More about the Modern-Day Bumper
Low speed collisions happen significantly due to on road slow moving heavy traffic as well as during parking of vehicles. The bumpers are provided in front and back side of a vehicle has two main purposes: first is to absorb the energy generated during these kinds of slow speed impacts and secondly to protect the expensive parts like main engine parts, radiators and connected engine cooling mechanism, headlights, taillights, etc., by slowing down the vehicles. The problem often in various cars bumper is that they don’t line-up vertically during low speed impact and leads to damage of various parts which are costly to repair. Many a times bumper design does not have sufficient capacity to absorb the energy generated during these impacts. Guidelines by International Institute Highway Safety (IIHS) regulation provides useful insight for such low speed impact study.
Slow speed impact test was conducted as per IIHS regulation in three positions namely central impact, left hand corner impact and right-hand corner impact. Parameters including bumper material, shape, thickness and impact condition are analyzed using fine element analysis (FEA) to enhance crashworthiness design in low speed impact. Then the vehicle front structure has been modified suitably. It has been observed that lining up the front metal bumper with suitable stiffness provides the best result which ultimately reduces the damage to the vehicle parts.
one of the greatest challenges faced by an automotive industry is to provide safer vehicles with high fuel efficiency at competitive cost. Automotive designs with economy, safety and aesthetics have been a great challenge to design engineers. Current automotive vehicle structures have one fundamental handicap, a short crumple zone for crash energy absorption. The safety of the passengers during vehicle crashes can be ensured to a certain limit by using good bumpers. Mainly bumpers are used to protect vehicle parts such as radiator, cooling systems, exhaust system, hoods and fenders headlights, taillights that are expensive to repair. At the same time this automotive part should not be massive in terms of weight contributing to the increase in total the weight of the vehicle. Hence the bumper provides safety as well as aesthetic look to the most of passenger vehicles.
Outer plastic bumper provided for aesthetic look whereas the crush brackets and metal bumper support during slow impact and protect nearby engines parts. Some car manufactures also provides the front and rear bumpers made up of metal sheet having material steel or aluminum alloy. Few auto makers design the bumper bar and its attachment brackets to crush in a slow speed crash to absorb energy. Now-a-days material like formed thermoplastic and polypropylene foam are also used in addition to or instead of crushable brackets and a bar.
Bumpers of colliding vehicles should line-up geometrically so that they engage each other during a low-speed crash to absorb crash or impact energy. Bumpers should stay engaged with the other bumpers in collisions instead of overriding or under riding them, which often results in damage to headlights, fenders hoods and trunks. Bumpers should have sufficient energy absorbing capabilities to con ne damage to the bumper system itself.
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Yes, all this is very important information, however, when you do get into a soft or minor bumper collision there is no need to have your whole bumper removed and have a new or new used bumper replaced. You can have it repaired and many times in the same workday. Outside of your main stream body and fender shop there are many bumper repair only shops that specialize in just that, bumper repair! Some also specialize in headlamp restoration also so look up your local bumper repair only shop and save money and save from your bumper being thrown into the landfill unnecessarily before it time.