Vehicle bumper structure including a pedestrian collision detection sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9718423-B2
Application number	US-201514876608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2015
Priority date	Oct 10, 2014
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle bumper structure including: bumper reinforcement at a rear of a bumper cover; an absorber in front of the bumper reinforcement; and a pedestrian collision detection sensor including a pressure tube between the bumper reinforcement and the absorber, wherein a position of a width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement is set between a first normal line and a second normal line, where a front-rear reference line passes through a width direction outer end of a front hood or apron upper member and extends along a front-rear direction, the first normal line passes through an intersection point between the front-rear reference line and the bumper cover and extends along the direction of a normal line with respect to the width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement, and the second normal line is offset by 100 mm to a width direction inner side of the first normal line.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle bumper structure comprising:
a bumper reinforcement that is disposed at a vehicle rear side of a bumper cover provided at a front end of a vehicle, a length direction of the bumper reinforcement being a vehicle width direction;
an absorber that extends along the vehicle width direction and is disposed adjacent to a vehicle front side of the bumper reinforcement; and
a pedestrian collision detection sensor that includes a pressure tube extending along the vehicle width direction between the bumper reinforcement and the absorber, and that outputs a signal according to a change in pressure of the pressure tube,
wherein the pressure tube comprises:
a pressure tube main portion that extends along the vehicle width direction at the vehicle front side of an upper portion of the bumper reinforcement; and
a pressure tube side portion that extends from a length direction outer end of the pressure tube main portion toward a vehicle lower side, and that is disposed at the vehicle front side of the vehicle width direction outer end portion of the bumper reinforcement,
wherein the absorber comprises:
a groove section that is formed to a rear face of the absorber and into which the pressure tube is fitted;
an overhang portion that is a vehicle width direction outer portion of the groove section into which the pressure tube side portion is fitted, the overhang portion projecting out toward the vehicle width direction outer side with respect to the vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement; and
an absorber upper end section that projects out further toward a vehicle upper side than an upper face of the bumper reinforcement, and that is disposed adjacent to a vehicle upper side of the groove section into which the pressure tube main portion is fitted; and
wherein the absorber upper end section comprises a jutting portion that juts out further toward the vehicle rear side than a front face of the bumper reinforcement and is disposed adjacent to the upper face of the bumper reinforcement.

2. The vehicle bumper structure of claim 1 , wherein the absorber comprises an extension portion that extends from the overhang portion toward the vehicle width direction outer side.

3. The vehicle bumper structure of claim 1 , wherein the absorber comprises a hollowed portion that is formed at a rear portion of the absorber and that is open toward the vehicle rear side and the vehicle lower side in side view.

4. The vehicle bumper structure of claim 1 , wherein:
the absorber comprises a projection portion that is formed at a vehicle width direction outer portion of the absorber and that projects down toward the vehicle lower side;
the pedestrian collision detection sensor comprises a pressure sensor provided at a length direction outer end of the pressure tube; and
the pressure sensor is fixed to a front face of the bumper reinforcement at the vehicle width direction inner side of the projection portion.

5. A vehicle bumper structure comprising:
a bumper reinforcement that is disposed at a vehicle rear side of a bumper cover provided at a front end of a vehicle, a length direction of the bumper reinforcement being a vehicle width direction;
an absorber that extends along the vehicle width direction and is disposed adjacent to a vehicle front side of the bumper reinforcement; and
a pedestrian collision detection sensor that includes a pressure tube extending along the vehicle width direction between the bumper reinforcement and the absorber, and that outputs a signal according to a change in pressure of the pressure tube,
wherein a position of a vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement is set between a first normal line and a second normal line,
where a front-rear reference line is a line that passes through a vehicle width direction outer end of a front hood or an apron upper member in plan view and that extends along a vehicle front-rear direction,
the first normal line is a line that passes through an intersection point between the front-rear reference line and the bumper cover in plan view and that extends along a direction of a normal line with respect to the vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement, and
the second normal line is a line that is offset by 100 mm to a vehicle width direction inner side of the first normal line in plan view,
wherein:
a vehicle width direction outer end portion of the bumper reinforcement slopes toward the vehicle rear side on progression toward a vehicle width direction outer side in plan view; and
a vehicle width direction outer end face of the bumper reinforcement is formed along the vehicle width direction in plan view.

6. A vehicle bumper structure comprising:
a bumper reinforcement that is disposed at a vehicle rear side of a bumper cover provided at a front end of a vehicle, a length direction of the bumper reinforcement being a vehicle width direction;
an absorber that extends along the vehicle width direction and is disposed adjacent to a vehicle front side of the bumper reinforcement; and
a pedestrian collision detection sensor that includes a pressure tube extending along the vehicle width direction between the bumper reinforcement and the absorber, and that outputs a signal according to a change in pressure of the pressure tube,
wherein a position of a vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement is set between a first normal line and a second normal line,
where a front-rear reference line is a line that passes through a vehicle width direction outer end of a front hood or an apron upper member in plan view and that extends along a vehicle front-rear direction,
the first normal line is a line that passes through an intersection point between the front-rear reference line and the bumper cover in plan view and that extends along a direction of a normal line with respect to the vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement, and
the second normal line is a line that is offset by 100 mm to a vehicle width direction inner side of the first normal line in plan view, and
wherein a position of the vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement is set between a third normal line and a first sloped line,
where the third normal line is a line that passes through a contact intersection point between a colliding body employed in damage testing and the bumper cover, and that runs along a direction of a normal line with respect to the vehicle width direction outer end of the bumper reinforcement, and
the first sloped line is a line that slopes at a specific angle toward the vehicle width direction inner side centered on the contact intersection point.

7. The vehicle bumper structure of claim 6 , wherein the specific angle is 30°.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Higashimachi Naoya
• Mase Yusuke
• Nagaoka Yasushi

Classifications

• B60R21/0136

  responsive to actual contact with an obstacle {, e.g. to vehicle deformation, bumper displacement or bumper velocity relative to the vehicle (monitoring crash strength in combination with passenger seat detection B60R21/01558)} · CPC title

• B60R19/44

  Bumper guards · CPC title

• B60R19/483 Primary

  with obstacle sensors of electric or electronic type · CPC title

• B60R19/023

  Details · CPC title