Trunk door system

Abstract

To realize a trunk door system which reduces the contact noise between a striker and a latch when unlocking.SOLUTION: A trunk door system which locks a trunk door 10 by engaging a striker 12 with a latch 16 provided on a locking portion 14 and whose feature is that upon receipt of a signal to release the lock, the trunk door 10 is operated in a direction to close, and then the latch 16 is moved to release the engagement with the striker 12, and then the trunk door 10 is operated in a direction to open.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a trunk door system. [Background technology]

[0002] In a vehicle, when opening and closing the trunk door, the sound of the components of the trunk door system operating may be recognized as an abnormal sound by people inside or around the vehicle. For example, the sound of unlocking the trunk door to open it may be unpleasant to the ears. In addition, the trunk door may behave unnaturally when opening and closing. Various technologies have been proposed to address such problems associated with opening and closing the trunk door.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a drive control device for a vehicle opening / closing body. This device is said to be capable of suppressing unnatural behavior of the opening / closing body by being configured to eliminate the deflection of the opening / closing body accumulated during the operation of the opening / closing body drive mechanism in accordance with the timing of the deflection of the opening / closing body caused by the operation of the closer mechanism. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2007-309021 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] When the trunk door is switched from a locked state to an unlocked state by the engagement of the striker with the latch of the locking portion, a contact noise between the striker and the latch may occur. Depending on the volume of this contact noise, the sound may be unpleasant to the ears, so it is desirable to be able to reduce the contact noise.

[0006] Therefore, this specification provides a trunk door system that reduces the contact noise between the striker and the latch when unlocking. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The trunk door system disclosed in this specification is a trunk door system that locks the trunk door by engaging a striker with a latch provided in a locking unit, and is characterized in that, upon receiving a signal to release the lock, it operates the trunk door in a direction to close, and then moves the latch to release the engagement with the striker, and then operates the trunk door in a direction to open it. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the trunk door system disclosed in this specification, when unlocking the trunk door, the trunk door is first operated in the closing direction, thereby suppressing the reaction force acting on the trunk door. Then, when the reaction force is suppressed, the engagement between the striker and the latch is released and the trunk door is operated in the opening direction, and the impact caused by the contact with the striker when the latch moves is mitigated. As a result, the contact noise between the striker and the latch is reduced. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of a trunk door system according to an embodiment. FIG. [Diagram 2] 4 is a time chart showing a control flow of the trunk door system according to the embodiment. [Diagram 3] 1 is a schematic diagram of a locking section in a conventional trunk door system when the locking state is changed to an unlocked state; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A trunk door system will now be described with reference to the drawings. The trunk door system disclosed in this specification is applied to a power trunk lid that can be electrically opened and closed in a trunk door.

[0011] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a trunk door system according to an embodiment. The trunk door system in this example includes a trunk door 10, which is a lid for a trunk portion (not shown) provided at the rear of a vehicle, a striker 12 fixed to the vehicle body, and a locking unit 14 that locks the trunk door 10 by engaging with the striker 12. The locking unit 14 is provided at the lower end of the rear edge of the trunk door 10, and includes a latch 16 and a closer system (not shown). The closer system of the locking unit 14, which will be described later, is a device that moves the latch 16 to engage and disengage the striker 12 and the latch 16. The latch 16 is shown as a light-shaded part in order to distinguish it from other members. The same applies to FIG. 3 below.

[0012] When the trunk door 10 is closed, the locking portion 14 moves downward (the "closing direction" in FIG. 1). This movement is performed by driving a motor in the power trunk lid. The locking portion 14 has a U-shaped notch 14a extending from the lower end toward the upper side, and the striker 12 enters the notch 14a as the trunk door 10 moves downward. Then, with the trunk door 10 pressed downward, the closer system rotates the latch 16 counterclockwise. The latch 16 has a U-shaped engagement groove 18 formed at its end, and the striker 12 enters the engagement groove 18 as the latch 16 rotates. In FIG. 1, the position where the engagement groove 18 of the latch 16 faces horizontally is the locked position. That is, the striker 12 is restricted from moving vertically within the vertical notch 14a by the engagement groove 18 of the latch 16, and is in a locked state.

[0013] When opening the trunk door 10, the latch 16 is rotated clockwise so that the lower end opening of the engagement groove 18 coincides with the notch 14a, allowing the striker 12 to move downward. Therefore, the trunk door 10 is unlocked, allowing the trunk door 10 to move upward, and the trunk door 10 is opened by the power trunk lid.

[0014] The trunk door system of the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 will be further described in comparison with a conventional trunk door system. Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a locking section in a conventional trunk door system when the locked state is changed to an unlocked state. More specifically, in Fig. 3, the locked state and the unlocked state of the trunk door 10 are respectively shown by the diagram above the black arrow and the diagram below the black arrow. Note that the same reference numerals are used to designate elements equivalent to those in Fig. 1.

