Aluminum Bumper Reinforcement Web Weld Elimination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Bumper reinforcements formed from aluminum alloy extrusions with closed-section structures and welded portions suffer from low mechanical properties, particularly low fracture limits, which reduce their strength and energy absorption capabilities during collisions.
Innovation Solution
The design eliminates welded portions in the webs of the aluminum alloy extrusion, preventing them from becoming starting points of buckling deformation and fracture during collisions, while maintaining welded portions in the flanges to minimize strength reduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If welded portions are present in the aluminum alloy extrusion with closed-section structure, then the bumper reinforcement can be manufactured using hollow die (porthole die, bridge die, or spider die), but the welded portions have low fracture limit and reduce strength and energy absorption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the welded portions from the web regions of the bumper reinforcement, allowing welded portions to exist only in the flange regions. This selective removal eliminates the harmful effect of welded portions in areas prone to buckling and fracture during collision, while preserving the manufacturability advantage of using hollow dies for producing the closed-section extrusion.
2Shape
If welded portions are present in the webs, then the closed-section structure can be formed, but the welded portions become starting points of buckling deformation during collision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes welded portions from the web regions specifically, extracting the problematic feature from the critical area. The webs are designed to be free of welded portions, which prevents them from becoming initiation points for buckling deformation during collision, while the closed-section structure is maintained through the flange regions.
3Strength
If material composition or manufacturing condition is adjusted to improve mechanical properties of welded portion, then some enhancement may be achieved, but it is still difficult to equalize the mechanical properties between welded portion and normal portion
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than attempting to improve the inherent properties of welded portions through material composition or manufacturing condition adjustments, the patent takes out the welded portions from the web regions entirely. This avoids the fundamental problem of mechanical property inequality between welded and normal portions, as the webs now consist entirely of normal material with consistent properties.
Data Source
AI summary
A bumper reinforcement includes an aluminum alloy extrusion body having a pair of flanges to be positioned on a vehicle body side and on a collision side and a pair of webs to be positioned in a vehicle vertical direction. The pair of webs connect the pair of flanges at joint portions such that the pair of webs and the pair of flanges form a closed cross section, and the pair of webs do not have a welded portion.