JP7368229B2 - Vehicle assist grip and method for manufacturing vehicle assist grip - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle assist grip having a metal grip core material, and a method for manufacturing the vehicle assist grip.

In the passenger compartment of a car, assist grips are generally installed above the door openings of the front passenger seat and rear seat to help the passenger maintain his/her posture when getting on and off the vehicle or while riding the vehicle. There is. Further, some assist grips are known to have a structure that absorbs the impact when a passenger collides with the vehicle.

For example, in the assist grip described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-160075 (Patent Document 1), an engaging portion having a U-shaped cross section is provided at the extending end of a grip core material forming the assist grip. . Further, a mounting seat having an L-shaped cross section is fixed to the inner panel to which the assist grip is mounted. The assist grip is fixed to the inner panel by engaging the engagement portion provided at the extending end of the grip core material with this attachment seat.

In the assist grip of Patent Document 1, when a pressing force is applied to the grip portion from the inside of the vehicle toward the outside of the vehicle, the engagement portion of the grip core material and the mounting seat are disengaged and absorb collision energy. This makes it possible to reduce the impact on the occupants.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-160075

However, the assist grip described in Patent Document 1 has a complicated shape and engagement structure of the grip core material. For this reason, the process for manufacturing the assist grip has become complicated, leading to a decrease in yield and an increase in manufacturing costs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its object is to provide an assist grip that can be provided at low cost and to ensure strength for normal use, and a method for manufacturing the same. Our goal is to provide the following.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an assist grip for a vehicle that has a grip core made of metal, the grip core having a substantially U-shaped core body. The inner periphery of the bottom of the substantially U-shaped core main body has a dense tissue part where the metal structure is denser than the general part of the grip core, and the core main body has a dense structure. includes a grip part disposed in the center, a first curved part and a second curved part extending curvedly from one end and the other end of the grip part, and the first curved part and the second curved part. a first leg portion and a second leg portion each extending from the curved portion, and the dense tissue portion is provided at each inner peripheral portion of the grip portion, the first curved portion, and the second curved portion. It is characterized by being

In the assist grip for a vehicle according to the present invention, it is preferable that the outer peripheral portion of the bottom of the core main body portion has a coarse textured portion where the metal structure is rougher than the general portion of the grip core.

In this case, a coarse structure portion in which the metal structure is coarser than the general portion of the grip core material is provided at each outer peripheral portion of the grip portion, the first curved portion, and the second curved portion. It is preferable.

Next, a method for manufacturing an assist grip for a vehicle provided by the present invention is a method for manufacturing an assist grip for a vehicle having a metal grip core material, the method comprising: a substantially U-shaped core of the grip core material; The core material forming step includes a core material forming step of forming a material main body portion, and the core material forming step includes a central bent portion that curves in a substantially convex shape toward a first direction when viewed from one direction in a plan view; A first outer bent portion and a second outer bent portion extend from one end and the other end of the central bent portion and curve in a substantially convex shape toward a second direction opposite to the first direction. a step of punching out a primary member from a metal plate material, and pressing the central bent portion of the primary member toward the second direction, and pressing a tip portion of the first outer bent portion and the second outer bent portion. The present invention is characterized in that it has a step of pressing the tip end portion of the first outer bent portion toward the inner circumferential side of the first outer bent portion and the inner circumferential side of the second outer bent portion.

