This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-195427 filed on Oct. 16, 2018. The disclosure of the prior application is hereby incorporated herein in the entirety by reference.
This invention relates to a binding structure of a wire routing material.
For vehicles, a clamp described in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-282352 is used to hold a wire harness formed by a wiring group including a signal line and a power supply line, in a binding state, in a vehicle body.
In recent years, a wire harness constituting a signal line and a flat wire routing material constituting a power supply line may be separately prepared, and wired in the vehicle body.
However, in order to perform wiring for different kinds of wire routing materials that include a wire harness and a flat wire routing material, in the vehicle body, it is considered that a guide member that includes two recessed storage portions extending in an elongated manner is used. Specifically, as shown in
An object of this invention is to achieve a binding structure of a wire routing material which can allow reduction of cost and also provides excellent workability for assembly into a vehicle body when wiring for wire routing materials having different shapes, such as a wire harness and a flat wire routing material, is performed in the vehicle body.
In order to attain the aforementioned object, a binding structure of a wire routing material includes:
a flexible wire routing material;
a plate-shaped flat wire routing material; and
an engaging member including an engaging portion for assembly into a vehicle body, and a binding portion for binding the flexible wire routing material and the flat wire routing material.
According to the above invention, when the flexible wire routing material and the flat wire routing material which overlap each other are enclosed in an annular form by the binding portion of the engaging member, a binding and holding state can be easily achieved. At this time, when the flat wire routing material is a wire routing material having higher rigidity than the flexible wire routing material, it is advantageous in that the flat wire routing material having the higher rigidity acts as a support, and both the flexible wire routing material and the flat wire routing material can be stably bound even if the flexible wire routing material which tends to be deformed is present. Unlike a guide member extending along the wiring direction of the wire routing materials as in a conventional art, the binding portion may be caused to simply enclose the flexible wire routing material and the flat wire routing material in a very short-interval region in the longitudinal direction of the wire routing materials, and, therefore, the engaging member can be made small. Since the small engaging member includes an engaging portion, the engaging portion facilitates assembly into a vehicle body.
The engaging portion according to this invention may be formed so as to protrude from the flat wire routing material side, not from the flexible wire routing material side, in a binding state in which the flexible wire routing material and the flat wire routing material are bound by the binding portion. In this case, the engaging portion for assembly into the vehicle body is disposed on the side of the flat wire routing material having higher rigidity, and, therefore, the engaging portion becomes stable without becoming unsteady during assembly into the vehicle body, thereby facilitating the assembly. For example, the engaging member according to this invention includes a placement portion on which the flat wire routing material is placed such that the placement portion faces the main back surface of the flat wire routing material, and the engaging portion can be formed so as to protrude from a surface, on a side opposite to the flat wire routing material side, of the wall portion opposing the flat wire routing material in the placement portion.
The engaging member according to this invention may be provided with a placement portion having a mount surface on which the flat wire routing material is placed, and the engaging portion may be formed so as to protrude from a back surface, of the placement portion, which is opposite to the mount surface, or from a side surface located lateral to the flat wire routing material mounted on the placement portion. In this case, the placement portion may be provided with a bottom wall portion having a mount surface on which the flat wire routing material is placed, and a side wall portion extending upward from the bottom wall portion on both lateral sides or one of the lateral sides lateral to the flat wire routing material, and the engaging portion may be formed so as to protrude from one of the bottom wall portion and the side wall portion. With these configurations, the engaging portion can be formed so as to assuredly avoid interference with the wire routing material.
The engaging member according to this invention may be provided with a placement portion having a mount surface on which the flat wire routing material is placed, and the placement portion may have a plate-like shape, and a plate width may be larger than a width of the flat wire routing material. With this configuration, even if the flat wire routing material is a flexible thin flat cable or the like, the plate-shaped placement portion can support the flat cable, so that the flat cable can be stably bound and held without being deformed.
