Vehicle Door Closing Control with Dynamic Braking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Manually closing vehicle body components like doors often results in high acceleration, leading to stress on the components and their suspension arrangements, necessitating complex and costly designs to prevent rattling and ensure reliable operation.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that control the closing movement of vehicle body components by allowing manual closure with minimal kinetic energy, using a three-stage process: initial manual closure, controlled braking to limit kinetic energy, and power-assisted closure to the locked position, reducing stress and complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual closing of body components is allowed without restrictions, then ease of operation is improved, but component stress and reliability deteriorate due to high acceleration forces
Solution Approach 1:
The closing aid dynamically adjusts the closing force based on the detected closing speed. When high closing speeds are detected (indicating slamming), the system activates the closing aid to provide counteracting force, thereby dynamically adapting the system behavior to prevent excessive stress on components while maintaining manual closing freedom during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates a detection device that continuously monitors the closing speed of the body component and provides feedback to the control unit. This feedback mechanism enables the control unit to determine when closing aid activation is necessary, creating a closed-loop control system that prevents component stress while maintaining operational ease.
2Reliability
If automatic door drive is implemented to prevent slamming, then component stress is reduced, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The closing aid is designed to activate automatically based on feedback from the detection device without requiring full automatic door drive systems. The system serves itself by using the detected closing speed to trigger appropriate countermeasures, reducing the need for complex external control systems while still protecting components from stress.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of the closing process dynamically. Instead of implementing a completely automatic door drive, the system modifies the closing force parameter based on detected closing speed, thereby protecting components with minimal additional complexity by adjusting physical parameters rather than adding complex mechanical systems.
3Reliability
If braking is applied during closing to limit kinetic energy, then component stress is reduced, but closing speed and productivity decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The braking force is applied dynamically based on the detected closing speed. The system applies braking force only when high closing speeds are detected, and the magnitude of braking is proportional to the excess speed. This dynamic approach reduces kinetic energy to protect components while minimizing the impact on normal closing speed and overall productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the braking parameter adaptively rather than applying constant braking. The braking force is adjusted as a function of the detected closing speed, applying minimal braking during normal operation to maintain productivity while applying stronger braking only when necessary to protect components from excessive stress.
Data Source
AI summary
To reduce stresses during closing of a manually closable body component, e.g. a door, a control device and a method of controlling closing movement in which, during the closing movement, from an opened position, the body component passes through first movement range in which the body component is moved towards the closed position without any action by a control member, and, thereafter, the body component passes through a second movement range in which the closing movement is varied by the action of the control member that residual kinetic energy of the body component does not exceed a predetermined limit value after passing through the second movement range, irrespective of the initial speed. The residual kinetic energy is not sufficient to close the body component automatically, so it is automatically drawn in a third movement range until a pre catch or main catch of a lock is reached.