Dash Panel Bracket Rigidity Inversion for Harness Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing dash panel structures for automobiles often result in damage to cord-like elements, such as harnesses, during collisions due to their lower rigidity compared to the dash panel, causing them to be caught between the engine and the panel.
Innovation Solution
A dash panel structure where the cord-like element is fixed to a bracket with a higher rigidity than the dash panel, allowing the dash panel to deform before the bracket, maintaining the bracket's shape and preventing the cord-like element from being caught, and reducing the need for a separate bracket, thereby minimizing parts and manufacturing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the cord-like element is supported by a bracket with lower rigidity than the dash panel, then the bracket can be easily manufactured and installed, but the cord-like element is caught between the dash panel and engine during collision causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional rigidity relationship: instead of the bracket being less rigid than the dash panel, the bracket is designed to be more rigid. This inversion ensures that during collision, the bracket maintains its shape and prevents the cord-like element from being caught between the dash panel and engine, while the dash panel itself deforms to absorb impact energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The bracket is designed with high rigidity beforehand to serve as a protective structure that prevents the cord-like element from being compressed during collision. The rigid bracket creates a protective space that cushions the cord-like element from the direct impact between the dash panel and engine.
2Reliability
If a separate bracket is provided specifically for fixing the cord-like element, then the cord-like element can be securely fixed, but the number of parts increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bracket is designed to serve multiple functions: it both supports the component (such as the water pump) and secures the cord-like element. By integrating these two functions into a single bracket structure, the patent eliminates the need for a separate cord-like element fixing bracket, reducing the total number of parts while maintaining secure fixation of the cord-like element.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the function of supporting the component and fixing the cord-like element into a single integrated bracket structure. The bracket simultaneously provides support for the component and creates a protective channel or space for the cord-like element, combining what would traditionally require separate components into one unified structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A cord-like element 4 is extending along a dash panel 3, a component 19 from the cord-like element 4 is fixed to the dash panel 3 via a bracket 20, the cord-like element 4 is fixed to the bracket 20, the cord-like element 4 and the component 19 are fixed to the dash panel 3 via the bracket 20, the cord-like element 4 is arranged on a vehicle rear side Rr from an opposed surface 20M of the bracket to an engine E, and the rigidity of fixed portions 3K of the dash panel 3 to which fixing portions 28A and 29A of the bracket 20 are fixed is set to be lower than the rigidity of the bracket 20. Accordingly, the fixed portions 3K of the dash panel 3 are deformed before the bracket 20 when the bracket 20 is pressed toward the vehicle rear side Rr by the engine E.