Abstract: In a damper housing structure body, an upper edge of a damper housing and a damper base are bonded by spot welding. The damper housing has a U-shape with an opening on a vehicle outer side in plan view, and includes a planar part in a corner between a front wall and an inner wall. The planer part includes plural welding spots arranged in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. Adjacent weld spots have mutually overlapping welding margins or an interval between two adjoining welding points is shorter than an outer diameter of the welding margins. One of the welding spots is welded while a current is applied to another welding spot that has been already welded. A current value for welding the one of the welding spots is higher than another current value for another one of the welding spots that has been already welded.

Abstract: A floor panel of a vehicle body is provided with bulging sections in which seats are disposed to the left and right of a tunnel section, and a rear tunnel cross member extending in the vehicle width direction at the rear ends of the bulging sections. The vehicle body is provided with left and right floor extensions set further toward the tunnel section along a dashboard lower relative to the front side frames, floor frames extending so as to span between the floor extensions and the rear tunnel cross member and having a predetermined distance in the vehicle body vertical direction from a rear floor panel, and an energy container placed below the bulging sections and supported on the floor frames. The floor frames are fixed to the vehicle body so as to be capable of being removed from the below the vehicle body.

Abstract: In a damper housing structure body, an upper edge of a damper housing and a damper base are bonded by spot welding. The damper housing has a U-shape with an opening on a vehicle outer side in plan view, and includes a planar part in a corner between a front wall and an inner wall. The planer part includes plural welding spots arranged in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. Adjacent weld spots have mutually overlapping welding margins or an interval between two adjoining welding points is shorter than an outer diameter of the welding margins. One of the welding spots is welded while a current is applied to another welding spot that has been already welded. A current value for welding the one of the welding spots is higher than another current value for another one of the welding spots that has been already welded.

Abstract: A floor panel of a vehicle body is provided with bulging sections in which seats are disposed to the left and right of a tunnel section, and a rear tunnel cross member extending in the vehicle width direction at the rear ends of the bulging sections. The vehicle body is provided with left and right floor extensions set further toward the tunnel section along a dashboard lower relative to the front side frames, floor frames extending so as to span between the floor extensions and the rear tunnel cross member and having a predetermined distance in the vehicle body vertical direction from a rear floor panel, and an energy container placed below the bulging sections and supported on the floor frames. The floor frames are fixed to the vehicle body so as to be capable of being removed from the below the vehicle body.

Abstract: A hybrid vehicle is provided in which a case (14) for housing an electrical component including at least a battery module is disposed underneath a floor of a luggage compartment interposed between left and right rear side frames (12) immediately to the rear of a fuel tank (42) disposed beneath a floor panel (41) of a hybrid vehicle, and a canister (48) is disposed on one of left and right sides of the case (14). Since the canister (48) is disposed further inside than the outer end of the rear side frame (12) in the left-and-right direction and further forward than the rear end of the case (14), when the vehicle is involved in a collision from the side the case (14) and the canister (48) can be protected by the rear side frame (12), and when the vehicle is involved in a collision from the rear the fuel tank (42) and the canister (48) can be protected by the case (14) while guaranteeing the capacity of a luggage compartment of a rear part of a vehicle body.

Abstract: A rear vehicle body structure includes left and right auxiliary members each connected at the front end to the underside of the respective left or right front floor frame and connected at the rear end to the respective left or right rear-suspension mounting section. Each of the left and right auxiliary members is generally in the form of a circular-section pipe and has a pipe section of a circular sectional shape and a flattened section formed on a front end portion of the pipe section. The flattened section has an upper surface portion flattened downwardly and has a lower surface portion having a central region flattened concavely upwardly along the axis of the auxiliary member.

Abstract: A hybrid vehicle is provided in which a case (14) for housing an electrical component including at least a battery module is disposed underneath a floor of a luggage compartment interposed between left and right rear side frames (12) immediately to the rear of a fuel tank (42) disposed beneath a floor panel (41) of a hybrid vehicle, and a canister (48) is disposed on one of left and right sides of the case (14). Since the canister (48) is disposed further inside than the outer end of the rear side frame (12) in the left-and-right direction and further forward than the rear end of the case (14), when the vehicle is involved in a collision from the side the case (14) and the canister (48) can be protected by the rear side frame (12), and when the vehicle is involved in a collision from the rear the fuel tank (42) and the canister (48) can be protected by the case (14) while guaranteeing the capacity of a luggage compartment of a rear part of a vehicle body.

Abstract: A rear vehicle body structure includes left and right auxiliary members each connected at the front end to the underside of the respective left or right front floor frame and connected at the rear end to the respective left or right rear-suspension mounting section. Each of the left and right auxiliary members is generally in the form of a circular-section pipe and has a pipe section of a circular sectional shape and a flattened section formed on a front end portion of the pipe section. The flattened section has an upper surface portion flattened downwardly and has a lower surface portion having a central region flattened concavely upwardly along the axis of the auxiliary member.

Abstract: In an arrangement for attaching a pair of members to each other, a spacer member provides the function to extend and retract in the axial direction so that the positioning of a first member to a second member is facilitated because a gap may be defined between the two members before joining them to each other, and the dimensional precision between the steering hanger pipe and the front pillar of the vehicle body is not required to be unduly high. This gap is filled by the spacer member as a threaded bolt is fastened owing to the action of a reverse thread, and the two members can be firmly attached to each other without involving any unacceptable deformation of the two members.

Abstract: An axial-flow blower of stator vane controllable pitch type has an upstream-side opening of an air separator on the upstream side of a controllable pitch type inlet guide vane so that the recirculating flow in the air separator can be joined smoothly with the axial main flow irrespective of the set angle of controllable pitch angle.

Abstract: An improved centrifugal fan in which a fan blade is supported by a main plate and a side plate and said main plate is connected to a rotation shaft, characterized in that between the rotation shaft and the main plate, there is interposed a doughnut-shaped connecting plate penetrated by the rotation shaft at the central part thereof, the connecting plate is fixed to the rotation shaft and to the main plate, at the inner and outer circumferential parts of the connecting plate, respectively, a plurality of through holes are provided in the inner and outer circumferential parts of the connecting plate in the circumferential directions, respectively, and slits are formed between each pair of two opposite through holes positioned obliquely with respect to the direction of radius of the connecting plate. Non-reversible displacement of the center of the fan blade is avoided which is a major factor in the vibration of the fan blade.

Abstract: The known rotor blade for use with axial-flow machines is improved. The improvement resides in a novel configuration of the blade body of the rotor blade. A leading edge of a tip end portion of the blade body is inclined forward (in the upstream direction of flow) and also advances in a direction of rotation, towards a tip end surface of the blade body. In the tip end portion between the tip end surface and a cross section displaced from the tip end surface towards the central portion of the blade body by 1/2 of a chord length of the tip end surface, the configuration of the leading edge of the tip end portion is such that an angle S of skew thereof over which the leading edge of the tip end portion advances in the direction of rotation and an effective skew amount .THETA..sub.s eff thereof of the angle over which the leading edge of the tip end portion is inclined forward in the upstream direction falls in a particular region in a graph of S vs. .THETA..sub.