According to the vehicle assist grip and the manufacturing method thereof of the present invention, the substantially U-shaped main body of the grip core material is formed with a simple structure and the yield can be improved, so that the assist grip can be manufactured at a low cost. Can be provided. In addition, since the dense tissue portion is provided at the inner periphery of the bottom of the substantially U-shaped core body, appropriate strength for normal use can be stably ensured.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing an assist grip according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a cross section taken along the line II-II shown in FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing a grip core material of the assist grip shown in FIG. 1. FIG. It is a schematic diagram explaining the dense structure part and coarse structure part of a grip core material. It is a schematic diagram explaining the punching which punches a primary member from a board material in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram schematically illustrating transformation from a primary member to a grip core material. It is a schematic diagram explaining the punching which punches out a grip core material from a board material.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, and various modifications may be made as long as they have substantially the same configuration as the present invention and achieve similar effects. It is possible. For example, the assist grip according to the following embodiments is installed above the door opening of an automobile, but the installation position of the assist grip is not particularly limited. Furthermore, the method of attaching the assist grip to the automobile is not particularly limited.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing an assist grip according to this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing a cross section taken along the line II-II shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing the grip core material of the assist grip.

The assist grip 1 of this embodiment is installed above a door opening of a passenger seat or a rear seat of an automobile. This assist grip 1 includes a substantially U-shaped grip 2, a first attachment end 3 and a second attachment end 4 provided at one end and the other end of the grip 2, and a first attachment end 3 and a second attachment end 4 provided at one end and the other end of the grip 2, respectively. It has a first flange part 5 and a second flange part 6 provided at the boundary between the first mounting end part 3 and the second mounting end part 4. This assist grip 1 is constructed by inserting mounting fittings (bolts, etc.) (not shown) into through-holes 7 provided in the first mounting end 3 and second mounting end 4, respectively, and attaching them to the vehicle body (not shown). It is attached to the automobile by fixing it to the section.

The assist grip 1 includes a grip core material 10 and an outer skin portion 20 that covers the grip core material 10. In this case, the grip core material 10 is made of metal such as iron, and the outer skin part 20 is made of an elastomer or a soft synthetic resin. Note that the material of the outer skin portion 20 is not particularly limited, and the material of the grip core material 10 is not limited as long as it is metal.

The outer skin portion 20 covers the grip core material 10 except for portions forming the first attachment end portion 3 and the second attachment end portion 4 of the grip core material 10. Further, in the portion that covers the grip core material 10, the outer skin portion 20 covers the grip core material 10 so as to wrap it inside so that the grip core material 10 is not exposed, as shown in FIG. Further, the outer skin portion 20 forms the first flange portion 5 and the second flange portion 6 of the assist grip 1 described above. In the present invention, the outer skin portion 20 only needs to cover at least a portion of the grip core material 10.

The grip core 10 has a core body 11 that is approximately U-shaped. In the case of the present embodiment, the grip core 10 is formed by a core body 11 having a substantially U-shape. Other forms such as joints may be added.

As shown in FIG. 3, the core main body 11 of the present embodiment includes a grip portion 12 disposed in the center, and a first curved portion extending curved from one end and the other end of the grip portion 12, respectively. 13 and a second curved part 14, and a first leg part 15 and a second leg part 16 extending from the first curved part 13 and the second curved part 14, respectively. In this case, the above-described first attachment end 3 and second attachment end 4 of the assist grip 1 are provided on the first leg 15 and the second leg 16 of the core body 11.

The grip part 12 has a shape that is gently curved so that it is easy for a person to grip when the U-shaped core body part 11 is viewed from one side in a plan view (see FIG. 4). The first curved portion 13 and the second curved portion 14 are bent portions that connect the grip portion 12 and the first leg portion 15 and the second leg portion 16. In the case of the present embodiment, the first leg portion 15 and the second leg portion 16 have an angle θ1 on the inner circumferential side between the grip portion 12 and the first leg portion 15 or the second leg portion 16 in the above-described plan view. is formed at an angle of 45° or more, preferably 60° or more. The first leg portion 15 and the second leg portion 16 are formed to extend substantially straight from the first curved portion 13 and the second curved portion 14, respectively.

In the substantially U-shaped core main body portion 11, the inner peripheral portion of the U-shaped bottom portion 17 is compressed against the general portion of the grip core material 10 in a pressing process described later in the method for manufacturing the grip core material 10. It has a dense structure part where the metal structure becomes dense due to deformation in the direction of .

