Operating fluid container having a predetermined breaking point

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9718346-B2
Application number	US-201414426654-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2014
Priority date	Nov 13, 2013
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

The present invention relates to an operating fluid container ( 1 ) composed of thermoplastic for a motor vehicle, comprising a reinforcing element ( 10; 11, 12 ), which is arranged between two container walls ( 2, 3 ) of the operating fluid container ( 1 ) and is at least indirectly joined to the container walls ( 2, 3 ). The operating fluid container ( 1 ) according to the invention is characterized by the fact that the container walls ( 2, 3 ) are joined to one another indirectly via the reinforcing element ( 10; 11, 12 ) by means of at least one joining element ( 20; 21 - 25 ). In this arrangement, the joining element ( 20; 21 - 25 ) comprises at least two material layers ( 21 - 25 ) joined to one another, wherein a joining force joining the two material layers ( 21, 22 ) to one another is less than a joining force between the joining elements ( 20; 21 - 25 ) and the container wall ( 2, 3 ) and/or between the joining element ( 20; 21 - 25 ) and the reinforcing element ( 10; 11, 12 ).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An operating fluid container composed of thermoplastic for a motor vehicle, wherein the operating fluid container comprises:
the operating fluid container comprises a reinforcing element;
the reinforcing element is arranged between two container walls of the operating fluid container and is at least indirectly joined to the container walls;
the container walls are joined to one another indirectly via the reinforcing element by at least one joining element;
the joining element comprises at least two material layers joined to one another; and
a joining force joining the two material layers to one another is less than a joining force between the joining element and the container wall and/or between the joining element and the reinforcing element.

2. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcing element is directly joined to the at least one joining element.

3. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the joining element is arranged between a container wall and the reinforcing element and is joined directly both to the container wall and to the reinforcing element.

4. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , comprising:
the operating fluid container comprises at least two joining elements;
a first joining element is joined directly to a first container wall and a second joining element is joined directly to a second container wall;
the reinforcing element is arranged between the first joining element and the second joining element and is joined directly to each of said elements.

5. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , further comprising:
the reinforcing element comprises a first reinforcing element part and a second reinforcing element part;
the first reinforcing element part is joined to a first container wall and the second reinforcing element part is joined to a second container wall; and
the joining element is arranged between the first reinforcing element part and the second reinforcing element part and is joined directly to each of said parts.

6. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the joining element is of conical design and is joined to the container wall in such a way that a contact area between the first material layer and the second material layer is smaller than a contact area between the joining element and the container wall.

7. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a first contact area of a first material layer is larger than a second contact area of a second material layer; and
the joining element is joined to a container wall by the first material layer and is joined to the reinforcing element by the second material layer.

8. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein adjacent material layers of the joining element are each joined materially to one another.

9. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the joining element comprises three material layers.

10. The operating fluid container according to claim 9 , wherein the joining element comprises an EVOH layer, which is arranged sandwich-fashion between two LDPE layers and is joined to each of said layers.

11. The operating fluid container according to claim 4 , wherein the joining element or the joining elements is/are formed from the same material layers as the container walls.

12. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcing element acts as a tension strut when there is excess pressure in the operating fluid container and/or as a compression strut when there is a vacuum in the operating fluid container.

13. The operating fluid container according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcing element is designed as a two-component part.

Assignees

• Kautex Textron Gmbh & Co Kg

Inventors

• Karsch Ulrich

Classifications

• B60K2015/03493

  made of plastics · CPC title

• B60K15/03177 Primary

  made of non-metallic material, e.g. plastics, or of a combination of non-metallic and metallic material (B60K15/03006 takes precedence) · CPC title