SLIDING DOOR FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract: The door comprises at least one first and one second guide arranged to guide the front vertical edge and the rear vertical edge of the door respectively, a vertical upright form­ ing an abutment member for said front vertical edge, and a gasket element fixed to said edge and arranged to cooperate with an abutment surface of the upright; the door also com­ prises a cavity provided in the wall of the vehicle body to one side of the upright, and a flat plate connected to the door and projecting therefrom to extend over the upright and over the cavity, said plate being provided with a projecting part which enters the cavity and to which there is hinged a rocker trolley provided with a pair of pins arranged to guide said trolley and to cause it to rotate as it moves along the first guide.

Description: SLIDING DOOR FOR A MOTOR VEHICLE This invention relates to a sliding door for a motor vehicle, comprising at least one first and one second guide arranged to guide the front vertical edge and the rear vertical edge of the door respectively, in such a manner that the door, during its opening, moves through a trajectory comprising a first portion through which the door is substantially withdrawn from the side wall of the motor vehicle body to which it is fitted, and a second portion through which the door is moved substantially in an axial direction relative to said wall. In known doors of the described type, the first said guide comprises substantially a first curved portion, and hinged to the front vertical edge of the door there is a trolley provided with a pair of pins which engage with said guide and are spaced-apart along it, in order to guide the trolley and cause it to rotate as it moves along the guide. In this manner, the front vertical edge of the door, which is substantially hinged to the trolley, also moves during the first part of the opening travel along a substantially curved trajectory to withdraw from the side wall of the vehicle body. In doors of the described type, in order to form a seal against the edges of the aperture in the side wall of the vehicle body to which the door is fitted, gasket elements of a deformable material are normally fixed to said edges. In these doors, it is easy to damage said gasket elements during the loading and unloading of the material onto and from the vehicle. These gasket elements are in a completely exposed position, they have no protection, and are very delicate with the result that they can be damaged even by small impacts. The object of the present invention is to provide a sliding door for a motor vehicle of the aforesaid type which is free from the described drawback, in that it comprises gasket elements fixed to the door edges in a position such that they do not come into contact with the material loaded onto and unloaded from the vehicle. This object is attained by a sliding door comprising at least one first and one second guide arranged to guide the front vertical edge and the rear vertical edge of the door respectively, characterised by comprising a vertical upright adjacent to a side wall of the motor vehicle body and forming an abutment member for said front vertical edge, a gasket element fixed to said edge and arranged to cooperate with an abutment surface of said upright, a cavity provided in said side wall to one side of said upright, and a flat plate connected to said door and projecting therefrom to extend over said upright and over said cavity, said first guide being provided with a curved end portion which is housed in said cavity, and the end of said plate being provided with at least one first projecting part which enters said cavity and to which there is hinged a rocker trolley provided with at least one pair of pins engaged with said first guide and spaced-apart along this latter, in order to guide said trolley and to cause it to rotate as it moves along the guide. The present invention will be more apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic section through a part of the door according to the invention, taken on a horizontal plane; Figure 2 is a detail of the door of the preceding figure; Figure 3 is a section through the door of Figure 2 on the line III-III. The door according to the invention, indicated overall by 1, is arranged to close an aperture 2 in a motor vehicle body, of which a part of the side wall 3 comprising said aperture is shown in Figure 1. The door comprises substantially a first guide 4 and a second guide 5 which are arranged to guide, respectively, the front vertical edge 6 of the door and the rear vertical edge of the door, which is not shown in Figure 1 but is located at the opposite end to the edge 6. The door can conveniently comprise a front wall 8, which is to be substantially aligned with the wall 3 of the vehicle body when the door is in its closed position, and a rear wall 9. A vertical upright 10, provided with an abutment surface 11, is arranged to form the abutment member for the front vertical edge 6 of the door. A gasket element of deformable material 12 is fixed in any convenient manner to said edge, and is arranged to cooperate with the abutment surface 11 of the upright 10 as clearly shown in Figure 1. To one side of the upright 10 there is provided a cavity 11 arranged to house the substantially curved end portion 16 of the first guide 4. A flat plate 17, disposed parallel to the front wall 8 of the door, is connected thereto and extends from it over the upright 10 and cavity 15. The end of said plate, which is located substantially over the cavity 15, is provided with at least one first projecting part 18 which enters said cavity, and with at least one second projecting part 19 arranged to connect said plate to the door in any suitable manner, for example by screws 20 inserted through said projecting part. A third projecting part 21, disposed between the preceding, is also arranged for connection to the door by screws 22 disposed in immediate proximity to the front vertical edge 6 thereof. A trolley 25 is hinged by a pin 26 to the first projecting part 18, which comprises a slot for housing a lug 27 provided on the trolley. Conveniently, a spring 28 coaxial to the pin 26 (Figure 2) comprises a pair of arms, one of which is arranged to rest against a surface of the projecting part 18 of the plate 17, and the other is arranged to rest against a surface of the trolley 25, in such a manner as to cause this latter to rotate with respect to said plate substantially in the clockwise direction in Figure 2. The first guide 4 has the cross-sectional shape shown in Figure 3, and comprises substantially a first flat track 29 and a pair of tracks 30 orthogonal to the preceding. A wheel 31 with its axis substantially horizontal is fixed to the trolley and is arranged to rest on the track 29 in order to support the door 1 by way of the plate 17. In addition, a pair of substantially vertical pins 32 are fixed to the trolley and are arranged to cooperate with the tracks 30 of the guide 4, as clearly shown in Figure 3, in order to cause said trolley to undergo a substantially curved trajectory during the first part of the opening movement of the door. Conveniently, the rear vertical edge of the door 1 is guided in the second guide 5 by a pin 33 engaged with said guide and connected to said edge by an arm 34. That end of the guide 5 distant from the end shown in Figure l(not visible in this figure) is curved towards the interior of the vehicle body, so that during the first part of the opening movement of the door, the rear vertical edge 7 withdraws from the wall of the vehicle body. The operation of the described door is as follows. When the door is in its closed position, as shown in Figure 1, the gasket element 12 rests against the abutment surface 11 of the upright 10, and the plate 17 is substantially disposed over this upright and over the cavity 15. In addition, the trolley 25 is retained substantially within said cavity by the action of the first projecting part 18 of said plate, to which the trolley is hinged. In order to open the door, the handle (not shown) provided on the door is gripped and a force is applied substantially in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the door. In this manner, the trolley 25 is made to move within the curved portion 16 of the guide 4, and thus the front vertical edge 6 of the door separates from the abutment surface, and simultaneously moves axially relative to the wall 3 of the vehicle body. In Figure 1, some successive positions in which this front vertical edge becomes disposed during the first part of the opening movement of the door are shown by dashed lines. During this first part of the movement, the rear vertical edge 7 also separates from the wall 3 of the vehicle body because of the shape of the second guide 5, and thus on termination of this first part of the movement, the door lies in a configuration in which it is substantially parallel to the wall 3 of the vehicle body and separated from it by a distance sufficient to be able to be moved axially relative to the said wall until it is in its completely open position. During the closure movement of the door, the described stages are repeated in the opposite direction. When the door is in its completely open position, the gasket element 12, which is fixed to said door, is in a protected position and is not exposed to the risk of being struck by the material passing through the aperture 2 during the loading and unloading of the motor vehicle. It is apparent that modifications can be made to the described door of the invention, both in terms of the shape and of the arrangement of the various parts, but without leaving the scope of the inventive idea.

