Energy absorbing bumper
AssigneeVolkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft
InventorHermann Hablitzel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An energy absorbing bumper is designed to provide uniform decelerating forces, independent of ambient temperature. The bumper is fabricated of elastic material and has two cushion zones. The first cushion zone, which is rather easily deformable at temperatures about room temperature, predominates in absorbing impact energy at low temperatures. The second cushion zone, which is more difficult to deform, provides absorption of impact energy at higher temperatures when the elastic material from which the bumper is made is more pliable.
Claims8
An energy absorbing bumper for protecting an object from damage from an impact, comprising a support mounted to said object, an elastic base member, arranged opposite said support, and at least two elastic sidewalls extending between said base member and said support, said sidewalls having a first cushion zone adjacent said support and a second cushion adjacent said base member, the wall thickness of said sidewalls being greater in said second cushion zone than in said first cushion zone, the material characteristics and wall thickness of said first and second cushion zones being selected so that a selected impact occuring at temperatures near or above room temperature will cause deformation of said first cushion zone with substantially no dissipation of impact energy and deformation of said second cushion zone with substantial impact energy dissapation, and said selected impact occuring at lower temperature will cause deformation of said first cushion zone with substantial impact energy dissapation and will cause substantially no deformation of said second cushion zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.