Pressurized Vehicle Frame Cavities for Strength and Weight Balance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle frame components lack the optimal balance of strength and weight reduction, necessitating improvements in design and manufacturing methods to enhance energy efficiency and collision safety.
Innovation Solution
The integration of frame components with hermetically sealed interior gaps, where pressurized fluid is introduced to increase strength by permanently deforming metal sheets, allowing for variable transverse thickness and material usage to control deformation and energy absorption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If vehicle frame components use thicker metal sheets to increase strength, then collision safety and rigidity improve, but vehicle weight increases reducing energy efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating controlled deformation zones with specific material properties in certain areas of the frame component, while maintaining high strength in other areas. This is achieved through varying the metal sheet thickness locally and introducing fluid-filled cavities at strategic locations, allowing the structure to be lightweight overall while providing localized strength where needed for collision safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining metal sheets with fluid-filled cavities and deformation zones. The multi-layer construction with different material properties (metal sheets of varying thickness, fluid-filled spaces, and controlled deformation regions) creates a composite structure that achieves high strength-to-weight ratio, resolving the contradiction between strength and weight.
2Ease of manufacture
If vehicle frame components are designed with uniform thickness for simplicity, then manufacturing ease improves, but energy absorption capability during collision decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the frame component into distinct functional zones: high-strength regions, controlled deformation zones, and fluid-filled cavities. This segmentation allows each zone to perform its specific function during collision, with deformation zones absorbing energy through controlled crushing and fluid cavities providing additional energy absorption, thereby improving energy absorption capability while maintaining manufacturability through standardized zone designs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses parameter changes by varying the thickness, material properties, and geometric parameters of different zones within the frame component. The controlled deformation zones have specific thickness ratios and material characteristics that enable predictable energy absorption behavior during collision, allowing the structure to meet safety requirements while remaining manufacturable through controlled parameter variations rather than complex geometries.
3Weight of moving object
If frame components use lighter gauge metal sheets to reduce weight, then energy efficiency improves, but structural rigidity and strength decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the anti-weight principle by introducing fluid-filled cavities that provide structural support and rigidity to compensate for the use of lighter gauge metal sheets. The pressurized fluid acts as a counterbalancing force that maintains structural integrity, allowing the frame component to use thinner, lighter metal sheets while preserving the necessary strength and rigidity for safety and performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses pneumatics and hydraulics by incorporating fluid-filled cavities within the frame component structure. The pressurized fluid (gas or liquid) provides internal support pressure that enhances the rigidity and load-bearing capacity of the lighter metal sheet structure, enabling weight reduction without sacrificing strength. The fluid pressure acts as an active structural element that compensates for the reduced material thickness.
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 results in vehicle frame components with increased strength and reduced weight, providing enhanced energy efficiency and improved collision safety through controlled deformation zones.
Implementation Method 1
the fluid pressure is operative to permanently deform at least one of the first wall or the second wall. Such deformation caused by the delivery of the fluid into the interior gap further operates to provide wall profiles that have desirable properties
Implementation Method 2
The introduction of the pressurized fluid into the interior gap is operative to increase the strength of the frame component beyond that that would be achieved by the structure absent the delivered fluid
Implementation Method 3
The sheets are operatively joined together such that the gap between the sheets is hermetically sealed
Data Source
AI summary
Exemplary vehicle structures include a frame component that provides greater strength and/or other desired properties to a vehicle structure. The frame component includes a first wall (6) and a second wall (7). The first and second walls each comprise at least one metal sheet. The first and second walls bound a sealed interior gap (28). Pressurized fluid is introduced into the sealed interior gap through at least one of the walls via a fluid connector (8). In some arrangements the gap includes a hermetically sealed pocket (110) that is bounded by a pocket wall (36). The pressurized fluid is delivered into the pocket interior area that is bounded by the pocket wall. The fluid delivered to the sealed interior gap and/or the pocket interior area may be operative to cause controlled permanent deformation thereof to produce desired wall configurations which have increased strength. The fluid housed within the sealed interior gap may provide increased strength or other desired properties. Vehicle structures such as vehicle side frames, vehicle floor members and vehicle frame longitudinal members may each include one or more of the frame components integrated in the vehicle structure.