Mounting structure of back door lock

Abstract

To provide a mounting structure of a back door lock which enables further reduction of a thickness of a door internal space.SOLUTION: A mounting structure of a back door lock 30 includes: a back door 10 having a front wall 18, a rear wall 20, and a bottom wall 22; the back door lock 30 disposed in a door inner space 16 between the front wall 18 and the rear wall 20; and a bracket 40 mounted on the back door lock 30 and fastened to the front wall 18. The bracket 40 has a fastening portion 41 which is overlapped with the front wall 18 and fastened to the front wall 18 at the outer side of the door inner space 16.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] This specification discloses a mounting structure for a back door lock that locks a back door of a vehicle. [Background technology]

[0002] A back door of a vehicle is fitted with a back door lock that locks the back door in a closed position. The back door lock locks the back door by engaging an engagement mechanism with a striker on the vehicle body. Such a back door lock is usually placed in the interior space of the back door (hereinafter referred to as the "door interior space") and fastened to the bottom wall and front wall of the back door. Patent Document 1 discloses such a back door lock.

[0003] When assembling the tailgate lock, the worker inserts the tailgate lock into the interior space of the door through an assembly opening formed in the front wall, and then positions the tailgate lock inside the interior space of the door by changing the orientation of the tailgate lock. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2015-218564 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Here, a bracket is attached to the tailgate lock, extending from the tailgate lock toward the front of the vehicle. The end of this bracket is fastened to the front wall of the tailgate. In the case of conventional tailgate locks, the bracket is fastened to the front wall while completely contained within the interior space of the door. In this case, there is a problem that the bracket is likely to interfere with the front or rear wall when changing the position of the tailgate lock inside the interior space of the door. To avoid this problem, the thickness of the interior space of the door has traditionally been increased. However, as the interior space of the door becomes thicker, the vehicle interior space becomes correspondingly narrower.

[0006] Therefore, this specification discloses a mounting structure for a back door lock that can make the interior space of the door thinner. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The mounting structure for a tailgate lock disclosed in this specification comprises a tailgate having a front wall, a rear wall, and a bottom wall, a tailgate lock disposed in the interior door space between the front wall and the rear wall, and a bracket attached to the tailgate lock and fastened to the front wall, the bracket having a fastening portion that is overlapped with the front wall outside the interior door space and fastened to the front wall.

[0008] This configuration allows the worker to pull the tailgate lock toward the front of the vehicle until its rear end does not interfere with the rear wall of the tailgate. This makes it easy to install the tailgate lock even if the thickness of the door interior space is reduced.

[0009] In this case, an assembly opening is formed in the front wall through which the tailgate lock can pass, the bracket is fastened to the front wall at the periphery of the assembly opening, and the fastening position between the bracket and the tailgate lock may be closer to the center of the assembly opening than the fastening position between the bracket and the front wall.

[0010] With this configuration, the bracket is less likely to interfere with the front wall, allowing the worker to install the back door lock more easily.

[0011] In addition, a door-side fastening hole through which a fastening bolt is inserted is formed in the front wall, and a bracket-side fastening hole through which the fastening bolt is inserted is formed in the fastening portion, and the bracket-side fastening hole may be larger than the door-side fastening hole.

[0012] This configuration allows the worker to see both the door-side fastening holes and the bracket-side fastening holes when viewed from the front of the vehicle, making it easier for the worker to install the tailgate lock.

[0013] In addition, the tailgate lock may be fastened to the bottom surface of the tailgate at a position below the vertical center of the tailgate lock, and the bracket may be fastened to the front wall at a position above the vertical center of the tailgate lock.

