Gutter-Shaped Structural Member With Flange
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current structural members for automotive bodies, such as floor cross members, face challenges in achieving improved load transfer properties during impact loads, as their shape designs have not effectively enhanced these properties despite using high-tensile steel sheets.
Innovation Solution
A structural member with a gutter-shaped cross section featuring outward continuous flanges and an end-spread portion, where the gutter bottom width reduces as distance from the flange increases, disperses stress and enhances load transfer by reducing strain and buckling pitch.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the structural member uses high-tensile steel sheets to reduce thickness and increase strength, then the weight is reduced, but the load transfer properties during impact loads are not sufficiently improved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a non-uniform cross-sectional shape where the gutter bottom has different widths at different locations. The width is larger at the end with the outward flange and gradually decreases toward the other end, concentrating structural properties where load transfer is most critical while maintaining overall weight reduction
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameter of the gutter bottom width along its length. By defining a specific width reduction rate (0.001 to 0.01 per mm) and controlling the width at the flange end (0.5 to 2 times the width at the other end), the structure optimizes load transfer properties while maintaining light weight
2Ease of manufacture
If the structural member is designed with constant cross-section, then the manufacturing is simplified, but the load transfer properties and impact energy absorption are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces local variation in the gutter bottom width while maintaining the overall gutter-shaped cross-section. This localized modification creates progressive deformation characteristics that improve impact energy absorption without fundamentally changing the manufacturing process or requiring complex multi-component assembly
3Reliability
If the gutter bottom width is reduced as distance from the flange increases, then the load transfer properties are improved, but the structural complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent defines specific parameter ranges for the width reduction: a controlled reduction rate (0.001 to 0.01 per mm) and a width ratio (0.5 to 2 times between ends). These quantified parameters provide clear design guidelines that balance performance improvement with manufacturing feasibility, avoiding excessive structural complexity
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
[Object] There is provided a long structural member made of metal, which has a substantially gutter-shaped cross section and is excellent in load transfer properties when an impact load is applied. [Solution] A structural member made of metal, formed so as to extend long in a predetermined direction, and having a gutter bottom, two ridges continuing to both ends in a width direction of the gutter bottom, and two vertical walls continuing to the two ridges, includes an outward continuous flange continuously formed at least along the gutter bottom, the ridges, and the vertical walls at an end in the predetermined direction, in which a width of the gutter bottom is reduced as a distance from the end having the outward continuous flange becomes larger.