JPH04201754A - Bumper device for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent crawling of a colliding car from behind by narrowing a space between a bumper and a road surface, at the time of running on a normal road surface, and to prevent contact with the road surface by widening the space between the bumper and the road surface, at the time of running on a bad road, by providing an upper end part of the bumper turnably in a supporting point. CONSTITUTION:When a changeover switch 7b of a control means 7 is closed in a side of a terminal (a) by a driver at the time of running on a normal road surface, a switching valve 7a is actuated to supply a pressure of oil to an oil chamber 6a of a fluid cylinder 6 by an oil hydraulic pump 8, and a bumper 4 is turned with a shaft 5 of an energy absorbing damper 3 serving as a supporting point, by moving a piston 6c in a direction of arrow mark A, and stopped in a position of vertically placing the bumper. Here by narrowing a space between a lower end part of the bumper 4 and the road surface, a colliding car from behind is prevented from getting in. On the other hand, when the changeover switch 7b is closed in a side of a terminal (b) by changing into bad road running, the piston 6c of the fluid cylinder 6 is moved in a direction of arrow mark B, and the bumper 4 is stopped in a position shown by a one-dot chain line to prevent the bumper lower end part from coming into contact with the road surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is utilized for absorbing collision energy of automobiles. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bumper device that prevents a rear-end collision bundle from penetrating.

〔overview〕

The present invention provides a bumper device for an automobile that includes a bumper at the movable end of an energy absorbing damper attached to a frame, in which the bumper is rotatably mounted around an axis provided substantially horizontally in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the automobile. This prevents the vehicle from sliding under the bumper in the event of a rear-end collision, and also prevents the bumper from coming into contact with the road surface when driving on rough roads.

[Conventional technology]

The conventional bumper device has a frame 2 as shown in FIG.
The energy absorbing damper 3 is attached to the movable end of the energy absorbing damper 3, and the bumper 14 is attached to the movable end of the energy absorbing damper 3. was.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

As mentioned above, the conventional bumper 14 is located at the height of the frame 2 and inside the vehicle body 15, so the departure angle θ is large, and when a vehicle with a low body collides from behind, the conventional bumper 14 is located at the height of the frame 2 and inside the vehicle body 15. There was a problem with it getting stuck at the bottom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve such problems, and aims to provide a bumper device that can prevent a vehicle from crawling into the vehicle in the event of a rear-end collision.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a bumper device for an automobile comprising an energy absorbing damper having a base attached to a frame, and a bumper attached to a movable end of the damper, wherein the bumper is wide in the vertical direction, and the bumper is wide in the vertical direction, and a drive means that is rotatably mounted around an axis provided substantially horizontally in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the automobile, and that rotates the bumper about the axis; and a control means that controls the drive means by operation. It is characterized by having the following.

The drive means is a fluid cylinder, the control means includes means for controlling the fluid pressure of the cylinder by operation,
Preferably, the driving means is an electric means, and the control means includes means for supplying a driving current to the electric means.

[Effect]

When the vehicle is running on a normal road surface, the control means operates the drive means in response to the driver's actuation of a switch to rotate the bumper about an axis provided horizontally in a direction transverse to the direction in which the vehicle is traveling. This rotation causes the bumper to stop perpendicular to the road surface, narrowing the distance between the road surface and the lower end of the bumper and reducing the departure angle. Furthermore, when driving on a rough road, the drive means is operated in the opposite direction to rotate the bumper inward of the frame to widen the distance between the road surface and the lower end of the bumper.

This prevents the vehicle from crawling under the frame even if it is rear-ended when driving on normal roads.
When driving on rough roads, it is possible to avoid contact between the lower end of the pants and the road surface.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing changes in departure angle in the embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the base 1 includes an energy absorption damper 3 attached to a frame 2 and a / The bumper 4 is attached to the movable end 3a so as to be rotatable around a shaft 5 provided substantially horizontally in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the automobile, and a fluid serving as a driving means for rotating the bumper 4 around the shaft 5 Comprising a cylinder 6 and a control means 7 for controlling the fluid cylinder 6 by operation,
The control means 7 includes a changeover valve 7a and a changeover switch 7b for controlling the fluid pressure of the fluid cylinder 6 by operation.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be explained.

