Patent Application
20220314758
The present disclosure relates to vehicle manufacturing. The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Vehicle manufacturing is a highly time-dependent process. Moving assembly lines in vehicle assembly facilities may typically stop periodically for a time period in order to mount various subsystems, such as door subsystems or the like. In such scenarios, shorter time cycles in assembly lines are desirable over longer time cycles.
Various disclosed embodiments include illustrative door assemblies, vehicles, and methods of assembling door assemblies on vehicles.
In an illustrative embodiment, a door assembly has a right horizontal track, a left horizontal track, a counterbalance assembly having a right end and a left end, a right connector plate, and a left connector plate. The right connector plate is configured to be connected to the right horizontal track and to the right end of the counterbalance assembly. The left connector plate is configured to be connected to the left horizontal track and to the left end of the counterbalance assembly.
In another illustrative embodiment, a vehicle includes a chassis, a cab configured to cover the chassis, first attachment devices mounted within a wall and a ceiling of the cab, a door assembly, and second attachment devices. The door assembly includes a right horizontal track, a left horizontal track, a counterbalance assembly having a right end and a left end, a right connector plate, and a left connector plate. The right connector plate is configured to be connected to the right horizontal track and to the right end of the counterbalance assembly. The left connector plate is configured to be connected to the left horizontal track and to the left end of the counterbalance assembly. The second attachment devices are configured to attach the door assembly to the first attachment devices.
In another illustrative embodiment, a method includes providing a previously assembled overhead door assembly, providing a left vertical track and a right vertical track, placing the overhead door assembly into a mounting position within a cargo bay of a cab of a vehicle, attaching the overhead door assembly to the cab, and attaching the left vertical track and the right vertical track to respective connector plates of the attached overhead door assembly and to a wall of the cab.
The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.
Illustrative embodiments are illustrated in referenced figures of the drawings. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings generally indicate like elements.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings, similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matter presented here.
Various disclosed embodiments include illustrative door assemblies, vehicles, and methods of assembling door assemblies.
Given by way of non-limiting overview, in an illustrative embodiment a door assembly has a right horizontal track, a left horizontal track, a counterbalance assembly having a right end and a left end, a right connector plate, and a left connector plate. The right connector plate is configured to be connected to the right horizontal track and to the right end of the counterbalance assembly. The left connector plate is configured to be connected to the left horizontal track and to the left end of the counterbalance assembly. It will be appreciated that various embodiments may help contribute to reducing assembly time of the door assembly from that for currently known door assemblies.
It will also be appreciated that various embodiments may be used in any structure with an overhead door assembly, such as without limitation a structure with a cargo bay. Given by way of non-limiting examples, various embodiments may be used in vehicles with an overhead door assembly, such as vans with a cargo bay (like cargo vans or delivery vans or the like), delivery trucks with a cargo bay, and the like. By way of further non-limiting example, various embodiments may be used in trailers (like trailers towed by a semi-truck). By way of further non-limiting example, various embodiments may be used in structures with an overhead door assembly such as storage containers, storage facilities, and buildings (including but not limited to modular buildings) with a cargo bay or the like.
For sake of brevity, illustrative examples are provided herein by way of illustration only and not of limitation in which various embodiments are discussed in a setting of a vehicle such as a van and in a setting of installing various embodiments in a vehicle such as a van on an assembly line such as a moving assembly line. However, it will be appreciated that, as discussed above, various embodiments may be used in any structure with a cargo bay and no limitation to use in a vehicle (such as a van) is intended and no such limitation is to be inferred. It will also be appreciated that various embodiments may be used in any assembly setting and are not limited to a setting of an assembly line of any kind including a moving assembly line. No such limitation of disclosed embodiments to an assembly line of any kind is intended and no such limitation is to be inferred.
Referring now to
Referring additionally to
In various embodiments the counterbalance assembly 56 includes a shaft (not shown), a pre-loaded torsion biasing member 70, such as a torsion spring, a cable drum 72 attached to the shaft, and a cable 74 received by the cable drum 72 and attached to a bottom one of the door panels 62. The pre-loaded torsion biasing member 70 applies a torsion force to the shaft for countering the weight of the door panels 62.
In various embodiments, the rear roller door assembly 46 further includes a left vertical track 64 and a right vertical track 66 (
Referring additionally to
It will be appreciated that the left connector plate 60 and the right connector plate 58 may be attached to the counterbalance assembly 56 and the respective left horizontal track 54 or the right horizontal track 52 using fasteners such as, without limitation, nuts and bolts, rivets, adhesives, weld points/seams, and/or comparable attachment mechanisms.
In various embodiments, connector plates may be an extension of horizontal tracks or a counterbalance assembly by a machining, a molding, or a comparable process.
It will be appreciated that connector plates may be temporarily attached to the counterbalance assembly 56 and the respective horizontal tracks 52 and 54. Once the overhead door assembly with the temporarily-attached connector plates has been attached within the cab 44, if desired the temporarily-attached connector plates may be removed, returned to an overhead door assembly manufacturer, and reused on subsequent overhead door assemblies.
Referring additionally to
It will be appreciated that the lift assembly 120 may grab the overhead door assembly 50 with suction cups, robotic arms, or comparable devices. Also, the lift assembly 120 may include electrical actuators, hydraulic actuators, or comparable devices.
Referring additionally to
In some embodiments, the overhead door assembly may be placed into a mounting position within the cargo bay of the structure at the block 136 by applying a gripping force to the overhead door assembly using a mechanical lift device, rotating the overhead door assembly, inserting the rotated overhead door assembly through an aft portal into the cargo bay, rotating the overhead door assembly into a mounting orientation, and positioning the overhead door assembly to align attachment locations of the previously-assembled overhead door assembly with attachment devices previously embedded within a wall of the cargo bay and a ceiling of the cargo bay.
In some embodiments, the left vertical track and the right vertical track may be attached to respective connector plates of the attached overhead door assembly at the block 140 by attaching an end of the left vertical track and an end of the right vertical track to track guides on respective connector plates.
In some instances, one or more components may be referred to herein as “configured to,” “configured by,” “configurable to,” “operable/operative to,” “adapted/adaptable,” “able to,” “conformable/conformed to,” etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that such terms (for example “configured to”) generally encompass active-state components and/or inactive-state components and/or standby-state components, unless context requires otherwise.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (for example, bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (for example, the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to claims containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (for example, “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (for example, the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (for example, “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that typically a disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms unless context dictates otherwise. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be typically understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art will appreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed in any order. Also, although various operational flows are presented in a sequence(s), it should be understood that the various operations may be performed in other orders than those which are illustrated or may be performed concurrently. Examples of such alternate orderings may include overlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental, preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variant orderings, unless context dictates otherwise. Furthermore, terms like “responsive to,” “related to,” or other past-tense adjectives are generally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictates otherwise.
While the disclosed subject matter has been described in terms of illustrative embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the claimed subject matter as set forth in the claims.
