Roof molding cap mounting structure

Abstract

To provide a cap fitting structure of a roof garnish molding which has high robustness.SOLUTION: There is provided a fitting structure for a cap closing a carrier fitting opening part of a roof garnish molding mounted on a vehicle, and the fitting structure has a plurality of pairs of rib parts protruding opposite inside, wherein the cap has a lid part which closes the opening part of the roof garnish molding from a top surface side, a support part which projects downward from the reverse surface of the lid part, and a pair of retaining pieces which project outward from both width-directional sides of the support part to elastically abut on reverse surfaces of the pair of rib parts of the roof garnish molding, and the rib parts of the roof garnish molding are slid and inserted into between the lid parts of the cap and the retaining pieces from front and rear directions.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a mounting structure for a cap that closes an opening for mounting a carrier in a roof molding attached to a vehicle. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent document 1, for example, describes a structure in which a roof molding attached to a vehicle has an opening for attaching a carrier device such as a roof rack or carrier bar, and this opening is covered with a removable cap when the carrier device is not attached. The roof molding of Patent Document 1 has a pair of locking pieces that protrude inward from both sides of the width of the opening and a locking hole on the outside of the opening along the longitudinal direction of the roof molding, and a cap with a lid that closes this opening from the top side has approximately L-shaped sliding claws that protrude outward from both sides of the width of the back surface of the lid and locking claws that are provided facing outward in the longitudinal direction. With this structure, when the cap is slid toward the locking hole in the roof molding, the cap's sliding claw and locking claw lock into the locking piece and locking hole in the roof molding, respectively.To remove the cap, a two-step operation is required: sliding the cap in the opposite direction from the locking hole in the roof molding, and lifting the sliding claw side up.This prevents the cap from coming off the roof molding due to an unintended sliding movement. However, if the sliding claws on the cap are rigid, for example, if the roof molding is compositely molded from a metal core and a resin material, and the thickness of the resin material varies, the opening and closing force of the sliding claws will increase if the material becomes thicker, and conversely, if the material becomes thinner, gaps will be more likely to occur between the back surface of the cap and the top surface of the roof molding, which will result in a poor appearance and increased wind noise, raising concerns. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-18382 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide a highly robust roof molding cap mounting structure. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The cap mounting structure for a roof molding of the present invention is a mounting structure for a cap that closes an opening for mounting a carrier on a roof molding attached to a vehicle, wherein the opening has multiple sets of pairs of rib portions that protrude oppositely inward, and the cap has a lid portion that closes the opening of the roof molding from the top side, a support portion that protrudes downward from the back surface of the lid portion, and a pair of retaining pieces that protrude outward from both widthwise sides of the support portion and elastically abut against the undersides of the pair of rib portions of the roof molding, and the rib portions of the roof molding are slidably inserted between the lid portion and the retaining pieces of the cap from the front-to-rear direction.

[0006] Here, the width direction refers to the vehicle width direction when the roof molding is installed along the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle roof, the fore-and-aft direction refers to the front-and-aft direction of the vehicle, and the outside refers to the outside relative to the opening of the roof molding. The present invention is highly robust, i.e., less susceptible to the effects of variations, even if there are variations in the roof molding (e.g., the thickness of the resin material), and allows the cap to be stably attached to the opening of the roof molding by elastically holding the rib portion of the roof molding between the lid portion of the cap and the retaining piece to absorb variations, and by using the repulsive force of the retaining piece to eliminate any rattling of the cap in the vertical direction.

[0007] In the present invention, the cap may have a slide recess formed between the back surface of the lid portion and the retaining piece, and may have a predetermined gap between the bottom of the slide recess and the tip of the rib portion of the roof molding. In this way, by providing a predetermined gap between the support portion of the cap, which forms the bottom of the slide recess, and the tip of the rib portion of the roof molding, the retaining piece connected to the support portion is easily bent in the vertical direction. Moreover, by adjusting this gap, it is possible to adjust the elasticity. For example, the retaining piece of the cap may be set so that the distance from the back surface of the lid portion is wider at the tip than at the base, and the widthwise penetration amount of the tip of the rib portion of the roof molding may be within a predetermined range. The vertical distance between the retaining piece of the cap and the back surface of the lid is wider on the rib side of the roof molding, so the retaining piece has a gap on the base side and the leading end side easily comes into elastic contact with the rib part, and the rib part bites into the slide recess, making it less likely that gaps will occur as in the past.

[0008] In the present invention, the roof molding may further have a locking hole provided at a predetermined distance longitudinally from the opening, and the cap may further have a locking claw protruding longitudinally outward on the back surface of the lid portion, so that the locking claw of the cap engages with the locking hole of the roof molding. The holding piece of the cap may have an inclined portion that projects toward the locking claw so as to move away from the rear surface of the lid portion. Such an inclined portion makes it easier to guide the rib portion of the roof molding between the lid portion of the cap and the retaining piece.

