阅读说明：本技术 一种充气式柔性吸能总成 (Inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly ) 是由 张明 于 2020-05-27 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及一种充气式柔性吸能总成,其包括防撞横梁和连接在防撞横梁上的至少两个吸能单元,还包括充气单元,充气单元与吸能单元连通以向吸能单元充入气态的吸能介质,每个吸能单元包括外皮、定压阀和安全阀以通过吸能介质的压缩进行吸能,其中,外皮提供容纳吸能介质的空腔,定压阀为与充气单元连通的单向阀以将设定压力的吸能介质充入空腔,安全阀为与大气连通的泄压阀。根据本发明的充气式柔性吸能总成,颠覆了传统的EPP发泡和塑料这两种吸能介质,采用压缩气态的吸能介质进行缓冲吸能,同时提出了模块化吸能单元的概念,在提高吸能效率的同时,可实现减重和降本的双向目标。(The invention relates to an inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly which comprises an anti-collision beam, at least two energy absorption units connected to the anti-collision beam and an inflation unit, wherein the inflation unit is communicated with the energy absorption units to inflate gaseous energy absorption media into the energy absorption units, each energy absorption unit comprises a sheath, a constant pressure valve and a safety valve to absorb energy through compression of the energy absorption media, the sheath provides a cavity for containing the energy absorption media, the constant pressure valve is a one-way valve communicated with the inflation unit to inflate the energy absorption media with set pressure into the cavity, and the safety valve is a pressure relief valve communicated with the atmosphere. According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, two energy absorption media of traditional EPP foaming and plastic are overturned, the energy absorption is buffered by adopting the compressed gas energy absorption medium, and the concept of the modularized energy absorption unit is provided, so that the bidirectional targets of weight reduction and cost reduction can be realized while the energy absorption efficiency is improved.)

1. The utility model provides a flexible energy-absorbing assembly of inflatable, it includes crashproof crossbeam and connects two at least energy-absorbing units on crashproof crossbeam, a serial communication port, this flexible energy-absorbing assembly of inflatable still includes the unit of aerifing, aerify unit and energy-absorbing unit intercommunication in order to fill gaseous energy-absorbing medium into to the energy-absorbing unit, every energy-absorbing unit includes the crust, constant pressure valve and relief valve carry out the energy-absorbing in order to compress through the energy-absorbing medium, wherein, the crust provides the cavity that holds the energy-absorbing medium, the constant pressure valve is the one-way valve with aerifing the unit intercommunication in order to fill the cavity with the energy-absorbing medium of settlement pressure, the relief valve.

2. The inflatable flexible energy absorbing assembly of claim 1, wherein the inflation unit comprises a main pipeline and at least two branches, wherein each branch is connected to a constant pressure valve of the main pipeline and the energy absorbing unit respectively to inflate the energy absorbing medium into the cavity of each energy absorbing unit.

3. The inflatable energy compliant assembly of claim 2 wherein the main conduit has an inflation port in communication with an air source.

4. The inflatable energy compliant assembly of claim 1 wherein the set pressure has a range of variation.

5. The inflatable energy compliant assembly of claim 4 wherein the set pressure is 6 to 7 Bar.

6. The inflatable energy absorbing compliant assembly of claim 5 wherein the pressure relief valve has a pressure relief pressure of 7Bar to 8 Bar.

7. The inflatable energy compliant assembly of claim 1 wherein the relief valve is an intelligent control relief valve.

8. The inflatable energy absorbing compliant assembly of claim 1 wherein the skin is a butyl rubber skin.

9. The inflatable compliant energy absorber assembly of claim 1 wherein the interface of each energy absorber unit to the bumper beam is bonded by adhesive tape.

10. The inflatable energy compliant assembly of claim 1 wherein the energy absorbing medium is air or an inert gas.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to crash energy absorbing structures, and more particularly to an inflatable flexible energy absorbing assembly.

Background

With the development of the automobile industry in the world, the development of automobiles increasingly pays more attention to the protection of pedestrians. The automobile front bumper energy absorption block has the function that when a vehicle collides with a pedestrian, the legs of the pedestrian can be effectively protected from or the damage of impact energy in the collision can be reduced. The current pedestrian protection regulations put increasingly stringent requirements on the pedestrian protection performance of automobiles.

