The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 12, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 20, 1997
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota, JP;
Aisin Keikinzoku Kabushiki Kaisha, Shinminato, JP;
Abstract
An energy absorbing structure for a side portion of a vehicle body includes a plastically deformable energy absorbing member which is disposed at a predetermined position in the side portion of the vehicle body against which a side portion of an upper part of a vehicle occupant's body hits during a side collision, the energy absorbing member being arranged such that a longitudinal direction thereof coincides with a longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, a cross section of the energy absorbing member being formed in the shape of a substantially hollow ellipse in which a direction of a short axis thereof is a transverse direction of the vehicle body and a direction of a long axis thereof is a vertical direction of the vehicle body, the wall thickness of the energy absorbing member being set such that the wall thicknesses of long-axis portions thereof corresponding to the long axis are greater than the wall thicknesses of short-axis portions thereof corresponding to the short axis.