Mazda Motor Corporation

Toshiharu Ikeda

Daisuke Kiyoshita

Shuji Muraoka

Naoki Shibata

Yoshikazu Nishimura

Takashi Hamada

Soukichi Kikuchi

Tsuyoshi Sugihara

Hiroshi Sogabe

Takanobu Kamura

Yoshikazu Ide

Hiroaki Fujii

Ken Fujimoto

Nobuhiko Yokoyama

Masafumi Shinoda

Nobuyuki Shibutake

Yoshio Fujii

Yasuhiko Nishida

Masanori Fukuda

Matsuhiro Tanaka

Masakazu Tsuji

Kohji Hashida

Minoru Sunada

Gunji Yoshii

Toshinori Toyohara

Shoji Nanba

Tsutomu Naganuma

In a structure which comprises a hinge pillar at a side face portion of a vehicle, a front pillar connected to the hinge pillar, an apron member extending forward from a joint portion of the hinge pillar to the front pillar, and a hinge pillar reinforcement provided at the joint portion of the hinge pillar to the front pillar, a reinforcing member which connects a side face portion and an upper face portion of the hinge pillar reinforcement is provided, and a bead portion which interconnects the upper face portion and the side face portion of the hinge pillar reinforcement in a brace shape is provided and the reinforcing member.

Side vehicle-body structure of vehicle

There are provided a hinge pillar comprising an outer panel and an inner panel which form a closed cross section extending vertically, a hinge pillar reinforcement provided in the closed cross section, a front door attached to the hinge pillar via a pair of upper-and-lower door hinges, and a hinge bracket attaching the lower door hinge to the hinge pillar reinforcement, the hinge bracket being provided to face a front wheel in a longitudinal direction. Herein, the hinge bracket has a lower strength than a portion of the hinge pillar reinforcement where the hinge bracket is provided. Accordingly, when receiving a collision load from the front wheel, the hinge bracket changes a contact portion of the front wheel to the hinge pillar so as to guide the retreating front wheel outward in a vehicle width direction.

A rear pillar inner provided at a side panel inner and extending upward from a front-side upper portion of a rear wheel house, a rear pillar reinforcement joined to an outside portion of the rear pillar inner, and an outside reinforcing member connecting an outside portion of the side panel inner and the rear wheel house are provided. The rear pillar reinforcement has a rear-side pillar-reinforcement ridge portion extending vertically. The outside reinforcing member has a front-side reinforcing-member ridge portion extending vertically. A lower end portion of the rear pillar reinforcement and an upper end portion of the outside reinforcing member are joined such that the both ridge portions are arranged to align substantially straightly, when viewed from the side, and to slant in such a manner that an upper side thereof is positioned relatively forward compared to a lower side thereof.

Rear vehicle-body structure of vehicle

A structure is configured such that a viewer hardly feels strangeness of color tone or texture even when paint mist is attached to a center pillarduring coating of a body outer plate. A panel surface of an outer panelof the center pillarhas a protrusion in a middle in the vehicle vertical direction such that at least part of a lower portion of the panel surface projects toward the outside of the vehicle body relative to an upper portion of the panel surface. A start end HL of the protrusion is located at substantially an identical height to a door body upper edge line UL in at least a center portion in a pillar width of the pillar outer panel.

Vehicle body side part structure

A support structure of a windshield of the present invention comprises a frame having an open section opening forward in a vehicle and a support member provided inside the frame and connecting an upper face portion and a lower face portion of the frame. The frame has a windshield support portion supporting a lower side portion of the windshield at part of the upper face portion. The support member includes a rear support portion attached to the upper face portion of the frame and a front support portion attached to a cowl panel at a specified location positioned in front of the rear support portion. The windshield support portion is positioned between the front and rear support portions in the vehicle longitudinal direction.

Support structure of windshield

A floor is partitioned into a plurality of areas S to S by a floor tunnel portion , side frames , side sills , and cross members , and , and the rigidity of the floor panels of the areas S to S is adjusted by rigidity adjustment portions , and . These floor panels are set such that their natural frequency in a 2&times;1 mode, in which two antinodes are generated in the length direction of the automobile and one antinode is generated in the width direction of the automobile, is 240 to 260 Hz. Thus, a reduction in road noise due to automobile tire cavity resonance is achieved.

Automobile floor structure

An upper body structure of a vehicle includes a front header extending in a transverse direction of the vehicle. The front header is formed as a generally boxed channel by an upper header frame and a U-channel shaped lower header frame. A side rail extends in a lengthwise direction of the vehicle and has upper and lower rail frames connected so as to form a generally boxed channel. The U-channel shaped lower header frame and the upper rail frame are interconnected by a generally U-channel shaped rigid reinforcement structure.

Body structure for automotive vehicle

In a rear body structure of a vehicle, a rear pillar forms a rear edge portion of an opening for a door which is formed on one side portion of the vehicle body. A rear fender is connected to the rear pillar and extends rearwardly therefrom. A suspension tower is connected to the rear fender at a distance from the rear pillar. A reinforcement is connected to upper portions of the rear fender and the suspension tower so as to extend in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. An impact absorbing portion is provided between the rear pillar and the suspension tower to prevent the rear pillar from being deformed in response to forward displacement of the suspension tower which is caused by a forward impact load acting on the suspension tower.

Rear body structure of vehicle

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Toshiharu Ikeda