JP7448147B2 - Sealing test tool - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a sealability testing tool for testing the sealability in a predetermined area of assembly parts assembled on, for example, an automobile production line.

Conventionally, on automobile manufacturing lines, the shaft of a fastening member called a weld bolt is inserted into a through hole formed in a press part, and the head of the fastening member is welded to the periphery of the through hole of the press part by projection welding. Thereafter, it is common practice to assemble other vehicle parts to the press part using the fastening member welded to the press part.

By the way, the above-mentioned press parts are used when sealing between the head of the fastening member and the press part is required to prevent fluid such as water from leaking through the through hole through which the shaft of the fastening member is inserted. There is.

In order to cope with this, after welding a fastening member to a pressed part, for example, a sealing property inspection device such as that disclosed in Patent Document 1 is used to check whether sealing performance is secured between the pressed part and the fastening member. It is possible to test the The apparatus of Patent Document 1 includes a mounting table on which an object to be inspected is placed, and the mounting table is formed with an inspection space that opens upward. A pressure adjusting means and a pressure measuring means are connected to the test space, so that the pressure in the test space can be adjusted and the pressure in the test space can be measured. Then, the object to be inspected is placed on the mounting table so that the upper opening of the inspection space is closed by the inspection area of the object to be inspected, and a predetermined pressure is applied to the inspection space by the pressure adjustment means. At the same time, by measuring the pressure in the test space for a predetermined period of time using a pressure measuring means and observing whether the measured value changes, it is possible to test whether or not fluid leakage has occurred from the test area of the test object. It has become.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-232180

However, in the case of the inspection device of Patent Document 1, for example, when a plurality of welded fastening members are provided at distant positions in a press part with a complicated three-dimensional shape, the inspection area is changed every time the inspection is performed. Since it is necessary to remount the press part on the mounting table so as to correspond to the inspection space of the inspection device, the measurement takes time and there is a possibility that productivity on the manufacturing line may be reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to provide a sealability testing tool that can easily and quickly test the sealability of multiple inspection areas. There is a particular thing.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention surrounds an inspection area of an object to be inspected, and uses a simple mechanism to create a negative pressure in the enclosed space, thereby determining whether or not the negative pressure state of the enclosed space is maintained. The present invention is characterized in that the sealing performance of the inspection area is evaluated.

Specifically, the following solution was taken in a sealing test tool capable of testing the sealing property of an inspection area on an object to be inspected.

That is, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cylindrical body having a first flexible portion having an annular shape extending along the periphery of the opening at the distal end; a slide rod having a second flexible portion that can slide on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder and fills a gap with the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder; and a first biasing member that biases along the inspection area, and with the first flexible portion pressed against the object to be inspected so as to surround the inspection area, the slide rod is moved by the biasing force of the first biasing member. The test tube is characterized in that it is configured to slide toward the proximal end to create a negative pressure inside the cylinder facing the inspection area.

In a second invention, in the first invention, the object to be inspected is a pressed part in which the shaft portion of the fastening member is inserted into a through hole, and the head of the fastening member is welded around the through hole, An accommodating recess that opens at the tip of the slide rod is formed on the center line of the slide rod, and the accommodating recess is formed on the axis of the fastening member when the first flexible portion is pressed against the object to be inspected. It is characterized by being configured to be able to accommodate the parts.

A third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the second aspect, the inner diameter of the cylindrical body on the front end side is set to be larger than the outer diameter of the head of the fastening member.

In a fourth invention, in any one of the first to third inventions, the slide rod is moved to a predetermined position of the cylindrical body while being slid toward the distal end side against the biasing force of the first biasing member. The present invention is characterized by comprising a positioning means for positioning the slide rod, and an operating means capable of releasing the positioning state of the slide rod relative to the cylinder body by the positioning means.

In a fifth invention, in the fourth invention, the positioning means includes a communication hole formed in a side wall of the cylinder that extends in a direction perpendicular to the cylinder center line and communicates with the inside of the cylinder, and the slide rod. a guide hole that is formed in the rod and extends in a direction perpendicular to the rod center line and opens on the outer circumferential surface; an engaging pin that is guided by the guide hole and whose distal end side can be inserted into the communication hole; a second biasing member capable of biasing the engagement pin toward the opening side of the guide hole until the tip side protrudes from the opening of the guide hole, and the operating means is slidably inserted into the communication hole. When slid in one direction, one end protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body, while when slid in the other direction, the other end reaches a position in the communicating hole where it communicates with the inside of the cylindrical body. It is characterized by being an operating rod with a

