Self-adjusting door latch assembly and installation method thereof and vehicle

By designing a self-adjusting door lock assembly, the automatic calibration and adaptive adjustment of door locks are achieved by using the cooperation of floating adjustment plates and limit blocks, the problems of high manual adjustment costs and inconsistent quality in the existing technology are solved, and the door closure quality and production efficiency are improved.

CN115182654BActive Publication Date: 2025-04-29ZHEJIANG ZEEKR INTELLIGENT TECH CO LTD +1
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Patent Information

Application Number
CN202210639465.6
Authority / Receiving Office
CN · China
Patent Type
Patents(China)
Current Assignee / Owner
Filing Date
2022-06-07
Publication Date
2025-04-29
Estimated Expiration
2042-06-07

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

In the prior art, the adjustment of door locks requires professional and technical personnel to do it. The labor cost is high and it is difficult to ensure the consistent quality of the door closing sound of mass-produced models.

Method used

A self-adjusting door lock assembly is designed, including a lock body, a floating adjustment piece, a fastener and a limit block. Through the cooperation of the floating adjustment piece and a limit block, the relative position of the lock body and the door can be automatically calibrated to achieve adaptive adjustment.

Benefits of technology

This technology can automatically adjust the lock position after the door is closed, improve the quality of door closure, save labor and time costs, ensure product consistency, and improve production efficiency.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of interior and exterior decoration of automobile bodies, and in particular to a self-adjusting door lock assembly, an installation method thereof and a vehicle, wherein the lock assembly comprises: a lock body, comprising a base and a lock column, wherein the base is provided with a bolt through hole, and the first surface of the base is provided with a slide groove; the lock column is fixedly connected to the first surface of the base; a floating adjustment piece is provided in the slide groove; the floating adjustment piece is provided with an opening, and the diameter of the bolt through hole is larger than the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece; a fastener, wherein the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece matches the size of the fastener; a limit block is connected to the base; a limit groove is provided between the limit block and the base, and the limit block limits the lock body through the limit groove. After the door is closed, the floating adjustment piece and the limit block can adaptively adjust the door and the lock to a reasonable state, thereby improving the door closing quality, saving costs and ensuring product consistency.
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Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of interior and exterior decoration of automobile bodies, and more specifically, to a self-adjusting door latch assembly and an installation method thereof and a vehicle. Background Art

[0002] With the continuous development of the automobile industry, people have increasingly stringent requirements for the comfort of cars, especially the quality of the door closing sound. The high-frequency part of the door closing sound is the impact sound of the door lock and the lock column. This sound quality greatly affects the user's subjective feelings. The key factor is the actual relative position of the door lock and the lock column. The adjustment of the door lock is a very important link. Improper adjustment of the lock directly affects the quality of opening and closing the door. The adjustment of the lock requires professional and experienced personnel to be responsible for debugging during the R&D stage of the project and the subsequent mass production stage assembly process. The existing door lock adjustment is performed by one person on each side of the vehicle on the production line. Each vehicle door that is about to roll off the production line is finely adjusted. Due to the limited adjustment range and the production rhythm requirements, it is difficult to ensure that all mass-produced models are adjusted to the ideal door closing sound quality state. Summary of the invention

[0003] In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, the present application discloses a self-adjusting door lock assembly to solve the technical problems of inadequate lock adjustment, high labor costs, and inability to maintain product consistency, including:

[0004] The lock body comprises a base and a lock column, wherein the base is provided with a bolt through hole, the base comprises a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, the first surface faces the vehicle door, and the first surface is provided with a slide groove; the lock column is fixedly connected to the first surface of the base;

[0005] A floating adjustment piece is arranged in the slide groove and is used to adjust the position of the lock body; the floating adjustment piece is provided with an opening, and the diameter of the bolt through-hole is larger than the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece;

[0006] A fastener, used to fix the base to the side panel of the vehicle, the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment plate matches the size of the fastener;

[0007] A limit block is connected to the base; a limit slot is provided between the limit block and the base, and the limit block limits the lock body through the limit slot.

