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US 12,576,914 B2Granted
Side structure for a motor vehicle
AssigneeArcelorMittal
InventorGagan Tandon
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Side structure (1) for a motor vehicle (3) including an inner and outer frame (11, 13) each forming a closed ring and having two openings corresponding to the front and rear doors (8, 10), wherein the inner and outer frames (11, 13) are each formed by hot stamping respectively an inner and an outer frame blank (111, 113), each being a single tailor welded blank made of steel and wherein the inner and outer frames (11,13) are assembled to form a hollow volume (7) between them.
Claims17
A side structure and body side outer for a motor vehicle, the side structure comprising:
- an inner frame and an outer frame, wherein the inner and outer frames each comprise respectively:
- a roof rail portion corresponding to a top part of the side structure bordering a roof of the vehicle;
- a rocker panel portion corresponding to a bottom part of the side structure bordering a floor panel of the vehicle;
- an A-pillar upper portion extending from a front end of the roof rail portion and corresponding to a part of the side structure bordering a windshield of the vehicle;
- an A-pillar lower portion extending from the A-pillar upper portion down to said rocker panel portion;
- a B-pillar upper portion extending in an elevation direction from the roof rail portion in between front and rear doors down to a level of front and rear door windows;
- a B-pillar lower portion extending from the B-pillar upper portion down to the rocker panel portion;
- a C-pillar lower portion extending from a rear end of said rocker panel portion behind the rear door and up to the level of the rear door window in the elevation direction;
- and
- a C-pillar upper portion extending from the C-pillar lower portion up to the roof rail portion,
- wherein the inner and outer frames each form a closed ring having two openings corresponding to the front and rear doors;
- wherein the inner and outer frames are each formed by hot stamping respectively an inner and an outer frame blank, the inner and outer frame blanks each being a single blank made of steel;
- wherein the inner and outer frame blanks are tailor welded blanks composed respectively of n inner sub-blanks and m outer sub-blanks, n and m being integers strictly greater than 1,
- wherein the inner sub-blanks include at least two inner sub-blanks having a different thickness before hot stamping and comprise at least two inner sub-blanks having a different tensile strength after hot stamping,
- wherein the outer sub-blanks include at least two outer sub-blanks having a different thickness before hot stamping and comprise at least two outer sub-blanks having a different tensile strength after hot stamping, and
- wherein the inner and outer frames are assembled to form a hollow volume therebetween.
13 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.