On-vehicle equipment structure

Abstract

Provided is an on-vehicle equipment structure comprising drive equipment 1 that is provided on a vehicle and electric equipment 2 that is attached to a side surface of the drive equipment 1 in the vehicle width direction with a bracket B therebetween. The bracket B has a three-legged shape having first to third leg parts 11, 12, 13. The first to third leg parts 11, 12, 13 respectively have fixing parts 11A, 12A, 13A for fixation to the drive equipment 1, and respectively have connection parts 11B, 12B, 13B for connection to the electric equipment 2. The on-vehicle equipment structure reliably reduces input of a collision load to the electric equipment 2 and prevents damage to the electric equipment 2 through the bracket B being deformed or broken in an event of a collision of the vehicle.

Description

In-vehicle equipment structure

[0001] The present invention relates to an in-vehicle equipment structure used for in-vehicle equipment housed in, for example, an engine compartment of an automobile.

[0002] A conventional vehicle-mounted device structure is described in Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 describes a vehicle front structure for an electric vehicle in which an electric compressor is connected to a side surface of a motor housing in the vehicle width direction via a bracket consisting of a mounting bracket, a support bracket, and an auxiliary bracket. This vehicle front structure suppresses deformation of the connection portion of the electric compressor in the event of a collision.

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-142626

[0004] However, in the conventional vehicle front structure described above, if an excessive collision load is applied to the bracket during a frontal collision, the bracket may not be able to withstand the collision load, and the collision load may be input to the electric compressor. In a vehicle, it is important to take sufficient measures to prevent damage to high-voltage equipment such as electric compressors in the event of a collision.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned conventional situation, and aims to provide an in-vehicle equipment structure in which electrical equipment is attached via a bracket to the side of an in-vehicle drive unit, which can reliably suppress the input of collision load to the electrical equipment in the event of a frontal collision of the vehicle, thereby preventing damage to the electrical equipment.

[0006] The vehicle-mounted equipment structure according to the present invention has an electric device attached to a side surface of a drive unit mounted on the vehicle in the vehicle width direction via a bracket, and the vehicle-mounted equipment structure is characterized in that the bracket has a three-pronged shape with first to third legs, and the first to third legs each have a portion for fixing to the drive unit and a portion for connecting to the electric device.

[0007] By adopting the above-described configuration, the vehicle-mounted equipment structure according to the present invention allows the bracket to be significantly deformed or broken in the event of a frontal collision of the vehicle, absorbing the collision load and retracting (moving) the electrical equipment toward the rear of the vehicle. As a result, in a vehicle-mounted equipment structure in which electrical equipment is attached via a bracket to the side of an in-vehicle drive unit, the vehicle-mounted equipment structure can reliably suppress the input of collision load to the electrical equipment in the event of a frontal collision of the vehicle, thereby preventing damage to the electrical equipment.

[0008] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a first embodiment of an in-vehicle equipment structure according to the present invention; Fig. 2 is a side view of a bracket; Fig. 3 is a front view of a main part of the in-vehicle equipment structure as seen from the front side of the vehicle; Fig. 4 is a side view of a main part of the in-vehicle equipment structure as seen from the vehicle width direction; Fig. 5 is a rear view of a main part of the in-vehicle equipment structure as seen from the rear side of the vehicle; Fig. 6 is a horizontal cross-sectional view showing a fastening piece of a third leg portion; Fig. 7 is a plan view of an electrical device as seen from above the vehicle;

[0009] <First embodiment> Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic view of an on-vehicle equipment structure as seen from the front of the vehicle. The on-vehicle equipment structure has an on-vehicle drive unit 1 mounted on a side surface in the vehicle width direction, to which an electric device 2 is attached via a bracket B. The drive unit 1 in the illustrated example is an electric motor 1A and a reduction gear 1B that are drive sources for an electric vehicle. The electric device 2 is, for example, a high-voltage device such as an electric compressor.

[0010] 1, the output of a reduction gear 1B of a driving device 1 is transmitted to left and right tires 4, 4 via left and right axles 3, 3. In addition, side members 5, 5 that form the framework of the vehicle are arranged on the sides of the electric motor 1A and the electric device 2.