[0014] This configuration separates the upper fastening position from the lower fastening position, which effectively prevents the tailgate lock from rotating and therefore vibrating. [Effects of the Invention]

[0015] The technology disclosed in this specification allows for a thinner interior door space. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the back door of the vehicle as seen from inside the vehicle. [Figure 2] 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 1. [Figure 3] 10A and 10B are diagrams showing the assembly work of the back door lock. [Figure 4] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating the assembly work of the back door lock of the comparative example. [Figure 5]FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the assembly of the back door lock. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] The mounting structure of the tailgate lock 30 will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a tailgate 10 of a vehicle as seen from inside the vehicle. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the tailgate 10 is formed by combining an inner panel 12 and an outer panel 14. The inner panel 12 forms a front wall 18 and a bottom wall 22 of the tailgate 10, and the outer panel 14 forms a rear wall 20 of the tailgate 10. Between the front wall 18 and the rear wall 20, there is a door interior space 16 having a predetermined thickness D1. Naturally, the smaller the thickness D1 of this door interior space 16, the larger the luggage compartment of the vehicle.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 1 , an assembly opening 24 is formed in the lower part of the front wall 18. The assembly opening 24 is an opening that allows the tailgate lock 30, which will be described later, to pass through. In addition, a bottom opening (not shown) is formed in the bottom wall 22. The bottom opening is an opening into which a portion of the tailgate lock 30 is inserted. The larger the assembly opening 24 and the bottom opening are, the lower the strength of the tailgate 10. Therefore, the assembly opening 24 and the bottom opening are made small as long as the assembly work of the tailgate lock 30 is possible.

[0019] The tailgate lock 30 is a device that locks the tailgate 10 in a closed state. The tailgate lock 30 has an engagement mechanism (not shown) that engages with a striker (not shown) provided on the vehicle body. When this engagement mechanism engages with the striker, the tailgate 10 is locked in a closed state. The engagement mechanism is incorporated into a main body 36 provided at the bottom of the tailgate lock 30. A portion of the main body 36 passes through a bottom opening and protrudes below the bottom wall 22. A motor 34 that outputs power, a gear case 32 incorporating multiple gears, and other components are disposed on the upper side of the main body 36. A fastening plate (not shown) extends in the vehicle width direction from the main body 36. This fastening plate is threadably fastened to the bottom wall 22 of the tailgate 10 by a lower fastening bolt 38. As is clear from FIG. 2 , the main body 36, i.e., the lower part of the tailgate lock 30, protrudes farther forward of the vehicle than the gear case 32, i.e., the upper part of the tailgate lock 30.

[0020] A bracket 40 is attached to the front surface of the gear case 32. The bracket 40 is an arm-shaped member extending from the front surface of the gear case 32 toward the front of the vehicle. The end of the bracket 40 forms a fastening portion 41 that is fastened to the front wall 18 of the tailgate 10. As shown in FIG. 2 , a bracket-side fastening hole 42 is formed in the fastening portion 41. A door-side fastening hole 26 is also formed in the front wall 18 of the tailgate 10. A weld nut 28 is fixed to the rear surface of the front wall 18, and is arranged concentrically with the door-side fastening hole 26. The bracket 40 is fastened to the front wall 18 by an upper fastening bolt 46, with the bracket-side fastening hole 42, the door-side fastening hole 26, and the washer 44 overlapping each other so that they are concentric. As is clear from FIG. 2 , in this example, the fastening portion 41 of the bracket 40 protrudes outside the door interior space 16. In other words, the fastening portion 41 of the bracket 40 is located further forward of the front wall 18 of the tailgate 10. By adopting such a configuration, the thickness D1 of the door interior space 16 can be reduced, which will be described later.

[0021] As is clear from the above description, the lower portion of the tailgate lock 30 is fastened vertically to the bottom wall 22 of the tailgate 10 by the lower fastening bolts 38. The upper portion of the tailgate lock 30 is fastened longitudinally to the front wall 18 of the tailgate 10 by the upper fastening bolts 46. If the distance between the lower fastening position and the upper fastening position is short, the tailgate lock 30 is likely to rotate, which in turn is likely to cause vibration. Therefore, the upper fastening position is set far away from the lower fastening position. This effectively suppresses rotation of the tailgate lock 30 and effectively prevents vibration. Note that, as shown in FIG. 2, when the tailgate lock 30 is fastened to the tailgate 10, the tailgate lock 30 assumes a posture tilted slightly forward. Hereinafter, the posture of the tailgate lock 30 in this fastened state will be referred to as the "fastened posture."

