Fca US LLC

Eric A Darin

Scott E Zilincik

Tusher M Phule

Amandeep S Gill

Michael W Gaduski

Adrian J Purvis

Ranjit B Pandhare

Prabhu L Selvaraj

Eric E Lund

Meyyappan Valliappan

Martin L Hilderth

Chris Sleiman

Jagan M Mummadi

Jeffrey M Patrias

Dustin DeMink

Richard A Lenzen, Jr

Charles R Buttler

Sara M Goldsworthy

Matthew Gorman

Rene R Zamarripa

A vehicle that includes a vehicle frame, a wheel attached to the vehicle frame, and a wheel deflector assembly attached to the vehicle frame. The wheel deflector assembly includes a deflector plate that extends angularly outward from the vehicle frame, and the wheel deflector assembly is configured, in the event of an offset frontal impact to the vehicle that forces the wheel in a direction toward the frame, to be struck by the wheel and deflect the wheel in a direction away from the frame to prevent the wheel from travelling beneath the vehicle frame.

Wheel deflector

A tow hook has a front portion extending forwardly from a front side of a side frame rail of an automotive vehicle and a rear portion received in a channel of the frame rail. The tow hook is releasably mounted to the side frame rail so that it releases at low impact force. The rear portion of each tow hook has at least one open slotted mounting member having a slot therein that extends rearwardly from an open front end of the slot. Each open slotted mounting member of the rear portion of each tow hook is secured to a wall of the side frame rail to which it is mounted. A vehicle has the tow hook mounted to a left side frame rail and another such tow hook mounted to a right side frame rail.

Inside frame rail impact release mounted tow hook with and automotive vehicle with impact release mounted tow hooks

A control arm includes a wheel side end, a body side end, a first connecting member extending between the wheel side end and the body side end, a second connecting member extending between the wheel side end and the body side end, and having a reduced section portion, and a fracture zone extending through the first and second connecting members in a substantially fore-aft direction of the vehicle, the reduced section portion being within the fracture zone. A thickness of the reduced section portion is tunable to establish a controlled fracturing during a small overlap rigid barrier impact event where: (i) an initial fracture of the first connecting member occurs within the fracture zone, and (ii) a secondary fracture of the second connecting member occurs within the fracture zone at the reduced section portion, to thereby provide a desired rearward trajectory of the wheel assembly during the impact event.

Control arm with tunable fracture features

A structural small overlap rigid barrier (SORB) joining bracket for a vehicle having an underbody hold-down assembly, a cowl side assembly, and a body mount assembly configured to connect a vehicle body to a vehicle frame includes a cowl side coupling first portion configured to couple to the cowl side assembly, and an underbody coupling second portion configured to couple to the underbody hold-down assembly and the body mount assembly. The SORB joining bracket couples and maintains structural integrity between the underbody hold-down assembly and the cowl side assembly, and couples with the body mount assembly to increase vehicle load capacity by providing a direct load path into the frame of the vehicle. A frame extension tube assembly creates additional strength and stiffness via stack-up with the SORB joining bracket.

Vehicle structural systems for sorb impact events

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Royal Oak, MI, United States of America

Eric A Darin