Rear Body Structure With Recessed Seat Hinge Bracket Layout

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing vehicle-body rear structures face challenges in maintaining rigidity against side collisions while ensuring efficient assembly of rear seats, particularly due to complex integration of seat hinges and stiffening brackets.

Innovation Solution

A vehicle-body rear structure incorporating a stiffening bracket with a recessed part and a seat hinge design that allows for efficient energy distribution and absorption during side collisions, while maintaining good assembly workability by using a cover bracket to secure a space for the seat hinge, enhancing rigidity without complicating the assembly process.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Strength

If the seat hinge is integrated with the stiffening bracket through joining operations, then the structural rigidity is improved, but the assembling workability deteriorates due to time-consuming integration processes

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvestructural rigidityVSAvoidassembling workability

Core Design Contradiction:

StrengthVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The seat hinge and stiffening bracket are merged into a single integrated component. The seat hinge bracket forms both the hinge functionality and the stiffening structure, eliminating the need for separate joining operations between these two elements while maintaining both rigidity and assembly efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Ease of manufacture

If multiple separate components are used for the seat hinge and stiffening structure, then the ease of assembly is improved, but the structural rigidity deteriorates due to insufficient load distribution

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveassembly efficiencyVSAvoidstructural rigidity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSStrength

Solution Approach 1:

The seat hinge bracket integrates multiple functions including hinge rotation, load bearing, and structural stiffening into one component. This merger ensures that collision loads are effectively distributed through the integrated structure while maintaining simple assembly procedures

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The seat hinge bracket serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a rotational hinge for seat adjustment, a load-bearing structure for collision resistance, and a stiffening element for the rear seat assembly. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by achieving both rigidity and ease of assembly

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS12617474B2Vehicle-body rear structure

Publication Date: 2026.05.05 SUBARU CORP

AI summary

A vehicle-body rear structure for a vehicle includes a stiffening bracket and a seat hinge. The stiffening bracket is provided on a vehicle-widthwise inner side of a rear fender arch of the vehicle on a vehicle front side of a rear wheel house of the vehicle. The rear fender arch is joined to a side sill and a rear pillar of the vehicle. The seat hinge is provided so as to extend in a vehicle width direction of the vehicle on a vehicle lower side of a vehicle seat of the vehicle. The stiffening bracket includes a recessed part recessed outward in the vehicle width direction. The seat hinge includes a vehicle-widthwise outer end that is disposed on a vehicle-widthwise inner side of the recessed part, and to a vehicle-widthwise inner surface of the recessed part with a space between the vehicle-widthwise outer end the vehicle-widthwise inner surface.