Integrated Vehicle Armor Panel Gap Sealing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle armor configurations fail to effectively protect the interior from explosions occurring at angles, such as those triggered by ground mines or remote detonations, as they create unprotected ballistic gaps between the armored floor and side panels, allowing pressure waves and fragments to penetrate.
Innovation Solution
The armor design extends the armored side section to reach under the door plates and integrates a stepped or flat armored floor section that protrudes beyond the side section, ensuring the panels are pressed together during a blast, closing any gaps and providing additional splinter protection, thus maintaining a sealed interior.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the armored floor panel and armored door panel are attached separately from below and inside the door, then the protection from central explosions and perpendicular fire is sufficient, but an unprotected ballistic gap is created when explosion occurs at an angle from below, allowing pressure waves and fragments to penetrate into the vehicle interior
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the armored floor panel and armored door panel into a single integrated armor assembly. The floor panel extends forward beyond the door panel, and both panels are attached together as one unit to the vehicle chassis, eliminating the gap between them. This integration ensures that when an explosion occurs at an angle from below, the combined structure remains rigid and sealed, preventing pressure waves and fragments from penetrating into the vehicle interior while maintaining protection from central explosions and perpendicular fire.
2Strength
If the armored floor panel and armored door panel are pushed apart during angled explosion, then the structure responds to the blast force, but the vehicle interior remains exposed through the created gap
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the floor panel and door panel into a single rigid armor assembly that maintains its structural integrity during blast events. The integrated design ensures that when explosion force applies pressure from below at an angle, the combined structure moves as one unit rather than separating, thereby maintaining the sealed protection of the vehicle interior while still responding structurally to the blast force.
3Reliability
If the armor is designed to protrude beyond the door plates, then the sealed protection is improved, but the visibility of the armor increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by extending the armored floor panel forward beyond the door panel only in the specific area where it is needed for sealed protection against angled blasts. The extension is localized to the front portion of the floor panel, providing enhanced protection where required while minimizing the overall visual prominence of the armor. This localized extension maintains the sealed protection against angled explosions while keeping the vehicle's appearance as normal as possible.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to armor for the bottom and side of a passenger car, comprising: an armored bottom section to be disposed at the bottom of the vehicle, and an armored side section to be disposed on a side of the vehicle in the region of a vehicle opening and being movable together with the vehicle opening, wherein in the region of the vehicle side the armored bottom section in the region of the vehicle side is guided at least to beneath the armored side section of the door or tailgate and close thereto. The invention further relates to a vehicle comprising said armor.