[0015] The upper diagram in FIG. 3 shows a state in which the trunk door 10 is locked by the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16. In this locked state, a reaction force acts on the trunk door 10 from a strip-shaped seal member (e.g., a rubber weather strip that deforms when pressed) attached to the vehicle body to fill the gap between the trunk door 10 and the vehicle body. In FIG. 3, the direction of the reaction force is indicated by a white arrow, and as shown, the reaction force acts in a direction to open the trunk door 10. At this time, in the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16, a strong force is applied to the side in the direction in which the trunk door 10 is closed, more specifically, to one side where the striker 12 and the engagement groove 18 abut (the side of the line B indicated by the dark black portion in FIG. 3). As a result, a gap is generated between the striker 12 and the latch 16 on the side opposite to the side of the line B of the engagement groove 18 (the side of the line C indicated by the dark black portion in the diagram below the black arrow in FIG. 3).

[0016] In the above state, when the trunk door 10 is shifted from the locked state to the unlocked state, the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16 is released with a gap on the side of the line C, so that the latch 16 hits the striker 12 when it moves. The impact of this contact generates a contact noise between the striker 12 and the latch 16.

[0017] On the other hand, in the trunk door system disclosed in this specification shown in Fig. 1, the reaction force from the seal member is reduced compared to Fig. 3, so that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of a gap between the striker 12 and the latch 16. When the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16 is released in a state where there is no gap, the striker 12 moves while contacting the engagement groove 18 of the latch 16 so as to slide along the straight line A shown in dark black in Fig. 1. As a result, it is possible to suppress the contact noise that occurs when the latch 16 hits the striker 12 as it moves. This mechanism will be further described below with reference to Fig. 2.

[0018] 2 is a time chart showing the flow of control of the trunk door system of the embodiment. The trunk door system includes a control unit (not shown). The control unit is an electronic control unit having at least a CPU that performs various arithmetic processing, and a memory that stores control programs and data. This control unit controls the operation of the trunk door 10 (specifically, the power trunk lid) and the operation of the closer system of the lock unit 14.

[0019] When the trunk door 10 is locked, the closer system is in the "closed" state. Furthermore, the trunk door 10 is in a state in which it will not operate in either the "open" or "close" direction unless a specific operation command is received. In FIG. 2, this inoperable state is represented by being positioned between "open" and "closed." When a signal to unlock the trunk door 10 is sent from a control device or the like on the vehicle side (t1), the control unit of the trunk door system receives this signal. In FIG. 2, the switch changes from "OFF" to "ON."

[0020] Next, the control unit does not control the closer system to release the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16 as in the conventional case, but controls the drive unit of the trunk door 10 to operate the trunk door 10 in the closing direction (t2). In Fig. 2, the trunk door 10 operates in the "close" direction.

[0021] Thereafter, the control unit controls the closer system to release the engagement between the striker 12 and the latch 16 (t3). In Fig. 2, the closer system is in the "open" state.

[0022] After disengaging the striker 12 from the latch 16, the control unit again controls the drive unit of the trunk door 10 to operate the trunk door 10 in the opening direction (t4). In Fig. 2, the trunk door 10 operates from the "close" direction to the "open" direction.

[0023] As described with reference to FIG. 1, by a series of controls performed by the trunk door system, when the striker 12 and the latch 16 are disengaged, the striker 12 moves while contacting the engagement groove 18 of the latch 16. Specifically, the control unit operates the trunk door 10 once in a direction to close it (t2 in FIG. 2). At this time, the seal member is crushed, and the reaction force applied from the seal member in a direction to open the trunk door 10 is reduced. By disengaging the striker 12 and the latch 16 in a state in which this reaction force is reduced (in other words, in a state in which the occurrence of a gap between the striker 12 and the latch 16 as described above is prevented), it is possible to prevent the striker 12 from hitting one side of the engagement groove 18 of the latch 16. As a result, the contact noise between the striker 12 and the latch 16 can be suppressed.

[0024] The above description is merely an example, and the trunk door system disclosed in this specification may be configured to operate the trunk door once in the closing direction to reduce the reaction force from the seal member acting on the trunk door when unlocking, and to release the lock in that state. Therefore, other configurations may be changed as appropriate. [Explanation of symbols]

[0025] 10 trunk door, 12 striker, 14 lock portion, 16 latch, 18 engagement groove.

Claims

[Claim 1] A trunk door system that locks a trunk door by engaging a striker with a latch of a locking portion, When the lock release signal is received, the trunk door is operated in a direction to close, and then the latch is moved to disengage from the striker, and the trunk door is operated in a direction to open. A trunk door system comprising:

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