Vehicular Door Weather Strip Mounting for Width Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicular door structures with brackets increase vehicle width and weight, making weight reduction and size minimization difficult, especially when weather strips are mounted with clips.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular door structure featuring a first weather strip with a hook portion locked to a panel hole, a second weather strip with a fastener point, and long lips that cover gaps between the door and vehicle body, reducing protruding dimensions and weight by configuring the lips to appear as a single unit and using a stopper for easy mounting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If brackets are formed in the door to fix weather strips, then the weather strips can be securely mounted, but the protruding dimension in the vehicle width direction increases and weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a conventional bracket-based mounting system (requiring protrusion in vehicle width direction) to a lip-based system where the weather strip lips extend in the vehicle front-rear direction to cover the gap. This dimensional shift eliminates the need for wide protruding brackets while maintaining effective gap coverage and secure mounting.
Solution Approach 2:
The weather strip is divided into multiple functional segments: a first weather strip with a hook portion for locked mounting, a second weather strip with fastener points for additional securing, and long lips that extend forward to cover the gap. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function efficiently without requiring overall structural protrusion.
2Reliability
If brackets are formed in the door to fix weather strips, then the weather strips can be securely mounted, but the weight of the door structure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the mounting function from heavy metal brackets and transfers it to integrated lip structures and fastening mechanisms that are part of the weather strip assembly itself. The long lips and hook portions provide secure mounting without requiring separate heavy bracket components, thereby reducing overall door structure weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The weather strip assembly is designed to perform multiple functions: the long lips cover the gap between door and vehicle body, the hook portion provides locked mounting to the panel, and the fastener points enable additional securing. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate brackets, reducing weight while maintaining mounting reliability.
3Weight of stationary object
If clips are used to mount weather strips, then weight may be reduced, but the protruding dimension in vehicle width direction cannot be sufficiently reduced due to clip head and tail length requirements
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using clips that protrude outward from the door surface to secure the weather strip, the patent inverts the approach by having the weather strip lips themselves extend forward (in the front-rear direction) to cover the gap. The mounting mechanism (hook portion and fastener points) is positioned behind the lip tips, eliminating the need for wide clip protrusions while maintaining secure attachment.
Data Source
AI summary
When a first weather strip is mounted in a door panel, first, a hook portion of the first weather strip is locked to a lock hole formed so as to be open in the door panel. Next, a clip portion of the first weather strip is engaged with a clip hole formed so as to be open in the door panel. A second weather strip is mounted on an opposite side of the door panel opposite to the first weather strip. With the above, the first weather strip and the second weather strip are mounted in the door panel from both directions extending in the vehicle width direction, and a first lip of the first weather strip and a second lip of the second weather strip continue in a longitudinal direction.