GB2486253A

GB2486253A - Safety bumper

Info

Publication number: GB2486253A
Application number: GB1020881.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sandeep Kumar Anand
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-12-09
Filing date: 2010-12-09
Publication date: 2012-06-13
Also published as: GB201020881D0; WO2012076849A1

Abstract

A safety bumper for a vehicle comprises a lattice of interlocking elements, the lattice 3 formed in an overall substantially V, D or triangular shape narrowing away from a mounting end that mounts to a vehicle as viewed in plan view, whereby when a vehicle with a said safety bumper collides with another vehicle the vehicles are deflected from each other and the bumper lattice crumples to give a progressive deceleration which reduces the risk of injury or death to passengers in the vehicle, wherein the bumper includes an exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement at least partly covering or surrounding the lattice and the exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement has at least one panel 4 and a plurality of outer support elements 8,9 mounted to the panel arrangement at their outer end and extending inwardly towards an outer face of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 but not fixed to the lattice form and able to deflect in the event of an impact.

Description

SAFETY BUMPER

Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns a safety bumper for cars and like road vehicles.

Background to the Invention

When two vehicles collide with each other it is the sudden impact of the vehicles that causes injuries to the occupants or kills them. This problem is addressed in modern cars by the introduction of a "crumple zone" where the bonnet of a car is constructed so it will be crushed on impact to provide a short distance of deceleration before the vehicle completely stops. In other words, energy is transformed by the deformation of the vehicle bonnet instead of being directly transmitted through the body of an occupant. However, the crumple zone only provides a small distance of linear deceleration and, furthermore, crumples from any frontal direction without any deflection.

In order to address this general problem the present inventor developed an inventive new bumper system that prevents a sudden stop by absorbing shock impact and diverting oncoming vehicles after the collision. WO 2009/1 22195 discloses that new system. However, we have found that that system may have a vulnerability to certain types of fronto-lateral impact, providing impaired impact absorption where the collision is with another vehicle or object that is approaching from the front not fully head-on but at a substantial angle and it is an objective of the present invention to provide a further improved bumper system that addresses this problem.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a safety bumper for a vehicle comprised of a lattice of elements formed in a V, D or triangular shape, wherein the bumper includes an exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement at least partly covering or surrounding the lattice and the exterior shock absorbing panei arrangement has at Jeast one panel and a plurality of outer support elements mounted to the panel at their outer end and extending inwardly towards an outer face of the lattice but not fixed to the lattice and able to deflect in the event of an impact.

The substantially V-shaped bumper minimizes injuries in vehicle accidents and saves lives by providing a progressive deceleration (by virtue of differential resistance from the lattice) and deflecting effect in the event of an impact and also economizes fuel consumption by reducing the drag factor from the front of the vehicle. The exterior shock-absorbing panel arrangement with its deflecting outer support elements further enables the bumper to absorb the force of frontal impacts that are off-set from fully head-on.

The outer structural elements may be bars, rods or plates or other types of strut and may extend at an angle to the lattice face ranging from approximately 100 up to 90°. In preferred embodiments the bumper has a number of outer support elements on the exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement that extend therefrom in or substantially plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to which the bumper is mounted in use.

These are most suitably panels and are, on impact, able to slide over the outer surface of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form.

Preferably the thickness/weight of the elements are determined by the weight of the vehicle to which the bumper is to be attached. In one form the lattice of elements, said elements are panels but these may be substituted by elongate elements, such as tubes/cylinders (of circular rectangular or other cross section), packed in an overall triangular or v shape. In a second aspect of the invention there is provided a passenger vehicle integrating a safety bumper according to any of the preceding claims into its bonnet.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a safety bumper for a vehicle comprised of: a shock absorbing panel arrangement that has at least one panel and a plurality of support elements mounted to the at least one panel at their outer end and extending inwardly towards the vehicle to which the bumper is fitted in use at an incline towards a surface but not fixed to the surface and able to deflect and travel over the surface in the event of an impact.

