Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Nhk Spring Co., Ltd.

Toshiki Takahashi

Suehiro Hasshi

Takeshi Ito

Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi

Kenji Matsumoto

Eiji Shimizu

Kou Masuda

Tomoharu Ohi

Toshiya Hasegawa

Kanji Fujii

Yoshimi Mizutani

Toshimi Miyata

Takaya Okuyama

In a vehicle rear body structure in which a muffler is disposed below a rear cross member disposed to extend transversely below a rear part of the body of a vehicle, a lower end portion of the rear cross member extends downwardly to substantially the same height of that of a lower end portion of a rear bumper face disposed rearward of the rear cross member. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the generation of heat deformation by protecting from heat related effects from a muffler a lower end portion of a rear bumper which tends to easily heat deform.

Vehicle rear body structure

The wheel suspension system is dimensioned and positioned so as to be contained within a fore-and-aft profile of the engine assembly so that the wheel suspension system which is considered to be too rigid to define a crush zone in case of a vehicle crash is contained within the profile of the engine assembly, and would not in any way reduce the crush zone of the vehicle body which is effective in absorbing the impact energy of a vehicle crash. A steering gear may also be too rigid to define a crush zone. The engine assembly normally projects toward the passenger compartment at upper and lower parts thereof. Therefore, to avoid the steering mechanism from reducing the effective crush zone, the steering gear unit may be placed so as to oppose the recess thus defined in the engine assembly.

Engine room arrangement

In a pretensioner device for automatically increasing a tension of a seat belt in case of a vehicle crash which uses a piston and cylinder arrangement as a power generator, a spring member resiliently urges the piston assembly in the direction of actuation so that any play that may be present in each connecting potion of the path of power transmission can be eliminated. Therefore, collision between component parts at the time of activating the power generator can be prevented, and the loss of energy which could arise from such collision can be avoided. The piston assembly may comprise a piston main body slidably received in the cylinder, and a piston rod having a base end abutting an opposing end of the piston main body and a free end projecting out of the open free end of the cylinder while the cylinder is provided with an inwardly directed radial flange for preventing the piston main body from being projected out of the cylinder. Thus, the piston rod may be kept removed from the assembly during transportation and storage so that an inadvertent activation of the power generator would only cause the movement of the piston main body inside the cylinder, and the handling of the assembly can be therefore simplified.

Seat belt pretensioner device

In a floor structure of a vehicle comprising: left and right side sills; a substantially flat floor panel extending between the left and right side sills; and a cross member for connecting the left and right side sills, the cross member comprises: left and right upper members which extend inwardly from the left and right side sills, respectively, and attached to a top surface of the floor panel with their opposing inward ends spaced from each other; and a lower member extending laterally across a part of a lateral length of the vehicle and attached to an under surface of the floor panel. In the above floor structure, an open space formed beside the lower member can accommodate external piping under the floor panel, and the floor surface can be substantially flat by placing front seats over the upper members. Thus, a floor structure is achieved in which the floor surface is substantially flat and the floor is placed at a lower position. The upper and lower members connected via the floor panel can ensure sufficient rigidity of the floor structure.

Floor structure of a vehicle

A mount structure of a windowpane for automobile use of the type that the windowpane is directly mounted with the aid of an adhesive material, to a window frame portion of a vehicle body which is formed by folding back a flange portion of an inner panel from the indoor side to the outdoor side so as to wrap an edge of a flange portion of an outer panel to be bonded together, is improved in that the flange portion on the outdoor side of the inner panel that is contiguous to the edge of the flange portion of the outer panel is bent outwardly to integrally form a dam portion, whereby outflow of the adhesive material can be prevented by the dam portion.

Mount structure of a windowpane for automobile use

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Toshiki Takahashi