Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Other

Christopher John May

Darrin Neil Wagner

John Patrick Joyce

Jack Lashbrook

Duncan Whipps

S George Luckey, Jr

Andrey M Ilinich

Stephen Kernosky

Matthew Brian Makowski

Dragan B Stojkovic

Jamil M Alwan

Chelliah Madasamy

Joseph Prescott Hickey

Michael Kozak

Kiran Kumar Mallela

Gerhard G G Lueschen

Brett D Irick

Mazhar Mohammed Hussain

Peter A Friedman

Vincent Anthony Chimento

Fubang Wu

Abdelmonaam Sassi

David John Hill

Jaspinder S Sahi

Tofiqul Islam

GaRam Jun

David Edward Paul

Rabin Bhojan

Chienhom Lee

Dennis P Laakso

Ken Garbinski

Frank Timm

Ernest Dicks, Jr

Dan O Dague

John A Speirs

Bret Kirchner

Matthias Hofmann

This disclosure relates to a motor vehicle, and in particular a vehicle body structure for a motor vehicle, with an extended roof reinforcement structure. An example vehicle includes an A-pillar, a roof side rail, a dash panel, and a reinforcement structure extending at least partially through the roof side rail and the A-pillar to a front end forward of the dash panel.

Extended roof reinforcement structure

A belt has a strap. A detachable buckle is attached to a first end of the strap. The detachable buckle has a base. A cutout is formed on a front surface of the base. A removable is faceplate inserted and held within the cutout. A ratchet mechanism secures a second end of the strap within the detachable buckle.

Ratchet belt system having interchangeable faceplates and method therefor

A header beam couples between A-pillars of a vehicle frame. The header beam is formed from a generally straight beam segment that is extruded to have a hollow body portion with supportive legs extending within the hollow interior along the length of the beam segment, defining uninterrupted forward and rearward box sections for supporting continuous load paths on the header beam. The end portions of the beam segment are clamped and the beam segment is stretch bent to form a curvature between the end portions that remain generally straight. A front flange extends forward along the body portion and is struck proximate the end portions to form an edge that is parallel to the curvature formed between the end portions. The end portions are attached to the A-pillars and the edge of the front flange is attached to a windshield.

Header beam of a vehicle frame and method of forming the same

A vehicle body includes a rocker panel elongated along an axis. The vehicle body includes a pillar fixed to the rocker panel and elongated in a direction transverse to the axis. The rocker panel includes a first flange and a second flange. The first flange and the second flange are on opposite sides of the pillar and spaced from each other in a direction parallel to the axis. The vehicle body includes a reinforcement fixed to the first and second flanges.

Vehicle body including reinforcement on rocker panel

A method is disclosed for forming an aluminum alloy vehicle body component. An aluminum alloy billet is extruded into an aluminum tube that includes longitudinal weld seams formed in a sidewall of the tube during extrusion. A weld seam locating pip is also formed on a sidewall of the tube during extrusion. The pip is used to locate the weld seams during manufacturing of the body component.

Method of forming extruded tubing for vehicle body component

A value stream process or method for forming vehicle rails from extruded aluminum tubes includes the steps of extruding an aluminum tube and hydroforming the extruded aluminum tube into a vehicle rail. More specifically, the method includes extruding the aluminum tube, bending the aluminum tube, preforming the aluminum tube, hydroforming the aluminum tube into a vehicle rail, trimming the vehicle rail to length and then artificially aging the rail followed by batch chemical pretreatment. In an alternative embodiment the artificial aging and batch chemical pretreatment processes are performed in reverse order. In either of the embodiments, localized induction annealing to recover formability may be performed between bending and preforming, between preforming and hydroforming or both.

Value stream process for forming vehicle rails from extruded aluminum tubes

A frame component of a vehicle, such as a header beam that couples between the A-pillars of a vehicle frame, includes an extruded hollow member having top and bottom exterior walls and side walls that together enclose an elongated internal volume of the hollow member. A pair of interior walls extends along the internal volume separating outer load sections adjacent to the side walls from a central attachment section. The outer load sections are void of apertures for supporting continuous load paths. A formation on the bottom exterior wall protrudes into the internal volume in the central attachment section. The formation includes an inset surface angled, located, and otherwise configured for attaching a subassembly to the frame component.

Methods of forming hollow extruded vehicle frame component for subassembly attachment

A vehicle body includes a roof rail elongated along a longitudinal axis, and first and second bows each connected to the roof rail. A brace includes a base, a first arm and a second arm. The base is elongated along the longitudinal axis, with the first arm extending from the base along the first bow and fixed to the first bow, and the second arm spaced from the first arm and extending from the base along the second bow and fixed to the second bow.

Vehicle body reinforcing brace

A method of hydroforming a vehicle rail from an extruded aluminum tube includes the steps of positioning the extruded aluminum tube into a hydroforming die and partially closing the hydroforming die. Next is the step of applying a liquid under a first level of pressure to the extruded aluminum tube in the hydroforming die. This is followed by engaging an inner radius of a bend in the extruded aluminum tube with the hydroforming die before completely closing the hydroforming die and increasing the level of liquid pressure in the workpiece to a second level to form and hydro-pierce a part from the extruded aluminum tube.

Method of hydroforming an extruded aluminum tube with a flat nose corner radius

An extruded aluminum alloy tube for hydroforming into an automotive body component includes a wall defining a closed perimeter. The wall includes weld seams disposed in the wall and running longitudinally along the tube. An extruded pip is disposed on the wall and runs longitudinally along the tube. The pip is parallel to the seams and is configured to identify a location of the seams for alignment of the tube during manufacturing.

Aluminum porthole extruded tubing with locating feature

A hydro-formed body side rail is assembled by a bracket to a front header. The front header is an extruded cross-car structural support that is joined to the body side rail by a framed joint. A gap is defined between the body side outer panel and the hydro-formed side rail relative to a lateral end of a front header. Side impact test loads are applied initially to the body side rail and compress the bracket. Compression of the bracket closes the gap and the impact loads are applied to the cross-car structural support.

Gap joint for closed section load transfer

Formation in hollow extruded vehicle frame component for subassembly attachment and method of forming the same

Growing community of inventors

Novi, MI, United States of America

Christopher John May