Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Donald E Malen

James A Cogswell, Ii

The shape of a non-axisymmetric vehicle body membrane panel is determined by placing a sheet of material over a scaled opening in a frame or support; constraining the edge portion of the sheet of material around the opening; heating the support and material to an elevated temperature above the glass transition temperature of the material until the modulus of elasticity of the material is relatively low and non-existent and the material has only membrane stresses which lie solely in the plane of the material and are constant over thickness. The unconstrained portion of the material within the opening deforms to the desired membrane shape so that this shape can be transferred to a die when the deformed material is thereafter cooled.

Empirical method for determining the shape of a vehicle body membrane

A vehicle body floor pan assembly includes a pair of longitudinally extending floor pan units comprised of longitudinally arranged vertical load reacting non-axisymmetric membrane panels which are longitudinally connected by a central tunnel member having a catenary shape upper wall which reacts to the vertical loads applied to the membrane panels.

Vehicle body floor pan assembly

A vehicle front end structure includes a radiator support having a generally rectangular shaped opening and an inverted V-shaped brace having the legs and the apical portion secured to the radiator support for reinforcement purposes. The apical portion also provides a striker for the vehicle hood latch.

Vehicle front end structure

A mount is disclosed mounting an internal combustion engine in a unitized vehicle body. The mount comprises an intermediate mass which is independent of the vehicle structure and the powertrain and is adapted to be frequency tuned. Separate elastomeric bodies couple the intermediate mass to the vehicle structure and to the powertrain and the intermediate mass is predetermined in combination with the elastomeric characteristics of the coupling bodies so as to resonate at a frequency within an uncoupled intermediate frequency range such that the transmissibility of the mount is attenuated substantially throughout a high frequency range to reduce vehicle structure noise caused by the engine's combustion process while satisfying other transmissibility criteria at the lower frequencies. In another embodiment, a portion of the intermediate mass is isolated and sprung from the remainder and the resonant intermediate mass frequencies are tuned to have substantially different peaks to further reduce the magnitude of the transmitted force at resonance while still attenuating the high frequency engine combustion caused vibrations.

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Lathrup Village, MI, United States of America

Donald E Malen