Elastic Core Guide Bumper Absorbs Tailgate Tolerance Dispersion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing guide bumpers for tailgates fail to ensure tight engagement between the first and second guide members due to dispersion in dimensions and tolerances, leading to movement issues and noise generation during vehicle operation.
Innovation Solution
A guide bumper design featuring a first guide member with an outer body and an elastic core that allows deformation to ensure tight engagement with a second guide member, regardless of tolerance dispersion, using a structure with inclined and vertical portions to facilitate elastic deformation and absorption of dimensional variations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the interference distance between the first guide member and the second guide member is set to a specific value (1.2±0.5 mm), then the guide members can be tightly joined, but manufacturing tolerance dispersion causes the actual interference distance to exceed design tolerance (±1.8 mm), resulting in loose engagement and noise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state of the first guide member from rigid to elastic by using an elastic material. This allows the guide member to deform and adapt to variations in interference distance, ensuring tight engagement even when the actual distance exceeds design tolerance. The elastic property enables the member to compress or extend within its elastic limit, compensating for manufacturing variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The first guide member is made of an elastic material that combines the structural integrity needed for engagement with the flexibility to accommodate tolerance variations. This composite approach integrates both rigidity for mechanical function and elasticity for tolerance compensation, resolving the contradiction between reliable engagement and manufacturing precision.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the interference distance is significantly lower than design tolerance, then the guide members may not be tightly joined, causing excessive rattling noise and booming noise, but increasing the interference distance to ensure tight engagement may cause other assembly issues
Solution Approach 1:
By changing the material property of the first guide member to be elastic, the system can accommodate a range of interference distances while maintaining tight engagement. This eliminates the harmful noise effects without requiring precise control of the interference distance, simplifying assembly tolerance management.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic first guide member acts as a compliant element that absorbs tolerance variations, effectively making the system insensitive to dimensional variations in other components. This approach is simpler and more cost-effective than implementing complex adjustment mechanisms or tighter tolerance controls throughout the assembly.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design effectively absorbs dimensional and tolerance variations, ensuring smooth tailgate operation and preventing rattling and booming noises by ensuring tight engagement between guide members, even when interference distances exceed design tolerances.
Implementation Method 1
the first guide member includes at least one outer body and at least one elastic core inserted into the outer body. The elastic core may allow the outer body to deform when the tailgate closes a rear opening of the vehicle body and the first guide member and the second guide member contact each other
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a guide bumper for a tailgate, including a first guide member attached to one of a vehicle body and a tailgate, and a second guide member disposed on the opposite side of the first guide member, the first guide member including at least one outer body and at least one elastic core inserted into the outer body.