In the first invention, when the first flexible part of the cylinder is pressed against the inspection area, the first flexible part is bent and there is no gap between the tip of the cylinder and the object to be inspected, and the cylinder facing the inspection area is bent. The inside of the body becomes a sealed space between the tip of the slide rod and the tip of the slide rod. Therefore, when the slide rod is slid toward its base end by the biasing force of the first biasing member while the first flexible portion of the cylinder is pressed against the inspection area, negative pressure is applied inside the cylinder facing the inspection area. become. Then, the sealing test tool becomes attached to the object to be tested, and if a fluid leak occurs in the test area, the negative pressure inside the cylinder facing the test area will be released over time. Since the sealing test tool is removed from the test object, it is possible to confirm the occurrence of fluid leakage. As described above, even if there are multiple inspection areas, the sealability inspection tool of the present invention does not require the work of re-mounting the object to be inspected on the mounting table each time each inspection area is inspected, as in Patent Document 1. Since there is no need to do this, the sealability of each inspection area can be inspected easily and in a short time.

In the second invention, when inspecting the sealing property of the part of the press part where the fastening member is welded, the first flexible part can be pressed against the inspection area while the shaft part of the fastening member is accommodated in the accommodation recess. It becomes like this. Therefore, since the testing tool can be made compact in the direction of the center line of the cylinder, the sealing testing tool can be easily handled by an operator.

In the third invention, when performing an inspection, the tip of the cylinder can be pressed against the inspection area while the head of the fastening member welded to the press part is housed inside the cylinder. This increases the number of options for testing the sealing properties of parts where fastening members are welded, and makes the testing tool easier to use.

In the fourth aspect of the invention, when performing an inspection, the positioning means can maintain the slide rod in a waiting state for starting the inspection, making it easier to press the tip of the cylinder against the object to be inspected. After pressing the tip of the cylindrical body against the object to be inspected, when the positioning state by the positioning means is released by the operating means, the slide rod slides toward its base end side by the biasing force of the first biasing member, and the cylinder faces the inspection area. Negative pressure inside the body. In this way, the operation of the testing tool during testing becomes simple, and the load placed on the operator during testing using the testing tool of the present invention can be reduced.

In the fifth invention, when the slide rod is slid toward the distal end side against the urging force of the first urging member, the communication hole formed in the side wall of the cylinder body and the guide hole formed in the slide rod are connected. Since they match, the engagement pin is guided to the guide hole by the biasing force of the second biasing member, and the distal end side of the engagement pin enters the communication hole. Therefore, the tip side of the engagement pin engages with the inner peripheral surface of the communication hole to determine the position of the slide rod with respect to the cylindrical body, so that the slide rod can be easily maintained in the test start standby state. Furthermore, when one side of the operating rod that protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the cylinder body is pressed against the other side of the operating rod, the operating rod presses the engagement pin against the urging force of the second urging member and pushes it out of the communication hole. . Then, the engagement state of the engagement pin with the inner circumferential surface of the communication hole is released, and the slide rod comes to slide toward the proximal end side of the slide rod by the urging force of the first urging member. In this way, the operations performed by the operator during inspection can be simplified.

1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a sealing test tool according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state immediately before a sealing test is performed after FIG. 1 . FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which a sealing property test is being performed after FIG. 2 . FIG. 2 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 1 of Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. It should be noted that the following description of preferred embodiments is essentially only an example.

《Embodiment 1 of the present invention》
FIG. 1 shows a sealing test tool 1 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The sealing property test tool 1 is used to test the sealing property of a predetermined area (hereinafter referred to as inspection area R1) of an assembly part 10 (tested object) assembled on an automobile manufacturing line, for example, and includes A cylindrical body 2 having a tapered surface, a slide rod 3 whose distal end side is inserted into the cylindrical body 2 so as to be slidable along the cylinder center line C1, and a winding on the base end side of the slide rod 3. A first coil spring 4 (first biasing member) is provided.

In the assembly part 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the shaft portion 11a of the weld bolt 11 (fastening member) is inserted into the through hole 12a, and the head 11b of the weld bolt 11 is attached around the through hole 12a by projection welding. This is a welded press part 12, and a plurality of weld bolts 11 are welded to the press part 12.

A seal portion 11c that extends annularly around the shaft portion 11a is provided on the back surface of the head 11b of each weld bolt 11, and when the seal portion 11c comes into contact with the through hole 12a of the press component 12, the press component 12 The structure is such that fluid such as water does not leak through the through hole 12a.

Note that the inspection area R1 in the first embodiment of the present invention is an area including the through hole 12a in the press part 12.

