Kolbenschmidt Aktiengesellschaft

Trw Automotive Safety Systems Gmbh & Co. Kg

Trw Automotive Safety Systems Gmbh

Metallgesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft

Mst Automotive Gmbh

Klaus Drefahl

Martin Kreuzer

Heribert Werner

Peter Hartmann

Helmut Gilles

Udo Liesenfeld

The steering wheel for motor vehicles has a hub, a steering wheel rim and a plurality of spokes connecting the steering wheel rim with the hub. The hub comprises a hub core for fastening to a steering shaft and a base body which surrounds the hub core and is made of a fiber-reinforced plastic material. The spokes are integrally and continuously molded with the base body of the hub from a fiber-reinforced plastic material. The steering wheel rim is integrally and continuously molded with the spokes from a fiber-reinforced plastic material. In this arrangement, the base body together with the spokes and the steering wheel rim forms a self-supporting shaped body.

Motor vehicle steering wheel

Method for manufacturing a motor vehicle steering wheel

Steering wheel for motor vehicles

A steering-wheel skeleton has a hub, spokes, and a rim made in one piece out of a single sheet-metal blank and provided with its final shape by separation and bending without machining. The hub is provided with a cone facing the vehicle. The spokes, which extend up and out, are provided with unthreaded bores, cutouts, or threaded bore for attaching an airbag module. A nut can, if necessary, be forced into one cutout. The hub can be reinforced by using two layers of the material.

Sheet-metal steering wheel

An armature for a motor-vehicle steering wheel. The hub, spokes, and rim are at least partly made out of a single sheet of metal. The metal is folded at the edge to produce a cross-section in the form of a U or L. The base of the section is essentially perpendicular to the axis of the steering wheel. The sides of the section essentially parallel that axis. The sides of the U or L are provided with an undulation as viewed longitudinally, that is almost non-existent in the vicinity of the base, and that increases continuously to a maximum as it approaches the edge.

Armature for a motor-vehicle steering wheel

In order to have a sufficiently large elongation at fracture in conjunction with high strength values, a pressure-diecast steering wheel skeleton consists of an aluminum alloy which is composed of

Steering wheel skeleton

A component which is to be installed for an absorption of energy with an ideal displacement-compressive force characteristic consists of a prismatic straight metal rod, which is long relative to its transverse dimensions and is adapted to inelastically buckle in the direction of the axis of its larger principal moment of inertia under an axially acting compressive load and is provided with spur teeth, which extend transversely to the longitudinal direction and are provided on at least one of the broadsides, which extend at right angles to the axis of the larger principal moment of inertia.

Component for absorbing energy

An installable component which serves to absorb energy and is intended to be used with steering wheels of motor vehicles having a steering wheel hub which is recessed from the rim of the steering wheel consists of a plurality of deformable metal rods, which have parallel axes and are arranged in a circle and at each end are firmly interconnected by a metal flange. In order to improve the energy absorption performance the metal rods are adapted to buckle in the direction of the larger principal moment of inertia under an axially acting pressure force, and at least one of the broadsides, which extend at right angles to the axis of the larger principal moment of inertia and include a right angle with the radius of the installable component, is provided with spur teeth, which extend transversely to the longitudinal direction.

Installable component for absorbing energy

A heat exchanger for the cooling of a gas, especially a gas containing SO.sub.2, comprises a tube bundle whose tubes, composed of lead, bridge a pair of tube sheets and can be provided with internal longitudinal ribs. According to the disclosure, the extruded cylindrical tubes are reshaped by indentations in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis. The indentations may be annular or staggered.

Growing community of inventors

Hanau, Germany

Klaus Drefahl