Shock absorbing stopper

Details Shock absorbing stopper Shock absorbing stopper

2000-02-18

2001-10-09

Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)

Motor vehicles

With means for protecting occupant region of vehicle from...

C267S140110

Reexamination Certificate

active

06298936

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a shock absorbing stopper of an automobile having an engine supported via an engine mount composed of an elastomer or the like. The stopper of the present invention can prevent parts of engine such as a cylinder block and an oil pan from being damaged due to the fact that the engine moves forward to be in contact with the body of the automobile during the course of collision in a light degree (hereinafter referred to as “light collision”) such that the bumper or the front portion of the side frame is crushed, and can prevent joint portions of the propeller shaft due to the forward movement of the engine.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ARTS
Conventionally, in automobiles utilizing a mono-cock body which do not have any special material which is jointed to the forward and backward shafts, a thin plate body supports various external forces. In this case, portions to which a big external force is added such as an engine and a suspension are reinforced by sub-frames. FIG.
6
A and
FIG. 6B
each is an outline drawing showing the conditions where a front sub-frame is fixed on a front side of the automobile body, and an engine mount is placed between the front sub-frame and the engine, where
FIG. 6A
is a front view and
FIG. 6B
is a side view.
A front sub-frame S in this prior art has an I-shape, both ends of the front sub-frame are fixed onto side frames SF and SF, and engine mounts EM and EM are provided on the upper surfaces of both ends. The engine mounts EM and EM are mainly composed of a rubber material R for absorbing the vibration of an engine E or such, and metal fittings P and P placed on upper and lower portions of the rubber material R and they support a cylinder block CB via a bracket BR. In
FIG. 6B
, symbol OP is an oil pan, and symbol TM is a transmission.
As described above, the engine E is provided on a prescribed position of the front sub-frame S via the engine mounts EM and EM which support the cylinder block CB. In addition, a stopper SP is formed on a front portion of the engine E, for example, on a cross-frame CF provided on a front portion of the engine E. The formation of the stopper SP reduces the disadvantage that the engine E moves forwards and collides with the cross-frame at the time of light collision whereby the engine is broken.
In the conventional automobile, the stopper SP has been directly formed, for example, on the cross-frame provided on a front portion of the engine E, by baking a rubber or the like. For this reason, if the rubber has been exhausted, the stopper SP cannot prevent the damage of the engine E and, thus the conventional stopper has a low effect for preventing the damage at the time of the light collision.
Particularly, the damage of the engine proves fatal to the automobile and, thus, from the view of difficulty to be repaired, it is serious disadvantage that damage easily occurs even in the case of the light collision.
Moreover, since the stopper SP is formed by directly baking a rubber material or such onto the cross-frame, or the like, the replacement of the stopper SP becomes on a large scale, leading to the disadvantage of high repair cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve the problems associated with the prior art and to provide a shock absorbing stopper which can effectively absorb the impact force at the time of the light collision to reduce the damage of the engine E etc., and which can reduce the repair cost.
The object described above can be attained by a shock absorbing stopper for the present invention.
The shock absorbing stopper according to the present invention is provided on an automobile body on which an engine is mounted via an engine mount at a portion in front of the engine and is for absorbing an impact force generated due to the collision between the engine and automobile body, comprising a first buffer member and a second buffer member each having different shock absorbing characteristics mounted in the lengthwise direction of the automobile body.
This makes it possible to absorb the impact force in a step-by-step manner and thus, the absorbing efficiency can be enhanced.
The shock absorbing stopper of the present invention may be composed of the first buffer member in contact with the engine which absorb an impact force due to elastic deformation, and the second buffer member mounted between the first buffer member and the automobile body, which absorbs the impact force transmitted from the first buffer member due to flexible deformation.
According to this embodiment, since the absorption of the impact force can be divided into the first and second buffer members, the impact force can be absorbed in a much more effective manner. Moreover, since the first buffer member in contact with the engine absorbs the Impact force due to elastic deformation, the damage of the engine can be further reduced.
In the shock absorbing stopper according to the present invention, either or both of the first buffer member and the second buffer member and the mounting of the second buffer member and the automobile body are mounted in a detachable manner.
This is advantageous in that when the first or second buffer member is damaged, it can be easily displaced.
In the shock absorbing stopper according to the present invention, the shock absorbing stopper can be composed so that the second buffer member has a frame shape having a connecting portion to be connected to the first buffer member, a mounting portion to be mounted on the automobile body, and a bent portion exhibiting the function of the flexible deformation is provided on the frame shape.
Such a construction makes it possible to enhance the effect of absorbing the impact force of the second buffer due to the flexible deformation.


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