Patchwork Vehicle Floor Panel for Strength and Battery Space
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing of vehicle floor panels is labor-intensive and challenging due to the need for multiple welding operations, which can lead to deformation and handling difficulties, while also requiring a redesign to accommodate batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles, necessitating a balance between strength, stiffness, and weight reduction.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a main blank of press-hardenable steel with strategically arranged and welded patch blanks, where the patch blanks are made of more ductile steel than the main blank, forming a patchwork blank that is then pressed to create a floor panel with enhanced energy absorption and reduced weight, utilizing techniques like hot stamping and tailor-welded blanks to optimize mechanical properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If multiple welding operations are used to assemble floor components, then the floor panel can be constructed with sufficient strength and stiffness, but the manufacturing process becomes labor-intensive and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate floor components (side sills, cross members, reinforcement elements) into a single integrated floor panel produced by one press hardening operation. This merging eliminates the need for multiple welding operations and assembly steps, directly resolving the contradiction by maintaining structural strength through integrated design while dramatically improving manufacturing productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates reinforcement elements and structural features directly into the floor panel blank before the press hardening process. By preparing the blank with pre-positioned reinforcement elements and appropriate geometry beforehand, the patent eliminates the need for post-assembly welding operations, thereby maintaining strength requirements while improving manufacturing efficiency.
2Reliability
If multiple welding operations are performed to assemble floor components, then the floor panel can achieve required structural integrity, but deformation and handling difficulties occur
Solution Approach 1:
By merging multiple floor components into a single press-hardened panel, the patent eliminates welding operations that cause deformation and assembly difficulties. The integrated structure maintains structural integrity through its monolithic construction while significantly improving ease of handling and installation as a single unit.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the manufacturing parameters from incremental welding operations to a single press hardening process with controlled heating and cooling. This parameter change produces a structurally integral panel without welding-induced deformation, thereby improving both reliability and ease of operation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If traditional floor geometry is used, then the structural skeleton can be maintained, but space for batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the floor panel into distinct functional zones with different material properties - harder press-hardenable steel in load-bearing areas and softer ductile steel in battery accommodation areas. This segmentation allows the structural skeleton to maintain stability in critical regions while creating optimized space volume for batteries in non-critical regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by using different material hardness levels in different areas of the floor panel. Softer material in battery areas provides better space accommodation and energy absorption, while harder material in structural areas maintains skeleton stability, thereby resolving the contradiction between structural integrity and battery space.
4Ease of manufacture
If uniform material strength is used throughout the floor panel, then manufacturing is simplified, but energy absorption during impacts is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using softer ductile steel in areas where energy absorption is critical (such as impact zones and battery protection areas) while using harder press-hardenable steel in load-bearing structural areas. This localized material differentiation improves impact energy absorption without significantly complicating manufacturing, as both materials can be processed in the same press hardening operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite structure by combining two different steel materials with different mechanical properties in a single floor panel. This composite approach optimizes energy absorption through the ductile material while maintaining structural integrity with the harder material, and both materials can be manufactured together through press hardening.
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
This approach simplifies the manufacturing process, reduces weight, and enhances the floor panel's strength and energy absorption capabilities, while minimizing the risk of rupture during impacts, thus improving safety and reducing the number of parts required, leading to cost savings and improved vehicle dynamics.
Implementation Method 1
a steel blank is heated to above an austenization temperature, in particular to above Ac3 (the temperature at which transformation of ferrite to austenite is completed during heating), to substantially fully austenize the blank
Implementation Method 2
the blank is rapidly cooled such that the blank is substantially 'fully hardened' and a martensitic microstructure is obtained
Implementation Method 3
welding the first patch blanks to the main blank to form a patchwork blank
Implementation Method 4
the blank is subjected to a pressing operation in which the blank is deformed
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to methods for forming a floor panel for a vehicle framework, comprising providing a main blank made of a press-hardenable steel, providing one or more first patch blanks, and welding the first patch blanks to the main blank to form a patchwork blank. The methods further comprise pressing the patchwork blank to form the floor panel, wherein the first patch blanks are arranged along a part of the main blank to form a first seat cross member, and wherein left and right portions of the first patch blanks in an area of the main blank to form an area of the floor panel to be attached to a rocker are made of a steel that is more ductile than the steel of the main blank. The present disclosure further relates to floor panels for vehicle frameworks made from a single integral piece.