Hood overslam bumper for automobiles

A hood overslam bumper for automobiles has an elastic member, which is mounted to a hood inner panel, and a spring-biased hollow cushion member which is mounted to the upper member of a chassis. The spring of the cushion member is selected from a compression coil spring, a pneumatic spring and a hydraulic spring. When a hood is slammed down, the hood is made to slowly close with the elastic member gradually compressing the spring-biased top wall of the hollow cushion member. Therefore, the hood overslam bumper of this invention effectively absorbs and reduces the slamming impact noises and vibrations occurring in the slamming of a hood, thus allowing a car to be almost completely free from such noises and vibrations.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates, in general, to an impact absorber system for 
automobiles and, more particularly, to a hood overslam bumper for 
automobiles capable of absorbing and reducing the slamming impact noises 
and vibrations occurring in the slamming of a hood, thus allowing a car to 
be almost completely free from such noises and vibrations. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
FIGS. 1 and 2 show the position and construction of a conventional hood 
overslam bumper for automobiles. As shown in the drawings, the 
conventional hood overslam bumper 1 is installed on each side of the top 
of an upper member 2 of a chassis, thus preventing a hood 3 from coming 
into direct contact with the upper member 2 when the hood 3 is slammed 
down. That is, the hood overslam bumpers 1 for automobiles absorb and 
reduce the impact noises and vibrations when the hood 3 is slammed down. 
In the prior art, such an overslam bumper 1, which is an impact absorbing 
member, is typically made of a known impact absorbing material such as 
rubber. 
Such a conventional overslam bumper 1 absorbs the impact noises and 
vibrations, caused by the hood 3, only due to the impact absorbing 
properties of its material. Therefore, the overslam bumper 1 is 
problematic in that it has an inferior impact absorbing effect and so it 
fails to effectively reduce such noises and vibrations occurring in the 
slamming of the hood 3. Another problem of the above overslam bumper 1 
resides in that the bumper 1 is consumed with the passage of time, thus 
losing its expected impact absorbing properties and failing to reduce such 
noises and vibrations. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above 
problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present 
invention is to provide a hood overslam bumper for automobiles which is 
capable of effectively absorbing and reducing the slamming impact noises 
and vibrations in the closing of a hood, thus allowing a car to be almost 
completely free from such noises and vibrations. 
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a 
hood overslam bumper for automobiles, comprising: an elastic member 
mounted to the lower surface of a hood inner panel; a compressible cushion 
member mounted to the top surface of an upper member of a chassis at a 
position corresponding to the elastic member, thus being brought into 
elastic contact with the elastic member when a hood is slammed down, the 
cushion member being hollowed, thus having a cavity; a rod interiorly set 
in the top center of the hollow cushion member and vertically extending 
downward within the cavity of the cushion member; a cup-shaped housing set 
in the hollow cushion member, thus defining the lower portion of the 
cavity and structurally supporting the cushion member; and a biasing 
member positioned in the cavity of the cushion member, with the top and 
bottom ends of the biasing member being stopped by the rod and the housing 
respectively, thus normally biasing the top wall of the cushion member 
upwardly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the construction of a hood overslam 
bumper for automobiles in accordance with the preferred embodiment of this 
invention. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the operation of the hood 
overslam bumper of this invention. As shown in the drawings, the hood 
overslam bumper of this invention includes an elastic member 40, which is 
mounted on each side of the bottom of a hood inner panel 30 of a chassis. 
A compressible cushion member 20, having a cavity 21, is installed on each 
side of the top of an upper member 10 of the chassis at a position 
corresponding to the elastic member 40, thus being brought into elastic 
contact with the elastic member 40 when a hood is slammed down. A rod 50 
is interiorly set in the top center of the hollow cushion member 20 and 
vertically extends downward to a length in the cavity 21. A cup-shaped 
housing 60 is concentrically set in the lower portion of the cushion 
member 20, thus defining the lower portion of the cavity 21 and 
structurally supporting the cushion member 20. A biasing member 70 is 
positioned in the cavity 21, with the top and bottom ends of the biasing 
member 70 being stopped by the rod 50 and the housing 60, thus normally 
biasing the top wall of the cushion member 20 upwardly. 
The cushion member 20 is preferably formed of an elastic material such as 
rubber into a single body. A fitting groove 25 is formed on the outside 
surface of the cushion member 20 at the middle portion of the member 20, 
thus allowing the member 20 to be mounted to the upper member 10 through a 
fitting process. 
The inner top surface 22 of the hollow cushion member 20 is sloped upward 
at its outside edge, thus forming a groove 23 at that edge. When the hood 
is slammed down, the elastic member 40 of the hood inner panel 30 comes 
into contact with and compresses the spring-biased top wall of the hollow 
cushion member 20 and so the slamming impact is absorbed and reduced by 
the cushion member 20. In such a case, the above groove 23 allows the 
spring-biased top wall of the cushion member 20 with the rod 50 to be 
uniformly collapsed and allows the inner top surface 22 to come into 
uniform contact with the inner bottom surface 24 of the cushion member 20. 
That is, the groove 23 effectively prevents the cushion member 20 from 
being unevenly collapsed during the impact absorbing operation of the hood 
overslam bumper of this invention. 
The rod 50 has an enlarged-diameter head 51 at its top end. The head 51 of 
the rod 50 is firmly implanted in the top wall of the hollow cushion 
member 20, thus stably holding the rod 50 in the cushion member 20. 
In the preferred embodiment, a compression coil spring is used as the 
biasing member 70 as shown in the drawings. However, it should be 
understood that the biasing member 70 may be selected from pneumatic 
springs, hydraulic springs and the like in place of the compression coil 
spring when such a spring effectively and elastically biases the rod 50 
upwardly. 
The operational effect of the above hood overslam bumper will be described 
hereinbelow. 
When the hood is slammed down as shown in FIG. 4, the elastic member 40 of 
the hood inner panel 30 comes into contact with and compresses the 
spring-biased top wall of the hollow cushion member 20 and so the cushion 
member 20 primarily absorbs the slamming impact with the top wall of the 
member 20 being lowered. In such a case, the rod 50 is lowered with the 
top wall of the cushion member 20, thus compressing the biasing member 70 
while secondarily absorbing the slamming impact. Therefore, it is possible 
to prevent a quick lowering of the elastic member 40 and to reduce the 
slamming impact. The slamming impact is further reduced when the inner top 
surface 22 of the cushion member 20 is brought into contact with the inner 
bottom surface 24. 
When the hood is opened, the elastic member 40 is removed from the top wall 
of the cushion member 20 and so the cushion member 20 elastically returns 
to its original configuration due to the restoring force of the biasing 
member 70 as shown in FIG. 3. 
As described above, the present invention provides a hood overslam bumper 
for automobiles. The hood overslam bumper of this invention is comprised 
of an elastic member, which is mounted to a hood inner panel, and a 
spring-biased hollow cushion member which is mounted to the upper member 
of a chassis. When a hood is slammed down, the hood is made to slowly 
close with the elastic member gradually compressing the spring-biased top 
wall of the hollow cushion member. Therefore, the hood overslam bumper of 
this invention effectively absorbs and reduces the slamming impact noises 
and vibrations occurring in the slamming of a hood, thus allowing a car to 
be almost completely free from such noises and vibrations. 
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been 
disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will 
appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are 
possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as 
disclosed in the accompanying claims.