The engaging member according to this invention may be provided with a placement portion including a bottom wall portion having a mount surface on which the flat wire routing material is placed, and side wall portions extending upward from the bottom wall portion on both lateral sides lateral to the flat wire routing material, and an opposing width between the side wall portions may be larger than a width of the flat wire routing material in an opposing direction. The flat wire routing material is less flexible than the flexible wire routing material, and, therefore, may be slightly displaced from a fixing hole of the vehicle body during assembly into the vehicle body in a state in which the wire routing materials are bound by the engaging member, so that insertion into and engagement with the fixing hole may be impossible. However, in the configuration of this invention, the flat wire routing material can be moved in the opposing direction in which both side wall portions oppose each other. Accordingly, even if the position of the flat wire routing material relative to the fixing hole is displaced, such a displacement can be absorbed by displacing the flat wire routing material in the opposing direction in which the both side wall portions oppose each other.
The engaging member according to this invention may be provided with a placement portion having a mount surface on which the flat wire routing material is placed, and the binding portion may be formed integrally with or separately from the placement portion so as to bind the flat wire routing material and the flexible wire routing material such that the flexible wire routing material that overlaps over the flat wire routing material mounted on the placement portion is pressed toward the mount surface. When the thickness (opposing width between the main front surface and the main back surface located on the back thereof) of the flat wire routing material is small, the flat wire routing material may be deformed due to the small thickness. However, the flat wire routing material is placed such that the main back surface faces the bottom wall portion, and the main front surface is pressed toward the bottom wall portion by the flexible wire routing material, so that the flat wire routing material can be stably placed without deformation. In this case, the engaging portion is formed so as to protrude from one of the bottom wall portion and the side wall portion, whereby the engaging portion becomes sable without becoming unsteady during assembly into the vehicle body, thereby facilitating the assembly.
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the first embodiment, as shown in
The flexible wire routing material 2 is a flexible member formed by a bundle of a plurality of wires extending in an elongated manner. The flexible wire routing material 2 is a wire harness that forms a signal line. The flexible wire routing material 2 of this invention is not limited to a wire harness.
The flat wire routing material 3 is a member that has a flat-plate-like shape, extends in an elongated manner, and has higher rigidity and lower flexibility than the flexible wire routing material 2. The flat wire routing material 3 is a metal bus bar that forms a power supply line. The flat wire routing material 3 is formed such that four surfaces forming the outer peripheral surfaces are each formed as a flat surface extending in the longitudinal direction of the flat wire routing material 3. The main surfaces of the flat wire routing material 3 refer to front and back surfaces 3a, 3b (main front surface 3a and main back surface 3b) that have the largest area among the four outer peripheral surfaces. The flat wire routing material 3 of this invention may be an FFC (Flexible Flat Cable) that constitutes a flat cable as shown in
As shown in
The engaging portion 40 is an anchor portion that is inserted into a predetermined fixing hole 101H of a fixing portion 101 provided in the vehicle body 100, whereby the engaging portion 40 is engaged with and assembled into the fixing hole 101H so as to come into a locking state. The engaging portion 40 includes a column portion 40B that is inserted into the fixing hole 101H, an elastic locking piece 40A that is inserted into the fixing hole 101H together with the column portion 40B and is engaged, after being inserted, with a peripheral part 101R around the fixing hole 101H so as to come into a locking state, and a contact portion 40C that holds the peripheral part 101R around the fixing hole 101H between the elastic locking piece 40A and the contact portion 40C in the locking state.
The elastic locking piece 40A has a shape that expands from the distal end side (lower side in
The contact portion 40C has a shape extending in a dish-like form from the proximal end side of the column portion 40B in the insertion direction Z, and comes into contact with the peripheral part 101R around the fixing hole 101H so as to form an annular shape. The contact portion 40C also functions to prevent a foreign object (dust, etc.) from entering from the far side (lower side in
As shown in
The placement portion 41 includes a bottom wall portion 41A on which the flat wire routing material 3 is placed such that the main back surface 3b faces the bottom wall portion 41A, and side wall portions 41B, 41B extending upward from the bottom wall portion 41A on both lateral sides lateral to the flat wire routing material 3. The placement portion 41 forms a substantially U-shape (C-shape) in which the opposing portion between the end sides (upper side in
The binding portion 45 is placed so as to cover the open side (upper side in
The binding portion 45 includes a flexible belt portion 45B that extends from one of the side wall portions 41B, 41B, and a buckle portion 45A as a locking portion that is provided at the other of the side wall portions 41B, 41B and locks the belt portion 45B so as to bring the belt portion 45B into a locking state. The buckle portion 45A is formed as the other of the side wall portions 41B, 41B and includes a locking hole portion 45H that is open upward, and the belt portion 45B is inserted into the locking hole portion 45H from the end side thereof.
