Daimler Ag

Daimler Chrysler Ag

Ralf Mehrholz

Martin Brodt

Michael Wirsing

Peter Gere

Robert Mayrhofer

Steffen Dingfelder

Dietmar Kallfass

Uwe Fischer

Jens Spremberg

Joerg Zimmermann

Matthias Hildebrand

Levent Aktay

Dieter Edele

Jan-Mark Opelka

Marcus Hirzel

Bianca Oehm

Andreas Freund

Peter Kuemmerlen

Marie-Louise Hertfelder

A chassis for a passenger car includes two main longitudinal chassis beams which are connected to one another via a bumper cross member. A support arrangement extends between the two beams and is supported on a central tunnel. The support arrangement forms a load path in an event of a collision-related force being applied to the passenger car where above and/or below the support arrangement an installation space region is provided for accommodating a component or unit in need of protection. The support arrangement includes a strut which extends in a region of a center of the passenger car between the two beams and which forms a protective device which transmits impact forces forwards to the central tunnel. The strut has a first longitudinal section that is deformable in a targeted energy-absorbing manner and a second longitudinal section which functions as a rigid beam.

Chassis for a passenger car

To produce a metallic shaped part (), in particular a vehicle body part, from a semifinished product () made of an unhardened hot-workable steel sheet, first of all the semifinished product () is formed by a cold-forming method, in particular a drawing method, into a part blank () (process step II). The part blank () is then trimmed at the margins to a marginal contour (') approximately corresponding to the part () to be produced (process step III). Finally, the trimmed part blank () is heated and press-hardened in a hot-forming tool () (process step IV). The part () produced in the process already has the desired marginal contour () after the hot forming, so that the final trimming of the part margin is dispensed with. In this way, the cycle times during the production of hardened parts of steel sheet can be considerably reduced.

Press-hardened part and method for the production thereof

A supporting structure of a unitized body includes at least one hollow support that is made up of two longitudinal segments, the longitudinal segments being joined to each other in the area of a joining plane extending transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the hollow support, the end areas of the longitudinal segments being joined to each other so as to overlap. The end areas of the longitudinal segments, which overlap each other, extend diagonally with respect to the central longitudinal axis of the hollow support in the joining area.

Supporting structure of unitized body

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Stuttgart, Germany

Ralf Mehrholz