[0008] Optionally, the first surface of the base is provided with two slide grooves and two bolt through holes, the slide grooves are concentrically arranged with the bolt through holes, and a sliding space for the floating adjustment piece is reserved in the slide grooves.

[0009] Optionally, the sliding space includes:

[0010] A transverse sliding space, wherein the floating adjustment piece adjusts the position of the lock body in the Y direction in the transverse sliding space, wherein the Y direction is consistent with the width direction of the vehicle body;

[0011] A longitudinal sliding space, wherein the floating adjustment piece adjusts the position of the lock body in the Z direction within the longitudinal sliding space, and the Z direction is consistent with the height direction of the vehicle body.

[0012] Optionally, the fastener is a countersunk bolt.

[0013] Optionally, a bushing is also included, which is arranged on the inner wall of the bolt penetration hole.

[0014] Optionally, a gasket is provided between the second surface of the base and the vehicle side panel.

[0015] Optionally, at least one base bracket is further included for supporting the base in the Z direction.

[0016] Optionally, it also includes an exterior panel covering the first surface of the base plate.

[0017] On the other hand, a method for installing a self-adjusting door latch assembly is also provided, comprising:

[0018] Pre-tighten and fix the fasteners penetrating the floating adjustment plate and the bolt through-holes to the side panel metal of the vehicle with a first torsional moment;

[0019] When the vehicle door is closed at a preset door closing speed until the door lock is in a locked state, the limit block, the floating adjustment gasket, and the fastener are adaptively adjusted so that the lock body matches the vehicle door;

[0020] tightening the fastener with a second torsional torque;

[0021] Remove the limit block and install the exterior panel.

[0022] On the other hand, a vehicle is also provided, comprising the self-adjusting door latch assembly as described above.

[0023] By adopting the above technical solution, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0024] The vehicle door lock assembly introduced in the present invention is designed with a floating adjustment plate and a limit block. After the vehicle door is closed, the relative position of the lock body and the vehicle door can be automatically calibrated according to the actual position of the vehicle door, and the vehicle door and the lock can be adaptively adjusted to a reasonable state in the up and down (Z direction) and left and right (Y direction) directions. The lock has strong adaptive ability and a relatively wide adjustment range, and does not require too many auxiliary adjustment structures and equipment. It can not only greatly improve the closing quality of the vehicle door, but also save labor costs and time costs, ensure product consistency, and improve production efficiency.

[0025] Other features and advantages of the present invention will be described in detail in the following detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for describing the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention, where the same reference numerals generally represent the same components. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0027] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of a vehicle door lock in the prior art;

[0028] Figure 2 It is a structural schematic diagram of a self-adjusting door latch assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the exterior trim panel + lock main body structure of a self-adjusting door lock assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 4 AA section detail schematic diagram of a self-adjusting door latch assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 5 BB section detail schematic diagram of a self-adjusting door latch assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0032] Figure 6 The present invention is a schematic diagram of an installation method of a self-adjusting door latch assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0033] The following is a supplementary description of the attached drawings:

[0034] 1. Base; 2. Locking column; 3. Bolt hole; 4. Floating adjustment plate; 5. Fastener; 6. Limit block; 7. Bushing; 8. Gasket; 9. Base bracket; 10. Exterior panel. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] The following will be combined with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0036] The term "one embodiment" or "embodiment" as used herein refers to a specific feature, structure or characteristic that may be included in at least one implementation of the present invention. In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the terms "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", etc. is based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, which is only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation of the present invention. In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are used only for descriptive purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, the features defined as "first" and "second" may include one or more of the features explicitly or implicitly. Moreover, the terms "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchangeable where appropriate, so that the embodiments of the present invention described herein can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein.

[0037] refer to Figure 1 , which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a car door lock in the prior art, which is generally composed of a base 1, a lock column 2, a gasket 8, etc., and is fixed to the side wall column by two countersunk bolts. During installation, manual verification is required to determine whether the relative position with the car door is appropriate.