When the driver turns the changeover switch 7b of the control means 7 to the terminal a side during normal road running, the changeover valve 7a operates and the hydraulic pump 8 supplies pressurized oil to the oil chamber 6a of the fluid cylinder 6.
is supplied to The supplied pressure oil moves the piston 6C in the direction A, causing the bumper 4 to move towards the shaft 5 of the energy absorbing damper 3.
Rotate around the fulcrum and stop at the vertical position. The departure angle at this time is θ as shown in FIG.

The distance between the lower end of the bumper 4 and the road surface becomes narrower, thereby preventing a rear-end vehicle from crawling into the road.

Further, when the changeover switch 7b of the control means 7 is turned on to the terminal side when the vehicle changes to driving on a rough road, the pressure oil supplied by the hydraulic pump 8 is supplied to the oil chamber 6b of the fluid cylinder 6. be done. The supplied pressure oil moves the piston 6C to B
The bumper 4 is moved upward, and the bumper 4 is rotated about the shaft 5 of the energy absorbing damper 3 as a fulcrum and stopped at the position shown by the dashed line in FIG. At this time, the departure angle is 01 as shown in FIG. 2, which increases the distance between the lower end of the bumper 4 and the road surface, thereby preventing the lower end of the bumper from coming into contact with the road surface when the vehicle bounces.

FIG. 3(a) and FIG. 3 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the energy absorbing damper 3.

When the bumper 4 is in either position when driving on a normal road or when driving on a rough road, when a rear-end collision occurs, the inner cylinder 31 is pushed into the outer cylinder 32 by the impact force F, and the oil 33 passes through the throttle hole 34. The oil 33 moves into the inner cylinder 31 and presses the floating piston 36 to compress the gas body 37, thereby alleviating the impact. After the impact has been alleviated, the gas body 37 expands to restore the state shown in FIG. 3 to the state shown in FIG. 3(a).

FIG. 4 shows an electric driving means, and the driving of the bumper 4 is not limited to the fluid cylinder 6, and such electric driving means can also be used.

This electric drive means includes a rack 4I and a pinion 42 attached to a motor 43, to which the changeover switch 7b shown in FIG. 1 is connected. The bumper 4 is rotated by the motor 43 by operating the changeover switch 7b as described above.
This can be done by rotating the pinion 42 in the normal or reverse direction and moving the rack 41 meshing with the pinion 42.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by allowing the bumper to rotate using the upper end as a fulcrum, the gap between the bumper and the road surface is narrowed when driving on a normal road surface, thereby preventing a rear-end vehicle from crawling into the bumper. This has the effect of widening the gap between the bumper and the road surface to prevent contact with the road surface when driving on rough roads.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating changes in departure angle in the embodiment of the present invention. FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) are diagrams explaining the operation of the energy absorbing damper in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of an electric drive means in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the mounting position and departure angle of a bumper in a conventional example. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Base, 2... Frame, 3... Energy absorption damper, 3a... Movable end, 4.14... Bumper,
5... Shaft, 6... Fluid cylinder, 6a, 6b...
Oil chamber, 6cm Piston, 7... Control means, 7a...
- Selector valve, 7b... Selector switch, 8... Hydraulic pump, 15... Vehicle body, 31-... Inner cylinder, 32-
... Outer cylinder, 33... Oil, 34... Throttle hole, 36... Floating piston, 37... Gas body, 41... Rack, 42... Pinion, 43...
··motor. Patent applicant Hino Motors Co., Ltd. Agent
An example from patent attorney Takasou Ide! f51 Part 2 (a) (b) Original example 3rd part 3155 Fig.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automobile bumper device comprising an energy absorbing damper whose base is attached to a frame, and a bumper attached to a movable end of the damper, wherein the bumper is wide in the vertical direction. , a driving means that is rotatably attached to the movable end around an axis provided substantially horizontally in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the automobile, and that rotates the bumper around the axis; and this driving means is controlled by operation. A bumper device for an automobile, characterized in that it is equipped with a control means for controlling. 2. The automobile bumper device according to claim 1, wherein the drive means is a fluid cylinder, and the control means includes means for controlling the fluid pressure of the cylinder by operation. 3. The automobile bumper device according to claim 1, wherein the drive means is an electric means, and the control means includes means for supplying a drive current to the electric means.