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the

following description and drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings that illustrate assembly of the system, in which: Figure 1 schematically shows a safety bumper of the invention fitted to a vehicle; Figure 2 illustrates the vehicle with the safety bumper raised as it may be when the vehicle is parked in limited spaces; Figure 3 shows inner and exterior side panels of the safety bumper; Figures 4A, 4B and 4C show details of the preferred lattice construction; Figure 5 shows, in side view, a top exterior panel of the bumper; Figure 6 shows a top plan view of an embodiment where the safety bumper of the invention is built into the bonnet of a car; Figure 7 shows a side elevation view of the car from Figure 6; Figures BA and 8B show an alternative form of lattice structure for the bumper; Figure 9 shows a plan view of the preferred embodiment of the safety bumper of the present invention showing the key detail of the exterior panels with provision of outer support elements mounted thereon that extend towards the lattice but which are not attached to the lattice; and Figures IOA and lOB show two different example alternative structures for the exterior shock-absorbing panel arrangement.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the safety bumper of the invention is made of several elements, specifically panels 1, preferably of metal, vertically interlocked with each other to form a mesh or lattice pattern. The thickness of a panel can depend on the weight of the vehicle to which the bumper is fitted. The panels 1 effectively have diamond shaped gaps 2 between them and, on impact, are compressed to absorb most of the shock. During and after the collision, the V-shape 3 of the bumper pointing to the front diverts the colliding vehicles away from each other.

As best illustrated by Figure 4C, each panel 1 suitably consists of a generally elongate flat sheet (of metal) with notches cut out to mate with an adjacent panel. In practice the assembled lattice of Figure 4B is mounted by 30 its edge on top of a diamond-shaped array of metal bars (forming a supporting framework), e.g. by welding. It is generally positioned within a triangular enclosure as illustrated by Figure 4A. It will be apparent that the number of panels can be varied to give any "density" of lattice within the triangularly shaped bumper. For example, the lattice of Figure 3 is more "dense" and contains more panels than the simple lattice of Figure 4. On an impact with the bumper, the impacting object will (a) cause the array of metal bars, and (b) cause the interlocking panels, to crumple. If the impact is small enough, the bumper can be repaired.

However, for larger impacts, it will usually be cheaper to remove the bumper (or the relevant parts) and replace them with fresh parts.

In Figures 3 and 5 the whole top, front, and sides of the bumper are fitted with exterior shock absorbing panels 4. Shock absorbers 5 attach these panels to the inner V shape bumper. The exterior panels can be made of soft shock absorbing metal, preferably with a rubber coating, resulting in minimum injuries to pedestrians if hit by the vehicle. In one embodiment the exterior panels can also be connected to the vehicle brakes, so any impact on these exterior panels will trigger the locks (or antilock braking system -ABS) on all the brakes. In a minor collision, a release button fitted inside the vehicle can release these locks on the brakes. It is preferable to have a narrower forward end of the bumper to provide a differential crumple, i.e. because of the diamond structure the first part to take the impact is the pinnacle diamond, followed by the subsequent rows of diamonds. As such the resistance to impact increases as the bumper crumples until it reaches a maximum resistance at the base of the triangular shape. The overall bumper is preferably a V-shape but may also be a D shape to achieve differential crumpling.

The bumper of the invention increases the length of the vehicle, making it difficult to park in small places, i.e. car parks, driveways, etc. To overcome the increased length of the vehicle for parking, the bumper can be raised vertically as shown in Figure 2, by means of hydraulics 5 similar to a tail-lift mechanism in a truck. In the same manner the bumper can also be raised to 15 degrees on speed ramps. The increased length of the bumper may also cause difficulty for the driver to pull out safely at some crossroads or junctions with blind spots, i.e. a narrow road joining the main road, unable to see the traffic clearly, pulling out of driveways, etc. To overcome this problem, two cameras 6 can be fitted inside the front panel of the bumper, pointing left and right, mounted behind transparent windows 7.