Here, the U-shaped bottom 17 is defined as, for example, as shown in FIG. and the portion up to or near the boundary of the second curved portion 14. For example, in FIG. 4, the inner circumference of the core body 11 includes the inner circumferential surface of a pair of side edges arranged along the U-shaped extending direction of the core body 11. or the shorter side edge of a pair of side edges. Further, the outer circumferential portion of the core main body portion 11 refers to the side edge portion that includes the outer circumferential surface or the longer side edge portion of the pair of side edge portions.

The general portion of the grip core material 10 refers to a portion that does not undergo substantial deformation during the pressing step of the manufacturing method, and in the case of this embodiment, for example, the first attachment end portion 3 and the second attachment portion of the grip core material 10. The portion forming the end portion 4 is a general portion that does not undergo deformation during the pressing process of the grip core material 10. Note that the general portion of the grip core material 10 is not limited to the first attachment end portion 3 and the second attachment end portion 4 of the grip core material 10.

In particular, in this embodiment, the dense tissue portions where the metal structure is dense are the inner circumferential portion of the grip portion 12 in the U-shaped core main body portion 11, the inner circumferential portion of the first curved portion 13, and the second curved portion. The inner circumferential portion of the portion 14 is provided. In other words, as shown in FIG. The second dense tissue portion 32 is provided at the inner peripheral portion of the second curved portion 14, and the third dense tissue portion 33 is provided at the inner peripheral portion of the second curved portion 14.

By intentionally providing the dense tissue portion in the inner periphery of the core body 11 in this manner, the rigidity of the inner periphery of the core body 11 can be increased. Thereby, the core body 11 can have high strength against the force applied from the inner circumferential side to the outer circumferential side of the grip part 12 when gripping the grip part 12 of the gripping part 2, for example. becomes.

In addition, in this core body part 11, the outer peripheral part of the U-shaped bottom part 17 is subjected to deformation in the direction of being pulled, with respect to the general part of the grip core material 10, in the pressing step of the method for manufacturing the grip core material 10. As a result, the metal structure has a coarse structure. Particularly in the present embodiment, the coarse metallographic parts include the outer peripheral part of the grip part 12 in the U-shaped core main body part 11, the outer peripheral part of the first curved part 13, and the second curved part 14. It is provided on the outer periphery of the In other words, as shown in FIG. It has a second coarse structure part 42 and a third coarse structure part 43 provided on the outer peripheral part of the second curved part 14.

In this case, the above-mentioned dense tissue portions (first dense tissue portion 31 to third dense tissue portion 33) provided on the inner circumference of the core body 11 are different from the above-mentioned dense tissue portions (first dense tissue portion 31 to third dense tissue portion 33) provided on the outer circumference of the core body 11. The metal structure is formed more densely than in the coarse structure parts (first coarse structure part 41 to third coarse structure part 43).

By intentionally providing the coarse textured portion on the outer periphery of the core main body 11 in this way, the grip portion 12 of the core main body 11 can be moved from the outer periphery to the inner periphery of the grip 12, for example. When receiving an external force in a direction, the grip portion 12 can be easily bent in the direction according to the external force.

Next, a method for manufacturing the assist grip 1 according to the embodiment described above will be described.
First, a core material forming step is performed to form the grip core material 10 (core material main body portion 11) shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. In this core material forming step, first, as shown in FIG. 5, a flat metal plate 50 having a predetermined wall thickness is punched, and a primary member 51 is formed from the plate 50. A first step of punching out (punching step) is performed.

In this first step, the primary member 51 punched from the plate material 50 is oriented upward (first direction) when the primary member 51 is viewed from one direction in a plan view (see FIGS. 5 and 6). A central bent portion 52 that is curved in a substantially convex shape, and a central bent portion 52 that extends from one end and the other end of the central bent portion 52 and has a substantially convex shape toward the bottom (a second direction opposite to the first direction). It has a first outer bending part 53 and a second outer bending part 54 which are curved. Therefore, one primary member 51 has a wavy, substantially W-shaped curve.

