Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Body shell
Utility Patent
1999-03-15
2001-01-02
Pedder, Dennis H. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Body shell
C296S203030, C296S204000
Utility Patent
active
06168228
ABSTRACT:
This application claims the priority of German patent application No. 198 11 215.7, filed Mar. 14, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a passenger compartment for a passenger car having one B-column on each vehicle body side which leads into a side member situated below for increasing the transverse stiffness of the passenger compartment in the event of side impact loads. A transversely extending tube construction is connected with the vehicle body and is composed of laterally exterior upright reinforcing tubes, and a tube-shaped stiffening element extends over the width of the vehicle body and is connected to the upright reinforcing tubes.
A passenger compartment of the initially mentioned type is known from German Patent Document DE 196 03 098 A1. In this known passenger compartment, an additional reinforcing tube is integrated in each B-column, and the two reinforcing tubes arranged in the B-columns are connected, approximately in the area of the elevation of the side members, with a stiffening element, which extends transversely along the vehicle body width and is linked to the vehicle body floor, to form a transversely stiffening tube construction.
This arrangement has the disadvantage that, because of the relatively low-situated, transversely extending stiffening element linked to the vehicle body floor and the relatively long upright lever arms of the reinforcing tubes, high moments occur in the event of a side impact load so that this tube construction must be dimensioned in a correspondingly stable manner, which increases the weight.
It is an object of the invention to further develop a tube reinforcement of the initially mentioned type such that, in the event of a side impact load, a more favorable introduction of force is achieved so that the tube construction can be made smaller and therefore with a lighter weight.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a passenger compartment for a passenger car having one B-column on each vehicle body side, which leads into a side member situated below, for increasing the transverse stiffness of the passenger compartment in the event of side impact loads. A transversely stiffening tube construction, which is composed of two laterally exterior upright reinforcing tubes and a tube-shaped stiffening element extending over the width of the vehicle body, is provided. Additional advantageous characteristics of the invention are also claimed.
The principal advantages achieved by the invention are that, as a result of linking each upright reinforcing tube to an adjoining large-surface connection plate and supporting the lower edge area of the connection plate on the exterior side of the side member and the supporting tube, which extends from the reinforcing tube above the side member to the inside and is connected with the outer end of the tube-shaped stiffening element, a transversely stiffening tube construction is created at which, in the event of a side impact load, much more favorable lever ratios exist so that an optimized introduction of force and a significant increase of the transverse stiffness is achieved.
The transversely extending stiffening element is arranged along a significant partial area of its longitudinal course in a sunk manner in a transversely extending hollow member structure of the rear seat system or of the transmission tunnel and therefore requires no additional space. By the relatively highly situated transversely extending stiffening element, the laterally exterior, upright reinforcing tubes form short lever arms in the event of a side impact load. The connection plates cause a large-surface introduction of force in the event of a side impact load.
Preferably, each connection plate forms a prefabricated constructional unit with the upright reinforcing tube fastened thereto and the transversely extending supporting tube. The constructional unit is then connected within the passenger compartment with the free outer end of the stiffening element. Thus, compensation can be made for relatively large tolerances. Since the supporting tubes extend above the side members, the side members are not weakened. Below a central pulled-up section of the stiffening element, another tube element is integrated in a transmission bridge so that an effective force transmission also exists in the area of the transmission tunnel.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4660345 (1987-04-01), Browning
patent: 19603098 (1998-03-01), None
patent: 22366 (1896-10-01), None
patent: 406099851 (1994-04-01), None
Brin Constantin
Heinz Martin
Herntier Matthias
Oggianu Roberto
Praznik Franc
Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche AG
Evenson, McKeown, Edwards & Lenahan P.L.L.C.
Pedder Dennis H.
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