Specifically, the belt portion 45B is provided with a plurality of locking pawl portions 45BK along the longitudinal direction thereof. On the other hand, the locking hole portion 45H is internally provided with locking engagement portions 45AK that are locked relative to the locking pawl portions 45BK such that the inserted belt portion 45B is not detached in a direction opposite to the insertion direction Z. When the belt portion 45B is inserted into the locking hole portion 45H, the locking pawl portions 45BK elastically deform an elastic piece 45AJ provided with the locking engagement portions 45AK so as to push the elastic piece 45AJ outward (left side in
The belt portion 45B is thinner than the bottom wall portion 41A and extends in an elongated manner (see
The binding portion 45 functions, together with the placement portion 41, as a wire routing material attaching portion for attaching wire routing materials such as the flexible wire routing material 2 and the flat wire routing material 3 to the engaging member 4.
The engaging portion 40 of the engaging member 4 is formed so as to protrude on the flat wire routing material 3 side (region below the broken line Q in
The side wall portions 41B, 41B are opposing wall portions extending upward from the bottom wall portion 41A on both sides lateral to the flat wire routing material 3 mounted on the bottom wall portion 41A. In an opposing direction Y, an opposing width w0 between the side wall portions 41B, 41B is larger than a width w3 of the flat wire routing material 3 mounted on the bottom wall portion 41A. The side wall portions 41B, 41B form gaps having widths w1, w2 between the flat wire routing material 3 and the side wall portions 41B, 41B. This allows the flat wire routing material 3 to be movable (slidable) in the opposing direction Y. Accordingly, when the engaging member 4 and the flat wire routing material 3 are to be slightly moved relative to each other in the direction Y during assembly into the vehicle body 100, the relative movement can be performed by using the gaps.
Although one embodiment of this invention has been described above, this embodiment is merely illustrative. This invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications such as additions and omissions may be made on the basis of the knowledge of a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the claims.
Hereinafter, other embodiments different from the above embodiment, and modifications thereof, will be described. Parts having the same functions as those in the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference characters, and the detailed description thereof is omitted. The above embodiment and the following modifications and other embodiments may be combined to be implemented as appropriate as long as no technical contradiction arises.
Although the binding portion 45 of the above embodiment includes the belt portion 45B and the buckle portion 45A that are integrated with the placement portion 41 of the engaging member 4, the binding portion 45 may be provided separately from the placement portion 41 and the engaging portion 40. However, in a state in which the binding portion 45 binds and holds the flexible wire routing material 2 and the flat wire routing material 3, the binding portion 45 needs to be integrated with the engaging member 4 including the engaging portion 40.
A second embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to
In a binding structure 1 of a wire routing material according to the second embodiment, tape members 45T that are separate from the engaging portion 40 and the placement portion 41 are used as the binding portion 45 as shown in
The binding portion 45 shown in
A third embodiment of this invention will be described with reference to
In a binding structure 1 of a wire routing material according to the third embodiment, a clamp portion 45D that is bent by using a hinge portion 41D (see
The binding portion 45 shown in
Hereinafter, modifications of the above-described embodiments will be described.
Unlike the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the engaging portion 40 can be formed so as to protrude from the back surface 41b, of the placement portion 41, on the side opposite to the mount surface 41a side, or from a side surface 41c located lateral to the flat wire routing material 3 mounted on the placement portion 41. For example, the engaging portion 40 may be formed on the side wall portion 41B, 41B as shown in
The placement portion 41 may include only one of the side wall portions 41B, 41B. Alternatively, as shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018-195427 | Oct 2018 | JP | national |
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Number | Date | Country |
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2007282352 | Oct 2007 | JP |
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2018101600 | Jun 2018 | JP |
Entry |
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Non-Final Office Action dated Jan. 24, 2020, issued in U.S. Appl. No. 16/598,451. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20200119536 A1 | Apr 2020 | US |