[0022] When assembling the tailgate lock 30 to the tailgate 10, the worker inserts the tailgate lock 30 into the door interior space 16 through the assembly opening 24. Then, the worker moves the tailgate lock 30 downward within the door interior space 16 so that the main body 36 passes through the bottom opening. At this time, the size of the bottom opening is limited. Therefore, when the tailgate lock 30 is in the fastened position, the main body 36 cannot pass through the bottom opening. Therefore, the worker inserts the tailgate lock 30 into the door interior space 16 in a state tilted toward the front of the vehicle relative to the fastened position. Then, the worker moves the tailgate lock 30 downward while fine-tuning the position of the tailgate lock 30.

[0023] As described above, in this example, the fastening portion 41 of the bracket 40 is positioned outside the door interior space 16. This configuration makes it possible to reduce the thickness of the tailgate 10 while preventing interference between the tailgate 10 and the tailgate lock 30 during assembly. This will be explained below. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the assembly process of the tailgate lock 30. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the assembly process of a tailgate lock 30* of a comparative example.

[0024] When assembling the tailgate lock 30 to the door lock, as described above, it is necessary to change the position of the tailgate lock 30 within the door interior space 16. In this example, the fastening portion 41 of the bracket 40 is ultimately located outside the tailgate lock 30. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, it is not a problem if most of the bracket 40 protrudes outside the door interior space 16 during the assembling process. This allows the worker to pull the tailgate lock 30 toward the front of the vehicle until the rear end of the tailgate lock 30 does not hit the rear wall of the tailgate 10.

[0025] 4, the comparative example back door lock 30* has substantially the same configuration as the present example back door lock 30. However, the fastening portion 41* of the comparative example back door lock 30* is fastened to the front wall 18 while being located inside the door interior space 16. In other words, in the case of the comparative example back door lock 30*, the fastening portion 41* is located rearward of the front wall 18 of the vehicle.

[0026] When assembling such a tailgate lock 30* to the tailgate 10, it is necessary to prevent the bracket 40* from protruding outside the door interior space 16 during the assembly process. If the front end position of the bracket 40* is restricted, the rear end position of the tailgate lock 30* will be set back toward the rear of the vehicle accordingly. This will make it more likely that the rear end of the tailgate lock 30* will interfere with the rear wall 20 of the tailgate 10. As a result, in the case of the tailgate lock 30* of the comparative example, it becomes necessary to increase the thickness D1 of the door interior space 16 to enable the assembling of the tailgate lock 30*.

[0027] This will be further explained using a schematic diagram. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing the assembly of the back door lock 30. During the assembly process of the back door lock 30, the back door lock 30 is changed from the initial position Ps indicated by the dashed dotted line to the fastened position Pe indicated by the solid line. The black circle in Figure 5 indicates the rotation center Rc of this position change.

[0028] As described above, when the fastening portion 41 is positioned outside the door interior space 16 as in this example, there is no problem even if the fastening portion 41 protrudes significantly outside the door interior space 16 in the initial position Ps. Therefore, in this example, the required thickness of the door interior space 16 is D1a in FIG. 5. On the other hand, when the fastening portion 41 is positioned inside the door interior space 16 as in the comparative example, the fastening portion 41 needs to be positioned inside the door interior space 16 even in the initial position Ps. Therefore, in the case of the rear door lock 30* of the comparative example, the required thickness of the door interior space 16 is D1b in FIG. 5. As is clear from FIG. 5, by positioning the fastening portion 41 outside the door interior space 16, the required thickness of the door interior space 16 can be significantly reduced.

[0029] In the comparative example, the required thickness D1b can be reduced by shortening the distance from the rotation center Rc to the bracket 40. However, when the bracket 40 is shortened to the rotation center Rc, the distance from the upper fastening position (i.e., the upper fastening bolt 46) to the lower fastening position (the lower fastening bolt 38) is shortened accordingly. As described above, when this distance is shortened, the back door lock 30 becomes more likely to rotate and vibrations are more likely to occur. Therefore, it is difficult to shorten the distance from the rotation center Rc to the bracket 40, and it was difficult to reduce the required thickness D1b in the comparative example back door lock 30*.

