Patent ID: 8016331

Claim:
A bumper system for vehicles comprising: an elongated reinforcement beam having a length and adapted for mounting to a vehicle frame, the beam being tubular and including a front surface that, in vertical cross sections along the length, extends vertically across the beam with a remainder of the beam being rearward of the front surface; and an energy absorber positioned on the front surface and substantially covering the front surface of the reinforcement beam and including a rear wall juxtaposed and abutting the front surface and further including at least one hollow crush lobe extending forward of the rear wall, the at least one crush lobe being configured to crush and absorb energy upon a vehicle crash during initial impact against the beam, the at least one crush lobe including interconnected top, bottom, end and front walls, at least one opposing pair of the walls being elongated parallel a length of the beam to define enlarged areas that are generally unsupported and including external ribs extending generally perpendicular to the length for stabilizing the enlarged areas, the top and bottom walls each defining an exterior surface and the ribs each being formed on the top and bottom walls and having a cross section protruding from the exterior surface when in a vehicle position, the top and bottom walls defining arched shapes in cross section and being substantially planar along a length of the absorber and located to crush against the front surface of the beam and having at least some of the external ribs extending short of a full distance of the non-planar shapes, at least some of the ribs having a rib length and a non-constant height along the rib length and defining T-shaped jointed arrangements with the top and bottom walls.