[0038] refer to Figure 2 and Figure 3 In an embodiment of the present invention, a self-adjusting lock assembly is provided, comprising:

[0039] The lock body includes a base 1 and a lock column 2, wherein the base is provided with a bolt through hole 3, the base 1 includes a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, the first surface faces the vehicle door, and the first surface is provided with a slide groove; the lock column 2 is fixedly connected to the first surface of the base 1;

[0040] A floating adjustment piece 4 is arranged in the slide groove and is used to adjust the position of the lock body; the floating adjustment piece 4 is provided with an opening, and the diameter of the bolt through hole 3 is larger than the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece 4;

[0041] A fastener 5 is used to fix the base to the side panel of the vehicle, and the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment plate 4 matches the size of the fastener 5;

[0042] The limiting block 6 is connected to the base 1 ; a limiting groove is provided between the limiting block 6 and the base 1 , and the limiting block 6 limits the lock body through the limiting groove.

[0043] Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the base 1 is made of POM, the lock column 2 is arranged in the middle of the first surface of the base 1, facing the vehicle door; the base 1 is provided with a bolt through hole 3, in a possible embodiment, the base 1 is provided with two bolt through holes 3 above and below the lock column along the vehicle body height direction with the lock column 2 as the center line, and the fastener 5 passes through the bolt through hole 3 to fix the base 1 to the vehicle side panel metal, in a possible embodiment, the fastener 5 is a countersunk bolt. When installing the lock buckle, the fastener 5 passing through the floating adjustment piece 4 and the bolt through hole 3 is pre-tightened and fixed to the vehicle side panel metal with a first torsional moment, and then the vehicle door is closed at a preset door closing speed until the door lock is in a locked state, at which time the limit block 6, the floating adjustment gasket, and the fastener 5 are adaptively adjusted so that the lock buckle body matches the vehicle door, that is, adjusted to an ideal position, and then the fastener 5 is tightened with a second torsional moment, and the limit block 6 is removed. In the embodiment of the present invention, the material of the limit block 6 is PA66.

[0044] In a possible embodiment, two slide grooves are provided on the first surface of the base 1, and the slide grooves are arranged concentrically with the bolt through-holes 3, and a sliding space is reserved in the slide grooves for the floating adjustment piece 4. The floating adjustment piece 4 is installed in the slide grooves, and the size of the slide grooves is larger than the floating adjustment piece 4, and a sliding space is reserved so that the floating adjustment piece 4 can move up, down, left, and right.

[0045] Therefore, in a possible embodiment, the sliding space includes: a transverse sliding space, the floating adjustment piece 4 adjusts the position of the lock body in the Y direction in the transverse sliding space, the Y direction is consistent with the width direction of the vehicle body, and the AA section details refer to Figure 4 ; longitudinal sliding space, the floating adjustment piece 4 adjusts the position of the lock body in the Z direction in the longitudinal sliding space, the Z direction is consistent with the height direction of the vehicle body, BB section details refer to Figure 5 .

[0046] In a possible embodiment, a bushing 7 is further included, which is arranged on the inner wall of the bolt through hole 3. Specifically, the bushing 7 plays a sealing role. When the lock buckle is installed, the floating adjustment piece 4 needs to adjust the position of the lock buckle, and the fastener 5 passes through the floating adjustment piece 4 and the bolt through hole 3 to fix the lock buckle. The diameter of the bolt through hole 3 is larger than the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece 4. When the floating adjustment piece 4 is adaptively adjusted to a suitable position, the fastener 5 is tightened. At this time, the bushing 7 cooperates with the space for the floating adjustment piece 4 to move, so that the fastener 5 and the bolt through hole 3 are fastened together.

[0047] In one possible embodiment, a gasket 8 is provided between the second surface of the base 1 and the vehicle side panel; and at least one base bracket 9 is also included for supporting the base 1 in the Z direction. In the embodiment of the present invention, there are two base brackets 9, and the material of the base brackets 9 is POM. The base brackets 9 are arranged at the upper and lower ends of the base 1 along the height direction of the vehicle body to fix and support the base 1.

[0048] In a possible implementation, it further includes an outer decorative plate 10, which covers the first surface of the base plate 1. After the fastener 5 is tightened and the limit block 6 is removed, the outer decorative plate 10 is installed to make the lock more beautiful.

