Reinforced vehicle door
AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorsMoinuddin S. Rashid, Chongmin Kim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle door is reinforced by an integral reinforcement panel that is fixed to and reinforces side portions of an inner door panel. The reinforcement panel has an outer periphery adjacent and preferably abutting the outer door panel and includes stiffening flutes. Preferably, abutting portions of the outer panel and the stiffening panel are bonded together to form reinforcing box sections. Alternatively, a support panel may abut inner surfaces of the reinforcement panel and is preferably bonded to valley portions of the stiffening flutes to form the reinforcing box sections. The reinforcement panel may replace an anti-intrusion beam and other components of a conventional vehicle door.
Claims18
A door for vehicles comprising outer panel means and inner panel means connected to form an assembled door defining a central space between the panel means for receiving a window glass, said outer panel means including an outer panel and a reinforcement panel and the inner panel means including an inner panel with generally upright and laterally outwardly extending front and rear side portions longitudinally connected by a bottom portion, said outer panel extending from adjacent said bottom portion up to at least a window sill area and being formed of a single sheet configured to present a desired external appearance, characterized in that:
- said reinforcement panel includes a single sheet having an outer periphery lying adjacent said outer panel at said window sill area and near said bottom portion and conforming in shape to the adjacent inner surface of said outer panel at intermediate locations, said reinforcing panel extending longitudinally to spaced generally upright and inwardly extending front and rear side walls opposedly overlapping and secured in assembly with said outwardly extending front and rear side portions of the inner panel means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.