Tailgate Support Plate and Removable Skin for Sealed Light Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current motor vehicle tailgates face challenges with the integration of side rear signaling lights, including aesthetic discontinuity, difficulty in sealing, and complex removal processes, which affect the rigidity and sealing of the panel.
Innovation Solution
A motor vehicle opening panel design featuring an inner panel with a support plate covered by a sealed outer skin, allowing equipment such as lights to be integrated seamlessly within the panel, improving aesthetics and facilitating easy access and maintenance by attaching the outer skin directly to the support plate or inner panel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If side lights are mounted on the outer face of the tailgate, then the lighting function is achieved, but the aesthetics are compromised due to apparent discontinuity and the added appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The support plate merges the equipment mounting function with the structural panel function. By integrating the lighting equipment into the support plate rather than mounting it separately on the outer face, the invention achieves aesthetic continuity while maintaining the lighting function. The support plate becomes part of the tailgate structure itself, eliminating the 'added appearance' problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The equipment (side lights) is nested within the volume delimited by the inner panel and outer skin, mounted on the support plate. This nesting approach allows the lighting equipment to be hidden within the tailgate structure, achieving the aesthetic goal of seamless surfaces while preserving full lighting functionality.
2Reliability
If the outer skin is permanently bonded to the inner panel to ensure sealing, then water protection is improved, but equipment accessibility is worsened requiring interior access through holes
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the tailgate into distinct functional zones: the inner panel, the support plate with equipment, and the outer skin. This segmentation allows the outer skin to be sealed to the inner panel for water protection, while the equipment on the support plate remains accessible from the exterior through the sealed configuration, eliminating the need for interior access holes.
Solution Approach 2:
The support plate acts as an intermediary element between the inner panel and outer skin. It provides a mounting surface for equipment while maintaining the sealed relationship between the skin and panel, serving as a mediator that enables both sealing and accessibility without compromising either requirement.
3Ease of operation
If holes are made in the inner panel to access equipment, then equipment removal is facilitated, but panel rigidity is reduced and design complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of accessing equipment from the interior through holes in the inner panel, the invention inverts the access approach by enabling exterior access through the outer skin. The support plate configuration allows equipment removal from the outside, preserving panel rigidity while achieving easy equipment access.
Data Source
AI summary
A motor vehicle opening panel including an inner panel, preferably made of plastic material, provided with an upper part in which a first opening is made that is intended to accommodate a rear window, and an outer skin, at least partially made of plastic material, attached to the inner panel, comprising an inner surface located opposite an outer surface of the inner panel. The opening panel further includes a support plate for at least one equipment item covered by the outer skin. The inner surface of the outer skin is attached directly to the support plate 4 in a sealed manner. The plate is arranged inside an inner volume delimited by the outer surface of the inner panel and by the inner surface of the outer skin. The outer skin is attached directly and fastened removably to the inner panel or to the plate.