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US 8,128,153 B2Granted
Front section for a motor vehicle body
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsVolker Bernt, Rolf Ewert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A front section of a motor vehicle body encompasses a bumper and bumper bracket that are designed to retreat during a collision while absorbing energy and momentum, a fresh air passage and a sealing element situated behind the bumper for modulating the throughput of the fresh air passage, which can be dragged along by the retreating bumper or bumper bracket. The sealing element has situated upstream from it a gap that allows the bumper and bumper bracket to retreat without simultaneously taking the sealing element with it.
Claims11
A front section of a body of a motor vehicle, comprising:
- a bumper having an upper cross bracket and a lower cross bracket, said lower cross bracket having a front-most point disposed forwardly of said upper cross bracket, said bumper being adapted to retreat rearwardly during a frontal collision while absorbing energy and momentum;
- and
- a fresh air passage structure having a top horizontal frame member, a bottom horizontal frame member, and a shutter assembly connected therebetween, said shutter assembly being situated behind said bumper, said shutter assembly being adapted to modulate a throughput of air through the fresh air passage structure and thereafter to a motor, the shutter assembly being situated upstream of said motor;
- wherein said upper cross bracket is above said shutter assembly, and said lower cross bracket is below said shutter assembly;
- wherein said bumper and said shutter define a longitudinal gap that allows said bumper to retreat rearwardly during a first part of a frontal collision without causing said shutter assembly to simultaneously retreat with said bumper;
- and
- wherein said bumper is configured to contact said fresh air structure during a second part of a collision to close said longitudinal gap and thereby cause said shutter assembly to retreat along with said bumper when said gap is closed.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.