Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toray Industries, Inc.

Subaru Corporation

Suzuki Motor Corporation

Piolax, Inc.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Dome Co., Ltd.

Tomoya Yabu

Shigeto Yasuhara

Masakazu Kashiwagi

Akira Hojo

Katsuyuki Awano

Tadayuki Uchida

Yusuke Maesako

Kenji Morita

Yukitane Kimoto

Yoshihisa Sugamata

Tatsuya Ishizaki

Nobuya Shinozaki

Tsubasa Ono

Junya Harada

Ryu Hattori

Hiroyuki Mae

Hirokuni Kumekawa

Kazuaki Amaoka

Kanji Takaoka

Yoshinori Yamamori

Shusuke Sanai

Junichiro Araki

Toshifumi Gocho

Tomomi Ichida

Hiroshi Yuchi

Yasuhiro Kira

Akira Sakata

Hisashi Yamamoto

Hideaki Maeda

David Marler

A pressure sensor layout structure includes: a bumper beam; an absorber disposed at a front of the bumper beam; a pressure tube arranged between the bumper beam and the absorber; a pressure sensor attached to an end of the pressure tube; and a sensor cover fixed to a rear surface of the absorber, wherein the sensor cover is fixed to an end portion in a vehicle width direction of the absorber, at two or more positions which are located variously in the vehicle width direction.

Pressure sensor layout structure

A vehicle bumper device includes: (i) a bumper beam formed of a continuous fiber reinforced plastic and including (a) a central portion that extends in a vehicle width direction and (b) a left-right pair of lateral portions that respectively extend from opposite ends of the central portion and curve toward a vehicle body; and (h) bumper auxiliary portions formed of a short fiber reinforced plastic different from the continuous fiber reinforced plastic and protruding respectively from the lateral portions outward in a vehicle front-rear direction. The lateral portions each have at least one ridgeline defined by a surface step formed on the upper surface section or the lower surface section. The ridgeline extends between the collision load receiving section and the vehicle body attachment section.

Vehicle bumper device

To provide a vehicle floor panel having a certain rigidity and being less prone to deformation during manufacturing and deformation when the vehicle floor panel installed in a vehicle is subjected to loads in various directions from outside the vehicle. A vehicle floor panel includes a floor panel main body made of a fiber-reinforced resin, a plurality of recesses-to-protruding on one of a lower surfaceand upper surface of the floor panel main body and depressed on the other of the surfaces and arranged by being spaced apart from one another, and ribs-to-connecting two adjacent ones of the recesses on the one of the surfaces of the floor panel main body.

Vehicle floor panel

A bumper beam formed of fiber reinforced resin containing continuous fibers oriented at least in the vehicle width direction sufficiently absorbs the collision energy of a high-speed collision in the fiber reinforced resin. The bumper beam also has a center portion positioned in the center in the vehicle width direction and protruding outward in the front-back direction, and right and left outer portions inclined from the respective ends of the center portion seen in the vehicle width direction toward the inner side in the front-back direction. The outer portions each have a resin foam member protruding outward in front-back direction. Thus, at the time of a low speed collision, the resin foam member is crushed to absorb part of the collision energy so that the energy is absorbed and distributed over the center and outer portions, protecting the car body frame from deformation.

Vehicle bumper beam and method for manufacturing vehicle bumper beam

A bumper beam bodyand upper and lower parts of a flange portioneach contain a continuous fiber reinforced polymer layer, and a first flange tip portionmade of thermoplastic resin that has an L-shaped cross section extending outward in a vertical direction and then curving outward in a vehicle rear-front direction is connected to edges of the flange portion. Thereby, even when continuous fibers and matrix resin of the continuous fiber reinforced polymer layerstick out from the edges of the flange portionas flash, this flash can be covered with the first flange tip portion

Bumper beam for automobile, method for manufacturing bumper beam, and structure for mounting bumper beam in vehicle body

Since a front side frame, whose rear end is fixed to a front face of a dashboard lower panel of a vehicle body formed into a bathtub shape, includes a fixed portion, an inclined portion, a bent portion and a horizontal portion, when the collision load of a frontal collision is input into the front end of the front side frame, the fixed portion and the bent portion buckle so as to bend back, and the upper face of the inclined part abuts against the front face of the dashboard lower panel, thus making it possible to absorb the collision energy by deformation of the front side frame itself, and to increase the area over which the load is transmitted from the front side frame to the dashboard lower panel to thus disperse the load, thereby reducing the reaction force required for the dashboard lower panel.

