Roll over bar for motor vehicles

• US 4,830,402 A
• Filed: 04/18/1988
• Issued: 05/16/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Disson, Arno, Matthias, Klaus, Schick, Gerald, Euteneuer, Albert, Baumann, Karl-Heinz
• Primary Examiner(s): Bertsch, Richard A.
• Application Number:
  US07/182,355
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• Field of Search: 280/756, 280/760, 280/770, 296/100, 296/102
• US Class Current: 280/756
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/134 movable from a retracted to a protection position
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/13 Roll-over protection electrical circuits for triggering safety arrangements B60R21/01

Abstract

To economize weight, an arcuate support tube of a roll-over yoke is produced from high-tensile heat-treated material and received by both members and by part of the adjacent median region in bracing structures which mount it on the motor car body and which consist respectively of two mutually connected half-shells which positively enclose and thereby retain the support tube.

Claims

1. Roll-over yoke for a motor car having an arcuate support profile mounted on the motor car body, which has a median region oriented at the top and at the center, approximately straight in the transverse direction of the vehicle in the effective position, and side members respectively angled laterally therefrom and oriented towards fastening points on the vehicle, wherein the support profile is comprised of a high-tensile heat-treated material and the side members are positively enclosed by a bracing structure which includes a bearing element serving for fastening to the vehicle, and wherein the bracing structure, which is comprised of two mutually connected half-shells, encloses in addition to the side members, at least a part of the median region which is adjacent to the side members, the support profile being constructed as a support tube.

2. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the half-shells form a hollow profile having cross sectional dimensions corresponding to the support tube.

3. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein connected half-shells form a reinforcing means against buckling and bending of the members of the support tube.

4. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the support tube conjointly with the bracing structure is articulated pivotably to the motor car body.

5. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the half-shells form, in addition to the hollow profile, a bearing flange into which the bearing element and a bearing for a pivot drive are inserted.

6. Roll-over yoke according to claim 5, wherein the bearing flange adjoins the hollow profile triangularly, wherein the bearing element is located centrally in the longitudinal axis of the received member, and wherein the bearing of the pivot drive is arranged in the apex of the triangle farthest from the longitudinal axis.

7. Roll-over yoke according to claim 5, wherein the half-shells exhibit bearing bores into which bearing bushings are weldable and stabilizable by stiffening plates.

8. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the half-shells wherein the half-shells are mutually connected by a spot weld in areally contracting sections.

9. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the support tube and the half-shells are covered with a covering preferably made of plastic foam, acting as an impact element.

10. Roll-over yoke according to claim 1, wherein the half-shells are welded together around an all around welding flange.

11. Roll-over yoke according to claim 10, wherein the welding flange is disposed between an inner arc and an outer arc of the support tube.

12. Roll-over yoke according to claim 10, wherein the support tube is additionally frictionally anchorable by the thermal stresses resulting from the welding operation along the welding flange.