Description:FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a cross car beam (CCB) in an automobile. In particular, the present invention relates to a cross car beam (CCB) mounting structure in an automobile, like a passenger car. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cross car beam (CCB) mounting structure to make the cabin safer for the automobile passengers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cross Car Beam (CCB) is a structural component that functions as a link between A-pillars of a car body. It contributes mainly to impart stiffness to the car body. It also imparts high torsional rigidity and better performance of the instrument panel (IP) system during a crash. It also offers a solid support to the steering wheel and reduces vibrations of the steering system in the vehicle.

Body Over Frame (BOF) is also known as the ladder frame construction and concerns a common method of motor vehicle construction, whereby a separate car body is mounted on a strong and relatively rigid vehicle frame or chassis, which will carry the powertrain (i.e. the engine and the drivetrain) and on which, the wheels and suspensions, brakes, and steering are mounted.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Some of the objects of the present invention - satisfied by at least one embodiment of the present invention - are as follows:

An object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting system for providing safer automotive cabin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting system, which helps in meeting the durability targets for the CCB, IP and accessories attached thereto.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting system, which reduces the steering vibrations.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting system, which collapses in case of a head-on collision (frontal impact) with another vehicle to isolate the steering system from dash panel deformations.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting system, which collapses in case of a head-on collision (frontal impact) with another vehicle to reduce chest injury to the occupant/driver of the automobile.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description, when read with the accompanying figures of drawing, which are however not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The occupant safety is one of the important attributes of any automobile. The biggest problem for all automotive researchers is to provide a safer technology and equipment within a limited cabin space. In small commercial vehicles, the frontal impact poses a major threat to the safety of the automobile driver/occupant because of the flat nose configuration of the cabin. The flat cabin nose configuration is required for a low turning radius, to facilitate easier maneuvering in city traffic and to provide a larger cargo bed. Please refer to Figure 1 for the typical Body Over Frame (BOF) layout for a flat face cabin layout in a commercial vehicle. Because of a limited front space for absorbing the energy, providing safety in a frontal impact is a great challenge. This is due to a limited chassis extension ahead of the cabin, and it absorbs certain amount of energy, and passes the remaining impact energy into the automotive cabin. On cabin side, normally, the cross car beam (CCB) has a mounting bracket with dash panel (Figure 2), which is necessary to reduce the steering vibrations and meet the overall durability targets for the CCB, IP and attached accessories.

However, in case of a frontal impact, CCB mounting bracket behaves differently and pushes the steering wheel towards the driver/occupant and thereby increases chest injuries.

Another major problem with the flat face cabins is the high steering angle, which is of the order of 50-60º due to architectural constraints. When the driver/occupant hits the steering wheel, it doesn’t load the steering system along the upper column axis of the steering, thus making it impossible to provide a conventional collapsible steering system therein.

In view of above, there is an existing need to avoid the steering movement in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle towards the driver/occupant by providing a collapsible mounting bracket.

Therefore, the idea underlying the present invention involves providing a novel cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket, which consists of a hat section bolted on the dash panel at the cabin front and which is welded to this CCB at the rear (Figure 3).
SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket assembly for making an automobile such as a small commercial vehicle's (SCV) cabin safer, wherein the CCB mounting bracket assembly comprises:

• a collapsible bracket mounted at a predefined angle with respect to the horizontal direction of said automobile;

• said collapsible bracket includes a front-end having a profiled hat section with a plurality of holes therein, said front-end is mounted on a dash panel fitted on a flat-face cabin of said automobile (SCV);

• said collapsible bracket also includes a profiled rear-end welded to the cross car beam or CCB fitted between A-pillars of the automobile (SCV);

wherein said collapsible bracket is configured with a respective bead disposed at the front-end and the middle portion thereof to facilitate the collapse of said collapsible bracket under the combined bending and tensile loads applied during occurrence of a frontal crash of said automobile with another vehicle and/or object.

Typically, the bracket is configured to be mounted at an angle ? with respect to the horizontal.

