Patent ID: 8662236

Claim:
A spring-and-damper assembly that is articulated one of directly or indirectly at a front hood and at a body of a motor vehicle comprising: a cylinder; a gas pressure damper with a damping piston arranged in the cylinder; a piston rod, which is outwardly loaded by a gaseous medium through an axial opening in the cylinder, that projects from the damping piston and assists opening of the front hood; a sensor device; and an actuator activated by a sensor device and configured to adjust the front hood into a raised pedestrian protection position, wherein at least one of the piston rod, the cylinder, and a structural component part connected therewith is axially adjustable relative to a supporting part supporting the assembly so as to be limited between stops, wherein at least one of the structural component part and supporting part is configured as a ball head supported in one of a joint socket and a joint head having a joint socket for a ball head, the one of the ball head and joint head connected at least indirectly to one of the piston rod, the cylinder, and the joint socket and is formed so as to be groove-shaped in axial direction so that the ball head is axially adjustable in the joint socket in a limited manner, wherein a region of one of the cylinder, the piston rod, and the ball head or of the joint head or of the structural component part contacts a stop of another part when the front hood is adjusted upward into the pedestrian protection position by the actuator, wherein the gas pressure damper of a spring-and-damper assembly is configured to operate in a damping manner at the front hood during further displacement of the front hood into the pedestrian protection position brought about by one of the actuator, the gas pressure spring, and another pre-loaded spring element, so that the front hood does not overshoot either upward and downward of the pedestrian protection position, and wherein the damping piston is a differential-pressure damping piston axially adjustable between two work spaces under pressure by the gaseous medium and are connected via at least one of one throttle opening in one of the cylinder and damping piston and a line connecting the two work spaces.