Bumper fascia support, bumper fascia support and reinforcement assembly, and bumper assembly

One embodiment is a bumper fascia support for supporting a motor vehicle bumper fascia wherein the bumper fascia generally has a C-shaped transverse cross-section with an upper skirt and a lower skirt. The bumper fascia support has a front side and a back side relative to its position on the motor vehicle and comprises an elongated platform and at least one base member connected to the elongated platform. The platform is adapted to be attached to the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia and has an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface being adapted for supporting the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia. The base member is adapted to be attached to the lower skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia. A second embodiment is a bumper fascia support and reinforcement assembly for supporting and reinforcing a motor vehicle bumper fascia. The bumper fascia support and reinforcement assembly comprises an elongated bumper fascia support and an elongated reinforcement beam attached to the front side of the bumper fascia support so that the bumper fascia support is longitudinally-aligned with the reinforcement beam. A third embodiment is a bumper assembly for a motor vehicle having an elongated bumper fascia, an elongated bumper fascia support, and an elongated reinforcement beam.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates generally to bumper fascia supports for motor 
vehicle bumper fascias, to bumper fascia support and reinforcement 
assemblies, and to bumper assemblies. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
In motor vehicles, bumper assemblies are employed to protect the vehicle 
body from minor bumps and typically include a flexible bumper fascia 
(which is the portion of the bumper assembly seen by the consumer) and 
other parts for supporting and reinforcing the bumper fascia. Not only 
does the bumper assembly need to protect the vehicle body from minor 
bumps, it is also desirable that the bumper assembly be 
aesthetically-pleasing to the consumer as well. To achieve this, the 
bumper fascia should have a smooth, unblemished surface. 
It is also preferred that the bumper assembly be made and assembled to the 
vehicle at a low cost, which usually coincides with requiring minimum 
manual labor. To minimize manual labor, it is desirable that the bumper 
assembly be assembled to the vehicle by automation as much as possible. In 
some current bumper assemblies, several attachment projections are 
provided on the bumper fascia and are used for attaching the bumper fascia 
to a bumper fascia support. The attachment projections, commonly called 
"tabs", have to be manually bent to be attached to the bumper fascia 
support. Since there are usually several tabs on these types of bumper 
fascias, at least three operators are required at one time to attach the 
bumper fascia to the bumper fascia support. It is, therefore, preferred 
that a bumper assembly be designed having a bumper fascia with a minimum 
of tabs. 
It is also advantageous if the parts of the bumper assembly can be molded 
and require minimum use of tooling equipment, since tooling equipment is 
relatively expensive and often causes blemish lines in the parts. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide parts for 
forming a bumper assembly for a motor vehicle, and to provide the bumper 
assembly itself, which bumper assembly would function to protect the 
vehicle body from minor bumps. 
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bumper assembly 
for a motor vehicle which includes an aesthetically-pleasing bumper fascia 
having a smooth surface with a minimum of surface blemishes. 
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide parts for 
forming a bumper assembly which are made and assembled using a minimum of 
labor and a minimum of tooling. 
To achieve the foregoing objects, one embodiment of the present invention 
is a bumper fascia support for supporting a motor vehicle bumper fascia 
wherein the bumper fascia generally has a C-shaped transverse 
cross-section with an upper skirt and a lower skirt. The bumper fascia 
support has a front side and a back side relative to its position on the 
motor vehicle and comprises an elongated platform and at least one base 
member connected to the elongated platform. The platform is adapted to be 
attached to the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia and has an upper 
surface and a lower surface, the upper surface being adapted for 
supporting the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia. The base member 
is adapted to be attached to the lower skirt of the C-shaped bumper 
fascia. 
