part 50. This interface 52 is preferably not an added independent part, but a predetermined technical area added during the design of the door trim or added to a structural part provided in the desired area of ​​the trim.

[0050] Install the eccentric 5 as follows:

[0051] - placing the two arms 511 and 512 adjacent to each of the notches 5010 and 5011,

[0052] - inserting the rotating part 51 into the fixed part until the front surface 510 comes into contact with the cylindrical surface 507;

[0053] - turning the rotating part 51 towards the side 5014 which will deform to allow the arm (in this case 511 ) to pass over the stop 5013 and act as an engagement ramp,

[0054] - Turn the arm (511 in this case) until it snaps into place 5040 which corresponds to the 0 position.

[0055] The eccentric 5 is then mounted on the intermediate part 52 in a known manner by clip-fastening. This assembly is then positioned vertically on the housing 3 via the eyelet 13. The eyelet 13 preferably has an elongated horizontal shape.

[0056] The adjustment of the eccentric 5 starts from the 0 position. Fig.14 As shown. Arm 511 is used for millimeter changes, while arm 512 is used for 0.5mm changes. Therefore, if it is desired to raise or lower the trim by a millimeter, arm 511 is locked on buckle 504; if it is desired to raise or lower the trim by a value within half a millimeter ( Fig.14 5012 and 5013 limit the rotation of the eccentric 5 and prevent the second rotating component 51 from leaving the fixed component 50.

[0057] from Figure 5 As can be seen in the details, each arm (in this case 511) is provided with two teeth 5111 forming a fork and allowing the arm 51 to be locked on the buckle 504 (in this case the zero position buckle 5040). The arm 511 has an elongated hole 5110 passing through the arm behind the tooth 5111 to allow the end of the arm 511 to deform elastically and allow the tooth 5111 to be locked on the buckle 504 and unlocked from the buckle. In the same way, the arm 512 is equipped with two teeth 5111 and has a hole 5110 passing through the arm to allow the tooth to be locked on the buckle 505 and unlocked from the buckle. In particular, in order to carry out the replacement of the buckles in a smooth manner without damaging the buckles, especially if these buckles are made of plastic, a leaf spring is formed by creating the hole 5110 during the injection molding of the rotating part 51. It is also possible to combine materials (such as PP 6-6 or POM) with holes 5110 having different shapes.

[0058] The adjustment of the trim 1 on the door 4 will now be described. When the operator observes that there is an offset in the Z direction between the trim 1 and the instrument panel 2 when the door is closed, he opens the door, removes the baffle 11 (if present), unscrews the front screw 12, and assembles a tool (such as a socket wrench) to the small face 5160, for example, assembling a "Plum" tool into the cutout 513 of the eccentric 5 or installing it on the small face 5160. He turns the eccentric in the positive or negative direction depending on whether he wants to raise the front of the trim 1 or lower the front of the trim. Once the desired level is reached, the operator screws back the front screw 12. Then, he closes the door 4 again to ensure that the instrument panel is properly aligned with the trim 1. If not, he will restart the operation until the desired alignment is obtained. If the desired alignment is obtained, he reassembles the baffle 11.

[0059] The present invention allows for uniform adjustment of trim components regardless of the operator.

[0060] It will be understood that various modifications and / or improvements, obvious to a person skilled in the art, may be made to the different embodiments of the invention described in this specification without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A motor vehicle door (4), the motor vehicle door comprising: A trim (1) having a front fastening hole (14) provided in the top portion near a finishing area to be adjusted relative to the instrument panel and a rear fastening hole in the rear portion; A door housing (3) having holes provided with grooved blocks (15) intended to receive fastening screws, through which the fastening screws (12) connect the decorative element (1) to the housing (3), characterized in that the housing (3) comprises a button eye (13) arranged in the top front corner of the motor vehicle door (4) and facing a cylindrical hole (521) in the middle part (52) of the decorative element (1), into which an eccentric (5) is inserted, wherein the eccentric comprises a first fixing part (50) and a fixing screw (12) arranged in the first fixing part (50). A second rotating component (51) includes a concave recess (513) with an axis A on one side and a cylindrical head (514) with an axis B on the other side, wherein the axes A and B are parallel and have a non-zero distance d from each other, and the second rotating component (51) includes two opposite arms (511, 512), one end of which is provided with two teeth (5111), and the arms cooperate with the buckles (504, 505) provided on the first fixed component (50), and the ends of the arms (511, 512) are elastically deformable.

2. The motor vehicle door (4) according to claim 1, characterized in that This distance d is equal to 3 mm.

3. A motor vehicle door (4) according to any one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that The second rotating part (51) is in one piece and comprises a seal (515).

4. The motor vehicle door (4) according to any one of claims 1 to 2, characterized in that: The elastic deformation of the arms (511, 512) is obtained by means of through cutouts (5110) provided at the ends.

5. The motor vehicle door (4) according to any one of claims 1 to 2, characterized in that: The buckles (504, 505) on the first fixing component (50) are arranged at intervals of 1 mm on both sides of the second rotating component, with an adjustment distance of 0 to ±2 mm on one side and an adjustment distance of ±0.5 mm to ±1.5 mm on the other side.

6. The motor vehicle door (4) according to claim 1, characterized in that: The elongated front fastening hole (14) has an axis-to-axis distance of 8 mm and a diameter of 16 mm.

7. A motor vehicle door (4) according to any one of claims 1 and 6, characterized in that The front fastening hole (14) is 50 mm away from the buttonhole (13).

8. A motor vehicle door (4) according to any one of claims 1 and 6, characterized in that The motor vehicle door comprises a baffle (11).

9. A method for adjusting the height of a trim element (1) for a motor vehicle door on a housing (3) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that: The method comprises the following steps: - removing the front fastening screw (12) from the front fastening hole (14) of the decorative piece (1) in the top front corner of the housing (3), - turn the eccentric by a multiple of half a millimeter, - Screw back the front fixing screw (12).

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The method comprises the steps of removing a baffle plate (11) covering the front fastening screw (12) and reassembling the baffle plate (11).

11. The method according to any one of claims 9 and 10, characterized in that The eccentric member causes the decorative member (1) to move ±2 mm.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 and 10, characterized in that The method comprises the step of verifying the height adjustment of the trim element (1) relative to the instrument panel (2) by closing the motor vehicle door (4).

13. A motor vehicle comprising two motor vehicle doors (4) according to one of claims 1 to 8.

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