Vehicular shock absorber
AssigneeOM Corporation
InventorHiroshi Yoshida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A shock absorber for a vehicle making use of plastic deformation. The absorber is mounted between a bumper and the frame of the vehicle to transform impact energy applied to the bumper into deformation energy. The absorber comprises a straight tube that can be plastically deformed. A straight tube is partially enlarged or partially reduced to form different diameter tube portions. These tube portions are connected by step formed between the edge of each one. Thus, a multi-diameter stepped tube is formed. The tubes located at the both ends of this multi-diameter stepped tube are connected to the bumper and the frame of the vehicle respectively.
Claims9
A shock absorber for a vehicle mounted between the bumper and the frame to transform impact energy applied to the bumper into deformation energy to thereby absorb the energy, wherein:
- said shock absorber is a multi-diameter stepped tube;
- said multi-diameter stepped tube consists of different diameter integral tube portions formed by partially reducing or partially enlarging a straight tube that can be plastically deformed,
- said each different diameter tube portions are integrally joined by steps formed between adjacent edges of each different diameter tube portions,
- one end of said multi-diameter stepped tube being connected to said bumper,
- the other end of said multi-diameter stepped tube being connected to the frame of the vehicle;
- each of the steps formed between the adjacent edges of the different diameter tube portions comprises an overlapped and folded back portion whereby a majority of the impact energy applied to the bumper is spent as plastic deformation of larger diameter tube portions;
- and
- a tube passage hole is provided in said fame coaxial with said multi-diameter stepped tube for passing said multi-diameter stepped tube sequentially from said larger diameter tube portion while absorbing impact energy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.