[0009] In the present invention, the cap may have width positioning portions and / or temporary positioning portions in the vicinity of the pair of holding pieces that come into contact with the tip ends of the pair of rib portions of the roof molding. When temporarily attaching the cap to the opening of the roof molding (inserting the retaining piece into the opening), the temporary positioning portion abuts against the tip ends of a pair of rib portions of the roof molding while the cap is attached to the opening (the retaining piece elastically abuts against the rib portion), thereby stabilizing the widthwise position of the cap relative to the roof molding. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] According to the present invention, even if there is variation in the thickness of the roof molding, the rib portion of the roof molding is elastically held between the lid portion of the cap and the retaining piece, thereby absorbing the variation, allowing the cap to be attached to the opening of the roof molding with high robustness. Furthermore, the cap can be securely attached with a simple operation, and the cap can be prevented from being accidentally removed from the roof molding. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] 1A and 1B show the cap according to the present invention as viewed from the back side, where FIG. 1A shows the cap removed from the roof molding, and FIG. 1B shows the cap attached to the opening of the roof molding. [Figure 2] The cap is shown as seen from the surface side, with (a) showing the cap removed and (b) showing the cap attached. [Figure 3] The procedure for attaching the cap to the roof molding is shown in (a) to (c). [Figure 4] 1(b) shows an end view of the cross section taken along line AA in FIG. [Figure 5] 2A and 2B are cross-sectional views taken along line BB in FIG. 1, each showing a schematic diagram of the movement of attaching the cap to the roof molding. [Figure 6] An explanatory diagram of a conventional cap and roof molding is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] An example of a roof molding cap mounting structure according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 shows the cap 10 as viewed from the back side, and FIG. 2 shows it as viewed from the front side, with (a) showing the cap 10 removed from the roof molding 20 and (b) showing the cap 10 attached thereto. In this specification, the width direction of the vehicle when the roof molding is attached along the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle roof is referred to as the width direction, and the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, i.e., the longitudinal direction of the roof molding, is referred to as the fore-and-aft direction. Also, the outside refers to the outside relative to the opening of the roof molding.

[0013] The roof molding 20 is attached along the front-to-rear direction of the roof of the vehicle. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, it is composite-molded with a metal core material 20a and a resin material 20b. As shown in FIG. 1, the roof molding 20 has an opening 21 for attaching the carrier device to the roof, and a locking hole 24 provided at a predetermined distance in the longitudinal direction from the opening. The opening 21 is formed in a generally elongated rectangular shape along the longitudinal direction of the roof molding, and has a plurality of pairs of rib portions that protrude inward from both sides in the width direction along the opening surface, facing each other. This embodiment is an example in which, in addition to a pair of first rib portions 22, 22 located a predetermined distance longitudinally from one end 21b of the opening and a pair of second rib portions 23, 23 protruding inward from the corner portion of the other end 21c on the engagement hole 24 side, there are also a pair of third rib portions 26, 26 and a pair of fourth rib portions 27, 27 spaced a predetermined distance between the first and second rib portions. Incidentally, having multiple pairs of rib portions means having at least first and second rib portions, and there are no particular restrictions on the number or spacing of pairs of rib portions between the first and second rib portions. For example, the tip ends 22a, 22a of a pair of first rib portions are opposed to each other with a gap D in the width direction, and a gap is provided between the tip ends of each pair of rib portions. Between one end 21b of the opening and the first rib portion 22 is an escape opening 21a having a width dimension that allows the first holding portion 12 (and first width positioning portions 15a, 15b) of the cap described below to move in the vertical direction. In addition, by providing a locking hole 24 at a position a predetermined distance away from the other end 21c of the opening toward the outside (to the right in Figure 1), a connecting portion 25 is formed between the other end 21c and the locking hole 24, leaving the main body of the roof molding.

[0014] The cap 10 has a lid portion 11 that closes the opening 21 of the roof molding from the upper surface side. The rear surface of the cover 11 has a retaining portion that elastically retains a pair of rib portions of the roof molding. This embodiment has a first retaining portion 12, a second retaining portion 13, a third retaining portion 16, and a fourth retaining portion 17 that elastically retain a pair of first rib portions 22, 22, a pair of second rib portions 23, 23, a pair of third rib portions 26, 26, and a pair of fourth rib portions 27, 27, respectively, and the shapes of each retaining portion are similar. Furthermore, as long as it has first and second retaining portions that respectively hold the first and second rib portions, it is not necessarily necessary to have third retaining portions, fourth retaining portions, etc. that hold the third rib portion, fourth rib portion, etc. The following explanation will be given using the corresponding first retaining portion and first rib portion as an example, but by replacing "first" with "second, third, fourth, etc.", the other corresponding retaining portions and rib portions can also be explained.

