Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Trunk lids
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-12
2001-01-30
Dayoan, D. Glenn (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Trunk lids
C296S191000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179364
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement on a bonnet for an automobile.
An example of a conventional bonnet for an automobile is disclosed in a Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 5-155355 reciting “an engine hood construction for an automobile”. As shown in
FIGS. 10 and 11
, an engine hood
70
is constructed such that an engine hood inner panel
71
serving as a reinforcement member is placed so as to integrally underlie an engine hood outer panel
72
. The engine hood inner panel
71
is constituted by a reinforcement portion
73
(frame) having a U-shaped cross section and formed in a grid-like fashion. A through hole
74
is formed in the bottom of an apex portion
75
where frame constituent members intersect each other and a through hole
76
is also formed in side wall portions of respective reinforcing portions
77
,
78
in the vicinity of the apex portion
75
in order to attain a reduction in rigidity of the apex portion
75
to thereby alleviate impact against an obstacle.
However, even if the rigidity at the apex portion
75
is tried to be reduced by forming a through hole
74
in the bottom of the apex portion
75
of the frame constituent members and a through hole
76
in the side wall portions of the respective reinforcing portions
77
,
78
in the vicinity of the apex portion, the side wall portions arranged in a grid-like fashion still remain too strong, and therefore, if an obstacle comes into collision with the engine hood in the vicinity of such side wall portions of the respective reinforcing portions
77
,
78
, impact produced by the collision cannot sufficiently be alleviated.
In addition, if the through holes
74
,
76
formed, respectively, in the bottom of the apex portions and the side wall portions are enlarged, this will make it impossible to maintain a rigidity originally required for the engine hood inner panel
71
, resulting in an excessive reduction in rigidity of the engine hood.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To cope with the above problem, an object of the present invention is to provide a bonnet for an automobile that can sufficiently alleviate impact against an obstacle, while maintaining a rigidity originally required for the bonnet of an automobile.
The above-mentioned object can be achieved by a bonnet for an automobile, according to the present invention, comprising:
an outer panel; and
an inner frame placed to integrally underlies the outer panel for reinforcing a rigidity of the outer panel;
in which a thickness of the bonnet which is defined by a distance from an upper surface of the outer panel to a lower surface of the inner frame is made thinner at a front portion of the bonnet than at a rear portion thereof, to thereby reduce the rigidity at the front portion of the bonnet.
An empirical observation assures that a smaller obstacle tends to come into collision with the front portion of the bonnet, while a larger one with the rear portion of the bonnet. From this, a damage to an obstacle, in particular, to a smaller obstacle, produced when it comes into collision with the front portion of the bonnet is limited to a minimum level by making the thickness of the front portion of the bonnet thinner than that of the rear portion thereof.
In the above-mentioned bonnet for the automobile, according to the present invention, the thickness of said front portion is preferably set to fall within a range of 0.3T≦t≦0.6T, where T is the thickness of the rear portion of said bonnet and t is the thickness of the front portion thereof.
With the thickness t of the bonnet front portion being 0.3T, it is not possible to obtain a sufficient rigidity required for the bonnet, while with the thickness of 0.6T or greater, it is not possible to obtain a sufficient impact absorption effect. Therefore, a reconciliation of rigidity and impact absorption performance required for the bonnet is aimed for by setting the thickness of the bonnet front portion so as to fall within a range of 0.3T≦t≦0.6T.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2709108 (1955-05-01), Eggert
patent: 3201168 (1965-08-01), Young
patent: 4634167 (1987-01-01), Moriki et al.
patent: 4988144 (1991-01-01), Johnson et al.
patent: 5115878 (1992-05-01), Hayata
patent: 5124191 (1992-06-01), Seksaria
patent: 5197560 (1993-03-01), Oda et al.
patent: 5605371 (1997-02-01), Borchelt et al.
patent: 5833024 (1998-11-01), Kaneko
patent: 5988305 (1999-11-01), Sakai et al.
patent: 6048022 (2000-04-01), Ishibashi et al.
patent: 5-155355 (1993-06-01), None
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Dayoan D. Glenn
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Murray Mickki D.
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