Wishbone shaped vehicle bumper beam
AssigneePullman Industries, Inc.
InventorsWalter D. Jaeger, Jeff L. Bladow
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bumper beam and method of manufacture which includes roll-forming the bumper beam with a constant longitudinal cross section, and then reforming the roll-formed beam to form a tubular bumper beam having a constant area. The bumper beam area is designed to incorporate a longitudinal “curvature” to form angular surfaces consistent with many modern automobile fascias, thereby, enabling high impact absorption efficiency.
Claims9
A bumper bar forming a part of a bumper assembly attached to a vehicle, said bumper bar comprising:
- a roll-formed, tubular beam which is formed along a sweep axis wherein said sweep axis has reverse curvatures creating at least two symmetrical inflection points.
A method for fabricating a bumper bar for a bumper assembly, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a sheet of steel;
- roll-forming said sheet to produce a beam which is formed along an straight central axis;
- and
- reforming said tubular/non-tubular beam by sweeping said tubular/non-tubular beam along said axis, so as to define a sweep axis, said sweep axis having reverse curvatures creating at least two inflection points, so that said sweep axis is a complex sweep axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.