A second embodiment of the present invention is a bumper fascia support and 
reinforcement assembly for supporting and reinforcing a motor vehicle 
bumper fascia. Again, the bumper fascia generally has a C-shaped 
transverse cross-section with an upper skirt and a lower skirt. The bumper 
fascia support and reinforcement assembly comprises an elongated bumper 
fascia support and an elongated reinforcement beam attached to the front 
side of the bumper fascia support so that the bumper fascia support is 
longitudinally-aligned with the reinforcement beam. The bumper fascia 
support is as described above for the first embodiment of the present 
invention. 
A third embodiment of the present invention is a bumper assembly for a 
motor vehicle comprising an elongated bumper fascia generally having a 
C-shaped transverse cross-section with an upper skirt and a lower skirt, 
an elongated bumper fascia support, and an elongated reinforcement beam. 
The elongated bumper fascia support has a front side and a back side 
relative to its position on the motor vehicle and an elongated platform 
having an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface supporting 
the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia. The elongated platform is 
attached to the upper skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia so that the 
C-shaped bumper fascia is longitudinally-aligned with and on the front 
side of the bumper fascia support. The bumper fascia support further has 
at least one base member connected to the elongated platform and attached 
to the lower skirt of the C-shaped bumper fascia. The reinforcement beam 
is attached to the front side of the bumper fascia support so that the 
reinforcement beam is longitudinally-aligned with the bumper fascia 
support and is between the bumper fascia support and the C-shaped bumper 
fascia. 
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be 
readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood after reading 
the subsequent description taken in conjunction with the appendant 
drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S) 
Referring to FIG. 1, an unassembled bumper assembly 10 is shown including 
bumper fascia 12, bumper fascia support 14, and reinforcement beam 16. 
Although the bumper parts and bumper assembly of this invention may be 
used on the front or rear of a motor vehicle, for ease of description, 
side 18 of bumper assembly 10, and of its various parts, will be referred 
to as front side 18 and side 20 of bumper assembly 10 will be referred to 
as back side 20. 
Bumper fascia 12, which is the visible part of bumper assembly 10 when 
assembled onto a motor vehicle, is an elongated part having a generally 
C-shaped transverse cross-section having upper skirt 22 and lower skirt 
24. Lower skirt 24 has holes 26 therethrough, the purpose of which will be 
discussed below. Bumper fascia 12 is also L-shaped at each end 28 and 28' 
which extends over the corresponding ends of bumper fascia support 12 and 
reinforcing beam 16 and along a portion of the vehicle body when the 
bumper assembly is attached to the vehicle body. L-shaped ends 28 and 28' 
are, however, optional in the present invention. Upper skirt 22 of bumper 
fascia 12 has terminating edge 30 and projections 32 extending outwardly 
from terminating edge 30 and directed toward back side 20 of bumper 
assembly 10. 
Bumper fascia 12 is typically formed of a flexible, elastomeric material, 
such as a thermoplastic olefin material, and may be formed by injection 
molding techniques. 
Bumper fascia support 14 is an elongated member having elongated platform 
34 on the top thereof. Platform 34 has upper surface 36, lower surface 38, 
and back edge 40. Platform 34 is present to support upper skirt 22 of 
bumper fascia 12 so that upper skirt 22 does not sag along its surface. 
Bumper fascia support 14 further has upwardly-extending ridge 42 near and 
parallel with back edge 40 of platform 34. Ridge 42 may be continuous or 
discontinuous along back edge 40, but is shown as being continuous. Ridge 
42 has a plurality of slots 44 extending therethrough, which slots are 
generally horizontal. 
Bumper fascia support 14 also has a plurality of spaced-apart leg members 
46 connected to and downwardly-extending from lower surface 38 of platform 
34. Leg members 46 include shank portion 48 having locking snaps 50 
thereon directed toward the front side 18 of the bumper assembly. At the 
bottom ends of leg members 46 are base members 52 with forward extensions 
54 and backward extensions 56. Backward extensions 56 have holes 58 
therethrough for accepting attachment means, such as a bolt. 
