Engine hood arrangement
AssigneeAGCO International GmbH
InventorsAndreas Schmitz, Gerd Thilo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An engine hood and a method of making a hood for a tractor or similar vehicle, the hood being of generally inverted U-shaped configuration with an upper top portion and downwardly extending side portions. The hood is hinged adjacent one end for upward pivoting between a closed position in which an associated engine is covered and an open position which provides access to the engine. The hood has an outer skin and inner reinforcing members secured to the inside of the outer skin to form two beam-like structures which extend away from the hinge towards the other end of the hood to stiffen the hood against twisting.
Claims41
An engine hood for a tractor or similar vehicle, the hood being of generally inverted U-shaped configuration with an upper top portion and downwardly extending side portions, the hood being hinged adjacent one end for upward pivoting between a closed position in which an associated engine is covered and an open position which provides access to the engine, the hood having an outer metal skin and inner metal skin reinforcing members permanently secured to the inside of the outer skin so that the outer metal skin and the inner metal skin reinforcing members form two longitudinally extending hollow beam-like structures which extend away from a hinge at one end of the hood towards an opposite other end of the hood to stiffen the hood against twisting.
A method of constructing an engine hood of generally inverted U-shaped configuration with a top portion and generally downwardly extending side portions for a tractor or similar vehicle, the method comprising:
- placing transversely extending metal inner skin reinforcing members in a welding jig;
- placing two longitudinally extending metal inner reinforcing members in the jig and welding the transversely extending reinforcing members therebetween;
- welding a top outer metal skin panel between the longitudinally extending metal inner reinforcing members, and
- welding longitudinally extending outer metal skin panels to the longitudinally extending metal inner skin reinforcing members at locations where the welds will not show in the complete hood to form with the longitudinally extending metal inner skin reinforcing members two longitudinally extending hollow beam-like structures which stiffen the hood against twisting.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.