Monolithic chassis and a method of making the same
OwnerKerry N. Hittinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A monolithic chassis employed as a platform to construct a motor vehicle. The chassis includes a platform having a channel and floorboards connected to both sides of the channel, wherein a structural tube is operatively associated with the channel after laying a first composite material over the platform. A second composite material is lain over the nest structural tube protruding from the channel and the first composite material over the floorboards, thereby encapsulating the nested structural tube through lamination of the first and second composite materials.
Claims9
A vehicular chassis comprising:
- a platform comprising a channel and two floorboards, each floorboard cantilevering from the channel in opposite directions;
- a first composite material lain over said channel and two floorboards;
- a structural tube nested in the channel over the first composite material therein;
- and
- a second composite material lain over the first composite material along the two floorboards and along an exposed surface of the nested structural tube, thereby encapsulating the structural tube between the first and second composite layers.
A method of making a monolithic vehicular chassis, the method comprising:
- forming a structural tube around a tubular mold;
- forming a channeled platform over a platform mold, wherein the platform mold comprises a channel and a first pair of floorboards comprising two floorboards extending from the channel in opposite directions;
- laying a first composite material over the top of the platform;
- nesting the structural tube in the layered channel;
- laying a second composite material over the first pair of floorboards and a protruding portion of the nested structural tube;
- de-molding the tubular mold and the platform mold;
- and
- curing the first and second composite materials so as to form the monolithic chassis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.