The present invention relates to a sealing arrangement for passing a wire bundle consisting of several wires, for example electric wires or tubes, through an opening in a floor or wall element of a vehicle.

When electric wires, tubes or the like are to be passed through a floor or wall element in a vehicle body, sealing is required in order to prevent dirt and sound disturbances from penetrating into the interior area of the vehicle. Such sealing is generally effected by a rubber or plastic lead-through, which is arranged in the floor or wall element and bears against the wires, tubes or the like.

Despite the use of the said seal, it has proven difficult to achieve satisfactory damping of sound disturbances which are transmitted to the interior area of the vehicle. The problem is particularly pronounced in the case of a seal where a number of wires, tubes or the like are brought together to form a bundle which passes through the seal. Sound disturbances then penetrate into the space between the individual wires, tubes or the like in the bundle and are transmitted to the interior area.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problem with a sealing arrangement for passing a wire bundle consisting of several wires, for example electric wires or tube lines, through an opening in a floor or wall element of a vehicle.

The invention relates more particularly to a sealing arrangement comprising a seal element covering the opening radially outside the wire bundle, which element encloses the wire bundle and thereby delimits a space through which the wire bundle extends. The invention is principally characterized by the fact that the space is filled with a sound-absorbing material with the capacity to penetrate in between the individual wires included in the wire bundle.

By means of the sealing arrangement according to the invention, transmission of sound disturbances to the interior area of the vehicle is eliminated.

In an advantageous embodiment of the sealing arrangement, the sound-absorbing material is made up of a granulated material. This material penetrates into the spaces between the individual wires, tubes or the like of a bundle and prevents transmission of sound disturbances between these.

There are a number of different granulated materials on the market, especially plastic materials, which have sound-absorbing properties and which are therefore suit able for use in the present sealing arrangement. A number of these granulated materials are available as relatively inexpensive standard merchandize and are easy to handle during fitting of the sealing arrangement according to the invention in a floor or wall element of a vehicle.

Other features characterizing the invention emerge from the following patent claims and the description below of an embodiment illustrating the invention. In the description, reference is made to the attached figures in which

Figure 1 shows an interior area comprising a passenger compartment floor equipped with a sealing arrangement according to the invention.

Figure 2 shows a sealing arrangement according to the invention fitted to a passenger compartment floor.

Figure 1 shows an interior area 1 in a vehicle passenger compartment, which vehicle passenger compartment is arranged upon a conventional frame (not shown) which constitutes part of a vehicle chassis. The compartment is provided with a compartment floor 2 which separates the interior area 1 from the vehicle chassis. The front part of the passenger compartment floor 2 connects with an essentially vertical cowl panel 3 which delimits the interior area 1 at the front. A conventional instrument panel 4 is arranged on top of the cowl panel 3. The instrument panel 4 comprises a number of switches 5 for controlling electric components present in the vehicle. The switches 5 are connected by electric wires (not shown), via fuses and circuit-breakers in a distribution box 6, to the respective electric components. The electric wires for controlling components in the vehicle chassis are thus brought together to form a wire bundle 7 which passes through a sealing arrangement 8, shown schematically in Figure 1, in the passenger compartment floor.

Figure 2 shows that the sealing arrangement 8 is arranged in a rectangular recess 11 formed in the passenger compartment floor and round which a number of holes 12 are made according to a certain hole pattern. A floor covering 14 is attached to the passenger compartment floor 2. In the covering 14, a rectangular recess 15 is formed which is slightly larger than the rectangular recess 11 of the passenger compartment floor, in order to permit fitting of the sealing arrangement 8 in the passenger compartment floor 2.

A gap 17, which thus results radially between the edges of the cover recess 15 and the sealing arrangement 8, is sealed by means of a removably mounted border 18.

The sealing arrangement 8 comprises a sealing element 22 of an elastic material, for example plastic, rubber or the like, which is designed so as to cover the opening 11 in the passenger compartment floor 2 and so that, at its ends, it is provided with deformation by means of straps 23 in order to enclose the wire bundle 7 sealingly. The sealing element 22 is designed along its periphery with an enveloping flange 25. The flange 25 is designed such that the sealing element 22 passes through the passenger compartment floor 2 at an angle which is less than 90 degrees, and is provided with number of holes 26 according to a hole pattern corresponding to the hole pattern around the rectangular recess 11 in the passenger compartment floor 2. The sealing element 22 is attached to the passenger compartment floor 2 by means of bolt connections 28 which pass through the holes 26 In the flange 25 of the sealing element 22 and the holes 12 in the passenger compartment floor 2.

At the end 29 of the sealing element 22 towards the vehicle chassis, a sealing strip 30 is arranged radially between the sealing element 22 and the wire bundle 7. The sealing strip 30 is made of an elastic material such as, for example, polyvinyl chloride. At the said position, the sealing strip 30 is held securely by means of a strap 23 which encloses the sealing element 22 and can be tightened. When the strap 23 is tightened, the end 29 of the sealing element 22 is pressed together and deformed, in which connection the sealing strip 30 Is deformed and comes to bear sealingly against both the Inner wall of the sealing element 22 and the wire bundle 7.

A strap 23 which can be tightened around the sealing element 22 is also arranged at the end 32 of the sealing element 22 towards the interior area 1. When this strap 23 is tightened, the said end 32 is pursed together and bears sealingly against the wire bundle 7. When the straps 23 are tightened, the individual wires included in the wire bundle 7 are pressed and bear sealingly against each other close to the positions of the straps.

The appearance of the sealing element 22 before tightening of the straps 23 is shown by broken lines, while the appearance after tightening is shown by continuous lines. After tightening of the straps 23, the sealing element 22 delimits a space 34 through which the wire bundle 7 extends. In this space 34, a material 37 with sound-absorbing properties is arranged so as to fill both an interspace 36 between the cable bundle 7 and the sealing element 22 and also interspaces 38 between individual wires included in the cable bundle 7. In this embodiment, the sound-absorbing material 27 is made up of granulated plastic material, for example polypropylene plastic.

The granulate consists of particles or grains which are dimensioned in such a way that good sound insulation is obtained. Tests carried out have shown that particles or grains of a diameter of between 0.25 and 0.5 times the external diameter of the individual wires in principle damp all sound leakage through the sealing arrangement. The shape of the particles or grains does not have any appreciable effect on their sound-damping capacity. The particles or grains can therefore be shaped in a number of different ways, for example cylindrical, spherical, conical or the like, in order to absorb sound in the sealing arrangement.

During operation of the vehicle, the latter is subject to vibrations and other forces which can result in the sound-absorbing plastic granulate sinking towards the bottom of the sealing element. It may therefore be necessary to top up with additional plastic granulate. This can be done in a simple manner by loosening the strap facing towards the interior area of the vehicle and pouring the plastic granulate into the sealing element. Thereafter, the strap is fitted in the manner described earlier.

By means of the sealing arrangement according to the invention, transmission of sound to the interior area of the vehicle is eliminated. The sealing arrangement consists of parts which are relatively simple and inexpensive to produce, and at the same time they are not restricted to a particular thickness of the floor or wall element. There are a number of different granulated materials on the market, especially plastic materials, which have sound-absorbing properties and which are therefore suitable for use in the present sealing arrangement.

The invention should not be regarded as being limited to the embodiment described, but can be modified in a number of alternative embodiments within the scope of the following patent claims.