Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Charles Ko

Leonard Anthony Shaner

Ajay Kumar Gupta

Mark Wlotkowski

Narayana Venugopal

John Charles Caris

Dragan B Stojkovic

Matthew Brian Makowski

Edgar Edward Donabedian

Mark Keller

Robert Hasse

Nordine Fellague

Shiv Grover

A vehicle frame component for limiting the movement of the wheel of the vehicle toward the cab of a cab on frame vehicle including a base member welded to openings in the frame side rail and extending outwardly and located proximal the wheel structure. In one embodiment the vehicle frame component is located forward of the wheel and includes a tire puncture device to deflate the tire during an offset front impact and in a second embodiment the vehicle frame component is located rearward of the wheel. The vehicle frame component has particular utility during an offset front impact where the offset is less than approximately twenty-five percent (25%) of the width of the vehicle.

Vehicle frame component

A vehicle front end structure including a fender support rail that includes a plurality of slots defined by an outer wall of the rail that facilitates bending the rail in a transverse vehicle direction. A plurality of circular holes may be provided that are defined in the rail adjacent a bend in the rail to facilitate fracturing the rail in a collision event. A bracket is attached to the rail adjacent the circular holes to inhibit the rail in that area from bending in an outboard direction.

Fender support rail with slots for reducing intrusion into the vehicle passenger compartment

A vehicle hood for achieving generally predetermined deformation in an event of a front impact. The hood may include an outer panel including at least one raised section along rear and side edges of the hood for thereby defining a reverse power dome. An inner panel may be attached to the outer panel and include at least two laterally extending beams each of which extend substantially across a width of the hood respectively adjacent front and the rear edges. At least one crush initiator may be disposed adjacent each of the laterally extending beams for enabling generally predetermined deformation of the hood in the event of a front impact.

Hood structure with crush initiators

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Novi, MI, United States of America

Charles Ko