Typically, the bracket is configured with an upper face angle a ahead of said bead and another upper face angle ß behind the bead.

Typically, the angle ? is in a range of 12 to 15° from the horizontal.

Typically, the angle a is in a range of 22 to 23° ahead of the bead.
Typically, the angle ß is in a range of 11 to 14° behind the bead.

Typically, the bead is configured closer to the dash panel of the flat-face cabin than the CCB.

Typically, the bead comprises a bead-top having a width W1 and a predefined thickness t1, the bead-top is connected by a profile of radius R to the dash panel side end and CCB-side end thereof, wherein the bead is configured closer to the dash panel of the flat-face cabin than the CCB.

Typically, the bead comprises a hat-like section with a profiled top of width W2, a flange width W3, and a height h.

Typically, the collapsible bracket is configured to be mounted at an angle ? in a range of 12 to 15° with respect to the horizontal; the bracket includes an upper face angle a in a range of 22 to 23° configured ahead of the bead; and an angle ß in a range of 11 to 14° configured behind the bead; These upper face angles a; ß facilitate in higher bending of the CCB mounting bracket in case of a frontal crash of the automobile with a vehicle /object.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The present invention will be briefly described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 shows a typical construction of a small commercial vehicle (SCV) of a body over frame construction assembled with a flat face cabin.

Figure 2 shows an enlarged view inside the driver’s cabin of the SCV shown in Fig. 1 for a detailed construction of various major components/sub-assemblies fitted therein.
Figure 3 shows different views of the collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3a shows an enlarged top view of CCB mounting bracket of Fig. 3.

Figure 3b shows an enlarged bottom view of CCB mounting bracket of Fig. 3.

Figure 3c shows an enlarged front view of CCB mounting bracket of Fig. 3.

Figure 3d shows an isometric view of CCB mounting bracket of Fig. 3.

Figure 3e shows an enlarged side view of CCB mounting bracket of Fig. 3.

Figure 3f shows a sectional view along section-line A-A of Figure 3a.

Figure 3g shows a sectional view along section-line B-B of Figure 3b.

Figure 4 shows a detailed view of the driver’s cabin in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted between the cabin front panel and CCB connected to the steering column when viewed from the LHS thereof.

Figure 5 shows another detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted on the cross car beam (CCB) fixed between the A-pillars and mounted with the steering column, when viewed through the windscreen.

Figure 6 shows a larger detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted on the cross car beam (CCB) fixed between the A-pillars and mounted with the steering column, when viewed through the windscreen.

Figure 7 shows a deformed view of the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention, depicting its interaction with a dummy after a frontal impact during testing thereof.

Figure 8 shows another detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention when viewed from right-hand side of the steering.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

In the following, the collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention will be described in more details with reference to the accompanying drawings without limiting the scope and ambit of the present invention.

Figure 1 shows a typical construction of a small commercial vehicle (SCV) of a body over frame construction assembled with a flat face cabin. It has a chassis 10, a driver/occupant’s cabin 20 and a cargo space 30. Here, the cabin 20 is a flat face cabin in which the steering angle is very high, i.e. about 50-60° due to architectural constraints. One end of a collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention is assembled by four (4) M8 hexagonal screw to the dash panel 40 of the cabin 20 fitted on the Body-in-white (BIW) and the other end of the CCB mounting bracket 100 is welded to a tubular cross car beam (CCB) 70. A steering column assembly 50 connected to a steering wheel assembly 60 is also bolted to the CCB mounting bracket 100. The collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket 100 has an axis X-X (Figures 3 and 3a) in transverse to the direction of vehicle movement and parallel to the axis of the CCB 70.

