Brakes – Plastic deformation or breakage of retarder element
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-12
2004-04-06
Graham, Matthew C. (Department: 3683)
Brakes
Plastic deformation or breakage of retarder element
C188S377000, C296S182100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06715592
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a shock absorbing structure for a vehicle, and also an assembly including the shock absorbing structure and a pillar garnish, a roof side rail or other interior component of a vehicle. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with such a shock absorbing structure which is capable of being disposed in a narrow space located on one of opposite sides of the interior component that is remote from an occupants' compartment (driver's or passengers' compartment) of the vehicle, while exhibiting an improved shock absorbing effect. The present invention is also concerned with such an assembly including the shock absorbing structure and the interior component of the vehicle.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In a motor vehicle or other vehicle, in general, a shock absorbing structure is provided to be located adjacently to an interior component, such as a pillar garnish, a roof side rail, an instrument panel and a console box, which would be possibly brought into contact with an occupant's body in the event of a collision of the vehicle with a certain object. The shock absorbing structure is disposed on one of opposite sides of the interior component that is remote from an occupants' component of the vehicle, for alleviating an impact or shock applied to the occupant's body upon contact of the interior component with the occupant's body, so as to protect the occupant's body in the event of the collision.
As such a shock absorbing structure, there are known various types of structures which have respective constructions and which provide respective technical advantages owing to their own constructions. As examples of the shock absorbing structure, JP-A-11-348699, JP-A-2000-211454 and JP-A-09-150692 (which are laid-open publications of unexamined Japanese Patent Applications) disclose respective structures each including (a) a plurality of main bodies which are made of a resin and are spaced apart from each other, and (b) a plurality of connecting bodies which are made of a resin. Each of the main bodies consists of a box-like body, polygonal tubular body or tapered tubular body, and has a lateral wall which extends substantially in a direction in which a shock is primarily applied to the shock absorbing structure. Each of the connecting bodies connects adjacent two of the main bodies, so that the shock absorbing structure is provided by a single piece constituted by the main bodies and the connecting bodies.
Upon application of a shock to the shock absorbing structure constructed as described above, the applied shock acts as a compressive load on the lateral wall of each main body in the height direction of the lateral wall, thereby inducing deformation or buckling of the lateral wall in the height direction. In this instance, the buckled portions of the lateral wall are prevented from being folded or superposed on each other in the height direction, unlike in a shock absorbing structure in which a plurality of plate ribs made of a synthetic resin are arranged in a lattice. Since the buckled portions of the lateral wall are not superposed on each other, the shock energy is efficiently absorbed by each main body, even if the lateral wall has a reduced height so that a maximum distance of displacement of the buckled portions of the lateral wall is reduced. Thus, each shock absorbing structure disclosed in the Japanese publications has an advantage that the structure is capable of exhibiting a sufficiently high capacity of absorbing an applied shock, even with such a reduced size of the structure that makes it possible to install the structure in a relatively small space on the side of a pillar garnish, a roof side rail or other interior component, which side is remote from the occupants' compartment of the vehicle.
However, the space on the side of the pillar garnish or roof side rail varies in shape or configuration, depending upon the type of vehicle. It has been a common practice to prepare various shock absorbing structures having respective different shapes or configurations which are designed in accordance with the different shapes of the spaces in the various types of vehicles, thereby problematically impeding an increase in the production efficiency and a reduction in the production cost of the shock absorbing structure.
It might be considered possible that a shock absorbing structure, which is formed of a synthetic resin material having a high degree of flexibility and is made compact in size, is accommodated in the above-described space while being deformed or flexed therein, and is positioned relative to the space so as to permit the main bodies to efficiently absorb the shock applied to the structure.
The structure is required to have a certain degree of rigidity which prevents easy displacement of the structure from the nominal position within the space upon application of the shock to the structure, for effectively absorbing the applied shock with high reliability. However, the structure formed of the material having the high degree of flexibility does not actually have the required degree of rigidity.
Thus, the conventional shock absorbing structure is not capable of being accommodated into any one of the spaces having various shapes or configurations, without deteriorating its shock absorbing capacity. That is, it is practically impossible for the conventional shock absorbing structure to solve the above-described problems as to the production efficiency and the production cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide a shock absorbing structure which provides a high shock absorbing effect with respect to an impact or shock applied to the structure and which is compact in construction permitting the structure to be accommodated into any one of narrow spaces having respective different shapes or configurations, advantageously leading to an increase in the production efficiency and a reduction in the production cost of the shock absorbing structure.
It is a second object of the invention to provide an assembly which includes the shock absorbing structure and a vehicle interior component and which is capable of reliably protecting an occupant (driver or passenger) of a vehicle in the event of a collision of the vehicle with a certain object.
The above first object may be achieved according to a first aspect of the present invention, which provides a shock absorbing structure for a vehicle, comprising: (a) a plurality of main bodies each made of a resin and including a lateral wall that extends substantially in a shock-receiving direction in which a shock is to be primarily applied to the shock absorbing structure, the main bodies being spaced apart from each other such that the lateral walls of the main bodies are opposed to each other in a direction in which the main bodies are spaced apart from each other; and (b) at least one connecting body each made of a resin, and connecting adjacent ones of the main bodies, wherein each of the above-described at least one connecting body includes a first connecting portion and a second connecting portion, wherein the first connecting portion has a shape configured to be deformable more easily in a perpendicular direction that is perpendicular to the shock-receiving direction, than in a parallel direction that is parallel to the shock-receiving direction, and wherein the second connecting portion has a shape configured to be deformable more easily in the parallel direction than in the perpendicular direction.
In the shock absorbing structure constructed according to the first aspect of the present invention, each of the plurality of main bodies made of the resin material may consist of a box-like or tubular body having the lateral wall that extends substantially in the shock-receiving direction. The main bodies are positioned relative to each other so as to be spaced apart from each other, and are connected to each other by the connectin
Fukushima Kazuyuki
Itou Kaoru
Konda Akihiro
Suzuki Takane
Burr & Brown
Graham Matthew C.
Kojima Press Industry Co. Ltd.
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