[0049] On the other hand, reference Figure 6 The embodiment of the present invention also provides a method for installing a self-adjusting door lock assembly, comprising:

[0050] The fastener 5 passing through the floating adjustment piece 4 and the bolt through hole 3 is pre-tightened and fixed to the vehicle side panel metal with a first torsional moment;

[0051] When the vehicle door is closed at a preset door closing speed until the door lock is in a locked state, the limit block 6, the floating adjustment gasket, and the fastener 5 are adaptively adjusted so that the lock body matches the vehicle door;

[0052] Tightening the fastener 5 with a second torsional torque;

[0053] The limiting block 6 is removed, and the exterior panel 10 is installed.

[0054] The door lock of the embodiment of the present invention automatically calibrates the relative position of the lock body and the door according to the actual position limit block 6, floating adjustment gasket and fastener of the door after the door is closed, and adaptively adjusts the door and the lock to a reasonable state in the up and down (Z direction) and left and right (Y direction) directions. The lock has strong adaptive ability and a relatively wide adjustment range, and does not require too many auxiliary adjustment structures and equipment. It can greatly improve the closing quality of the door, save labor costs and time costs, ensure product consistency and improve production efficiency.

[0055] On the other hand, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a vehicle, comprising the self-adjusting door latch assembly as described above.

[0056] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A self-adjusting door latch assembly, characterized in that: include: The lock body comprises a base (1) and a lock column (2), wherein the base (1) is provided with a bolt through hole (3), the base (1) comprises a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, the first surface faces the vehicle door, and the first surface is provided with a slide groove; the lock column (2) is fixedly connected to the first surface of the base (1); A floating adjustment piece (4) is arranged in the slide groove and is used to adjust the position of the lock body; the floating adjustment piece (4) is provided with an opening, and the diameter of the bolt through hole (3) is larger than the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece (4); A fastener (5) is used to fix the base (1) to the side panel of the vehicle, and the diameter of the opening of the floating adjustment piece (4) matches the size of the fastener (5); A limit block (6) is connected to the base (1); a limit slot is provided between the limit block (6) and the base (1), and the limit block (6) limits the lock body through the limit slot.

2. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first surface of the base (1) is provided with two slide grooves and two bolt through holes (3), the slide grooves are concentrically arranged with the bolt through holes (3), and a sliding space for the floating adjustment piece (4) is reserved in the slide grooves.

3. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 2, characterized in that: The sliding space comprises: A transverse sliding space, wherein the floating adjustment piece (4) adjusts the position of the lock body in the Y direction in the transverse sliding space, and the Y direction is consistent with the width direction of the vehicle body; A longitudinal sliding space, wherein the floating adjustment piece (4) adjusts the position of the lock body in the Z direction within the longitudinal sliding space, and the Z direction is consistent with the height direction of the vehicle body.

4. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that: The fastener (5) is a countersunk bolt.

5. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes a bushing (7) which is arranged on the inner wall of the bolt through hole (3).

6. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that: A gasket (8) is provided between the second surface of the base (1) and the vehicle side panel.

7. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 3, characterized in that: It also includes at least one base support (9) for supporting the base (1) in the Z direction.

8. The self-adjusting door latch assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that: It also includes an exterior decorative panel (10) covering the first surface of the base (1).

9. A method for installing a self-adjusting door latch assembly, applied to the self-adjusting door latch assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that: include: The fastener (5) passing through the floating adjustment piece (4) and the bolt through hole (3) is pre-tightened and fixed to the vehicle side panel metal with a first torsional moment; When the vehicle door is closed at a preset door closing speed until the door lock is in a locked state, the limit block (6), the floating adjustment gasket and the fastener (5) are adaptively adjusted so that the lock body matches the vehicle door; Tightening the fastener (5) with a second torsional torque; The limit block (6) is removed, and the exterior decorative panel (10) is installed.

10. A vehicle, characterized in that: It comprises a self-adjusting door latch assembly as described in any one of claims 1 to 8.

Citation Information

Patent Citations

  • Self-adjusting vehicle door lock catch and vehicle with same

    CN111894369A

  • Engine cover lock catch structure and automobile

    CN213838129U