Mazda Motor Corporation

Takashi Nishigami

Minoru Ueda

Michio Kado

An automotive vehicle body has a body opening defined by body structural members and a closure structure mounted on one of the body structural members for swinging movement between closed and opened positions. A sealing arrangement for the closure structure includes a corner bracket structure formed at a front upper portion of the closure structure, a reinforcement formed on one of the body structural members at a front upper portion of the body opening, and a continuous sealing member securely attached to the body structural members and a lower edge of the reinforcement. When the closure structure is in a closed position, the sealing member is in abutment with an inwardly facing surface of a sash member of the closure structure at the location above the corner bracket structure and gradually departs from the sash member in a rearward direction of the vehicle body at the location of the corner bracket structure.

Sealing arrangement for vehicle body closure structures

An automotive vehicle door lock apparatus consists of a latch mechanism having a latch for latching a door by latching a striker secured to a vehicle body upon closing the door, a door release or unlatch mechanism for unlatching the door by releasing the striker from the latch and a lock mechanism for locking the door by operationally disabling the unlatching mechanism. The unlatching mechanism is in cooperation with a disconnecting mechanism having an extension arm which extends laterally toward the outer door panel. Upon a lateral car crash, the extension arm is pushed laterally inward by the crushed outer door panel to operate and operationally disable the unlatching mechanism independently of the unlatching mechanism.

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Takashi Nishigami