Also connected to lower surface 38 of platform 34 are reinforcing spacers 
62. Reinforcing spacers 62 are present to keep bumper fascia support 14 
from sagging and to maintain spacing between bumper fascia support 14 and 
reinforcement beam 16. Bumper fascia support 14 is typically formed of an 
elastomeric material, such as a thermoplastic olefin material, and may be 
formed by injection molding techniques. 
Reinforcement beam 16 is a hollow elongated member generally having a 
rectangular transverse cross-section and is typically present to provide 
substantial resistance to impacts to the motor vehicle. Reinforcement beam 
16 has a plurality of voids 64 on the front side thereof to reduce the 
weight of the part. Reinforcement beam 16 also has welding flanges 66 on 
the top and bottom thereof, as reinforcement beam 16 is typically formed 
by welding two metal structures together. 
Reinforcement beam 16 also has apertures 68 on the back side thereof. When 
bumper fascia support 14 is assembled with reinforcement beam 16, 
apertures 68 in reinforcement beam 16 align with locking snaps 50 on 
bumper fascia support 14 providing a way to attach bumper fascia support 
14 to reinforcement beam 16. 
The dot-dash lines in FIG. 1 indicate how bumper assembly 10 is assembled, 
that is, when assembled, reinforcement beam 16 is between bumper fascia 12 
and bumper fascia support 14. Bumper assembly 10 fully assembled is shown 
in part in FIG. 2. 
FIG. 3 shows a transverse cross-sectional view of assembled bumper assembly 
10, the cross-section being a slice between lines 3--3 of FIG. 2. As 
shown, locking snaps 50 of bumper fascia support 14 is locked into 
apertures 68 in reinforcement beam 16 to attach reinforcement beam 16 to 
the front side of bumper fascia support 14. The locking mechanism between 
bumper fascia support 14 and reinforcement beam 16, that is, locking snaps 
50 and apertures 68, has the advantage that no extraneous fasteners are 
required to attach the two parts together. 
Also as shown in FIG. 3, projection 32 on bumper fascia 12 is inserted into 
slot 44 of bumper fascia support 14 to attach platform 34 of bumper fascia 
support 14 to upper skirt 22 of bumper fascia 12. The bottom surface of 
base member 52 of bumper fascia support 14 abuts against the top surface 
of lower skirt 24 of bumper fascia 12 and hole 58 in base member 52 aligns 
with hole 26 in lower skirt 24 so that attachment means, such as a bolt, 
may be inserted through holes 58 and 26 to fasten base member 52 to lower 
skirt 24. 
To attach bumper assembly 10 to a motor vehicle, bumper fascia support 14 
and reinforcement beam 16 are first fastened together as described 
hereinabove. Then, reinforcement beam 16 may be bolted to a vehicle body, 
e.g., by bolting each end of the reinforcement beam to the vehicle body. 
Bumper fascia 12 is then attached to the bumper fascia 
support/reinforcement beam assembly by sliding projections 32 on bumper 
fascia 12 into slots 44 in bumper fascia support 14 and fastening base 
members 52 to lower skirt 24 as described hereinabove. 
Accordingly, the bumper fascia support, the reinforcement beam, and the 
bumper fascia of the present invention are useful for forming a bumper 
assembly for a motor vehicle which functions to protect the vehicle body 
from minor bumps. The bumper assembly of the present invention provides an 
aesthetically-pleasing bumper fascia having a smooth surface with a 
minimum of surface blemishes because the bumper fascia of the present 
invention requires a minimum of tooling to be formed and is well-supported 
by the bumper fascia support of the present invention. Each of the parts 
of the present invention for forming the bumper assembly of the present 
invention are made and assembled using a minimum of labor and a minimum of 
tooling. To assemble the bumper assembly of the present invention, no 
parts require manual bending, as in previous bumper assemblies. 
The present invention has been described in an illustrative manner. It is 
to be understood that the terminology which has been used is intended to 
be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation. 
Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in 
light of the above teachings. Therefore, within the scope of the appended 
claims, the present invention may be practiced otherwise than as 
specifically described.