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US 10,500,932 B2Granted
Door assembly
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsSatyanarayana Raju Vemulapati, Deepak Patel, Scott Holmes Dunham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A door assembly includes a door and a pusher. The door defines a cavity. The pusher is fixed to the door in the cavity, and the pusher contains a non-Newtonian fluid. The door assembly may be installed in a vehicle. Because the pusher contains a non-Newtonian fluid, the pusher distributes force from the impact to an occupant in a manner that depends on a size of the occupant.
Claims20
A door assembly comprising:
- a door including a door outer and a door trim defining a cavity therebetween;
- and
- a pusher fixed to the door in the cavity between the door outer and the door trim and including a case containing a non-Newtonian fluid;
- wherein
- the case includes a plurality of flat panels, wherein at least two of the flat panels are contacting each other;
- and
- the case has a lower stiffness than the door outer.
4 more elements
A vehicle comprising:
- a seat including a seat bottom and a seat back defining an occupant area between the seat bottom and the seat back;
- and
- a door assembly including a door and a pusher, the door including a door outer and a door trim defining a cavity therebetween, and the pusher fixed to the door in the cavity between the door outer and the door trim and including a case containing a non-Newtonian fluid, the pusher aligned with the occupant area in a cross-vehicle direction;
- wherein
- the case includes a plurality of flat panels, wherein at least two of the flat panels are oriented at an oblique angle relative to each other;
- and
- the case has a lower stiffness than the door outer.
4 more elements
A door assembly comprising:
- a door including a door outer and a door trim defining a cavity therebetween;
- and
- a pusher fixed to the door in the cavity between the door outer and the door trim and including a case containing a non-Newtonian fluid;
- wherein the case includes a case body and a case lid sealed to the case body to define a pusher cavity, the non-Newtonian fluid being in the pusher cavity, wherein the case lid is hinged relative to the case body;
- and
- the case has a lower stiffness than the door outer.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.