F. Tech Incorporation

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

F.tech R&d North America, Inc.

Xiao Yu

Mitsuru Inoue

Katsumi Nagahori

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Bing Liu

Joseph K Moore

Zohir Molhem

Balbir S Sangha

Len V Peschansky

Bikramjit Sarkaria

A vehicle includes an underbody and a cradle assembly. The assembly includes a cradle body and a flange extending to a distal end portion. The distal end portion includes a platform having at least one side and defining an aperture spaced from the side. A fastener is disposed through the aperture and in engagement with the underbody when the cradle body is in a first position. The platform defines a void and has a portion of material disposed adjacent to the void to present a release pathway. The cradle body is configured to move from the first position to a second position which separates the flange of the cradle body from the underbody by moving the fastener out of the aperture, through the void and the portion of material along the release pathway, and out the side of the platform when the cradle body moves to the second position.

Vehicle and a cradle assembly for the vehicle

A vehicular L-type suspension arm is provided in which a wheel support part is provided on one end part of an arm main body, and a first vehicle body side linking portion and a second vehicle body side linking portion are provided in an intermediate part and on the other end part thereof respectively, wherein an arm main body (A) includes an upper half body (AU) having an inverted U-shaped cross-section and a lower half body (AL) that blocks the lower open end of the upper half body (AU), a first vehicle body side linking portion (AF) is formed from front and rear support plates (SF, SR) each formed by press forming a plate material, these front and rear support plates (SF, SR) have base parts (SFa, Sra) that are integrally joined to each other, the base ends thereof being welded to an outside part of the arm main body (A), extremity parts (SFb, SRb) of the front and rear support plates (SF, SR) are arranged so as to be spaced from each other in the vehicle body fore-and-aft direction, and cylindrical bush support parts (P) are integrally formed with the extremity parts (SFb, SRb) by burring on the same axis. Thus, the first vehicle body side linking portion can be prepared at light weight and low cost while ensuring a sufficient cross-section with a joined two-piece structure.

Vehicular L-type suspension arm

A vehicular L-type suspension arm is provided in which a wheel support part is provided on one end part of an arm main body, and a first vehicle body side linking portion and a second vehicle body side linking portion are provided in an intermediate part and on the other end part thereof respectively, wherein an arm main body (A) includes an upper half body (AU) that is formed so as to have an inverted U-shaped cross-section and a lower half body (AL) that is formed by press forming a plate material in a shape that blocks the lower open end of the upper half body (AU) and is welded by welds (w) to inner faces of a pair of side wall partsof the upper half body (AU), at the other end part of the arm main body (A) the lower half body (AL) extends lengthwise further outward than the upper half body (AU), an upwardly facing cylindrical bush support part (P) is formed by burring integrally with the extended part (Ale) so that it is the second vehicle body side connecting portion (AF), and an outer peripheral face, close to the intermediate part of the arm main body (A), of the bush support part (P) is butt-welded to an outer end face of the upper half body (AU). Thus, the second vehicle body side connecting portion can be formed by a simple structure in which an extended part of a lower half body of the arm main body is merely subjected to burring.

Growing community of inventors

Troy, OH, United States of America

Xiao Yu