Figure 2 shows an enlarged view inside the driver’s cabin 20 of the SCV shown in Figure 1 for describing the detailed construction of various major components/sub-assemblies fitted therein. The steering column assembly 50 includes an upper steering column 52 and a lower steering column 54. The upper steering column 52 is fixed by two (2) M10 weld screws on CCB 70 by a steering column support bracket 104 (Fig. 5). The dash panel 40 of the cabin 20 is connected to the cabin floor 22 and the lower steering column 54 passes through the cabin floor 22 for its connection to the steering gear box 80 fitted on the chassis 10 of the SCV. The steering column assembly 50 is disposed in front of the driver’s seat 24 at an angle of 60° with respect to the cabin floor 22. In accordance with the present invention, it is important to note that the collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket 100 is particularly configured to avoid the steering movement in the longitudinal direction, i.e. towards the driver/occupant, because the conventional collapsible steering system cannot be provided in flat face cabins having very high steering angle of 50-60° due to its failure to load the steering system along the axis of the upper steering column 52, when the driver/occupant hits the steering column in case of a frontal impact of the SCV. In the SCV, the collapsible CCB steering mounting bracket 100 is configured with a hat section bolted on dash panel 40 at the front end thereof and welded to the CCB 70 at the rear-end thereof.

Figure 3 shows the collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention in different views, e.g. a top-view, isometric-view, side-view, front-view, and bottom-view each, and a section-line X-X marked in top-view, a sectional-view along section-line A-A in top-view, and a sectional-view along section-line B-B in bottom-view.

Figure 3a shows an enlarged top view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 of Figure 3, with its right-hand side end 120 to be fixed to the dash panel 40 of the SCV. As seen in Figure 2, the axis X-X of the cross car beam (CCB) 70 is transverse to the length (L1+L2) of the CCB mounting bracket 100. Section line A-A is marked on the left-hand side end 130 of the CCB bracket 100 for showing the bead 140 formed in the enlarged cross-section of CCB mounting bracket 100 in Figure 3f below.

Figure 3b shows an enlarged bottom view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 of Figure 3 and having a width W and its right-hand side end 120 to be fixed to the dash panel 40 of the SCV. Another section line B-B is marked in the middle portion of the CCB bracket 100 for showing the enlarged cross-section of the middle portion of the CCB mounting bracket 100 in Figure 3g below.

Figure 3c shows a front view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 of Figure 3, which has a width W and overall height H when seen in this view.

Figure 3d shows an enlarged isometric view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 of Figure 3, with its right-hand side end 120 to be fixed to the dash panel 40 of the SCV and its left-hand side end 130 welded on the CCB 70.

Figure 3e shows an enlarged side view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 of Figure 3. It also shows the bead 140 formed nearer the dash panel 40. For example, this bead 140 is added at about 60 mm from the front end 120 and the effective position thereof is fine-tuned through comprehensive CAE crash analysis depending on the type and construction of the SCV. The CCB mounting bracket 100 is at an angle of 15° from the horizontal (Figure 3e). The upper face angle is 23.1° ahead of the bead 140 and 12.7° behind the bead 140. The upper face angles facilitate in more bending in case of frontal crash. The bead 140 is formed closer to the dash panel 40 than the CCB 70 and this increased angle helps in formability.

Therefore, when the beads 140, 150 collapse, the whole steering assembly 160 does not rotate significantly in Y direction and gets crushed as axially as possible. This type of crush behavior is also required for the airbag deployment and its interaction with the driver/occupant (Figures 4-6). If the steering assembly 160 rotates a lot in Y direction, then the airbag will deploy upward and will not cover the driver/occupant’s head and neck regions completely.

Figure 3f shows an enlarged (3:1) sectional view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 taken along section-line A-A of Figure 3a and shows the various critical dimensions W1, t1, D, and profile radius R marked therein.

Figure 3g shows an enlarged (2:1) sectional view of the CCB mounting bracket 100 taken along section-line B-B of Figure 3b. The CCB mounting bracket 100 has various critical dimensions W2, W3, and height h marked.

Figure 4 shows a detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin 20 in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted between the cabin front panel 40 and CCB 70, and also connected to the upper steering column 52 when viewed from the LHS thereof. Front end 120 of the CCB mounting bracket 100 is bolted by means of bolts 102 on the front panel 40 of the SCV cabin 20 and the rear end 130 of the CCB mounting bracket 70 is welded by welding 110 on the CCB 70 which is adjacent the steering 62 mounted on the upper steering column 52.