[0030] On the other hand, in this example, as mentioned above, a portion of the bracket 40 is positioned outside the door interior space 16. This allows the thickness of the door interior space 16 to be reduced while ensuring a sufficient distance from the upper fastening portion to the lower fastening portion. For example, in this example, the thickness D1 of the door interior space 16 is 1.2 times or less the thickness D2 of the lower part of the tailgate lock 30. Note that the "thickness D1 of the door interior space 16" is the shortest distance from the front wall 18 to the rear wall 20 at the lower part of the door interior space 16, as shown in FIG. 2. Furthermore, the "lower part of the tailgate lock 30" is the portion below the center of the tailgate lock 30 in the up-down direction. Furthermore, the "thickness D2 of the lower part of the tailgate lock 30" is the dimension of the lower part of the tailgate lock 30 in the first direction, assuming that the thickness direction of the door interior space 16 is the first direction.

[0031] The assembly of the tailgate lock 30 is performed from the front of the vehicle. As shown in Figure 2, in this example, the bracket-side fastening holes 42 are larger than the door-side fastening holes 26. Therefore, even when the bracket-side fastening holes 42 and the door-side fastening holes 26 are aligned, they can be easily seen from the front of the vehicle. This makes it easier to fasten the bracket 40.

[0032] 1, the fastening position between bracket 40 and tailgate lock 30 is closer to the center of assembly opening 24 than the fastening position between bracket 40 and front wall 18. In other words, fastening portion 41 of bracket 40 is close to the periphery of assembly opening 24, while the rest is far from the periphery. This effectively prevents interference between bracket 40 and front wall 18.

[0033] The configurations described above are merely examples, and other configurations may be modified as long as the mounting structure for the tailgate lock 30 has the configuration described in claim 1. For example, the shapes of the tailgate lock 30 and the bracket 40 may be modified as appropriate. In the above description, the thickness D1 of the door interior space 16 is set to 1.2 times or less the thickness D2 of the lower part of the tailgate lock 30. However, it goes without saying that the thickness D1 of the door interior space 16 may be such that D1 > 1.2 × D2. [Explanation of symbols]

[0034] 10 back door, 12 inner panel, 14 outer panel, 16 door interior space, 18 front wall, 20 rear wall, 22 bottom wall, 24 assembly opening, 26 door side fastening hole, 28 weld nut, 30, 30* back door lock, 32 gear case, 34 motor, 36 main body, 38 lower fastening bolt, 40, 40* bracket, 41, 41* fastening portion, 42 bracket side fastening hole, 44 washer, 46 upper fastening bolt.

Claims

1. A back door having a front wall, a rear wall, and a bottom wall; A back door lock is disposed in a door internal space between the front wall and the rear wall; A bracket attached to the back door lock and fastened to the front wall; The bracket has a fastening portion that is overlapped with the front wall outside the door interior space and fastened to the front wall. A back door lock mounting structure.

2. The rear door lock mounting structure according to claim 1, The front wall is formed with an assembly opening through which the back door lock can pass, The bracket is fastened to the front wall at a periphery of the assembly opening, A fastening position between the bracket and the back door lock is closer to the center of the assembly opening than a fastening position between the bracket and the front wall. A back door lock mounting structure.

3. The rear door lock mounting structure according to claim 1, The front wall is formed with a door side fastening hole through which a fastening bolt is inserted, The fastening portion is formed with a bracket side fastening hole through which the fastening bolt is inserted, The bracket side fastening hole is larger than the door side fastening hole; A back door lock mounting structure.

4. The rear door lock mounting structure according to claim 1, The back door lock is fastened to a bottom surface of the back door at a position lower than a vertical center of the back door lock, The bracket is fastened to the front wall at a position above the vertical center of the back door lock. A back door lock mounting structure.

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