US 6,578,650 B2Granted

Front end panel

AssigneeDenso Corporation

InventorsIkuo Ozawa, Norihisa Sasano, Toshiki Sugiyama

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Abstract

An intake duct (intake air path) utilizes an upper beam member of a front end panel, the cross section of which is substantially a C-shape. When the front end panel is assembled into a vehicle with the duct member being attached to the front end panel, assembling of the intake duct is completed. In another embodiment, a space (intake duct) is formed in a first pillar section of the front end panel with an intake port and a discharge port, which communicate the inside of the space with the outside of the space; the parts are arranged such that they are shifted from each other when they are viewed from the front side of the vehicle. Thus, a current of air flowing into the space flows in a crank-shape and passes outside of the space. Accordingly, foreign objects such as rain water and snow, which have entered the space together with air, will not flow together with the current of air flowing in the space. Therefore, the foreign objects such as rain water and snow remain in the space.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A front end panel which is mounted in a front end section of a vehicle for attaching a radiator comprising:

a panel body section, having an upper beam member, a lower beam member and a vertical wall section, which are formed into a shape having a rear side and a front side, the rear side of the panel body section is open;
a duct member for closing the rear side of the panel body section;
an intake duct defined when the rear side of the panel body section is closed by the duct member;
a first opening section for communicating the inside of the intake duct with outside air provided at a position corresponding to the front side of the panel body section, the first opening section being in communication with air outside of a vehicle engine compartment and air inside of the vehicle engine compartment;
and
a second opening section for communicating the inside of the intake duct with the outside provided at a position corresponding to the rear side of the panel body section, the second opening section being in direct communication with an intake of an engine of the vehicle;
wherein:
the first opening section and the second opening section are arranged shifted from each other when a view is taken from the vehicle front end section;
and
air introduced into the intake duct from the first opening section flows out of the intake duct through the second opening section.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.