Sliding Door Belt Guide Structure to Reduce Body Panel Bulging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sliding door drive devices for vehicles require a recessed part on the body panel to prevent interference by the pressing pulley, leading to design complexities and potential bulging issues.
Innovation Solution
A sliding door drive device with a curved guide frame and a sliding plate that sandwiches the belt, eliminating the need for a rotating pulley and reducing interference with the body panel, while stabilizing the sliding plate's posture through engagement with the guide frame's walls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a pressing pulley is used to prevent the belt from being driven apart from the curved part of the belt guide part, then the belt can be kept in position, but the pressing pulley interferes with the body panel requiring a recessed part
Solution Approach 1:
The pressing pulley is extracted from the system and replaced with a pressing member that is integrally formed with the guide frame. This eliminates the separate pressing pulley component and its associated mounting requirements, thereby removing the need for a recessed part in the body panel while maintaining the belt positioning function.
Solution Approach 2:
The pressing member is merged with the guide frame by integral formation, combining two previously separate components (guide frame and pressing pulley) into a single unified structure. This integration simplifies the overall device and eliminates the interference issue with the body panel.
2Reliability
If a pressing pulley is positioned between the belt guide part and the body panel, then the belt can be pressed down, but it creates bulging against the body panel
Solution Approach 1:
The pressing pulley is extracted and replaced with an integral pressing member on the guide frame, removing the source of bulging against the body panel while maintaining belt guidance functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The pressing function is shifted from a radial pressing motion (pulley) to a linear pressing structure that extends in the vehicle widthwise direction, changing the dimensional approach to pressing and eliminating the bulging issue.
3Device complexity
If a curved guide frame is used with a sliding part, then the structure is simplified and body panel interference is reduced, but the sliding part needs to be stabilized
Solution Approach 1:
The guide frame is designed with different local structures: a curved part for guiding the belt and a linear part for supporting the sliding part. This local differentiation provides the necessary stabilization for the sliding part while maintaining the overall simplified curved structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The linear part of the guide frame acts as an intermediary structure between the curved guide frame and the sliding part, providing a stable reference surface that stabilizes the sliding part's posture without adding complex stabilization mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a sliding door drive device enabling suppression of bulging against a body panel being a fixing target. The sliding door drive device includes a long guide frame, a first driven pulley and a second driven pulley being supported at both ends of the guide frame in a longitudinal direction, respectively, a belt being wrapped around the first driven pulley and the second driven pulley, and a belt drive part driving the belt. The guide frame includes a guide wall guiding the belt between the first driven pulley and the second driven pulley. The sliding door drive device further includes a sliding plate being placed at a position sandwiching the belt with an inner side of a curved part of the guide wall, and sliding on the driven belt.