Magna International Inc.

Jeffery Jay Mellis

Gianfranco Gabbianelli

Thomas James Freundl

Mark Andrew Kessen

Erryn Leigh Langlois

Hiroshi Uchiyama

David Cumming

A longitudinally extending extruded aluminum bumper is constructed and used in a bumper assembly to protect a vehicle from impact. The bumper includes a three wall design, formed by an integrally formed top wall and a bottom wall interconnected by a front vertically extending wall. The top and bottom walls have open ends that are spaced relative to one another to form a longitudinally extending, open-ended channel therebetween. Upwardly extending and downwardly extending flanges are integrally formed with front vertically extending wall and the top and bottom walls of the bumper. The extruded bumper can be attached directly to an end of a vehicle. Impact absorption devices can also be inserted into the longitudinally extending channel of the bumper and abut against the front vertical wall. Welds can be provided in a non-planar manner to connect the impact absorption devices to the bumper.

Lightweight extruded aluminum bumper

A bumper assembly includes a bumper beam having a bumper beam surface extending along a bumper plane X and a crash box including a crash box surface extending along a crash box plane Y. One of the bumper beam and the crash box includes an alignment joint to mate the bumper beam and the crash box and dispose the surfaces in abutting and aligned relationship relative to one another for establishing a linear load path extending linearly along the planes X, Y. A method of assembling a bumper assembly includes the steps of mating the bumper beam and the crash box about the alignment joint and connecting the bumper beam and the crash box together along the alignment joint. The step of connecting the bumper beam and the crash box includes friction stir welding the bumper box and the crash box together along the alignment joint.

Bumper assembly and method

A method for forming a bumper beam includes providing an elongated piece of sheet metal having opposing end portions and an intermediate portion, bending the end portions with respect to the intermediate portion until the end portions are substantially perpendicular to the intermediate portion, bending a central section of the intermediate portion to form a protruding bulge in the intermediate portion after the bending the end portions, and bending side sections of the intermediate portion to move ends of the end portions adjacent to one another and adjacent to the protruding bulge after the bending the central section to from the bumper beam. The end portions form front walls of the bumper beam, the protruding bulge forms inner side walls and a web portion of the bumper beam, and the side sections form outer side walls and rear walls of the bumper beam.

Method for forming a bumper beam for a motor vehicle

A bumper beam for mounting to a frame assembly of a motor vehicle at one end of the motor vehicle includes opposing end portions adapted to be mounted to the frame assembly of the motor vehicle and a centrally disposed intermediate portion extending between the end portions. The end portions and the intermediate portion define an upper wall, a lower wall, and a central wall between the upper and lower walls. The upper and lower walls each have an elongated arcuate flange that extends from a free end of a respective upper and lower wall along a length of the bumper beam. The arcuate flange of each of the upper and lower walls defines an outwardly facing concave surface and an inwardly facing convex surface.

Bumper beam for a motor vehicle

A bumper beam includes a first portion of a first material and a second portion of a second material. The first material has different material properties than the second material. For example, the first material may have a generally higher tensile or yield strength than the second material. In one embodiment, the first material comprises martensitic steel, while the second material comprises a dual-phase, multiphase, complex-phase or TRIP steel. In addition, the first material may have a different thickness than the second material. The bumper beam provides an improved strength to weight ratio than conventional bumper beams. This abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that allows a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).

Growing community of inventors

Bloomfield Hills, MI, United States of America

Jeffery Jay Mellis