By punching out a plurality of primary members 51 having the above-described shape from a single flat plate material 50 as shown in FIG. 5, for example, a plurality of grip core materials 10 shown in FIG. A predetermined number of primary members 51 can be punched out from a single plate material 50 having a smaller area than when punching out a plate material 50 having a shape (see FIG. 7). Thereby, the amount of waste material can be reduced and the yield of the grip core material 10 can be easily improved, so that the manufacturing cost of the grip core material 10 can be reduced.

After punching out the primary member 51 in the first step described above, as shown in FIG. process).
In this second step, the central bent portion 52 of the primary member 51 is pressed downward (second direction) as shown by the arrow 61, and the tip portion of the first outer bent portion 53 and the second outer bent portion are pressed downward (second direction) as shown by the arrow 61. The distal end portions of the portions 54 are pressed toward the inner circumferential side of the first outer bent portion 53 and the inner circumferential side of the second outer bent portion 54, respectively, as shown by arrows 62.

By performing such press working, the convexly curved upper (inner circumferential side) side edge 52a of the central curved portion 52 is deformed in the direction of compression, and the concavely curved lower side edge 52a of the central curved portion 52 is deformed. The side edge portion 52b on the side (outer circumferential side) is deformed in the direction in which it is pulled. Further, the concave upper (inner circumferential side) side edges 53a and 54a of the first outer bent portion 53 and the second outer bent portion 54 are deformed in the direction of compression, and the convex lower (outer circumferential side) side edges 53a and 54a are compressed. The side edges 53b and 54b are deformed in the direction of being pulled.

As a result, the central bent portion 52 is plastically deformed into a shape that gently curves downward, and the tip portions of the first outer bent portion 53 and the second outer bent portion 54 are oriented in directions substantially parallel to each other. As a result, the core main body portion 11 having the shape shown in FIG. 4 can be smoothly produced.

In addition, at this time, due to the above-described deformation in the compression direction, the inner circumferential portion of the manufactured core main body portion 11 has, for example, a first attachment end portion 3 and a second attachment end portion 4 that are not substantially deformed during the pressing process. In comparison, the above-mentioned dense tissue portions (first dense tissue portion 31 to third dense tissue portion 33) in which the metal structure is densely formed are provided. In addition, the above-mentioned coarse structure part where the metal structure is formed coarsely compared to the first attachment end part 3 and the second attachment end part 4 is formed on the outer peripheral part of the core main body part 11 due to the deformation in the tensile direction described above. (first coarsely textured portion 41 to third coarsely textured portion 43) are provided.

Thereafter, the obtained grip core material 10 is used to perform insert molding of elastomer or soft synthetic resin, thereby producing the assist grip 1 of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1.
By manufacturing the assist grip 1 using the method described above, the assist grip 1 (particularly the grip core material 10) can be formed in a simple shape, which reduces the defect rate of the product and improves the yield as described above. It is possible to achieve improvements in Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the assist grip 1 can be reduced and an inexpensive assist grip 1 can be provided.

In the manufactured assist grip 1 of this embodiment, the first dense tissue section 31 to the third dense tissue section 33 are provided on the inner peripheral part of the grip core material 10, so that the grip core The rigidity of the inner peripheral portion of the material 10 can be increased. As a result, when the assist grip 1 of the present embodiment is attached to a vehicle, for example, when the grip portion 2 is gripped, a force (for example, When receiving a force (downward in the paper plane of FIG. 4), it can have high strength against the load of that force. Therefore, the assist grip 1 of this embodiment can ensure stable strength during normal use of the assist grip 1 in an automobile.

