Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ryan A Delaney

Thomas Joseph Ciccone

Peter Thai

Andrew Thomas Cunningham

Eric Layton Stratten

Joshua Walters

Joseph Ovalles Quinones

Amol Kurane

Samson Ng

Jamal Hameedi

A strut-tower brace includes a pair of strut-tower attachments, and front and rear cross members extending between the attachments. The rear cross member has a flange configured to connected with a vehicle cowl. A lattice structure interconnects the cross members and has ribs that are each joined to another of the ribs at a node that is spaced between the front and rear cross members.

Strut-tower brace

A hood air extractor includes a support defining a first passageway. A first flap is carried on the support. The first flap is displaceable between a first position closing the first passageway to water passage in a first direction and a second position opening the first passageway to air passage in a second direction. A hood assembly incorporating one or more hood air extractors is also disclosed.

Hood air extractor and hood assembly incorporating same

A vehicle tailgate movement assist mechanism including a tailgate configured to rotate between opened and closed positions and a tailgate lever arm fixedly connected to a bottom area of the tailgate. A drive lever may be pivotally connected at one end thereof to the tailgate lever arm and pivotally connected at an opposite end thereof to a bell crank. The bell crank may be pivotally anchored at one end thereof to a vehicle body, and a plunger damper may be anchored to the vehicle body adjacent the bell crank. With the mechanism configured as discussed above, rotation of the tailgate from a closed to an opened position simultaneously rotates the tailgate lever arm to impart movement to the drive lever and the bell crank to thereby contact and actuate a plunger of the plunger damper to reduce an opening speed of the tailgate.

Vehicle tailgate movement assist mechanism using plunger

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Belleville, MI, United States of America

Ryan A Delaney