The invention relates to an assembly support for, in one example, the front end of passenger vehicles and light trucks and more particularly, to a hybrid structure for such supports including a combination of metal and plastic components.
Such specific assembly supports with hybrid structure for front ends of passenger vehicles and light trucks are normal in modern vehicle production, and are therefore generally known. Hybrid components of this type distinguish themselves by good usage properties that are seen regarding their low weight relative to the technological properties such as stiffness and/or strength. Further, the hybrid components allow low-cost manufacture using the injection-molding process. In the known version, the assembly supports include hybrid structures with shell shape on whose concave side reinforcing plastic ribs are provided. The stiffness of each assembly support thus achieved may still be inadequate in those areas in which large forces are applied, for example, by engine mounts. This applies to the lower areas of the assembly support, particularly its lower cross member.
It is fundamentally known from DE 203 10 156 U1 to use shaped metal parts when constructing automobiles that consist of two shaped metal parts or of two shaped metal plates that include flat and completely overlapped edge sections and are provided with perforations in these edge sections. The edge sections are injected with, and surrounded by, plastic, whereby the plastic presses through the perforations in the edge sections, surrounding the end edges. The shaped metal profiles are connected together in this manner.
It is one task of the invention to provide an assembly support of the type mentioned at the outset and using the technique mentioned above that is reinforced in the area of the lower cross member and the lateral member lower sections.
This task is solved by a assembly support of the above-mentioned type by the distinguishing characteristics of Patent Claim 1.
It is essential to the assembly support based on the invention that its lower cross member and the lateral member lower sections are formed as enclosed stiffening shaped parts that consist of a stiff material, preferably metal, and include two matching parts, namely the shell bodies and the enclosing parts that, by means of plastic used for the hybrid design, are firmly attached not only together, but also with the adjacent areas of the assembly support. Thus, not only do the lower cross member and the lateral member lower sections of the assembly support bear strong torsion and bending forces, but they also stiffen the assembly support above the adjacent lateral members overall.
Other advantageous embodiment characteristics of the invention may be taken from the Dependent Claims.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings wherein:
Specifically, in the assembly support shown in
The assembly support shown in
A first shell body 5 implemented as a hollow member with an approximately U-shaped cross section belongs to the force-transferring metallic parts formed from plate steel of the lower cross member 4. As shown in
The second sealing parts 8 are intended for second shell bodies 7 that are shaped into the lower areas of the plate-steel parts of the lateral member 2 that also form the flange plates 3. The second shell bodies 7, like the first shell bodies 5, include edge flanges 7.1 projecting outward that rest on the edge areas 8.1 of the second sealing part 8. The upper sections of the second shell bodies 7 may reach as far as the upper cross member 1 of the assembly support.
The confinement of the shell bodies 5 and 7 with the sealing parts 6 and 8 is provided by means of the plastic sheathing or border 10, which largely possesses a U-shaped cross section in large sections surrounding from without the edge areas 6.1, 8.1 of the sealing parts 6, 8 and the flanges 5.1, 7.1 resting against them. So-called spray-through points are formed at separated locations in these overlapped edge areas 6.1, 8.1 and flanges 5.1, 7.1 whose details may be taken from
As
The present invention is not intended to be limited to a device or method which must satisfy one or more of any stated or implied objects or features of the invention and should not be limited to the preferred, exemplary, or primary embodiment(s) described herein. Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present invention, which is not to be limited except by the allowed claims and their legal equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2005 055 705 | Nov 2005 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2006/011225 | 11/23/2006 | WO | 00 | 11/13/2008 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2007/059954 | 5/31/2007 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6412855 | Cantineau et al. | Jul 2002 | B1 |
6547317 | Cheron et al. | Apr 2003 | B1 |
6685258 | Brogly et al. | Feb 2004 | B2 |
7073848 | Lee | Jul 2006 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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20310156 | Sep 2003 | DE |
0995668 | Apr 2000 | EP |
1211164 | May 2002 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20090212600 A1 | Aug 2009 | US |