Shape Corporation

Netshape Energy Management, LLC

Kenneth R Bastien

David J Gorman

Daniel D Ralston

Kevin E Holdren

Darin Evans

Amit Ashok Kulkarni

Jeffery T Burke

A vehicle bumper system includes an elongated reinforcement beam for mounting to a vehicle frame and an energy absorber abutting a front surface of the reinforcement beam. The energy absorber includes longitudinally-elongated hollow crush lobes configured to crush and absorb energy upon a vehicle crash, the crush lobes including interconnected top, bottom, side and front walls. At least one opposing pair of the walls, such as the top and bottom walls, are elongated parallel a length of the beam to define enlarged areas that are generally unsupported, but the one pair of walls further include a plurality of spaced external ribs extending perpendicular to the length for stabilizing the enlarged areas.

Energy absorber with sidewall stabilizer ribs

An energy absorber includes a base flange and elongated crush boxes that to form a substantially continuously face surface on the energy absorber. Back straps are attached across a back of the crush boxes to prevent unacceptable spreading of the side walls of the crush boxes during an impact. The back straps can be integrally formed when the energy absorber is molded, and can include a living hinge at one end and a free end that can be bent over and snap attached during post-molding assembly without additional secondary operations. Alternatively, a separate wall-stabilizing thermoformed component is sandwiched between the energy absorber and beam.

Energy absorber with crush boxes and back straps

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Howell, MI, United States of America

Kenneth R Bastien