[0015] The first holding portion 12 has a roughly C-shaped first support portion 12a that protrudes downward from approximately the center of the width of the back surface of the lid portion 11, and a pair of elastically deformable first holding pieces 12b, 12b that protrude outward from both sides of the width of the first support portion 12a. As shown in Figure 1(b), when the cap 10 is attached to the opening 21 of the roof molding 20, the pair of first retaining pieces 12b, 12b of the cap elastically abut against the underside of the pair of first rib portions 22, 22 of the roof molding. FIG. 4 shows a cross section taken along line AA (width direction) in this elastically abutting state. As shown in FIG. 4, the pair of first holding pieces 12b, 12b extend outward in the width direction from the first support portion 12a with widths L1, L2, respectively. The first holding piece 12b forms a first slide recess 12d with the lid portion 11 and the first support portion 12a, and this first slide recess is open to the outside in the width direction, with the widthwise outer surface of the support portion 12a forming the bottom portion 12f. The pair of first rib portions 22, 22 are elastically held between the rear surface of the cover portion 11 forming the first slide recessed portions 12d, 12d and the first holding pieces 12b, 12b, respectively. In this sandwiched state, the bottom portions 12f, 12f of the pair of first slide recesses have gaps D1, D2 respectively between them and the tip ends 22a, 22a of the pair of rib portions. A pair of first rib portions 22, 22 of the roof molding are inserted and slid relatively from the front-to-rear direction along a pair of first slide recesses 12d, 12d, but each first retaining piece 12b bends so that the front portion 12e side is pushed downward in directions f1 and f2, starting from the root portion (bottom portion 12f), and the vertical distance between the front portion 12e and the back surface of the cover portion 11 is set wider on the front portion 12e side than on the root portion. As a result, the widthwise indentation amounts of the tip ends 22a of the pair of first rib portions are L1-D1 and L2-D2, respectively. The gap D1+D2 is calculated by subtracting the width of the first support portion 12a from the gap D between the tip ends 22a, 22a of the pair of first ribs. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1(a), a first holding piece 12b has a first inclined portion 12c that protrudes toward a locking claw side 14 described later so as to move away from the rear surface of the cover portion 11. When the rib portion is slid forward and backward into the slide recess, the wide vertical distance between the inclined portion 12c and the lid portion 11 causes the inclined portion to act as a guide portion, making it easier for the rib portion 22 to be inserted between the retaining piece 12b and the lid portion 11.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 1, the cap 10 has a locking claw 14 on the back surface of the lid portion 11 that protrudes outward in the longitudinal direction. The locking claw 14 is located on the longitudinal outside of the second holding portion 13 and has a generally L-shaped cross section that is elastically deformable, and forms an insertion groove between itself and the back surface of the cap to fit the thickness of the roof molding main body. The outer longitudinal end of the roof molding has a locking projection that projects toward the locking hole 24 of the roof molding, and this locking projection is locked to the connecting portion 25. The cap 10 further has width positioning portions and / or temporary positioning portions in the vicinity of the holding portion that come into contact with the tip ends of the pair of ribs. For example, the first retaining portion 12 has first temporary positioning portions 18a, 18b near the locking claw 14 side, and when the first retaining portion 12 is inserted into the escape opening 21a of the roof molding, these first temporary positioning portions abut against the tip ends 22a, 22a of the pair of first rib portions, respectively. This makes it easier for the widthwise positions of the holding portion of the cap and the rib portion of the roof molding to correspond to each other. In addition, the first retaining portion 12 has first width positioning portions 15a, 15b near the opposite side of the locking claw 14, and when the cap 10 is attached to the opening 21 of the roof molding as shown in Figure 1(b), the first width positioning portions abut against the tip ends 22a, 22a of the pair of first rib portions. This stabilizes the widthwise position of the cap attached to the opening, even if there is a predetermined gap between the bottoms of the pair of slide recesses and the tip ends of the pair of ribs. In this embodiment, a pair of temporary positioning portions 18a, 18b and a pair of width positioning portions 15a, 15b each protrude downward from the back surface of the lid portion, but one temporary positioning portion or width positioning portion extending in the width direction may abut the tip portions of a pair of rib portions, such as the second width positioning portion 15c provided near the locking claw side of the second retaining portion 13. In addition, although an example is shown in which the fourth temporary positioning portions 18c and 18d are provided near the locking claw 14 side of the fourth holding portion 17, the third temporary positioning portion may be provided near the third holding portion, for example.

