Pedestrian protection automotive hood hinge assembly

Abstract

An automotive hood hinge assembly is adapted to act as a safety device in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. The hood hinge assembly is constructed from a series of linkages and an energy storage actuator that is configured to raise the rear of a vehicle hood in response to a pedestrian collision. The deployed system forms a rigid structure that restrains rearward movement of the hood while providing a vertical motion path and resistive force capable of efficiently dissipating the energy imparted by the pedestrian and therefore significantly lowering injury levels. The linkages are configured to provide conventional rotary opening and closing motion of the hood when the system is in the retracted position and also provide a reset function so that a simple opening and closing motion of the hood when the system is in the deployed position resets it to the retracted position.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to hinges, and more particularly to motor vehicle hood hinges, which are adapted as safety equipment in the event of a collision with a pedestrian. Background technique [0002] The frontmost closure panel of the vehicle is commonly referred to as the hood, and is arranged in a substantially horizontal orientation to enclose the engine compartment, but also to allow hinged access to the engine compartment. It has been found that in a vehicle-pedestrian collision, the risk of serious upper body and head injuries is greatest because the pedestrian is struck against the relatively inflexible vehicle hood and windshield. It has been demonstrated that providing deformable structures where the pedestrian's upper torso and head impact the hood creates an efficient energy dissipation mechanism, reduces head and thorax deceleration, and results in significantly lower injury levels. [0003] One of the earliest vehicular hood relat...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

A method for resetting the system after deployment has also been proposed, but in this regard utilizes an additional actuator cylinder, which is complex and adds significant cost and weight

Although this prior art overcomes many of the structural deficiencies of the aforementioned configurations, it has no specific configuration to provide resistance to dissipate energy imparted by pedestrians, and the reset mechanism is too complex

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