Figure 5 shows another detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin 20 in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention and fitted between the cabin front panel 40 and CCB 70, and also connected to the upper steering column 52, when viewed through the windscreen of the SCV.

Figure 6 shows a larger detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin 20 in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention and its rear end 130 fixed by welding 110 on the cross car beam (CCB) 70 attached to the passenger side A-pillar (not shown) and mounted with the upper steering column 52, when viewed through the windscreen.

Figure 7 shows a deformed view of the collapsible CCB mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention, depicting its interaction with a dummy after a frontal impact during testing thereof. Due to collapsing of the beads 140, 150; the CCB mounting bracket 100 is crushed as axially as possible, in order to deploy the safety airbag (SAB) interacting with the driver/occupant to completely cover the head and neck regions.

Figure 8 shows another detailed inside view of the driver’s cabin in the SCV equipped with the collapsible CCB mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention and showing the steering bracket 56 fitted between the CCB mounting bracket 100 and CCB end bracket 90 fitted on the cross car beam (CCB) fixed between the A-pillars and mounted with the steering column, when viewed from the right-hand side of the steering assembly 60.
WORKING MODES OF THE INVENTION

The collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket 100 configured in accordance with the present invention is mounted between the flat face cabin 20 of the small commercial vehicle (SCV) and welded on the cross car beam (CCB) 70 attached to the passenger side A-pillar by means of two M8 bolts 102 on either side with adequate spacing to effectively react to the combined bending and tensile loads in case of a frontal impact with another vehicle/object. The end brackets 90 have a locating means to temporarily retain the CCB assembly within the vehicle cabin 20 before tightening of the bolts 102 by torquing. These end brackets 90 have a pull collar to form their interface with the CCB 70. This collar facilitates in improving the strength and stiffness of the end brackets 90. The steering bracket 56 has an interface connection by means of four bolts. This steering bracket 56 is attached to the BIW dash panel reinforcement for improving the Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) characteristics of the steering column 52 and instrument panel (IP). This steering bracket 56 also strengthens the bead 140 and upper face bead 150 added to improve the section modulus of the steering bracket 56. The steering bracket 56 also improves the bending stiffness of the steering column assembly 50.

The CCB mounting bracket 100 includes various angles from the horizontal plane thereof to help the bracket to deform at certain location in case of frontal crash. The bead 140 formed closer to dash panel than CCB 70 and the increased angles helps in formability. So that on collapse of the beads 140, 150 in a frontal crash, the whole steering assembly 50 does not rotate significantly in Y direction and gets crushed as axially as possible, which is necessary for airbag deployment to cover the driver/occupant’s head and neck regions completely.
Accordingly, the steering bracket 56 has a collapsible configuration to isolate the steering assembly 50 from the dash panel 40 deformations and thereby to reduce injury to the vehicle occupant/driver.

TECHNICAL ADVANTAGES AND ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

The collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket configured in accordance with the present invention for a small commercial vehicle (SCV) offers the following advantages:

• Helps in achieving durability targets.

• Reduces steering vibrations.

• Collapses along the beads and darts provided thereon in case of head-on collision with another vehicle.

• Isolates the steering assembly from dash panel deformations.

• Prevents the steering assembly rotation in Y direction.

• Collapsible CCB mounting bracket prevents the steering assembly from moving towards the driver/occupant.

• Deployment of safety airbag due to axial crushing of CCB mounting bracket to reduces drive/occupant’s head or chest injury.

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments.

It is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation. The exemplary embodiments described in this specification are intended merely to provide an understanding of various manners in which this embodiment may be used and to further enable the skilled person in the relevant art to practice this invention.

