Adaptable Dashboard Crossmember for Modular Vehicle Assembly
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Manufacturing dashboards for vehicles of different manufacturers poses challenges in meeting safety standards, as existing sub-assemblies require repeated certification tests due to variations in vehicle dimensions and specific safety requirements, leading to increased costs and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A dashboard structure featuring a single-piece crossmember tube adaptable in length, combined with a versatile central element made of plastic that performs multiple functions such as supporting air conditioning units, air ducts, and electronic devices, allowing for a common sub-assembly design across various vehicle ranges, reducing the need for multiple specific designs and certifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a common dashboard sub-assembly design is used across different vehicle types, then production costs and certification testing requirements are reduced, but adapting to different vehicle dimensions and meeting specific safety standards becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The dashboard crossmember is divided into modular components: a central element and extendable tube sections. This segmentation allows the same central element (which has already been certified) to be reused across different vehicle types, while only the tube sections need to be adjusted for different dimensions, reducing certification costs and simplifying manufacturing.
Solution Approach 2:
The crossmember design incorporates adjustable tube sections that can be extended or shortened to match different vehicle dimensions. This dynamic adaptability allows a single certified central element design to be used across multiple vehicle types while meeting specific dimensional requirements for each application.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the crossmember tube length is extended to accommodate larger vehicles, then adaptability to different vehicle dimensions is improved, but mechanical strength and structural rigidity may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The crossmember is segmented into a rigid central element and extendable tube sections. The central element maintains structural integrity and mechanical strength, while the tube sections provide length adjustment capability, allowing the overall structure to adapt to different vehicle dimensions without compromising the strength of the certified central component.
Solution Approach 2:
The crossmember combines different materials or structural configurations in the tube sections to maintain mechanical strength while allowing length variation. The tube sections are designed to provide both extendability and sufficient structural rigidity when properly configured.
Data Source
Figure 1~4
Figure 5~7
AI summary
The invention pertains to the field of dashboards and relates to a subassembly that can be reused in several dashboard structures intended for vehicles having different distances between the front mounts. Flanges (46, 48) for attachment to the front mounts are identical for all the dashboard structures, the cross tubes (42, 44) of the different structures having the same properties and the length thereof only being adapted to the distance between the front mounts. A central versatile member (50) made of a plastic material is connected at least to the tube and acts as an interface with an air conditioning group and aeraulic ducts, the central versatile members (50) of all the structures being identical. The invention can be used in the field of automobiles.