[0011] As shown in Figure 2, the bracket B has a three-pronged shape having first to third legs 11, 12, and 13 arranged two-dimensionally, and the first to third legs 11, 12, and 13 have fixing portions 11A, 12A, and 13A for fixing to the driving device 1 and connecting portions 11B, 12B, and 13B for connecting to the electrical device 2, respectively.

[0012] The bracket B in the illustrated example has first to third leg portions 11, 12, and 13 spaced approximately at 120-degree intervals, and the lines connecting the three fixed portions 11A, 12A, and 13A and the lines connecting the three connecting portions 11B, 12B, and 13B form respective triangles. In other words, the fixed portions 11A, 12A, and 3A and the connecting portions 11B, 12B, and 13B are located at the vertices of each triangle. The bracket B is supported at three points by the driving device 1 and the electric device 2.

[0013] Here, bolts are used to fix the bracket B to the driving device 1 and to connect the electrical device 2 to the bracket B. For this reason, the fixing portions 11A, 11A, 13A and the connecting portions 11B, 12B, 13B of the bracket B are, for example, through holes, blind holes, female threaded holes, male screws, etc., and can be selected depending on the location of the bracket B, etc.

[0014] As shown in Figures 3 to 5, the bracket B is arranged with the first leg 11 and the second leg 12 facing the front of the vehicle (left side in Figure 4) and the third leg 13 facing the rear of the vehicle. Furthermore, in bracket B, the first leg 11 and the second leg 12 have connecting portions 11B and 12B at their respective distal ends, and fixed portions 11A and 12A closer to the base end than the connecting portions 11B and 12B. Furthermore, the first leg 11 and the second leg 12 have weakened portions 11D and 12D, which have locally reduced cross-sectional areas, between the connecting portions 11B and 12B and the fixed portions 11A and 12A.

[0015] In contrast, the third leg 13 of the bracket B has a fixing portion 13A on the tip side and a connecting portion 13B on the base end side of this fixing portion 13A. As shown in Figure 2, the third leg 13 of this embodiment has a rectangular fastening piece 14 at the tip, and this fastening piece 14 has the fixing portion 13A on the tip side (right side in Figure 2) and the connecting portion 13B on the base end side.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 6, the connecting portion 13B of the third leg portion 13 has a boss shape that protrudes toward the electrical device 2 (the lower side in FIG. 6), and has a hollow fragile portion 13D at the base end of the boss shape.

[0017] 2 and 7, the third leg 13 has a fixing portion 13A, a connecting portion 13B, and a fastening portion 13E for fastening the protective material 15 surrounding the outside of the electrical device 2 on the fastening piece 14. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the fastening portions 13E are arranged on both sides of the fixing portion 13A on the fastening piece 14.

[0018] This fastening portion 13E is, like the fixing portion and connecting portion described above, for example, a through hole, a bottomed hole, a female threaded hole, or a male screw, and in this embodiment, a screw 16 that fixes the protective material 15 is fastened as shown in Figure 7.

[0019] The vehicle-mounted equipment structure having the above-described configuration connects the electric equipment 2 to the driving equipment 1 via the bracket B, and the connected state is maintained with sufficient mechanical strength by the bracket B. When the vehicle collides, the vehicle-mounted equipment structure allows the electric equipment 2 to move backward (remove) from the vehicle while absorbing the collision load by causing the bracket B to deform or break significantly.

[0020] In this way, the vehicle-mounted equipment structure, in which the electrical equipment 2 is attached to the side of the drive unit 1 mounted on the vehicle via a bracket B, can reliably suppress the input of collision load to the electrical equipment 2 in the event of a vehicle collision, thereby preventing damage to the electrical equipment 2.

[0021] Here, in the in-vehicle equipment structure, if the positional relationships (positional relationships between the tip end and the base end) of the fixing parts 11A, 11A, 13A and the connecting parts 11B, 12B, 13B are all the same in the first to third leg parts 11, 12, 13, sound and vibration problems, i.e., noise and vibration, may occur.