Although, the embodiments presented in this disclosure have been described in terms of its preferred embodiments, the skilled person in the art would readily recognize that these embodiments can be applied with modifications possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention as described in this specification by making innumerable changes, variations, modifications, alterations and/or integrations in terms of materials and method used to configure, manufacture and assemble various constituents, components, subassemblies and assemblies, in terms of their size, shapes, orientations and interrelationships without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

The numerical values given of various physical parameters, dimensions and quantities are only approximate values and it is envisaged that the values higher or lower than the numerical value assigned to the physical parameters, dimensions and quantities fall within the scope of the disclosure unless there is a statement in the specification to the contrary.

Throughout this specification, the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, shall be understood to imply including a described element, integer or method step, or group of elements, integers or method steps, however, does not imply excluding any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or method steps.

The use of the expression “a”, “at least” or “at least one” shall imply using one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as used in the embodiment of the disclosure in order to achieve one or more of the intended objects or results of the present invention.

The description of the exemplary embodiments is intended to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description. In the description, relative terms such as “lower”, “upper”, “horizontal”, “vertical”, “above”, “below”, “up”, “down”, “top”, and “bottom” as well as derivatives thereof (e.g. “horizontally”, “inwardly”, “outwardly”; “downwardly”, “upwardly” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing under discussion.

These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the corresponding apparatus or device be constructed or operated in a particular orientation. Terms concerning attachments, coupling and the like, such as “connected” and “interconnected”, refer to a relationship, wherein structures are secured or attached to one another either directly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as both movable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expressly described otherwise. , Claims:We claim:

1. A collapsible cross car beam (CCB) mounting bracket assembly for making an automobile such as a small commercial vehicle (SCV) cabin (40) safer, wherein said CCB mounting bracket assembly comprises:

• a collapsible bracket (100) mounted at a predefined angle with respect to the horizontal direction of said automobile;

• said collapsible bracket (100) includes a front-end (120) having a profiled hat section with a plurality of holes (122) therein, said front-end (120) is mounted on a dash panel fitted on a flat-face cabin (40) of said automobile (SCV);

• said collapsible bracket also includes a profiled rear-end welded to the cross car beam or CCB (70) fitted between A-pillars of said automobile (SCV);

wherein said collapsible bracket (100) is configured with a respective bead (140; 150) disposed at the front-end and the middle portion thereof to facilitate the collapse of said collapsible bracket (100) under the combined bending and tensile loads applied during occurrence of a frontal crash of said automobile with another vehicle and/or object.

2. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bracket is configured to be mounted at an angle (?) with respect to the horizontal.

3. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bracket is configured with an upper face angle (a) ahead of said bead (140) and another upper face angle (ß) behind said bead (140).

4. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 3, wherein said angle (?) is in a range of 12 to 15° from the horizontal.

5. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 3, wherein said angle (a) is in a range of 22 to 23° ahead of said bead (140).

6. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 3, wherein said angle (ß) is in a range of 11 to 14° behind said bead (140).

7. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bead (140) is configured closer to dash panel (40) of said flat-face cabin (40) than said CCB (70).

8. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bead (140) comprises a bead-top having a width (W1) and a predefined thickness (t1), said bead-top is connected by a profile of radius (R) to said dash panel side end and CCB-side end thereof, wherein said bead (140) is configured closer to the dash panel of said flat-face cabin (40) than said CCB (70).

9. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bead (150) comprises a hat-liked section with a profiled top of width (W2) and a flange width (W3), and a height (h).

10. The collapsible bracket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said collapsible bracket (100) is configured to be mounted at an angle (?) in a range of 12 to 15° with respect to the horizontal; said bracket (100) includes an upper face angle (a) in a range of 22 to 23° configured ahead of said bead (140); and an angle (ß) in a range of 11 to 14° configured behind said bead (140); said upper face angles (a; ß) facilitating in a higher bending of said CCB mounting bracket (100) in case of a frontal crash of the automobile with a vehicle /object.

Dated this 27th day of March 2024.

Digitally / e-Signed by:

(SANJAY KESHARWANI)
APPLICANT’S PATENT AGENT
REGN. NO. IN/PA-2043.