Patent ID: 7399028

Claim:
An energy-absorbing hood for use with a vehicle, wherein said energy-absorbing hood is configured to bear tensile and compressive stresses resulting from a bending load imparted to the energy-absorbing hood during ordinary travel of the vehicle, and wherein said energy-absorbing hood is adapted to uniformly absorb a predetermined crush load resulting from an impact between an object and the energy-absorbing hood, the energy-absorbing vehicle hood comprising: an outer layer and an inner layer defining a cavity therebetween; and an energy-absorbing foam material substantially filling said cavity; wherein said outer layer and said inner layer are each directly and continuously bonded to said energy-absorbing foam material, said outer layer being adapted to fracture in response to the predetermined crush load to thereby transmit the predetermined crush load to said energy-absorbing foam material for uniform absorption thereby, and wherein said energy-absorbing foam material is configured to transmit the tensile and compressive stresses to said outer layer and said inner layer during the ordinary travel of the vehicle.