Automobile body structure and method for setting strength of front side frame

Since a continuous fiber of a fiber-reinforced resin member includes an axial fiber aligned in the axial direction and an axially right-angled fiber aligned at right angles to the axial direction, and the density of the axially right-angled fiber of a first layer on the outer side of the corner part is made higher than the density of the axially right-angled fiber of a second layer on the inner side of the corner part, when an axial load is input and the fiber-reinforced resin member breaks, the axially right-angled fiber disposed at high density in the outside first layer of the corner part is actively stretched and breaks, thereby enabling a large energy-absorbing effect to be exhibited. Moreover, the fiber-reinforced resin member has a simple structure in which merely the density of the axially right-angled fiber in its interior is changed, thereby minimizing any increase in the production cost.

Fiber-reinforced resin member

An automobile bumper is provided in which the bumper beam includes a middle curved part that curves concavely rearwards and a pair of left and right curved parts that curve convexly rearwards, and the left and right curved parts includes a rear side frame connecting part and a load input part projecting rearwards the most among the bumper beam parts. Since the bumper beam includes a compression-resistant reinforcing part provided along the inner face in the fore-and-aft direction of the load input part, and an extension line of the compression-resistant reinforcing part is directed toward the vicinity of the load input point of the load input part, supporting the compressive load by the compression-resistant reinforcing part to thus prevent the bumper beam from being destroyed enables the strength toward bending deformation to be enhanced without reinforcement by increasing the plate thickness of the bumper beam.

Automobile bumper

A damper apparatus includes a piston having a flange-shaped piston main body and piston rods which project from both ends of the piston main body, a cylinder having a cylinder main body which accommodates the piston main body slidably and cylindrical portions which support slidably the piston rods, respectively, a fastener which is attached to the one cylindrical portion so as to secure the cylinder to an opening/closing member, and a coil spring which biases the one piston rod to project from the other cylindrical portion such that a distal end portion of the piston rod abuts a circumferential edge of an opening portion of a vehicle.

Vehicle opening/closing member damper apparatus and vehicle opening/closing member stopper apparatus

An automobile bumper beam to be disposed in a vehicle width direction includes: a small sectional area portion at a center in the vehicle width direction; paired sectional area changing portions continuous to outsides in the vehicle width direction of the small sectional area portion; and paired large sectional area portions continuous to outsides in the vehicle width direction of the sectional area changing portions. The small sectional area portion projects most outward in a front-rear direction at paired impact load input portions. Thus, impact load in minor collision is inputted as two-point concentrated load to the paired input portions of a bumper beam body, reducing a peak value of bending moment acting on the body, and the sectional area changing portions and large sectional area portions bear the moment, thereby enhancing strength of the body, reducing its thickness and weight, and achieving an excellent collision energy absorbing effect.

Automobile bumper beam

A bumper beam formed of an automobile fiber-reinforced resin member integrally includes a main body part that has a squared U-shaped cross section opening in one direction and that has a bottom wall and a pair of side walls, and a rib that connects the bottom wall and the pair of side walls. The main body part reinforced with continuous fibers and the rib reinforced with a discontinuous fiber are press formed at the same time to prevent the cross section from collapsing by reinforcing the main body part having a squared U-shaped cross section. It is possible to use the discontinuous fiber to reinforce the rib, which is difficult to reinforce with the continuous fibers, while ensuring high strength by reinforcing the main body part with the continuous fibers, and to eliminate the necessity of separately molding and joining the main body part and the rib.

Automobile fiber-reinforced resin member and method for producing automobile fiber-reinforced resin member

A vehicle front structure includes left and right side frames and a sub-frame disposed below the left and right side frames. The sub-frame includes a cross member, which connects rear end portions of left and right side members, and a support unit, which supports a steering gear box at front end portions of the left and right side members. The steering gear box is supported by the support unit so as to be located in a vehicle-front-side region of the power plant. The support unit is capable of being broken by an impact load so that the steering gear box is dropped when the impact load is applied.

Vehicle front structure

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Tomoya Yabu