Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Structural detail
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-16
2004-01-13
Gordon, Stephen T. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Structural detail
C296S187040
Reexamination Certificate
active
06676197
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a front part of a vehicle body and more particularly to a front body structure easy to absorb an impact load applied from above.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Generally, the front body structure comprises a front wheel apron constituting a side wall of an engine room, a front fender extending from the front wheel apron upwardly and then extending outwardly and an engine hood for opening and closing a space laterally connecting left and right front fenders, that is, the upper opening of the engine room.
When a pedestrian collides with a front part of a vehicle, his or her legs are pushed upwards and the upper part of the body is thrown up. As a result, the upper part of the body falls upon the engine hood. At this moment, the head of the pedestrian hits the upper wall of the front fender or the neighborhood of a boundary of the upper wall of the front fender and the engine hood to deform the outer edge of the engine hood or the vertical wall of the front fender. As a result, the impact energy is absorbed and the pedestrian's head is protected.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Toku-Kai-Hei 11-180350 discloses a technology in which as shown in FIG. 5 of Toku Kai Hei reference, a flange is formed at the lower end of a vertical wall that is formed on the inner side of a front fender, the flange is connected at front and rear ends thereof with the upper surface of a front wheel apron and an arch is formed at a longitudinally middle portion of the flange so that when the front fender has an impact from above, the arch deforms downwardly to reduce a head impact of a pedestrian.
However, the technology described above has an disadvantage that since the vertical wall absorbing an impact energy is integrally molded with the front fender, the bending depth of the front fender is so large that the stamping process of the front fender becomes complicated. Further, since the arch opens on the engine room side, it is necessary to apply trimming to the edge of the arch and processing man-hours increase. Furthermore, since the front fender is fully exposed to view from the engine room through the arch, this is an aethetic problem. On the other hand, closing the arch with other members is not preferable because of the increased number of components and increased man-hours.
Further, since the vertical wall for absorbing impact energy is integrally formed with the front fender, in order to reduce HIC (Head injury Criterion), it is difficult to change the configuration of the vertical wall or to cut away excess metal from the vertical wail.
Further, in case where holes are provided with the vertical wall in order to reduce HIC, these holes must be concealed from view of the inside of the front fender through the holes, this leading to an increase of manufacturing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a front body structure for a vehicle capable of easily forming a front fender and reducing a magnitude of head impact.
To attain the object, in a front body structure of a vehicle having a front wheel apron constituting a side wall of an engine room and an upper surface connected with a front fender through a supporting bracket extending in a lengthwise direction of a vehicle, the supporting bracket comprises an upper mounting surface on which the front fender is mounted, an engine room side vertical wall downwardly extending from a widthwise inner edge of the upper mounting surface, a front fender side vertical wall downwardly extending from a widthwise outer edge of the upper mounting surface and an impact absorbing means provided on the front fender side vertical wall for absorbing an impact load from above. The impact absorbing means includes an arch-shaped flange section and at least one hole section provided in the vicinity of a connecting portion of the supporting bracket and the upper surface of the front wheel apron.
Further, the front body structure comprises an engine hood outer panel, an engine hood inner panel forming a hut-shaped closed cross section with the engine hood outer panel, a first convex section provided along the hut-shaped engine hood inner panel, a second convex section provided adjacent to and outside of the first convex section along the hut-shaped engine hood inner panel and a fold line section provided on the hut-shaped engine hood inner panel in a lengthwise direction of the vehicle between the first convex section and the second convex section so that the engine hood inner panel is easily bent around the fold line toward the engine hood outer panel when an impact load is applied to the engine hood outer panel.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5429412 (1995-07-01), Schoen et al.
patent: 5466033 (1995-11-01), Murakami et al.
patent: 5466035 (1995-11-01), Klages et al.
patent: 5482348 (1996-01-01), Mass et al.
patent: 5988305 (1999-11-01), Sakai et al.
patent: 6547316 (2003-04-01), Chung
patent: 01197182 (1989-08-01), None
patent: 11-180350 (1999-07-01), None
patent: 11-198861 (1999-07-01), None
patent: 11-321717 (1999-11-01), None
patent: 2000-108841 (2000-04-01), None
patent: 2000-280859 (2000-10-01), None
Coletta Lori L.
Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Gordon Stephen T.
Smith , Gambrell & Russell, LLP
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