Two-Track Vehicle Cover Element With Touchdown Stop
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle designs with traction batteries under the body are prone to damage from crashes and bottoming out, leading to potential serious battery damage, and existing protection methods increase vehicle weight and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A cover element with a lateral edge section acting as a touchdown stop, positioned to absorb impact energy and keep the traction battery disengaged from road contours, combined with a fiber-composite plastic construction and truss-like stiffening structure to reduce weight and enhance protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple underride protection elements are provided on the vehicle underbody to protect the traction battery from bottoming out and crash events, then the protection reliability is improved, but the vehicle weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cover element is divided into a base section and laterally extended edge sections, where the edge sections protrude beyond the touchdown-sensitive component to form touchdown stops. This segmentation allows the protection function to be distributed to specific lateral regions, protecting the battery without requiring complete underbody coverage with heavy materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The touchdown stop is designed with a large stop surface that protrudes downward from the base section, concentrating protection at the critical lateral edges where the battery is most vulnerable. This local quality approach provides targeted protection at high-risk areas rather than uniform protection across the entire underbody, reducing overall material usage and weight.
2Reliability
If traditional underride protection elements are used to protect the traction battery, then the protection effectiveness is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cover element integrates multiple functions into a single component: it provides the base covering for the battery while extending laterally to include touchdown stops. This merging of the base section and edge sections into one integrated part eliminates the need for separate underride protection elements, reducing component count and assembly complexity while maintaining protection effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The cover element serves multiple protective functions simultaneously: it acts as a base cover for the battery and extends laterally to provide touchdown stops that protect against bottoming out and lateral impacts. This multi-functionality replaces what would traditionally require multiple specialized protection elements, simplifying the overall protection system.
Data Source
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AI summary
A two-track vehicle having a chassis on the lower face of which a component is arranged that is sensitive to scraping the road surface, the outer contour jutting out downward from the lower face of the chassis in the direction of the road surface by an offset variable and the component being covered by a base portion of a cover element to protect the component from scraping the road surface. At least one edge portion of the base portion of the cover element is laterally extended in a vehicle transverse direction, the edge portion forming a scraper stop that juts out downward from the cover element base portion in a direction onto the road surface by a vertical offset so that, when the lower face of the vehicle scrapes the road surface, the cover element base portion remains substantially out of contact with an interference contour on the road surface.