Lubricant Pan Base Thickness Gradient for Rigidity and Acoustics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lubricant pans for internal combustion engines face challenges in meeting acoustic requirements while maintaining rigidity, as they are complex to manufacture and require additional ribs, which increase weight and tooling costs, and complicate the casting process.
Innovation Solution
A lubricant pan design with a base thickness that increases continuously from the center to the lateral walls, eliminating the need for ribs, reduces tooling costs and simplifies the manufacturing process while maintaining rigidity and improving acoustics by favoring material flow during casting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If additional ribs are added to meet stiffness and acoustic requirements, then rigidity and acoustic performance are improved, but weight increases and manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying the wall thickness continuously from the center (thinner) to the lateral walls (thicker), creating zones of different stiffness where needed. This eliminates the need for discrete ribs while maintaining rigidity in critical areas and reducing weight in less critical areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameter of wall thickness from a constant value to a continuously varying function from center to periphery. This parameter change allows the structure to achieve required rigidity without additional ribs, while simplifying manufacturing by eliminating complex rib features.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If additional ribs are added to meet acoustic requirements, then acoustic performance is improved, but tooling costs and manufacturing effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The varying wall thickness creates local zones of different acoustic properties without requiring separate rib structures. The thicker lateral walls provide acoustic damping where needed, while the thinner center area reduces overall material usage and tooling complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
By changing wall thickness as a continuous parameter rather than using discrete ribs, the patent simplifies tooling requirements. The smooth thickness gradient is easier to achieve in injection molding or die casting than precise rib features, reducing tooling costs and manufacturing effort.
3Strength
If ribs are added to meet stiffness requirements, then rigidity is improved, but weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by concentrating material thickness where structural support is most needed (lateral walls) while reducing thickness where less support is required (center area). This optimized distribution achieves necessary rigidity with minimum weight, eliminating the need for heavy rib structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous variation of wall thickness from center to periphery creates an efficient weight distribution that maintains rigidity without excessive material usage. This gradient thickness profile is more weight-efficient than uniform thickness or ribbed structures for achieving the same stiffness requirements.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If ribs are added to meet acoustic requirements, then acoustic performance is improved, but production efficiency decreases due to additional cooling channels and tool processing
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous wall thickness variation eliminates the need for separate rib features and associated cooling channels. This simpler geometry improves production efficiency by reducing tool processing steps, cooling requirements, and potential fire crack issues, while maintaining acoustic performance through the thickness gradient itself.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
The lubricant tank (1) comprises a mounting flange (2) for fastening the lubricant tank to a crankcase of the internal combustion engine, on which the lateral walls (3) of the lubricant tank are arranged. The bottom thickness (d) of a geometric base center continuously increases in the direction of the walls. The inner radius (Ri) is greater than or the same size corresponding to the outer radius (Ra) at the transition of a base (4) to the walls. The bottom thickness in the base center has a wall thickness of 2 millimeter.