Plastic crush countermeasure for vehicles
AssigneeSabic Innovative Plastics IP B.V.
InventorsThomas M. Goral, Todd Korpi, Eric D. Kowal, Prasad Satyanarayana Puvvala
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plastic crush countermeasure for motor vehicles that includes a plastic insert and a reinforcement structure that provides impact and/or reinforcement characteristics and an attachment interface to the vehicle in a lighter weight structure. The crush countermeasure provides a lightweight crush system that provides comparable protection to current metal crush countermeasures using, in part, a plastic material. As such, the overall weight of a vehicle is reduced without any reduction in safety to passengers.
Claims17
A plastic crush countermeasure comprising:
- a unitary plastic insert;
- wherein the plastic insert comprises:
- two longitudinal walls that are substantially parallel to one another and run substantially the length of the plastic crush countermeasure;
- a plurality of reinforcement ribs connected at each end to each of the two longitudinal walls and wherein the plurality of reinforcement ribs form an internal X-shaped reinforcement structure;
- a plurality of longitudinal reinforcement ribs dispersed between two or more reinforcement ribs and dispersed between the two longitudinal walls;
- and
- a plurality of connections for connecting the plastic insert to a reinforcing structure.
A method of forming a plastic crush countermeasure comprising:
- injection molding an entire plastic insert;
- wherein the plastic insert comprises:
- two longitudinal walls that are substantially parallel to one another and run substantially the length of the plastic crush countermeasure;
- a plurality of reinforcement ribs connected at each end to each of the two longitudinal walls and wherein the plurality of reinforcement ribs form an internal X-shaped reinforcement structure;
- a plurality of longitudinal reinforcement ribs dispersed between two or more reinforcement ribs and dispersed between the two longitudinal walls;
- and
- a plurality of connections for connecting the plastic insert to a reinforcing structure.
A plastic crush countermeasure comprising:
- a plastic reinforcing structure;
- and
- a unitary plastic insert attached to the plastic reinforcing structure, wherein the plastic insert comprises
- two longitudinal walls that are substantially parallel to one another and run substantially the length of the plastic crush countermeasure;
- a plurality of reinforcement ribs connected at each end to each of the two longitudinal walls and wherein the plurality of reinforcement ribs form an internal X-shaped reinforcement structure;
- a plurality of longitudinal reinforcement ribs dispersed between two or more reinforcement ribs and dispersed between the two longitudinal walls;
- and
- a plurality of connections for connecting the plastic insert to the plastic reinforcing Structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.