Mazda Motor Corporation

Tsuneaki Zenitani

Shuji Muraoka

Yusuke Desaki

Satoshi Nakamura

Iwao Koizumi

Masayoshi Sannomiya

Makoto Morimoto

Kouji Kishino

Kenji Nonaka

Arata Osako

In a vehicle having a large side door opening, a vehicle-body structure suppresses, during a collision in which an apron reinforcement recedes, bending deformation of a hinge pillar at a mounting portion of the apron reinforcement. Embodiments include a reinforcement member inside a closed cross-section of a hinge pillar overlapping a mounting portion of an apron reinforcement in the up-down direction. The reinforcement member includes a body extending in the up-down direction spaced apart from the hinge pillar, a front flange portion at a front portion of the body, a lateral flange portion at a rear portion of the body, a front ridge portion between the body and the front flange portion, and a rear ridge portion between the body and the lateral flange portion. Each of the front ridge portion and the rear ridge portion is continuously provided over the reinforcement member in the vehicle up-down direction.

Vehicle-body structure of vehicle

The present disclosure relates to an upper vehicle-body structure that suppresses bending deformation of a front pillar portion with respect to a hinge pillar portion by suppressing the crushing of a closed cross-section portion when external force is applied to the front pillar portion in the direction of bending the front pillar portion in the bending direction thereof.

Upper vehicle-body structure

An upper vehicle-body structure includes a roof reinforcement having a width in a vehicle front-rear direction to serve as a bridge between a pair of roof side rails in a vehicle width direction and a reinforcement member on the roof reinforcement and diagonally extending in the vehicle front-rear direction. The brace is joined to the roof reinforcement at positions at which a front end portion and a rear end portion of the brace in the vehicle front-rear direction are offset from each other in the vehicle width direction.

Disclosed is a vehicle body structure which has a sub-window plate and a front fender each disposed at the rear of a headlamp lens on a sidewall of a vehicle body. In the vehicle body structure, a longitudinally-extending concave portionis defined between the front fenderand a combination of a front pillarand a hood. The concave portionhas at least a frontward region partly receiving therein a headlamp lensand a rearward region receiving therein the sub-window plateat the rear of the headlamp lens, whereby a plurality of components including at least the headlamp lensand the sub-window plateare received in the concave portionto form a belt-line surface module F which continuously covers the concave portionto define a transparent or semi-transparent exterior surface on the sidewall of the vehicle body. The vehicle body structure of the present invention makes it possible to further effectively utilize a sidewall surface of the vehicle body so as to desirably enhance a function of the sidewall surface as a whole.

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Tsuneaki Zenitani