The bumper of the invention can also be integrated inside the bonnet of a vehicle, eliminating the cameras and tail-lift mechanism, as shown in Fig. 6 and 7. In this form.the car can have a more conventional appearance, although the wheels are still preferably behind the safety bumper. The surrounding bonnet can be made of relatively light metal, such that the main impact from a collision is taken by the (internal) bumper and its deflection feature is still retained.

Figures 8A and 8B illustrate an alternative form of lattice wherein the impact absorption aspect of the bumper is provided by tightly packed cylindrical. In further forms the lattice could be a honeycomb (hexagonal/octagonal shape) or even comprised of spheres to provide progressive resistance upon impact. The bumper is preferably constructed from aluminium or a similar light weight construction using available manufacturing techniques.

Referring to Figure 9, this shows the key new features of the improved safety bumper. Here the new deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9 are shown. The exterior shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4, formed of one continuous panel or several panels, is provided with a set of deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9. The supports 8, 9 are here exemplified as panels like those from which the lattice is formed, that are each fixed on an internal face of the exterior panel 4 and extend towards the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 but do not touch it or at least are not affixed to it. The deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9 are, as their name suggests, able to deflect and slide over the external surface of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 in the event of an impact.

In the illustrated embodiment there are two types of deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9. The primary deflectable outer structural supports 8 extend in or substantially plane parallel to the longitudinal axis/plane of the vehicle to which the bumper is mounted in use. Secondary deflectable outer structural supports 9 extend from the exterior panels 4 towards the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 oriented at an incline to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and, as shown in Figure 9, they each terminate at or just short of a respective one of the primary defiectable outer structural supports 8 and provide additional resistance to deflection of the primary deflectable outer structural supports 8 to give greater impact absorption. The outer structural elements 8, 9 need not be plates but might be bars, rods or other types of strut and may extend at an acute or orthogonal angle to the lattice outer face, suitably ranging from approximately 10° up to 90° but could even be inclined by up to 180°. On impact the deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9 are able to slide down the outer surface of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 towards the base of the form 3, progressively absorbing the impact force.

Figures IOA and lOB illustrate two different example alternative structures for the exterior shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4, each having a set of dellectable outer structural supports 8, 9. These can be self-contained modules that mount to the V, D or triangular shape lattice form 3 and are each shown as formed in a triangle as viewed in plan, to correspond to a front corner of the vehicle! front corner of the front bumper. In Figures 1 OA and lOB the modules are shown as having not only front and side outer panels (or outer panel portions) 4a, 4b but also an inner panel 4c that defines the third side of the triangular shaped module! shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4. The use of an inner panel 4c may create a substitute for the inclined front face of the central lattice form 3. The exterior shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4 with its deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9 may be supplied as a module separately from any central lattice form 3 and fitted demountably or otherwise thereto or may be used independently of any central lattice form 3 (ie without the lattice form 3 with the broad base mounted to the vehicle front end and that narrows! tapers forwardly).

In Figure 1OA the triangular shaped module! shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4 equates to the left corner of the shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4 of the Figure 9 embodiment and has the same configurations! orientations of the dellectable outer structural supports 8, 9. In Figure lOB the triangular shaped module! shock-absorbing panel arrangement 4 equates to the right corner of the shock-absorbing panel

S

arrangement 4 of the Figure 9 embodiment but has a different configuration! orientations of the deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9.

Here the primary outer structural supports 8 are shown as oriented at a mix of obtuse (91-18°) angle and acute angle to the longitudinal axis!straight forwards direction of travel of the vehicle and the secondary outer structural supports 9 are shown as oriented differently too. In the Various permutations and combinations of orientations! arrangements of the defiectable outer structural supports 8, 9 may be used though that of Figures 9 and IOA are preferred. Although Figures 10/k and lOB show right and left modules respectively where each has a different configuration of the deflectable outer structural supports 8, 9, it will generally be the case that the right and left modules would be mirror image pairs as per Figure 9.

