Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Herbert Meingast

Matthew A Jansma

Christopher M Higgins

Naoya Ashida

Wei Jiang

Umesh N Gandhi

Brian J Pinkelman

Wasim Ukra

Erik Andersen

Joshua L Walsh

Yuki Yoshimura

Recep M Gorguluarslan

A vehicular body structural arrangement includes a unitarily-formed polymeric bed box including a bulkhead panel, an elongate reinforcement including a spine, and a row of rivet nuts securing the reinforcement to the bulkhead panel in an unconcealed manner. The reinforcement is backed against the bulkhead panel from outside the bed box. The rivet nuts are installed to the bulkhead panel against the reinforcement facing inside the bed box.

Vehicular body structural arrangements

A side wall of a vehicle bed can be configured to provide support against vertical loads, such as step loading, imposed on a lateral side wall of the bed. The bed can be defined in part by a first lateral side wall and a second lateral side wall. The first and/or second lateral side wall can include an inner wall member, an outer wall member, and a top protector. The top protector can being operatively connected to the inner and outer wall members. The top protector can define a top surface of the respective lateral side wall. The inner wall member can include a transverse portion that extends to an innermost end. The innermost end can be substantially adjacent to an inner side of the top protector. Thus, the inner and outer wall members can support the top protector across substantially its entire width.

Vehicle bed side wall configured for vertical load support

A tailgate for a vehicle having structural strength and stiffness may include an outer panel, an inner panel facing the outer panel, a top boundary extending between the outer panel to the inner panel, a bottom boundary extending between the outer panel to the inner panel, a left boundary extending between the outer panel to the inner panel, a right boundary extending between the outer panel to the inner panel, and a volume of space defined within the inner panel, bottom boundary, outer panel, top boundary, left boundary, and right boundary. A plurality of bulkheads may be disposed within the volume of space, each bulkhead of the plurality of bulkheads extending in a linear direction a complete distance between the bottom boundary and the top boundary of the inner panel in a manner providing strength and stiffness to the outer and inner panels.

Tailgate with mass and performance optimized reinforcement structure

A vehicular body structure includes a polymeric deck panel. The deck panel includes adjacent ridges and valleys with legs shared therebetween, crossbeam footprints crosswise to the adjacent ridges and valleys, and ribs extending along the adjacent ridges and valleys between the crossbeam footprints and ending short thereof. The ribs project normally to the deck panel past the ridges, and have elongate cross-sectional shapes, with cross-sectional thicknesses substantially the same as or greater than the cross-sectional thicknesses of the adjacent ridges and valleys.

Vehicular body structure

Seats in vehicles may include a seat cushion having a seating surface, a vibration isolation structure and a foam structure, with the seating surface configured to support an occupant. The seat cushion may include either a seat bottom or a seat back, with the vibration isolation structure configured to evenly distribute forces exerted by the occupant. The vibration isolation structure may include a plurality of individual lattice blocks. The plurality of individual lattice blocks may occupy a pattern based on a spatial weight distribution of an average-sized occupant or a pattern based on a spatial weight distribution tailored for a specific occupant. The plurality of individual lattice blocks may cooperate to provide the even pressure distribution against forces exerted by the occupant. The vibration isolation structure may isolate vibration in a range from about 0.5 Hz to about 5.0 Hz.

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

Herbert Meingast