Cantilevered Vehicle Side-Mount Safety Guard
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing safety guard mounting arrangements for vehicles, particularly school buses, are not well-suited due to their unique undercarriage structure, making it difficult to effectively mount safety barriers, thereby limiting the installation of injury-preventing devices.
Innovation Solution
A cantilevered safety guard mounted to a vehicle's side panel, positioned in front of the wheels, which is supported by a mounting plate and support posts, allowing for a universal mounting arrangement that can be adapted to various vehicle types, including school buses, by being secured with mechanical fasteners and potentially integrated with a wheel cover.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a safety guard is mounted directly to undercarriage frame structure, then the safety barrier is securely fixed and effective, but this mounting method is not suitable for vehicles with raised undercarriage body portions such as school buses
Solution Approach 1:
The safety guard device is designed with a universal mounting system that can be attached to different vehicle types including school buses with raised undercarriages. The mounting bracket and support structure are configured to interface with various vehicle body configurations, making the same device adaptable across multiple vehicle platforms without requiring vehicle-specific customization.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety guard transitions from traditional undercarriage mounting to a side-mounted configuration. By relocating the mounting point from the vertical undercarriage dimension to the horizontal side panel dimension, the device bypasses the limitation of raised undercarriages and achieves effective wheel proximity on vehicles like school buses.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the undercarriage body portions are raised high, then vehicle design flexibility is improved, but mounting safety guards becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The safety guard system relocates from vertical undercarriage mounting to horizontal side panel mounting. This dimensional shift allows the guard to be installed on vehicles with raised undercarriages by accessing the wheel area from the side rather than from below, thereby maintaining ease of installation despite elevated undercarriage design.
3Reliability
If a safety barrier is positioned close to the ground, then objects are effectively deflected from wheel path, but the mounting structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting structure is divided into separate functional components: a mounting bracket attached to the side panel, support posts providing structural reinforcement, and the safety guard barrier itself. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall assembly process while maintaining effective ground-level positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
Mounting brackets and support posts serve as intermediary elements between the vehicle side panel and the safety guard barrier. These intermediaries distribute mechanical loads, provide adjustable positioning, and simplify the connection process while enabling the barrier to maintain close ground proximity for effective object deflection.
Data Source
AI summary
A safety guard which functions to push objects lying in the path of a vehicle out of the path of the wheels of the vehicle, such as a school bus, for safety purposes includes a front guard positioned at an angle in front of a wheel of the vehicle and is mounted to a side panel of the vehicle such that the frontal guard is supported in a cantilevered manner in front of the wheel. This configuration provides for a substantially universal mounting arrangement that can be particular advantageous in connection with school buses and other vehicles which are not provided with underbody frame and support structure closely adjacent to the vehicle wheel.