Vehicle Mirror Seal Design for Gap Appearance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle mirror devices suffer from a degraded appearance of the gap between the vehicle body and the covering member due to the separation of the seal portion's end from the outer periphery of the base cover, especially in cases of small gaps, leading to a floating appearance.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle mirror device with a sealing member that extends from the vehicle body side toward the covering member, allowing the seal portion to adjust its contact position based on the gap dimension and displace its end outward as the gap decreases, preventing separation from the outer periphery and reducing slippage at corner portions through strategically placed through-holes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an extended portion is integrally formed in a whole outer periphery of the packing to seal the gap, then the gap between the vehicle body door panel and the base cover is sealed, but the end portion of the extended portion is largely separated toward the inner periphery side from the outer periphery of the base cover, degrading the appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The seal portion is designed to be movable relative to the packing, allowing it to dynamically adjust its position based on gap dimensions. This enables the seal to maintain contact with the base cover outer periphery while still providing effective sealing, resolving the contradiction between sealing reliability and appearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing structure is divided into two functional parts: the packing (sealing member) that provides the sealing function, and the seal portion that provides the appearance function by contacting the base cover outer periphery. This segmentation allows each part to optimize its specific function without compromising the other.
2Reliability
If the seal portion is extended toward the inner periphery side to seal small gaps, then the gap sealing is improved, but the base cover looks like it is floating from the vehicle body door panel
Solution Approach 1:
The seal portion acts as an intermediary element between the packing and the base cover outer periphery. It transfers the sealing function from the packing while maintaining visual contact with the base cover, thus preventing the floating appearance while still enabling effective gap sealing.
3Device complexity
If the position of the seal portion contact with the covering member is fixed, then the structure is simple, but it cannot adapt to variance in gap dimensions
Solution Approach 1:
The seal portion is designed with dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to move and adjust its contact position with the base cover based on the actual gap dimensions. This dynamic design enables adaptation to various gap sizes while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The position parameter of the seal portion is made variable rather than fixed. By allowing the seal portion to change its position relative to the packing and base cover, the system can adapt to different gap dimensions without requiring a completely different structure for each case.
Data Source
AI summary
In a vehicle door mirror device, a base is attached to a door and covered with a base cover. A gasket is disposed on a door panel of the base cover, a seal portion of the gasket seals a gap between a lower side end of the base cover and the door panel. The seal portion is extended from the gasket toward the base cover side. Therefore, even if a dimension of the gap between the lower side end of the base cover and the door panel varies, the lower side end of the seal portion can be suppressed from being separated from an outer periphery of the base cover toward the inner side, the base cover can be suppressed from looking floating from the door panel, and appearance of the gap between the lower side end of the base cover and the door panel can be improved.