Weather strip

Abstract

A weather strip made of an elastic material includes an insert member having a plurality of through holes which is embedded in a corner portion of the weather strip. In the corner portion, a clip insertion hole in which a clip for attaching the corner portion to the automobile body is insertable is formed, and in the insert member, a clip hole is formed in a position corresponding to the clip insertion hole. In the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole, an additional hole communicating with the clip hole is formed, and the elastic materials of which the corner portion is made and that are situated on the obverse and reverse sides of the insert member are united together through the additional hole.

Claims

1. A weather strip in which an insert member having a plurality of through holes is embedded in a corner portion of the weather strip made of an elastic material, wherein in the corner portion, a clip insertion hole is formed in which a clip for attaching the corner portion to an automobile body is insertable, the clip includes a head portion, a leg portion vertically extending from the head portion, and a locking portion formed at a tip side of the leg portion, in the insert member, a clip hole is formed in a position corresponding to the clip insertion hole, in an outer peripheral portion of the clip hole formed in the insert member, an additional hole communicating with the clip hole is formed, elastic materials of which the corner portion is made and that are situated on obverse and reverse sides of the insert member are united together through the additional hole, in an outer peripheral portion of the clip insertion hole formed in the corner portion, a clip head attachment portion to be abutted to the head portion of the clip, a thickness of the clip head attachment portion is the smallest in the corner portion embedded with the insert member.

2. The weather strip according to claim 1, wherein the clip hole of the insert member is larger in diameter than the clip insertion hole of the corner portion.

3. The weather strip according to claim 1, wherein the additional hole has an elongated shape whose width is smaller than a diameter of each of the through holes.

4. The weather strip according to claim 1, wherein the additional hole extends up to an outside of an area corresponding to the clip head attachment portion.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a view showing the right side of an automobile.

(2) FIG. 2 is a view showing an automobile interior side view of a weather strip according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 3 is a view showing an automobile interior side view of an insert member embedded in the weather strip according to the embodiment of the present invention.

(4) FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a condition where the weather strip according to the embodiment of the present invention is attached to the automobile body by use of a clip.

(5) FIGS. 5A and 5B are enlarged cross-sectional views showing a condition where the weather strip according to the embodiment of the present invention is attached to the automobile body by use of the clip, FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view corresponding to the part indicated by the line A-A of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view corresponding to the part indicated by the line B-B of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(6) Hereinafter, a mode for carrying out the present disclosure will be described based on the drawings. The following description of a preferred embodiment is, essentially, merely illustrative and does not intend to limit the present disclosure, application methods thereof or uses thereof.

(7) A weather strip according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5A and 5B.

(8) In an automobile shown in FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 represents an automobile body, reference numeral 20 represents a (front side) door, and reference numeral 30 represents a weather strip provided on the peripheral edge of the door 20.

(9) FIG. 2 is a view showing an automobile interior side view of the weather strip 30, particularly, showing a part attached to a corner portion at the peripheral edge of the door 20. As shown in FIG. 2, the weather strip 30 according to the present embodiment includes a weather strip main body 50 and a later-described insert member 60 embedded in the weather strip main body 50.

(10) The weather strip main body 50 includes straight portions 51 attached to the substantially straight portions of the door 20 and formed by extrusion molding and a corner portion 52 attached to the corner portion of the door 20 and formed by molding with a metal mold. As shown in FIG. 2, the corner portion 52 is provided with a clip insertion hole 53 structured so that a clip for attachment to the peripheral edge of the door 20 can pass therethrough. After the corner portion 52 is formed by molding with a metal mold, the end portion of the straight portion 51 on the upper side of the automobile and the end portion of the straight portion 51 on the lower side of the automobile are set in a non-illustrated metal mold and an elastic material such as rubber or a resin is infused or injected into a metal mold cavity portion, whereby the shape of the corner portion 52 is formed and at the same time, the straight portions 51 and the corner portion 52 are united together at an upper side border line K1 and a lower side border line K2 inside the metal mold.