Claims: PATENT CLAIMS 1. A sliding door for a motor vehicle, comprising at least one first and one second guide arranged to guide the front vertical edge and the rear vertical edge of the door respectively, characterised by comprising a vertical upright adjacent to a side wall of the motor vehicle body and forming an abutment member for said front vertical edge, a gasket element fixed to said edge and arranged to cooperate with an abutment surface of said upright, a cavity provided in said side wall to one side of said upright, and a flat plate connected to said door and projecting therefrom to extend over said upright and over said cavity, said first guide being provided with a curved end portion which is housed in said cavity, and the end of said plate being provied with at least one first projecting part which enters said cavity and to which there is hinged a rocker trolley provided with at least one pair of pins engaged with said first guide and spaced-apart along this latter, to guide said trolley and to cause it to rotate as it moves along the guide. 2. A door as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said first projecting part comprises a slot in which there is disposed and hinged a corresponding lug of said trolley, between this latter and said projecting part there being disposed at least one spring arranged to cause said trolley to rotate in a predetermined direction relative to the projecting part about the axis of said hinge. 3. A door as claimed in claim 2, characterised in that said lug of said trolley comprises a slot housing said spring, which comprises a series of turns coaxial to the axis of said hinge and a pair of end arms one of which is arranged to rest against a surface of said first projecting part of the plate and the other of which is arranged to rest against a surface of said trolley. 4. A door as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said first guide comprises a first substantially horizontal track and a pair of second substantially vertical tracks orthogonal to the preceding, said trolley comprising a rotatable wheel arranged to rest on said first track, said pins of said trolley being arranged to rest against said second tracks. 5. A door as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said plate comprises at least one second projecting part which projects from it towards the inside of said door, and is disposed, relative to said front vertical edge of said door, at the end distant from said first projecting part, said second projecting part being connected to a wall of said door, third projecting parts of said plate disposed between said first and second projecting parts being connected to said wall of the door. 6. A door as claimed in one of the preceding claims comprising an outer sheet metal wall, characterised in that said gasket element is disposed substantially in contact with the inner surface of said outer wall, said plate resting on the outer surface of said outer wall.

Inventors: FONTANA, PIERCARLO
Applicants: FIAT AUTO S.P.A.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B60J5
IPC codes: B60J5