Cast Hollow Rear Frame Structure for Lighter, Stronger Vehicles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle structures using cast products for skeleton components, such as rear frames, suspension towers, and cross members, have thicknesses that are too large, leading to increased weight and limiting weight reduction and strength improvements.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle rear component is designed as an integrally cast hollow member with a body portion, tower portion, and suspension member portion, featuring specific plate configurations and connections to enhance strength and rigidity, while reducing weight.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If cast products with plate members are used for rear frames, suspension towers, and cross members, then structural strength is ensured, but the member thickness becomes large and vehicle weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the right and left rear frames, right and left suspension towers, and cross member into a single integrally cast hollow member. This merging eliminates the need for separate plate members and their connections, achieving weight reduction while maintaining structural strength through the unified hollow section structure that provides inherent rigidity and load-bearing capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a hollow member structure with thin-walled sections instead of thick plate members. The hollow cross-section provides high strength-to-weight ratio by utilizing the geometric efficiency of enclosed sections, where the thin walls of the hollow structure deliver adequate strength while significantly reducing material usage and overall weight compared to solid plate constructions
2Ease of manufacture
If multiple separate components are used for rear frame structure, then manufacturing flexibility is maintained, but the number of parts increases and assembly complexity rises
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate components (rear frames, suspension towers, cross member) into a single integrally cast unit. This eliminates the need for multiple manufacturing processes and assembly operations, reducing the total part count to one while maintaining manufacturing flexibility through the casting process that can accommodate complex geometries and integrated features
3Stability of the object's composition
If traditional cast product structure is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but impact load transmission during rear collision is not optimized
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated hollow member structure creates continuous load paths throughout the rear frame assembly. The unified structure allows impact loads from rear collisions to be distributed and transmitted more effectively through the interconnected hollow sections to the rocker and rear pillar, improving crashworthiness while maintaining structural integrity
Solution Approach 2:
The hollow member structure with its enclosed sections provides optimized load distribution during impact events. The thin-walled hollow sections can deform in a controlled manner during collisions, absorbing and redirecting impact forces through the structure to protect the vehicle cabin, while the integrated design ensures smooth load transmission paths
Data Source
AI summary
The rear component is an integrally cast hollow member, a main body portion, a tower portion, a suspension member portion, and a front end block, the front end block is composed of a rear panel, a front panel, and a plate member, and is a closed cross-sectional member extending in the vehicle width direction, an end portion on the outside in the vehicle width direction is connected to the rear pillar and the rocker, a right side plate of the main body portion and a right side plate of the suspension member portion are connected to the rear panel, and a left side plate of the main body portion and a left side plate of the suspension member portion are connected to the front panel.