Further, the assist grip 1 of the present embodiment is provided with the first dense tissue portion 31 to the third dense tissue portion 33 described above, and the first coarse tissue portion 41 to the third coarse tissue portion 41 on the outer periphery of the grip core material 10. Since the textured portion 43 is provided, the grip core material 10 (particularly the grip portion 12) can be easily deflected, for example, in the direction of returning to the shape of the primary member 51 described above or in the direction of approaching the shape of the primary member 51. I can do it. That is, the grip part 12 of the grip core material 10 can resist, for example, an external force in a direction from the outer circumferential side to the inner circumferential side of the grip part 12, or an external force in a direction crossing the first leg part 15 and the second leg part 16. When the external force is applied, the grip portion 12 can be easily bent in the direction according to the external force.

Therefore, when the assist grip 1 of this embodiment is attached to a vehicle, for example, the grip part 2 of the assist grip 1 is subjected to an impact (impact load) in a direction from the inside of the vehicle to the outside of the vehicle, such as when a car crashes. ) or when receiving an impact (impact load) in a direction approaching the vehicle body, the grip portion 2 of the assist grip 1 can be easily bent to receive the impact. Thereby, the assist grip 1 of the present embodiment can effectively absorb and alleviate impact, and thus can exhibit excellent impact absorption effects.

1 Assist grip 2 Gripping portion 3 First mounting end 4 Second mounting end 5 First flange 6 Second flange 7 Through hole 10 Grip core 11 Core main body 12 Grip 13 First curved portion 14 Second curved portion 15 First leg portion 16 Second leg portion 17 Bottom portion 20 Outer skin portion 31 First dense tissue portion 32 Second dense tissue portion 33 Third dense tissue portion 41 First coarse tissue portion 42 Second coarse tissue portion 43 Third coarse structure part 50 Plate material 51 Primary member 52 Central bent part 52a Convexly curved upper side (inner circumferential side) side edge part of the central bent part 52b Concavely curved lower side (outer circumferential side) of the central bent part Side edge portion 53 First outer bent portion 53a Concave upper (inner peripheral side) side edge portion of the first outer bent portion 53b Convex lower (outer peripheral side) side edge portion of the first outer bent portion 54 2 outer bent portion 54a Concave upper (inner circumferential side) side edge of the second outer bent portion 54b Convex lower (outer circumferential side) side edge of the second outer bent portion 61, 62 Arrow θ1 Grip portion and the first leg or the second leg on the inner circumferential side

Claims (4)

A vehicle assist grip having a metal grip core material,
The grip core includes a substantially U-shaped core body,
The inner periphery of the bottom of the substantially U-shaped core main body has a dense tissue part where the metal structure is denser than the general part of the grip core,
The core main body portion includes a grip portion disposed in the center, a first curved portion and a second curved portion that curve and extend from one end and the other end of the grip portion, respectively, and the first curved portion. and a first leg portion and a second leg portion extending from the second curved portion, respectively;
The dense tissue portion is provided at each inner peripheral portion of the grip portion, the first curved portion, and the second curved portion.
An assist grip for vehicles that is characterized by: 2. The assist grip for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the outer circumferential portion of the bottom of the core main body has a rough textured portion where the metal structure is rougher than the general portion of the grip core. Claim 1: A rough structure portion in which the metal structure is coarser than the general portion of the grip core material is provided at each outer peripheral portion of the grip portion, the first curved portion, and the second curved portion. Assist grip for the vehicle listed. A manufacturing method for manufacturing a vehicle assist grip having a metal grip core material, the manufacturing method comprising:
a core material forming step of forming a substantially U-shaped core material main body portion of the grip core material;
The core material forming step includes:
a central bent portion that curves in a substantially convex shape toward a first direction when viewed planarly from one direction; and a central bent portion that extends from one end and the other end of the central bent portion; a step of punching out a primary member from a metal plate material having a first outer bent portion and a second outer bent portion curved in a substantially convex shape in a second direction opposite to the central bending of the primary member; the tip portion of the first outer bent portion and the tip portion of the second outer bent portion toward the inner peripheral side of the first outer bent portion and the second outer bent portion. A method for manufacturing an assist grip for a vehicle, comprising a step of pressing toward the inner circumference of a curved portion.

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