At the tip of the cylindrical body 2, an annular first flexible portion 2a made of rubber is provided that extends along the periphery of the tip opening, and the first flexible portion 2a has a bellows shape.

Further, a communication hole 2c extending in a direction perpendicular to the cylinder center line C1 and communicating with the inside of the cylinder 2 is provided at a position near the base end of the side wall 2b of the cylinder 2, and the inner diameter of the communication hole 2c is , the outer peripheral surface side of the side wall 2b is smaller than the inner peripheral surface side.

The slide rod 3 includes a rod-shaped slide main body 3a whose rod center line C2 coincides with the cylinder center line C1.

A housing recess 3b that opens at the tip of the slide body 3a is formed on the rod center line C2 of approximately half of the tip side of the slide body 3a, and the bottom surface of the housing recess 3b has a tapered shape.

The inner diameter of the housing recess 3b corresponds to the outer diameter of the shaft portion 11a of the weld bolt 11, and the housing recess 3b can accommodate the shaft portion 11a of the weld bolt 11.

A second flexible portion 3c made of rubber and having an annular shape extending along the opening periphery of the accommodation recess 3b is provided at the tip of the slide body 3a. It is capable of sliding contact and fills the gap with the inner circumferential surface of the cylindrical body 2.

Further, a guide hole 3d is formed in the middle of the slide rod 3, extending in a direction perpendicular to the rod center line C2 and opening on the outer peripheral surface.

Furthermore, a ring member 3e that extends annularly around the rod center line C2 is attached to a position near the base end of the slide rod 3.

The first coil spring 4 has one end in contact with the proximal opening periphery of the cylindrical body 2, and the other end in contact with the ring member 3e, so that the slide rod 3 is aligned with the center line of the cylindrical body 2 toward the proximal end. The force is applied along C1.

In the guide hole 3d of the slide body 3a, there is an engaging pin 5 having a substantially bullet shape that is guided in the guide hole 3d and whose tip end can be inserted into the communication hole 2c. A second coil spring 6 (second biasing member) that biases the engagement pin 5 toward the opening side is housed, and the second coil spring 6 pushes the engagement pin 5 to a position where the distal end side of the engagement pin 5 protrudes from the opening of the guide hole 3d. It can be biased towards the opening side of the guide hole 3d.

That is, the engagement pin 5 and the second coil spring 6 constitute the positioning means 8 of the present invention, and when the slide rod 3 is slid against the biasing force of the first coil spring 4, the guide hole of the slide rod 3 3d is at a position corresponding to the communication hole 2c of the cylindrical body 2, the engagement pin 5 urged by the second coil spring 6 is guided to the guide hole 3d, and the tip side of the engagement pin 5 is placed in the communication hole 2c. The slide rod 3 is positioned relative to the cylindrical body 2 by being inserted and engaging with the inner peripheral surface of the communication hole 2c.

An operating rod 7 is slidably inserted into the communication hole 2c of the cylindrical body 2, and the outer diameter of the operating rod 7 from one end to the middle corresponds to the inner diameter of the outer peripheral surface of the side wall 2b in the communication hole 2c. On the other hand, the outer diameter of the other end corresponds to the inner diameter of the inner peripheral surface of the side wall 2b of the communication hole 2c.

When the operation rod 7 is slid in one direction, one end protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 2, while when it is slid in the other direction, the other end reaches a position where it communicates with the inside of the cylindrical body 2 in the communication hole 2c. The dimensions are set.

The operating rod 7 constitutes the operating means of the present invention, and when the slide rod 3 is positioned relative to the cylindrical body 2 by the positioning means 8, one side of the operating rod 7 that protrudes from the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 2 When the portion is pressed and slid to the other side of the operating rod 7, the operating rod 7 presses the engagement pin 5 against the biasing force of the second coil spring 6 and pushes it out from the communication hole 2c. As a result, the engaging state of the engagement pin 5 with the inner circumferential surface of the communication hole 2c is released, and the slide rod 3 is caused to slide toward its proximal end side by the biasing force of the first coil spring 4.

That is, the operating rod 7 can be operated to release the positioning state of the slide rod 3 by the positioning means 8.

When inspecting the sealing property of the inspection area R1 in the press part 12, as shown in FIGS. , the slide rod 3 is slid toward the base end side by the biasing force of the first coil spring 4 with the first flexible portion 2a pressed against the press part 12 so as to surround the inspection area R1, and the cylindrical body faces the inspection area R1. 2 is configured to create negative pressure inside.