(11) At this time, in the cavity portion of the metal mold, the insert member 60 is disposed that is made of a hard resin material having a lower extension performance than the elastic material such as rubber or a resin of which the weather strip main body 50 is made. Thereafter, the elastic material such as rubber or a resin for forming the corner portion 52 of the weather strip main body 50 is introduced into the metal mold, whereby the corner portion 52 is formed and the insert member 60 is embedded in the corner portion 52. Thereby, the corner portion 52 of the weather strip main body 50 is completed. Although the material used for the straight portions (extruded portions) 51 and the corner portion (molded portion) 52 of the weather strip main body 50 is not specifically limited, in the case of rubber, it is common to use EPDM sponge rubber (with a specific gravity of approximately 0.4 to 0.6) and in the case of a resin, it is common to use a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) such as TPO. Moreover, although the hard resin material used for the insert member 60 is not specifically limited, either, resin materials mixed with a reinforcement material, for example, PP (polypropylene) containing talc and PA (polyamide) containing glass fibers are cited.

(12) As shown in FIG. 3, the insert member 60 is provided with a plurality of small-diameter through holes 61 for preventing coming-off from the corner portion 52. As described above, since these through holes 61 enables the elastic material on the obverse surface side and the elastic material on the reverse surface side in the part of the corner portion 52 embedded with the insert member 60 to unite together through the through holes 61, the insert member 60 can be prevented from coming off inside the corner portion 52. To obtain such an effect, it is considered to provide the small-diameter through holes 61 in the neighborhood of a clip hole 62 (the area of reference numeral 64 in FIG. 3); however, when this is done, the distance between the through holes 61 and the clip hole 62 is extremely short, so that there is a possibility that the stiffness of this part decreases to cause breakage. However, in the present disclosure, since additional holes 63 are provided so as to communicate with the clip hole 62, the breakage of the insert member 60 never occurs between the additional holes 63 and the clip hole 62. Therefore, in the weather strip of the present embodiment, reduction in the stiffness of the insert member can be suppressed. By providing such additional holes 63, the elastic materials situated on the obverse and reverse sides of the insert member 60 are connected together through the additional holes 63. That is, as shown in FIG. 5B, since the elastic materials on the obverse and reverse sides of the insert member 60 can unite together through the additional holes 63 at the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole 62, the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole 62 can be reinforced and thickened at this portion and the stiffness can be improved (L3 in FIG. 5B). As a result, the above-described coming-off of the elastic material at the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole 62 due to the interference between a clip 70 and the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole 62 can be prevented.

(13) Moreover, the insert member 60 is provided with the clip hole 62 having a larger diameter than the clip insertion hole 53 in a position corresponding to the clip insertion hole 53 when embedded in the corner portion 52. Thereby, the clip insertion hole 53 of the weather strip main body 50 and the clip hole 62 of the insert member 60 communicate with each other, so that the corner portion 52 of the weather strip 30 can be attached to the door 20 by the clip passing therethrough to be inserted also into a clip attachment hole further provided on the door 20. By making the diameter of the clip hole 62 larger than that of the clip insertion hole 53, the elastic materials on the obverse and reverse sides of the insert member 60 can be united together also in the part adjacent to the additional holes 63 provided at the clip hole 62, in other words, in the area from the inner peripheral surface of the clip insertion hole 53 to the inner peripheral surface of the clip hole 62, so that the overall thickness can be increased and the stiffness on the inner peripheral side of the clip insertion hole 53 can be improved. As a result, at the time of the attachment to the automobile body by the clip 70, the coming-off of the elastic material (of the inner peripheral portion) of the weather strip 30 due to the interference with the clip 70 can be prevented more.

