Energy absorber with anti-squeak anti-rattle feature

An energy absorber comprising:

• a base sheet and a plurality of crush lobes extending from the base sheet, each crush lobe including a side wall oriented to crush and collapse to absorb energy when impacted in a first direction and including an end wall, the end wall including an integrally-formed countermeasure of lower standing strength than the crush lobes, the countermeasure extending in a direction away from the crush lobe, so that the countermeasure acts to dampen movement that would otherwise cause buzzes, squeaks and/or rattles between the energy absorber and an adjacent structure.

A thermoformed component thermoformed from a sheet of heated polymeric material for taking up space between two assembled components defining a cavity therebetween, the cavity having a thickness direction and elongated directions generally orthogonal to the thickness direction, comprising:

• a base sheet and a plurality of thermoformed structures extending from the base sheet, each thermoformed structure including a side wall extending generally in the thickness direction and including at least one wall extending generally in the orthogonal directions and including an end wall, the end wall including an integrally-formed countermeasure of lower standing strength than the thermoformed structures, the countermeasure extending in a direction generally along the thickness direction and away from the thermoformed structures, so that the countermeasure acts to dampen movement that would otherwise cause buzzes, squeaks and/or rattles between the thermoformed component and one of the two assembled components.

A method comprising steps of:

• forming energy absorber with a base sheet and crush lobes extending from the base sheet a height dimension;
• and
• forming an integral countermeasure of weaker standing strength than the crush lobes and that extends outside of the height dimension from one of the base sheet and the crush lobes.