Next, the inspection of the inspection area R1 in the press part 12 using the sealing property inspection tool 1 of Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described in detail.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, the operator slides the slide rod 3 toward the distal end side of the cylindrical body 2 against the biasing force of the first coil spring 4. Then, when the communication hole 2c formed in the side wall 2b of the cylindrical body 2 and the guide hole 3d formed in the slide rod 3 are aligned, the engagement pin 5 is pushed into the guide hole 3d by the urging force of the second coil spring 6. Since the leading end of the engaging pin 5 is guided into the communication hole 2c, the leading end of the engaging pin 5 engages with the inner peripheral surface of the communicating hole 2c, and the position of the slide rod 3 relative to the cylindrical body 2 is determined. In this way, the operator can easily maintain the slide rod 3 of the sealing test tool 1 in the test start standby state P1 using the positioning means 8 consisting of the engagement pin 5 and the second coil spring 6.

Next, the operator presses the first flexible portion 2a of the cylindrical body 2 against the inspection region R1. At this time, the shaft portion 11a of the weld bolt 11 is accommodated in the accommodation recess 3b of the slide rod 3. As described above, the sealing property test tool 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is capable of inserting the shaft portion 11a of the weld bolt 11 into the accommodation recess 3b when inspecting the sealing property of the part of the press part 12 where the weld bolt 11 is welded. Since the first flexible part 2a can be pressed against the inspection region R1 while housed in the cylindrical body 2, the sealing property testing tool 1 can be made compact in the direction of the cylinder center line C1 of the cylindrical body 2, and the sealing property testing tool 1 can be made compact in the direction of the cylinder center line C1 of the cylindrical body 2. The tool 1 can be made easier for the operator to handle.

When the first flexible part 2a of the cylindrical body 2 is pressed against the inspection area R1, the first flexible part 2a is bent and there is no gap between the tip of the cylindrical body 2 and the press part 12, as shown in FIG. , the inner side of the cylindrical body 2 facing the inspection region R1 forms a closed space S1 between the tip of the slide rod 3 and the inner side of the cylindrical body 2 facing the inspection region R1. When pressing the first flexible portion 2a of the cylindrical body 2 against the inspection area R1, the positioning means 8 maintains the slide rod 3 in the inspection start standby state P1, so the operator can press the tip of the cylindrical body 2 against the press part. 12 can be easily pressed.

Thereafter, the operator presses one side of the operating rod 7 protruding from the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 2 to the other side of the operating rod 7. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the operating rod 7 presses the engagement pin 5 against the biasing force of the second coil spring 6 and pushes it out of the communication hole 2c, so that the inner peripheral surface of the communication hole 2c of the engagement pin 5 The engagement state with is released.

That is, when the positioning state of the slide rod 3 with respect to the cylinder body 2 by the engagement pin 5 and the second coil spring 6 is released by the operation rod 7 while the first flexible portion 2a of the cylinder body 2 is pressed against the inspection region R1, the position of the slide rod 3 relative to the cylinder body 2 is released. The slide rod 3 slides toward its base end side by the biasing force of the single coil spring 4, and a negative pressure is created inside the cylindrical body 2 facing the inspection region R1. Then, the sealing test tool 1 becomes stuck to the press part 12, and if fluid leakage occurs in the test area R1, the inside of the cylindrical body 2 facing the test area R1 will leak over time. Since the negative pressure state is released and the sealing test tool 1 is removed from the press part 12, it is possible to confirm the occurrence of fluid leakage.

In this way, the operation of the sealability test tool 1 during the inspection becomes simple, and the load placed on the operator during the test using the sealability tester 1 can be reduced.

As described above, even if there is a plurality of inspection areas R1, the sealing property inspection tool 1 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention can place the object to be inspected on the mounting table every time each inspection area is inspected, as in Patent Document 1. Since there is no need to perform the work of redoing, the sealing properties of each inspection area R1 can be inspected easily and in a short time.

《Embodiment 2 of the invention》
FIG. 4 shows a sealing test tool 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Embodiment 2 is the same as Embodiment 1 except that a partial structure of the cylindrical body 2 and a partial structure of the slide rod 3 are different from Embodiment 1. The same reference numerals are used, and only the different parts will be explained.

The inner diameter on the tip side of the cylindrical body 2 in the second embodiment is set to be larger than the outer diameter of the head 11b of the weld bolt 11.

The bottom surface of the accommodation recess 3b in the slide rod 3 of the second embodiment is flat. Further, the outer diameter of the proximal end side of the slide rod 3 of the second embodiment is smaller than the outer diameter of the portion of the slide rod 3 extending from the tip to the midway portion.

