Patent ID: 7131674
Filing Date: 2006-11-07
Classification: B60R,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A bumper system for a vehicle, comprising: a reinforcement beam adapted for attachment to a vehicle frame; and a thermoformed energy absorber supported on a face of the reinforcement beam, the energy absorber being formed from a single sheet of material by a thermoforming process to have a base flange and a plurality of thermoformed longitudinally-elongated crush boxes that extend generally perpendicularly from the base flange in a fore/aft direction parallel a direction of expected impact; the crush boxes each having opposing side walls and orthogonally-related end walls and a side-wall-supported front wall with the crush boxes each being spaced apart from each other along the base flange; the crush boxes each defining a separate rearwardly-facing opening; the energy absorber defining a forward-facing surface and a rearward-facing surface, each being open and unobstructed in a linear direction parallel the fore/aft direction and not having undercut surfaces, whereby the energy absorber can be thermoformed from the sheet of material by passing a portion of mold tooling in a forming direction parallel the fore/aft direction through the base flange linearly into the rearwardly-facing openings defined by the crush boxes; the opposing side walls being stretched during the thermoforming process and having a thickness dimension less than a thickness of the front walls and of the base flange due to the thermoforming process.