Claims

Claims 1. A safety bumper for a vehicle comprised of: a lattice of interlocking elements, the lattice formed in an overall substantially V, D or triangular shape narrowing away from a mounting end that mounts to a vehicle as viewed in plan view, whereby when a vehicle with a said safety bumper collides with another vehicle the vehicles are deflected from each other and the bumper lattice crumples to give a progressive deceleration which reduces the risk of injury or death to passengers in the vehicle, wherein the bumper includes an exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement at least partly covering or surrounding the lattice and the exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement has at least one panel and a plurality of outer support elements mounted to the panel arrangement at their outer end and extending inwardly towards an outer face of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form but not fixed to the lattice form and able to deflect in the event of an impact.
2. The safety bumper of claim 1, wherein the outer structural elements are bars, tubes, rods or plates.
3. The safety bumper of claim 1 or 2, wherein the outer structural elements extend at an angle to the lattice face ranging from approximately 1O°uptol8O°.
4. The safety bumper of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the outer structural elements extend at an angle to the lattice face ranging from approximately up to 90°.5. The safety bumper of any of claims I to 5, wherein at least one outer support element on the exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement extends therefrom in or substantially plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to which the bumper is mounted in use.4. The safety bumper of claim I or 2, wherein at least one outer support element is a primary support element that, on impact, is able to slide over the outer surface of the V, D or triangular shape lattice form in the direction towards the base of the lattice form.
5. The safety bumper of claim 4, wherein at least one outer support element is a secondary support element that, on impact, is able to slide over the surface of a said primary support element.
6. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the lattice has diamond, honeycomb or circular gaps between the elements.
7. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the lattice of elements comprises a lattice of panels that are mounted, extending perpendicularly, on a correspondingly shaped framework.
8. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the safety bumper further comprises a raising/lowering mechanism to be mountable on a vehicle.
9. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the thickness/weight of the elements are determined by the weight of the vehicle to which the bumper is to be attached.
10. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the safety bumper further comprises a sensor for connecting to a braking system of the vehicle to which the bumper is attached.
11. The safety bumper of any preceding claim, wherein the safety bumper further comprises a camera mounted on or adjacent the lattice of elements.
12. A safety bumper for a vehicle comprised of: a shock absorbing panel arrangement that has at least one panel and a plurality of support elements mounted to the at least one panel at their outer end and extending inwardly towards the vehicle to which the bumper is fitted in use at an incline towards a surface but not fixed to the surface and able to deflect and travel over the surface in the event of an impact.
13. The safety bumper of claim 12 wherein the shock absorbing panel arrangement is a module that has at least three panels or panel portions arranged in a substantially triangular configuration as viewed in plan and the said surface is one of the at least three panels or panel portions.
14. The safety bumper of claim 12 or 13 wherein the support elements are bars, tubes, rods or plates.
15. The safety bumper of claim 12, 13 or 14, wherein the support elements extend at an angle to the surface ranging from approximately 100 up to 180°.
16. The safety bumper of claim 15, wherein the outer structural elements extend at an angle to the lattice face ranging from approximately 10° up to 90°.
17. The safety bumper of any of claims 12 to 16, wherein at least one outer support element on the exterior shock absorbing panel arrangement extends therefrom in or substantially plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to which the bumper is mounted in use.
18. The safety bumper of claim I or 2, wherein at least one outer support element is a primary support element that, on impact, is able to slide over the surface of the V, 0 or triangular shape lattice form in the direction towards the base of the lattice form.
19. The safety bumper of claim 18, wherein at least one outer support element is a secondary support element that, on impact, is able to slide over the surface of a said primary support element.
20. A passenger vehicle integrating a safety bumper of any preceding claim into its front hood.
21. The safety bumper of claim I or 12 wherein the lattice of panels are mounted, extending perpendicularly, on a correspondingly shaped framework.