In the sealing test tool 1 according to the second embodiment, the inner diameter on the tip side of the cylindrical body 2 is set to be larger than the outer diameter of the head 11b of the weld bolt 11. With the head 11b of the bolt 11 accommodated inside the cylindrical body 2, the tip of the cylindrical body 2 can be pressed against the inspection region R1.

As described above, the sealing property test tool 1 according to the second embodiment of the present invention not only allows inspection from the shaft portion 11a side of the weld bolt 11 welded to the press part 12, but also allows inspection of the weld bolt 11 welded to the press part 12 from the shaft part 11a side. Since inspection is also possible from the head 11b side of the bolt 11, there are more options for how to inspect the sealing property of the part of the press part 12 where the weld bolt 11 is welded, and the sealing property testing tool 1 is made easy to use. Can be done.

In the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the first flexible part 2a and the second flexible part 3c are made of rubber material, but they may be made of other materials as long as they have flexibility. For example, it may be made of a resin material.

Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the first coil spring 4 is used as a biasing member that biases the slide rod 3, and the second coil spring 6 is used as a biasing member that biases the engagement pin 5. However, it may be biased by other biasing members, for example, it may be biased by something made of a rubber material with high elasticity, or other types of springs may be used. You can.

In the first and second embodiments of the present invention, the sealing test tool 1 was used to test the sealing property of the weld bolt 11 welded to the press part 12, but the sealing test tool 1 of the present invention 1 can also be used when inspecting the sealing properties of other structures.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is suitable, for example, as a sealing test tool for testing the sealing performance in a predetermined area of assembly parts assembled on an automobile manufacturing line or the like.

1 Sealability test tool 2 Cylindrical body 2a First flexible part 2b Side wall 2c Communication hole 3 Slide rod 3b Accommodation recess 3c Second flexible part 3d Guide hole 4 First coil spring (first biasing member)
5 Engagement pin 6 Second coil spring (second biasing member)
7 Operation rod (operation means)
8 Positioning means 10 Assembly parts (object to be inspected)
11 Weld bolt (fastening member)
11a Shaft 11b Head 12 Pressed part 12a Through hole C1 Cylinder center line C2 Rod center line R1 Inspection area

Claims (5)

A sealing property testing tool capable of testing the sealing property of an inspection area in an object to be inspected,
a cylindrical body having an annular first flexible portion extending along the periphery of the distal opening;
It is slidably inserted into the cylinder along the cylinder center line, and has a second flexible part at the tip that can slide on the cylinder internal peripheral surface and fills the gap with the cylinder internal peripheral surface. slide rod and
a first biasing member that biases the slide rod toward its base end along the cylinder center line of the cylinder;
With the first flexible portion pressed against the object to be inspected so as to surround the inspection area, the slide rod is slid toward the base end side by the urging force of the first urging member to face the inspection area. A sealing test tool characterized in that it is configured to create negative pressure inside the cylinder. The sealing test tool according to claim 1,
The object to be inspected is a pressed part in which the shaft portion of the fastening member is inserted into a through hole, and the head of the fastening member is welded around the through hole,
An accommodating recess that opens at the tip of the slide rod is formed on the center line of the slide rod, and the accommodating recess is formed on the axis of the fastening member when the first flexible portion is pressed against the object to be inspected. 1. A sealing test tool characterized by being configured to be able to accommodate a portion of the seal. The sealing test tool according to claim 2,
A sealing test tool characterized in that an inner diameter on the tip side of the cylindrical body is set to be larger than an outer diameter of the head of the fastening member. The sealing test tool according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
positioning means for positioning the slide rod at a predetermined position on the cylindrical body while sliding the slide rod toward the distal end side against the biasing force of the first biasing member;
A sealing test tool comprising: an operating means capable of releasing the positioning state of the slide rod relative to the cylindrical body by the positioning means. The sealing test tool according to claim 4,
The positioning means includes a communication hole formed in the side wall of the cylinder and extending in a direction perpendicular to the cylinder center line and communicating with the inside of the cylinder, and a communication hole formed in the slide rod and extending in the direction perpendicular to the rod center line. a guide hole that extends and opens on the outer circumferential surface; an engaging pin that is guided by the guide hole and whose distal end side can be inserted into the communication hole; a second biasing member capable of biasing the engagement pin toward the opening side of the guide hole;
The operating means is slidably inserted into the communicating hole, and when slid in one direction, one end protrudes from the outer circumferential surface of the cylindrical body, and when slid in the other direction, the other end is inserted into the communicating hole. A sealing test tool characterized by having an operating rod sized to reach a position communicating with the inside of a cylinder.