Host factories or exterior part manufacturers hope to reduce the development cost and improve the reuse rate of energy-absorbing products; consumers also desire to minimize post-accident repair costs.

To achieve these objectives, the current practice is: 1) the double energy absorption block is arranged in a limited space, but this results in an increase in weight and cost; 2) the new vehicle model continues to use the old energy absorption block, but the internal arrangement is limited, and the structure is difficult to update; 3) additional serviceable panels are added, but this results in increased weight and cost.

First, the conventional energy-absorbing foam or plastic energy-absorbing block stores energy during collision by deformation and damage caused by structural crush, and energy absorption in a limited space is restricted by the size of the space. In particular, the compression ratio (ratio of the residual length to the original length) of the two structures is small, and when the structures are compressed to a certain degree, the rigidity becomes very large, so that the structures cannot be compressed any more, and therefore the energy cannot be absorbed any more. Secondly, the traditional energy-absorbing foam or plastic energy-absorbing block is of an integral structure, is developed for a specific vehicle type and is difficult to recycle. Moreover, the traditional energy-absorbing foam or plastic energy-absorbing block needs to be replaced integrally after being partially damaged, and the maintenance cost is high

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems of weight increase, cost increase and the like in the prior art, the invention provides an inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly.

The inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly comprises an anti-collision beam, at least two energy absorption units and an inflation unit, wherein the at least two energy absorption units are connected to the anti-collision beam, the inflation unit is communicated with the energy absorption units to inflate gaseous energy absorption media into the energy absorption units, each energy absorption unit comprises a sheath, a constant pressure valve and a safety valve to absorb energy through compression of the energy absorption media, the sheath provides a cavity for containing the energy absorption media, the constant pressure valve is a one-way valve communicated with the inflation unit to inflate the energy absorption media with set pressure into the cavity, and the safety valve is a pressure relief valve communicated with the atmosphere.

According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, the energy in the collision process is stored in a gaseous energy absorption medium compression mode, the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly has a high compression ratio, can absorb more energy under the same size, adopts discrete inflatable energy absorption units for combined energy absorption, has high flexibility and adaptability, and can be partially replaced after local modules are damaged due to collision; different gas pressures are filled in the discrete energy absorption units, the variable stiffness design of different energy absorption units is realized, the pedestrian protection collision requirements of different positions and different vehicle types are met, and the development cost of a host factory is reduced.

Preferably, the inflation unit comprises a main pipeline and at least two branches, wherein each branch is respectively connected with the main pipeline and a constant pressure valve of the energy absorption unit so as to fill the energy absorption medium into the cavity of each energy absorption unit

Preferably, the main conduit has an inflation port in communication with a gas source.

Preferably, the set pressure has a range of variation.

Preferably, the set pressure is 6-7 Bar.

Preferably, the pressure relief pressure of the pressure relief valve is 7-8 Bar.

Preferably, the safety valve is an intelligent control safety valve. The intelligent pressure relief control realizes the optimal energy absorption in the collision process, and effectively protects the safety of vehicles and pedestrians.

Preferably, the sheath is a butyl rubber sheath.

Preferably, the contact surface of each energy absorption unit and the anti-collision beam is bonded through an adhesive tape.

Preferably, the energy absorbing medium is air or an inert gas.

According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, two energy absorption media of traditional EPP foaming and plastic are overturned, the energy absorption is buffered by adopting the compressed gas energy absorption medium, and the concept of the modularized energy absorption unit is provided, so that the bidirectional targets of weight reduction and cost reduction can be realized while the energy absorption efficiency is improved. According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, the energy absorption efficiency can be improved, the universality and the transportability of an energy absorption product can be improved, the development cost and the maintenance cost after collision are reduced, and the pedestrian protection performance of the whole automobile can be improved when the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly is applied to a front bumper of the automobile.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an inflatable energy compliant assembly according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a sectional view of fig. 1.

