In many motor vehicle accidents injuries to the occupants arise from buckling or crushing the vehicle body. Various remedies have been proposed for this condition, primarily strengthening of the vehicle body or improving the impact absorbing properties of the body. Practically all body strengthening construction increases the weight of the vehicle which is undesirable for fuel economy. Some expedients for increasing the buckling or crush resistance of a vehicle include a structure with internal and external skin separated by multiple thin-walled cans or tubes, as in Moore U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,575,251 and 3,853,349, or a shell filled with rigid foam material such as polyurethane, as in Metsker U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,252, or outer body coating of synthetic resin material, preferably a foam material, as in Wilfert U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,192, the hardness of which decreases from the outside toward the inside. Reinforcing bands of continuous glass fibers have also been proposed in Jahnle et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,235. While some or all of the above-mentioned structures may increase the crush resistance of the car body, they are all expensive to repair after a crash.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds