Patent ID: 8348032

Claim:
A component for absorbing energy on impact, the component comprising: a frame of plastic fiber composite defining a hollow space; and a sheet of plastic fiber composite arranged within the frame and connected to the frame by welding, the sheet having two or more layers and a shaped edge defining a surface, wherein the sheet is configured to receive at the shaped edge an impact force directed parallel to the two or more layers and normal to the surface, and to delaminate on receiving the impact force, and wherein upon receipt of the impact force, energy absorption takes place, increasing from a low initial value as deformation of the component increases, due to at least one of: (a) one or more of the sheet and the frame comprising a regionally partly consolidated fiber composite with a degree of consolidation increasing in a direction normal to the surface as distance from the surface increases; and (b) a weld quality varying along at least one weld seam between the sheet and the frame, the weld quality increasing in a direction normal to the surface as the distance from the surface increases.