Patent ID: 11932090
Assignee: MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. An exterior panel structure for a vehicle comprising:
an exterior panel having an outer surface that partly constitutes an external appearance of the vehicle; and
a reinforcing member having a reinforcing surface that is disposed along an inner surface of the exterior panel and reinforces the exterior panel against a pressing force applied in a thickness direction of the exterior panel, wherein
the reinforcing surface of the reinforcing member has:
plural joint sections which are separated from each other along the inner surface of the exterior panel and each of which is joined to the inner surface of the exterior panel; and
a first coupling section that extends to follow the inner surface of the exterior panel and couples two adjacent ones of the plural joint sections,

the reinforcing member further has a reinforcing outer peripheral edge that is provided to an outer peripheral edge of the reinforcing surface to follow the inner surface of the exterior panel,
the inner surface of the exterior panel and the first coupling section are configured to
be separated from each other with a gap therebetween when the pressing force is not applied inward in the thickness direction of the exterior panel from the outer surface of the exterior panel or the applied pressing force is smaller than a specified value and
abut each other when the pressing force is equal to or larger than the specified value and is applied inward in the thickness direction of the exterior panel from the outer surface of the exterior panel,

the exterior panel structure further includes a joint intermediate section that is disposed between a panel outer peripheral edge on the inner surface of the exterior panel and the reinforcing outer peripheral edge of the reinforcing member and joins the panel outer peripheral edge and the reinforcing outer peripheral edge, and
the joint intermediate section has a higher rigidity than the reinforcing surface of the reinforcing member.