Instrument Panel Strength Distribution for Steering Wheel Restraint
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle designs fail to effectively suppress the inward movement of the steering wheel during a vehicle collision, which displaces the airbag's restraining position, compromising occupant safety, especially in frontal and small overlap collisions, and often require complex structures or increased vehicle weight to address this issue.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle-occupant protection structure is implemented, where the instrument panel member's strength is selectively reduced between the steering shaft support part and the linking part near the steering shaft, allowing it to bend first under load, thereby preventing the steering wheel's inward movement and ensuring the airbag can securely restrain the occupant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the strength of the instrument panel member is increased to prevent bending and steering wheel movement, then the restraining position stability is improved, but the vehicle body weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The instrument panel member is designed with non-uniform strength distribution: the first portion (near the center stay) has lower strength to allow controlled bending, while the second portion (near the linking part) has higher strength to prevent excessive deformation. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by providing stability where needed without uniformly increasing weight throughout the entire panel.
Solution Approach 2:
The instrument panel member is segmented into at least two portions with different strength characteristics. The first portion between the center stay and steering shaft support part allows controlled deformation, while the second portion between the steering shaft support part and linking part maintains structural integrity. This segmentation enables differentiated mechanical behavior to stabilize the restraining position without excessive weight increase.
2Reliability
If the layout of peripheral members is modified to prevent steering wheel movement, then the airbag restraining effectiveness is improved, but the design complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of modifying the overall layout of peripheral members, the invention applies local quality differentiation to the instrument panel member itself. By creating portions with different strength characteristics, the design achieves improved airbag restraining effectiveness through material/structural properties rather than complex geometric reconfiguration, thereby reducing design complexity.
3Reliability
If a turning device is added to change airbag deployment direction, then the occupant restraint reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of adding a turning device to actively change airbag deployment direction, the invention inverts the approach by passively controlling the instrument panel's deformation behavior. The differentiated strength design ensures the panel bends in a controlled manner that naturally maintains steering wheel position, eliminating the need for active turning mechanisms while achieving the same reliability goal.
Data Source
AI summary
The strength of an instrument panel member (12) at a portion thereof between a steering shaft support part (16) and a linking part (13) on the side near a steering shaft (11) is set lower than the strength of the instrument panel member (12) at a portion thereof between the steering shaft support part (16) and a linking part (14) on the far side from the steering shaft (11), with respect to a load input through the linking part (13) on the side near the steering shaft (11) in the vehicle body front-rear direction. The above configuration makes it possible to suppress movement of a steering wheel inward in the vehicle width direction to thereby securely restrain a vehicle occupant by an airbag at the time of a vehicle frontal collision.