[0017] The procedure for attaching the cap 10 to the opening 21 of the roof molding 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in Figure 3(b) from the state in which the cap 10 is removed, the first retaining portion 12 and first width positioning portions 15a, 15b of the cap 10 are brought into contact with the escape opening 21a of the roof molding 20, and the second retaining portion 13, third retaining portion 16, fourth retaining portion 17 and locking claw 14 of the cap 10 are fitted into the opening 21. At this time, the first temporary positioning portions 18a, 18b abut against the tip ends 22a, 22a of the pair of first rib portions. From this state, when the cap 10 is pushed in while sliding it in the front-to-rear direction (to the right in Figure 3), each rib portion of the roof molding 20 slides along each slide recess of the cap 10, and the elastic locking claws 14 open downward from the back surface of the cap, causing the cap to slide. At this time, the inclined portion of the cap fits under the rib portion of the roof molding, and the holding piece elastically abuts against the lower surface of the rib portion. As an example, Figures 5(a) and (b) show the movement of the first and third retaining pieces. After the first and third inclined portions 12c and 16c enter the underside of the first and third rib portions 22 and 26, the first and third retaining pieces 12b and 16b abut against the underside of each rib portion. FIG. 3( c ) shows the cap 10 attached to the opening 21 of the roof molding 20 . The locking claw 14 of the cap 10 returns elastically, and the locking projection of the locking claw projects into the locking hole 24 of the roof molding and is locked. In this state, the first width positioning portions 15a, 15b abut against the tip ends of the pair of first rib portions 22, 22, and the second width positioning portion 15c abuts against the tip ends of the pair of second rib portions , . When removing the cap 10 from the roof molding 20, the cap 10 can be slid to the left in Figure 3 to release the retaining pieces and locking claws 14 of the cap 10 from the rib portions and locking holes 24 of the roof molding 20, and then the cap 10 can be lifted up.

[0018] For example, FIG. 6 shows a conventional example in which the slide claw provided on the cap has rigidity. The roof molding 201 shown in Figure 6 is composite molded from a metal core material 201a and a resin material 201b, and a pair of first locking pieces protruding inward from both sides of the width of the opening are engaged with a pair of rigid, approximately L-shaped first slide claws 121, 121 protruding from the back surface of the lid portion of the cap 101. For example, if the thickness of the resin material 201b becomes thin due to variations, a gap d is likely to occur between the back surface of the cap 101 and the upper surface of the roof molding 201. In contrast, as shown in Figure 4, the present invention has a predetermined gap between the bottom 12f of the slide recess and the tip 22a of the rib portion, so that the retaining piece 12b is easily bent and can easily absorb variations in the thickness of the roof molding. In addition, the leading end 12e side of the holding piece is set to be spaced from the rear surface of the lid 11 at a greater distance than the base end side, so that the rib portion bites into the slide recess, making it easier to prevent the conventional gap d from occurring. [Explanation of symbols]

[0019] 10 Caps 11 Lid 12 1st holding part 12a 1st support part 12b 1st holding piece 12c 1st slope 12d First slide recess 14 Locking claw 20 Roof molding 21 Opening 22 First rib section 24 Locking hole

Claims

1. A cap mounting structure for closing an opening for mounting a carrier in a roof molding attached to a vehicle, the opening having a plurality of pairs of ribs protruding inwardly and facing each other, The cap has a lid portion that closes the opening of the roof molding from the upper surface side, a support portion that protrudes downward from the back surface of the lid portion, and a pair of retaining pieces that protrude outward from both sides in the width direction of the support portion and elastically abut on the lower surfaces of a pair of rib portions of the roof molding, A roof molding cap mounting structure characterized in that a slide recess is formed between the back surface of the lid portion and the retaining piece of the cap, and a predetermined gap is formed between the bottom of the slide recess and the tip of the rib portion of the roof molding, so that when the rib portion of the roof molding is slid and inserted from the front to back along the slide recess, the tip side of the retaining piece is pushed down and bent.

2. The roof molding cap mounting structure described in claim 1, characterized in that the retaining piece of the cap is set wider at the tip than at the base relative to the back surface of the lid portion, and the widthwise penetration amount of the tip of the rib portion of the roof molding is within a predetermined range.

3. A roof molding cap mounting structure as described in claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the roof molding further has a locking hole provided at a predetermined distance longitudinally from the opening, and the cap further has a locking claw protruding longitudinally outward on the back surface of the lid portion, and the locking claw of the cap locks into the locking hole of the roof molding.

4. 4. The roof molding cap mounting structure according to claim 3, wherein the holding piece of the cap has an inclined portion that projects toward the locking claw so as to move away from the rear surface of the lid portion.

5. 4. The roof molding cap mounting structure according to claim 3, wherein the cap has width positioning portions and / or temporary positioning portions in the vicinity of the pair of retaining pieces that abut against the tip portions of the pair of rib portions of the roof molding.

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