Motor vehicle passenger compartment heat insulation and dissipation

#Efforts are being made in the motor vehicle industry, in particular in connection with passenger cars, to reduce fuel consumption and pollution. One approach to this objective is to reduce the weight of vehicles.

#Parallel with this, there is an ongoing effort to make vehicles safer, which often results in a weight increase because of additional components, for example the installation of transverse rails in the doors and struts in the vehicle cage. The resulting additional weight cannot even remotely be compensated by savings in the interior fittings.

#Because of the trend toward smaller engines with improved efficiency, it becomes increasingly necessary to install auxiliary heaters, especially in vehicles of smaller size and medium size, because smaller engines and improved engine efficiency can result in insufficient waste heat for satisfactorily heating vehicle passenger compartments in cold weather.

#FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view through a motor vehicle body with areas of thermal insulation and a flow passage according to the invention.

#FIG. 2A is a divided elevational cross-sectional view of a vehicle as disclosed in the parent application, the left side being taken in a plane corresponding to plane A-A and the right side being taken in a plane corresponding to the plane A′-A′ of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view similar to that of FIG. 2A of a vehicle having a roof constructed according to the invention.

#FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B show the essential structural areas of a motor vehicle that can be provided with thermal insulation as described in the parent application. The shaded areas in FIG. 1 represent the built-in insulating layers and molded insulating parts.

#In this connection it is basic that, depending on the functions and specific loads on each one of these areas, it is possible to select a thermal insulation, either as an insulating body of a preselected shape, or as a thermal insulating material whose shape is only created during or after its application on an associated component, for example by foam application/heating which, because of its further properties, even complements and improves the basic function of the associated component. Thus, novel functioning units with qualitatively improved properties, not only in respect to the desired thermal insulation, but also in respect to mechanical strength, acoustic insulation, weight reduction, etc. are created by means of the integration of the respective thermal insulating material.

#There are often hollow spaces in a vehicle body part, located between an inner part and the outer skin 1, examples of this to be mentioned here are the rails 22, door sills 21, and the area between the inner and outer wheel well. According to one feature of the invention, these rails and sills may be filled with insulation material to provide further insulation improvements.