[0022] Therefore, the above-mentioned vehicle equipment structure provides connecting portions 11B, 12B at the tip ends of the first and second legs 11, 12 on the front side of the vehicle, and provides a fixing portion 13A at the tip end of the third leg 13 on the rear side of the vehicle, making the first and second legs 11, 12 more vulnerable to deformation and breakage than the third leg 13 in response to collision loads, thereby achieving a trade-off between noise vibration and deformation and breakage.

[0023] Furthermore, since the first and second legs 11, 12 of the above-mentioned vehicle equipment structure have weak portions 11D, 12D, when a collision load is input, the breakage of the first and second legs 11, 12 is promoted, thereby further enhancing the effect of achieving the trade-off between noise vibration and breakage as described above, and also enhancing the protective effect of the electrical equipment 2.

[0024] Furthermore, in the above-mentioned vehicle-mounted equipment structure, the connecting portion 13B of the third leg 13 has a hollow weak portion 13D at the base end of the boss shape, so that when a large collision load is input, all of the first to third legs 11, 12, 13 break, completely detaching the electric equipment 2 from the driving equipment 1, thereby more reliably suppressing damage to the electric equipment 2.

[0025] Furthermore, in the above-described in-vehicle equipment structure, by fastening a protective material 15 that surrounds the outside of the electric device 2 to the fastening piece 14 of the third leg 13, the protective material 15 also functions as a reinforcing material for the third leg 13 of the bracket B. In addition, in the event of a vehicle collision, the side members 5, 5 shown in FIG. 1 bend inward to absorb the impact, and at that time, in the in-vehicle equipment structure, the protective material 15 can prevent the deformed side members 5 from coming into contact with the electric device 2.

[0026] Furthermore, in the above-described vehicle-mounted equipment structure, when the driving equipment 1 is a driving device including a driving source of the vehicle and the electrical equipment 2 is an electric compressor, the electric compressor, which is a high-voltage equipment, can be protected from collision loads, and malfunctions caused by damage to the electric compressor can be prevented in advance.

[0027] The details of the configuration of the vehicle-mounted equipment structure according to the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the gist of the present invention. In particular, with regard to the bracket, the specific shape and the arrangement of each part can be selected as appropriate.

[0028] B Bracket 1 Driving device (driving device) 2 Electrical device (electric compressor) 11 First leg 12 Second leg 13 Third leg 11A, 12A, 13A Fixing portion 11B, 12B, 13B Connecting portion 11D, 12D, 13D Weak portion 13E Fastening portion 14 Fastening piece 15 Protective material

Claims

1. An in-vehicle equipment structure having a structure in which an electric device is attached via a bracket to the side of an in-vehicle drive device in the vehicle width direction, the bracket having a three-pronged shape with first to third legs, the first to third legs each having a part for fixing to the drive device and a part for connecting to the electric device, 2. The vehicle-mounted equipment structure for a vehicle as described in claim 1, characterized in that the bracket is arranged with the first leg and the second leg facing the front side of the vehicle and the third leg facing the rear side of the vehicle, the first leg and the second leg having the connecting portion at their respective tip ends and the fixing portion at a base end side of the connecting portion, and the third leg having the fixing portion at their tip end side and the connecting portion at a base end side of the fixing portion.

3. The vehicle-mounted equipment structure according to claim 2, characterized in that the first leg portion and the second leg portion have a weakened portion between the connecting portion and the fixed portion, the weakened portion having a locally reduced cross-sectional area.

4. An in-vehicle equipment structure as described in claim 2, characterized in that the connecting portion of the third leg portion has a boss shape protruding toward the electrical equipment side, and has a hollow weak portion at the base end of the boss shape.

5. The vehicle-mounted equipment structure as described in claim 4, characterized in that the third leg portion has a fastening piece at its tip, and the fastening piece has the fixing portion, the connecting portion, and a fastening portion for fixing a protective material that surrounds the outside of the electrical equipment.

6. The vehicle-mounted equipment structure according to claim 1, wherein the drive equipment is a drive unit including a drive source for the vehicle, and the electric equipment is an electric compressor.

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