(14) A mode in which the corner portion 52 of the weather strip 30 in the present embodiment is attached to the door 20 will be described with reference to FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the corner portion 52 of the weather strip 30 is attached and fixed to the door 20 by the clip 70. Specifically, the clip 70 has a leg portion 71 inserted in the clip insertion hole 53 of the weather strip main body 50, the clip hole 62 of the insert member 60 and the attachment hole 21 provided on the door 20 and a head portion 72 having a diameter larger than those of the clip insertion hole 53 and the clip hole 62. The leg portion 71 vertically extends from the reverse surface of the head portion 72, and at the tip side of the leg portion 71, a diameter-enlarged locking portion 73 is formed. Moreover, the leg portion 71 is provided with a hollow portion 74 so as to be elastically deformable. When the clip 70 is pre-assembled to the weather strip 30, the leg portion 71 of the clip 70 is inserted into the clip insertion hole 53 and the clip hole 62 and temporarily locked. Then, when the weather strip 30 is attached to the door 20, the locking portion 73 of the leg portion 71 is engaged with the outer peripheral portion of the attachment hole 21 of the door 20. As a consequence, the weather strip main body 50 embedded with the insert member 60 and the door 20 are sandwiched between the head portion 72 and the locking portion 73 of the clip 70 and the weather strip main body 50 is fixed to the door 20. Although not shown, the diameters of the clip insertion hole 53 of the corner portion 52 and the clip hole 62 of the insert member 60 may be the same.

(15) As shown in FIG. 3, the additional hole 63 is a slit-like (elongated) through hole formed so as to extend from the clip hole 62 in a predetermined direction along the surface of the insert member 60. While two additional holes 63 are provided in the present embodiment, the number is not specifically limited.

(16) Moreover, while the size of the width of the additional holes 63 is not specifically limited in the present embodiment, it is preferable that the width be smaller than the diameter of each of the small-diameter through holes 61. By doing this, the increase in the opening area of the insert member 60 can be suppressed, so that the reduction in the stiffness of the insert member 60 can be suppressed and the clip 70 can be prevented from readily coming off when the weather strip 30 is transported with the clip 70 temporarily fixed to the clip insertion hole 53 of the weather strip main body 50.

(17) In the present embodiment, a thin portion 54 formed so as to be thinner than the remaining part of the corner portion 52 is disposed on the outer peripheral portion of the clip insertion hole 53. The thin portion 54 is provided to enable the use of a general-purpose clip as described later. However, although not shown, the thin portion may be not provided.

(18) When a general-purpose clip is used, since the distance from the head portion 72 to the locking portion 73 of the clip 70 is predetermined (L1 in FIG. 5A), it is necessary that the total thickness of the weather strip main body 50 and the door 20 at the part where the clips 70 is attached be not more than the dimension L1. For this reason, the thickness cannot be made large at the attachment portion of the clip head portion 72 in the part embedded with the insert member 60 and therefore, the thin portion 54 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the clip insertion hole 53 of the weather strip main body 50. When the thin portion 54 is provided, since the distance from the head portion 72 of the clip 70 and the surface of the insert member 60 is short and thin on the outer peripheral portion of the clip hole 62 of the insert member 60 (L2 in FIG. 5A), there is a possibility that the thin portion 54 rips due to the interference such as rubbing between the clip 70 and the thin portion 54 at the time of insertion of the clip 70. To prevent this, in the present embodiment, the additional holes 63 communicating with the clip hole 62 are provided in the insert member 60.

(19) In the present embodiment, although the length of the additional holes 63 is not specifically limited, it is preferable that the additional holes 63 extend up to the outside of the position corresponding to the thin portion 54 provided on the weather strip main body 50 (the area of reference numeral 64 in FIG. 3). By doing this, the area increases where the elastic materials on the obverse and reverse sides of the insert member 60 can unite together through the additional holes 63 as described above, and further, the elastic materials can also unite with the large-thickness part situated outside the thin portion 54. For this reason, the effect of preventing the rip of the part can be improved.

(20) While a weather strip attached to the neighborhood of the front side beltline BL of the front door is illustrated and described in the present embodiment, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The present disclosure is applicable not only to the weather strip for door attachment but also to a weather strip for body attachment. Further, the present disclosure is applicable to all kinds of weather strips where an insert member is embedded in a molded portion and then, a clip is passed through a through hole of the insert member for attachment.