Vehicle door hinge

Abstract

 A hinge for attaching a vehicle door to the body of a vehicle, has a hinge pin (6) carried by a plate (1) which is mounted on the body of the vehicle, and two coaxial apertured bosses (14,15) carried by a plate (10) mounted on the vehicle door. The hinge pin (6) has two parallel flat surfaces (9) defining a portion of reduced width and one of the bosses (15) has a convergent slot (16) communicating with the central aperture (18) of the said boss so that the pin (6) may be introduced into the aperture of the boss laterally by forcing the pin through the slot, the door plate (10) being then moved downwards to an assembled hinged position.

Description

[0001] The present utility model relates to a hinge for mounting the doors of motor vehicles, and is particularly concerned with the conformation of the two parts, that is, the movable part and the fixed part, respectively, the mutual coupling of which upon assembly constitutes the hinge in question.

[0002] It is known that, in traditional hinges,the said fixed part is positioned on a column of the bodywork and carries a pin arranged to engage in at least one apertured boss incorporated in a flange of the door, constituting the said movable part.

[0003] This arrangement, as well as having considerable size, particularly with regard to the diameter of the pin and of the boss , also requires a long travel for the fitting of the door flange to and consequently its removal, if necessary, from, the hinge pin. Moreover this operation which is generally carried out on an assembly line, is both laborious and slow, requiring special screwing and locking tools.

[0004] The object of the present invention is to avoid these disadvantages with one simpler and more rapid assembly operation for the parts, which, advantageously may be carried out in a more convenient position and at a more convenient time, to the side of the conventional assembly line, resulting in a useful reduction in the length of the assembly line.

[0005] A further object of the invention is that of providing the components of the hinge with smaller dimensions, particularly the diameters of the pin and boss for receiving the pin as well as providing a hinge requiring a smaller travel for fitting the parts together, the whole being advantageous as regards the weight and size and competitive production costs.

[0006] With the aforesaid objects in view, the present invention provides a hinge for attaching a vehicle door to the body of a vehicle, comprising a hinge pin carried by a first part which is adapted to be mounted on the body of the vehicle, and at least one apertured boss carried by a second part adapted to be mounted on the vehicle door and engageable with the hinge pin, characterised in that the pin carried by the first part is provided with a portion of reduced width and the cooperating boss on the second part has a slot communicating with the central aperture of the said boss and so arranged that the reduced width portion of the pin may be introduced into the aperture of the boss laterally by forcing the pin through the slot, the boss being then moved axially relative to the pin to an assembled position in which the second part is hinged to the first part on a portion of the pin spaced axially from the portion of reduced width.

[0007] In a preferred embodiment of the invention the portion of the pin of reduced width is defined between two parallel flat faces on the pin.

[0008] The hinge according to the invention has the practical advantage that it allows the hinged mounting of the vehicle door to be effected by only two light manually applied forces , laterallyand vertically respectively.

[0009] A preferred embodiment of thehinge will now be described, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 is an elevational view, partially sectioned along the line I-I of Figure -2, of a vehicle door hinge according to the invention;

- Figure 2 is a plan view of the hinge shown in Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a front view of the movable hinge part for mounting on the door;

- Figure 4 is a side view of the part shown in Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a plan view sectioned along line V-V of Figure 4, and

- Figure 6 is an exploded perspective view of the hinge.

[0010] With reference to the drawings, reference numeral 1 indicates a plate provided with two holes 3 for respective fixing screws for mounting the plate on the internal edge, schematically indicated 2, of the door space of the vehicle bodywork.

[0011] The plate 1 has two apertured lugs 5 aligned vertically.

[0012] A pin 6 with a knurled end 7 is inserted in the lugs 5 with close assembly tolerances. The pin 6 has an annular groove 8 near one end and is formed with two flat parallel faces 9 in its zone between the lugs 5.

[0013] A plate indicated 10 has two holes 11 for fixing it by means of screws to the vehicle door, generally indicated 12. The plate 10 has two vertically- aligned apertured bosses 14 and 15. The central aperture 18 in the boss 15 communicates with a slot 16 defined between two inclined surfaces 17 which converge towards the aperture 18 (Figures 5 and 6).

[0014] The mounting of a door provided with two plates 10 of the type described above in the bodywork of a vehicle provided with two plates 1 of the type described above is carried out in the following manner.

[0015] With a lateral thrust in the direction of the arrow A of Figure 6, the assembly worker brings the plates 10 fixed to the door into contact with the pins 6 of the plate 1 so as to engage the slots 16 in the bosses 15 on the flat faces 9 of the respective pins 6, until the pins 6 are forced to enter the apertures 18 of the bosses 15.

[0016] The door is then made to slide downwardly in the direction of the arrow B, the bosses 14 and 15 sliding on the respective pins 6 until the pairs of bosses 14 and 15 are brought into contact with the lugs 5.

[0017] A small U-shaped spring clip 20 is then located in the annular groove 8 of each pin 6 to lock the hinge assembly.

Claims

1. A hinge for attaching a vehicle door to the body of a vehicle, comprising a hinge pin (6) carried by a first part (1) which is adapted to be mounted on the body of the vehicle, and at least one apertured boss (14,15) carried by a second part (10) adapted to be mounted on the vehicle door and engageable with the hinge pin,
characterised in that
the pin (6) carried by the first part is provided with a portion of reduced width (9) and the cooperating boss (15) on the second part (10) has a slot (16) communicating with the central aperture (18) of the said boss and so arranged that the reduced width portion of the pin may be introduced into the aperture of the boss laterally by forcing the pin through the slot, the boss being then moved axially relative to the pin to an assembled position in which the second part (10) is hinged to the first part (1) on a portion of the pin (6) spaced axially from the portion of reduced width.

2. A hinge according to Claim 1, characterised in that the portion of the pin (6) of reduced width is defined between two parallel flat faces (9) on the pin.

3. A hinge according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, characterised in that the second part (10) is provided with two coaxial spaced apart apertured bosses (14,15) one of which (15) is formed with the said slot (16) communicating with the central, aperture of the boss.

4. A hinge according to Claim 3, characterised in that the hinge pin (6) is supported by two axially spaced apart lugs (5) on the first part (1), the portion (9) of the pin of reduced width being located between the two lugs.

5. A hinge according to any one of Claims 1-4, characterised in that the said slot (16) is defined between two surfaces (17) which converge towards the central aperture (18) of the said boss (15).

6. A hinge according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, characterised in that for hinged mounting of the door only two light manually applied forces, laterally and vertically, respectively,are needed.

7. A hinge according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the assembled components of the hinge are locked by a spring clip fitted to the pin of the first part.

Drawing