Detailed Description

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 1, the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises an anti-collision beam 1, at least two energy absorption units 2 and an inflation unit 3, wherein each energy absorption unit 2 is connected to the anti-collision beam 1, and the inflation unit 3 is communicated with the energy absorption units 2 to inflate the energy absorption units 2 with a gaseous energy absorption medium. In the present embodiment, the inflatable flexible energy absorbing assembly comprises thirteen energy absorbing units 2, it being understood that the position, size, etc. of each energy absorbing unit 2 may be adjusted as desired. In the present embodiment, the contact surfaces of the energy-absorbing units 2 and the impact beam 1 are bonded by 3M adhesive tape, but it should be understood that the energy-absorbing units 2 may be connected to the impact beam 1 by other methods as required. In this embodiment the energy absorbing medium is air, it being understood that the energy absorbing medium may also be an inert gas such as nitrogen.

As shown in fig. 2, each energy absorbing unit 2 includes a sheath 21, a constant pressure valve 22, and a safety valve 23, wherein the sheath 21 provides a cavity containing an energy absorbing medium, the constant pressure valve 22 is a one-way valve communicated with the inflating unit 3 to inflate the energy absorbing medium of a set pressure into the cavity, and the safety valve 23 is a relief valve communicated with the atmosphere. In the present embodiment, the outer skin 21 is formed of a butyl rubber material commonly used for automobile inner tubes, it being understood that other materials having elasticity are also contemplated for use in the present application to allow deformation after an impact is applied to the energy absorbing unit 2 to absorb energy and provide flexibility and conformability. Each energy-absorbing unit 2 is kept constant in pressure inside the energy-absorbing unit 2 after inflation by means of a constant pressure valve 22, it being understood that this constant pressure is allowed to vary within a certain range, preferably by periodically checking the pressure value of the energy-absorbing unit 2 and compensating if it is below or above a set pressure range. Each energy absorption unit 2 realizes pressure relief protection when the internal pressure of the energy absorption unit 2 is too high in the collision process through the safety valve 23, and it should be understood that intelligent control can be realized through the pressure relief protection, that is, when a leg collides with a vehicle and the energy absorption unit 2 in the collision area is compressed to reach a certain set safety pressure value, the safety valve 23 can perform pressure relief so as to reduce the rigidity of the leg, the collision safety of the leg is ensured, and the pressure relief flow can be designed and calibrated according to the requirement of pedestrian protection. In addition, the provision of the safety valve 23 per energy-absorbing unit 2 also provides a high degree of safety against explosion of the inflatable unit 3 due to overpressure. In summary, each energy absorbing unit 2 absorbs energy by means of gas compression, so that it can be continuously and stably compressed in the event of collision rather than being suddenly collapsed to lose support rigidity when compressed to a certain extent like the conventional energy absorbing structure.

Returning to fig. 1, the inflation unit 3 comprises a main pipeline 31 and at least two branches 32, wherein the main pipeline 31 has an inflation port 310 communicating with an air source, and each branch 32 is connected with the main pipeline 31 and a constant pressure valve 22 (see fig. 2) of the energy absorbing unit 2 respectively to inflate the energy absorbing units 2 with energy absorbing medium.

According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, the plurality of energy absorption units 2 are conveniently inflated through the external main pipeline 31 and the external branch pipeline 32, each energy absorption unit 2 achieves buffering energy absorption in the collision process through a gas compression mode, and the energy absorption requirements of different positions of different vehicles are met through the combination of the plurality of flexible and modularized energy absorption units 2. According to the inflatable flexible energy absorption assembly, the energy absorption efficiency of a limited space can be improved in a gas compression mode, for example, the normal state of gas filling through the constant pressure valve 22 is in a range of 6-7 Bar, and the gas pressure of gas pressure relief through the safety valve 23 is in a range of 7-8 Bar. In a preferred application example, a phi 132mm rigid column is adopted to perform a crushing test on energy-absorbing blocks of three different forms and the same size (150 multiplied by 70 multiplied by 35), the same crushing distance is adopted for 35mm, and the energy-absorbing efficiency of the energy-absorbing blocks of the three different forms is compared, namely the absorption energy of the traditional plastic energy-absorbing block is 155J; the energy absorbed by the conventional energy absorbing foam (EPP30) was 127J; the energy absorption of the inflatable energy absorption unit (the inflation pressure is 0.7Mpa) is 233J, and the energy absorption efficiency of the energy absorption unit is obviously higher than that of the traditional energy absorption block.

The above embodiments are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention, which are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and various changes may be made in the above embodiments of the present invention. All simple and equivalent changes and modifications made according to the claims and the content of the specification of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present patent application. The invention has not been described in detail in order to avoid obscuring the invention.