GB1355202A - Motor vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

1355202 Vehicle bodies; protective guards; bumpers A S BECKLEY 5 May 1971 [8 May 1970 22 Feb 1971] 51311/73 Divided out of 1355201 Headings B7B arid B7J A motor vehicle has a body comprising a front hood 26 sloping upwardly to a windshield 27 so that the extended line of slope would reach the lower facial areas of average-sized adult front seat occupants, a first massive pad 30 of shock absorbing material disposed across the front of the passenger compartment generally below and rearwardly of the windshield 27 and with its upper surface at least as high as the rearmost portion of the front hood 26, and a second massive pad 31 of shock absorbing material disposed across the passenger compartment generally below and forward of the first pad 30, the pads 30 and 31 being shaped and placed so as to simultaneously absorb the kinetic energy of occupants in a collision. Pad 30 has a recess to accommodate the steering wheel 42 which has a helmet-shaped third pad 43 of shock absorbing material mounted thereon. The thickness of pad 43 is such that it and recessed portion 41 of the pad 30 can give the vehicle driver a combined deceleration distance approximating to that given to a passenger by the non-recessed pad 30. At the front and rear ends of the vehicle are rigid vertical bumper plates 4 and 5 faced with masses 11 and 12 of cellular polymeric material. The pads 30 and 31 are positioned at distances from the front seat occupants less than the stopping distance of the vehicle during a collision in which the mass 11 is fully compressed. All of the pads 30, 31 and 43 and the masses 11 and 12 are formed of the same material, of which preferred features are given. The bumper plates 4 and 5 and the vehicle body shell are preferably all formed of a plastics laminate which is described.