Knee protection structure for vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9789835-B2
Application number	US-201514965651-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2015
Priority date	Jul 1, 2015
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

A knee protection structure for a vehicle may include a bracket disposed on a vehicle body structure, and a lower crash pad panel disposed to be supported by the bracket so that a knee of a passenger hits the lower crash pad panel in the event of a collision, in which the lower crash pad panel may include a uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material, continuous fibers may be arranged in a given direction, inserted into at least a predetermined region of the entire region thereof, and a multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material, in which continuous fibers may be arranged in multiple directions, inserted into the remaining region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A knee protection structure for a vehicle, comprising:
a bracket disposed on a vehicle body structure; and
a lower crash pad panel disposed to be supported by the bracket so that a knee of a passenger hits the lower crash pad panel in an event of a collision,
wherein the lower crash pad panel includes a uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material, in which continuous fibers are arranged in a given direction, inserted into at least a predetermined region of an entire region thereof, and a multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material, in which continuous fibers are arranged in multiple directions, inserted into a remaining region of the lower crash pad panel.

2. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material is inserted into first and second side portions in a left-and-right direction of the entire region of the lower crash pad panel, and the multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material, in which the continuous fibers are arranged in the multiple directions, is inserted into a central portion in the left-and-right direction of the lower crash pad panel.

3. The knee protection structure of claim 2 , wherein the continuous-fiber composite material inserted into the first and the second side portions has a smaller thickness than a thickness of the continuous-fiber composite material inserted into the central portion.

4. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material comprises a woven type continuous-fiber composite material in which woven continuous fibers are stacked in multiple layers within thermoplastics.

5. The knee protection structure of claim 4 , wherein the multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material includes the continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a horizontal direction, in a vertical direction, or in an oblique direction.

6. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material comprises an orthogonal type continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers arranged in a given direction are stacked in multiple layers such that the continuous fibers of the respective layers are orthogonal to one another within thermoplastics.

7. The knee protection structure of claim 6 , wherein the multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material includes the continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a horizontal direction, in a vertical direction, or in an oblique direction.

8. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material comprises a continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a horizontal direction of the lower crash pad panel are stacked in multiple layers.

9. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material comprises a continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a vertical direction of the lower crash pad panel are stacked in multiple layers.

10. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material comprises a continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in an oblique direction at a predetermined inclination angle based on a vertical axis of the lower crash pad panel are stacked in multiple layers.

11. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material, inserted into the at least predetermined region, is divided into an upper layer and a lower layer by a predetermined thickness ratio, and the continuous fibers of the upper layer and the lower layer have different directions.

12. The knee protection structure of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the upper layer and the lower layer includes continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a vertical direction, and at least one remaining of the upper layer and the lower layer includes continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in a horizontal direction.

13. The knee protection structure of claim 11 , wherein the continuous fibers of the upper layer and the continuous fibers of the lower layer are oblique continuous fibers arranged lengthwise in different oblique directions between the upper layer and the lower layer.

14. The knee protection structure of claim 1 , wherein the continuous-fiber composite material, inserted into the at least predetermined region, is divided into an upper layer and a lower layer by a predetermine thickness ratio, at least one of the upper layer and the lower layer is formed of a uni-directional continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers are arranged in a given direction, and at least one remaining of the upper layer and the lower layer is formed of a multi-directional continuous-fiber composite material in which continuous fibers are arranged in multiple directions.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp
• Lg Hausys Ltd
• Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd

Inventors

• An Jae Hyun
• Kim Il Sang
• Kim Kwon Taek
• Kim Hee June
• Kim Keun Chul
• Bae Man Suk

Classifications

• B60R21/045 Primary

  associated with the instrument panel or dashboard · CPC title

• B32B5/12

  characterised by the relative arrangement of fibres or filaments of {different layers, e.g. the fibres or filaments being parallel or perpendicular to each other} · CPC title

• B32B2605/00

  Vehicles · CPC title

• B32B2260/046

  Synthetic resin · CPC title

• B60R2021/0051

  Knees · CPC title