Patent Application
20060226665
The present invention relates to a collision impact force mitigating device and as support structure of bumpers for vehicles.
The present day impact absorbing value of some of the vehicles are by installation of bumpers with their support system, such as, suv, pickups, and trucks. Those more stylist models are designed to buckle up to the engine to absorb impact force. They are of limited effect in low speed but very costly and the latter not very successful at all in high speed once it buckled right up to the engine compartment.
Other design of force mitigating systems such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,541 (2002) to Ronald Helland Pedersen showing a bracket made of metal with elongated peel slots and long big bolts that shear the walls of the bracket which fitted within is part of the vehicle frame. The long big bolts that go against the walls will have to stand a very high compression point before their shearing action begin, and once they started it will not take too much force to shear because they are uniform, and to fit frames of all make into the shearing bracket will be very costly if not impossible.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,801 (1998) to David C. Gertz showing an energy absorbing structure include a hollow cylinder with stamped pattern on the cylinder wall for initiating an indented buckling from the impact force, they are directly mounted inline at the tip of the vehicle frame. A long hollow cylinder will stick out too much and will be unsightly and a short cylinder will not have much absorbing effect, and thin wall cylinders will not effectively support the bumper and expected extra load, and thick wall cylinders will not absorb much impact.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,114 (1981) to Tomoyuki Hirano showing a hollow polyhedral body as an impact absorbing device which has cutouts to assist of deformation and placed at the very end of a vehicle frame. Once this device is compressed it is a solid mass so it has to be a long unit to be of any value and a long unit is not practical for the manufacturers for stylish reasons and the device tends to bend side way when at a slight angle in a collision.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,912 (1976) to Yoshiyuki Ogihara showing an impact force absorbing device by means of hydraulic system. As it is well known that hydraulic system whether using oil or gas which both have volume and volume can not dissipate in a hurry so shock absorption effect is quite limit no matter how the system is manipulated
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,019 (1972) to John Ed Carter showing an energy absorbing device by elongating or stretching a thermoplastic structure, such as nylon yarn. The system is not reliable as nylon yarns are affected by the elements and they are not very elastic.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,186,137 (1937) to C. L. Halladay showing s coil spring fitted to an impact bar and bolted to the elongated slots of the vehicle frame so the impact bar slides backward during a collision. When a coil spring is fully compressed it becomes a solid mass so it has to be a long length to be of some effect.
The present invention acquires the effect of shearing, compressing, jamming, pushing, sliding, peeling, buckling, flexing, chiseling and snapping to mitigate the force of impact during a collision. The present device deploys a stationary plate made of material such as, but not limited to, aluminum, has a push bar at the back end and cubicle blocks and half moon lobes with the straight side facing to the front on the inside surface of the plate and cutout notches at the front end and the plate is bolted down to one side of the frame at the front or back of a vehicle. Bolts to hold the stationary plate down are multiple level, the top level of which is to hold down the slider top plate with elongated variable length slots, the top level of the bolts are compressed down with torque together with lock nuts, flat washers and cone lock washers are to be snapped off one at a time giving enough force with the slider top plate sliding backward which also push out the push bar of the stationary plate. Elongated slots with teeth are to be accommodating the cubicles with peeling and shearing effect when the plate is sliding. The elongated slots of different lengths with straight ends facing backward are to be accommodating the half moon lobes which will be sheared off one at a time. Sharp triangle lobes at one end of the slider top plate are for jamming and chiseling to the guided lines of the notched spots on the stationary plate. Attached to the slider plate is the long calibration bar with numerous carefully arranged through slots where snap rods are placed according to calculation. A flange at the top of the bar facilitate fastening the inside panel of a two panels fixed bumper, there is a curve-out flex plate at one end of the insert calibration bar rests against the outside panel of the bumper so when minor force from a roll bump that the plate will flex and bounce back the bumper. There are also numerous through slots at the insert calibration bar and some of them are elongated so that the rods that contact the force will not snap all at the same time. Snapping rods are made of, but not limit to, aluminum, brass, steel, etc. Rods are to be snapped off three at any one time, one just outside of the flange of the long calibration bar, one joining the two bars together, and one below the insert bar, they are to be snapped off at a slight different timing depends on the kind of make of rods used. The rods are placed through to the other end of the bars, so the force of the impact will snap off two ends of the rods that three rods will have six ends to be snapped off at any one time. After the insert bar is forced into the limit of the calibration bar, the continuous pressure activates the top slider plate sliding backward and effect more force mitigating action. A pre-formed metal sleeve is placed covering the exposed part of the insert calibration bar to keep all the snap rods in place and the dirt out and will be compressed the predictable way and shape without subject to the yield point. The slider top plate, calibration bar and insert bar assembly are made of, but not limit to, steel, it is simple, non high tech, effective, and does not cost a lot to make and materials are already in the market place.
It is the object of the invention to utilize the force of shearing, snapping, flexing, compressing, jamming, chiseling, pushing, sliding, buckling and peeling to mitigate its own impact force from a collision. Further to the above is to provide a low cost device and simple to fasten to the existing frame member of the vehicle. Further object of the invention is to lessen the impact from the head-on collision which results to the most fatalities and serious injuries.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon reading the following description in conjunction with the drawings, in which:
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Accordingly, the reader will see that a collision with considerable speed will do a lot of damages to the vehicles involved including serious injuries to the occupants. Collision impact force will shear, snap, push, slide, compress, jam, cut, peel and buckle, all or some of the above forces will serious damage a vehicle. The present invention acquired the same forces transmitted to the mitigating device and solved the problems associated with the prior arts, it is of gradual action with stages from low to high speed most of all the device and its force mitigating function is adjustable. It is simple, easy to make and low cost to mass produce and can be fastened to existing structure of the vehicle, and can be adapted to fit other transportation apparatus, such as, but not limit to, bus, trains and aircraft, etc.
Although the description above contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing support to the illustrations of the preferred embodiment of this invention. For example, the calibration and insert bar can be made of other shape of materials such as round tube snapping rods can be of ceramic material etc.
Thus the scope of this invention should not be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents, rather than by the examples given herein.
