Pedestrian-protective energy absorbing system
AssigneeOakwood Energy Management, Inc.
InventorsJoel Matthew Cormier, Donald Scott Smith, Richard Francois Audi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An energy absorbing structure 10 for protecting an impacted body, such as a pedestrian 12. The structure has an incident surface that meets the pedestrian and has at least some expanded metallic structure 18. A pair of wall support surfaces 20, 22 lie substantially in-plane with respect to a normal component of the impacting force. They extend from the incident surface in a direction opposite to the direction of the impact. The substantially in-plane surfaces also have at least some expanded metallic structure. A pair of basal surfaces 26, 28 support the in-plane surfaces, and also have at least some expanded metallic structure.
Claims24
An energy absorbing structure for protecting an impacted object, such as a pedestrian or other body or object that impacts the structure, the structure comprising:
- an incident surface that is oriented towards the impacted object, the incident surface having at least some expanded metallic structure;
- a pair of supporting wall surfaces that lie substantially in-plane with respect to a normal component of the impacting force extending from the incident surface in a direction opposite from the impacted object, the supporting wall surfaces having at least some expanded metallic structure;
- and
- a pair of basal surfaces that support the supporting wall surfaces, the basal surfaces also having at least some expanded metallic structure.
An energy absorbing structure for protecting a pedestrian that imparts a reaction force following impact, the structure comprising:
- a incident surface that is curvilinear before impact, the incident surface having at least some expanded metallic structure, the incident surface becoming deformed in response to the impacting force;
- a pair of malleable supporting wall surfaces that lie substantially in-plane with respect to a normal component of the impacting force extending from the incident surface in a direction opposite the direction of the impact, the malleable surfaces having at least some expanded metallic structure with cells formed from interconnecting lattices, at least some of which collapse under the influence of the impacting force and opposing strands in a cell at least partially converging and thus at least partially absorbing impact forces and at least partially protecting the pedestrian;
- and
- a pair of basal surfaces that support the malleable surfaces, the basal surfaces also having at least some expanded metallic structure.
A method for tuning the energy absorbing characteristics of an energy absorbing structure, comprising steps of:
- forming an expanded metal pattern by selecting a geometric shape of expander tooling;
- optionally, selecting wall material thickness, which influences the dimensions of strands which form cells in the expanded metal;
- and
- optionally, altering the pitch between adjacent cells, which influences the dimensions of the strands presented to impacting forces.
An energy absorbing system for protecting an impacted object, such as a pedestrian or other body or other object that impacts the system, the system comprising:
- an impacting object that meets the impacted object;
- an energy absorbing countermeasure with an incident surface, a pair of supporting wall surfaces and a pair of basal surfaces;
- and
- a rigid structural member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.