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US 5,287,940 AGranted
Radiator support arrangement and apparatus for a vehicle
AssigneeMazda Motor Corporation
InventorsSoichiro Ogawa, Osamu Nozaki, Hideaki Sakata
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AssigneeMazda Motor Corporation
InventorsSoichiro Ogawa, Osamu Nozaki, Hideaki Sakata
Estimating the term…
As the most important characteristic feature of the invention, in a radiator support apparatus for a vehicle, a radiator is allowed to effectively serve as a dynamic damper with respect to both a vertical flexural vibration in the back-and-forth direction of a vehicle, and a torsional vibration caused by a vibration in the widthwise direction of the vehicle. The invention relates to a radiator support apparatus for a vehicle, for mounting and supporting the lower end of a radiator on a vehicle body via mount members formed of elastic members at a plurality of support positions including two side positions in the widthwise direction of the vehicle body so as to cause the radiator to serve as a dynamic damper at the front end portion of the vehicle in a low-engine speed state, and is characterized in that the mount members located at the two side positions, in the widthwise direction of the vehicle body, of the lower end of the radiator have different spring constants.
In a radiator support apparatus for a vehicle, for mounting and supporting a lower end of a radiator or a vehicle body via mount members formed of elastic members at two side positions of said lower end of said radiator in a widthwise direction of the vehicle body so as to cause a supported radiator to serve as a dynamic damper at a front end portion of the vehicle in a low-engine speed state, the improvement in which said mount members located on the two side positions have different spring constants so that the resonance frequencies of pitching and bouncing movements of said radiator support apparatus may substantially coincide with peak frequencies of torsional and flexural vibrations of the vehicle body, respectively, the mount member having the smaller spring constant being positioned nearer the center of gravity of said radiator than the other mount member.
A dampening system for a vehicle body comprising:
In a radiator support apparatus for a vehicle having an engine that generates vibrations and a vehicle body that undergoes separate torsional and flexural vibrations in response to the engine generated vibrations, said apparatus being adapted for mounting and supporting a lower end of a radiator on the vehicle body via mount members formed of elastic members at two side positions of said lower end of said radiator in a widthwise direction of vehicle body so as to cause a supported radiator to serve as a dynamic damper at a front end portion of the vehicle in a low-engine speed state, the vehicle defining a longitudinal direction and the supported radiator extending in a lateral direction generally transverse to the longitudinal direction, the improvement in which said mount members located on the two side positions have significantly different spring constants so that the resonance frequencies of pitching and bouncing movements of said radiator support apparatus substantially coincide with peak frequencies of the torsional and flexural vibrations of the vehicle body, respectively, the mount member having the smaller constant being positioned nearer the center of gravity of said radiator than the other mount member, whereby the pitching and bouncing movements of said radiator support apparatus dampens the torsional and flexural vibrations of the vehicle body, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.