Vehicle Baffling Material Openings for Lightweight Reinforcement
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Solution Overview
Problem
The transportation industry faces challenges in achieving improved baffling, sealing, and reinforcement while minimizing weight and cost, as existing materials often require additional material for strength, leading to increased weight and cost, and expandable materials are difficult to control and costly.
Innovation Solution
The method involves forming openings in materials in repetitive patterns along their horizontal axis, allowing them to stretch to 1.3 times their initial length without removing material, thereby reducing the amount needed for reinforcement, baffling, or sealing, and using expandable, rigid, or adhesive materials with specific cutting processes to maintain connectivity and minimize waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If additional material is used to improve strength, then strength is improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The material is segmented into sections separated by openings, allowing each section to independently stretch and deform. This segmentation enables the material to achieve greater effective length and coverage without adding overall material quantity, thereby maintaining strength while reducing weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The material's physical parameters are changed by introducing openings that allow it to stretch to at least 1.3 times its initial length. This parameter change enables the same material to cover larger areas and provide reinforcement over extended distances without increasing weight.
2Strength
If additional material is used to improve strength, then strength is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the material with openings, the same quantity of material provides extended coverage and reinforcement capability, reducing the total material quantity needed for a given application and thereby lowering cost.
Solution Approach 2:
Changing the material's stretchability parameter allows it to extend to at least 1.3 times its initial length, enabling existing material to cover larger areas and reducing the total amount of material required, which decreases cost.
3Quantity of substance
If expandable materials are used to reduce material quantity, then material usage is reduced, but control difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented structure with openings provides predictable and controllable expansion behavior. Each section can stretch independently in a controlled manner, making the material easier to handle and position while still reducing overall material usage.
Solution Approach 2:
The material is engineered with specific stretch parameters (at least 1.3 times initial length) that provide predictable expansion behavior, making it easier to control and position while achieving reduced material usage compared to solid materials.
4Loss of substance
If material is removed to form openings, then waste is reduced, but material connectivity may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The material is segmented into sections by openings, but these sections remain connected through the material bridges between openings. This segmentation reduces waste by optimizing material placement while maintaining connectivity through the continuous material structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The material incorporates a porous structure with openings that allow for reduced material usage and waste, while the porous structure itself maintains structural integrity and connectivity through the remaining material bridges between openings.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for customized, efficient use of materials that provide consistent expansion and reinforcement, reducing material usage and costs while maintaining structural integrity and adaptability to various vehicle structures.
Implementation Method 1
forming openings in the one or more materials wherein: the openings are formed in repetitive patterns along the one or more materials; stretching the one or more materials to a placement length that is at least 1.3 times the initial length
Data Source
AI summary
A method for reinforcing, baffling or sealing a vehicle structure, comprising the steps of providing one or more materials having a horizontal axis, at least one terminating edge, and an initial length, forming openings in the one or more materials, and applying the one or more materials to a location requiring reinforcement, baffling, sealing or any combination thereof.