Honeycomb Spacer Panel for Flat Folded Vehicle Load Floors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle rear seats when folded create a gap between the backrest and the loading area, leading to uneven loading floor levels, potential damage to gap hiders under heavy loads, and obstruction issues with carpets, compromising the functionality and integrity of the extended load floor.
Innovation Solution
A lightweight, cost-effective spacer panel with a honeycomb plastic support structure, featuring a tapered section and a curved profile, is configured to attach to the rear seat backrest, ensuring the loading floor remains seamless and level, providing support to the gap hider and preventing damage from heavy loads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-generated harmful factors
If a gap hider is placed over the gap between the backrest and loading area, then the gap is covered, but the gap hider lacks support and is vulnerable to damage from heavy loads
Solution Approach 1:
The spacer panel serves as an intermediary structural element positioned between the backrest and the gap hider. It provides mechanical support to the gap hider through its rigid construction, preventing direct load transmission to the gap hider while maintaining gap coverage functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacer panel is pre-installed on the backrest before the gap hider is placed. This preliminary action creates a prepared support structure that ensures the gap hider will be protected when loads are applied, eliminating the vulnerability issue before it occurs.
2Productivity
If the backrest is folded to increase storage space, then loading area is extended, but a gap is created between the backrest and loading area causing uneven floor level
Solution Approach 1:
The spacer panel employs an asymmetric tapered design where one end is thicker than the other. This asymmetric geometry allows the panel to compensate for the uneven gap created by the folded backrest, enabling the gap hider and carpet to align at the same level while maintaining the increased storage space configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacer panel applies different thicknesses at different locations (tapered from thick to thin). This local variation in quality allows precise adjustment of the gap hider position relative to the loading floor, achieving level alignment specifically at the gap area without affecting the overall storage space expansion.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If a gap hider is used to cover the gap, then the gap is concealed, but the overall level of the extended loading floor is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The spacer panel acts as a mediator between the backrest and the gap hider, providing the precise thickness adjustment needed to bring the gap hider's upper surface into alignment with the loading floor level, thereby concealing the gap while maintaining floor level uniformity.
4Shape
If carpet is placed over the folded seat to cover the backrest, then aesthetics are improved, but obstruction occurs between the carpet and gap hider
Solution Approach 1:
The asymmetric tapered profile of the spacer panel creates a gradual transition in thickness, allowing the carpet to be routed smoothly over the structure without abrupt obstacles. The curved profile mentioned in embodiments further facilitates carpet routing by eliminating sharp edges and corners.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacer panel incorporates a curved profile that transitions smoothly between different thickness sections. This curvature eliminates sharp edges that would obstruct carpet installation, allowing the carpet to flow continuously over the gap hider and spacer panel structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A spacer panel for a rear side of a seat backrest of a vehicle includes a support structure having a first end and a second end with a tapered section extending from a first portion of the support structure to the first end of the support structure. The support structure is configured to be attached to the rear side of the backrest of the seat. The spacer panel has a honeycomb plastic structure with a thickness varying along a length of the support structure from the first end to the second end of the support structure. A gap hider is associated with the seat such that when the seat is folded, an outer surface of the spacer panel and an upper surface of the loading floor of the vehicle remains in line and oriented at the same angle forming an extended load floor and also providing support to the gap hider.