Hood is the closure provided in the frontal portion of the vehicle for covering the engine room. Any component disposed in the frontal portion of the vehicle becomes important because of aesthetic as well as regulatory requirements. Introduction of new regulations like pedestrian protection brings new challenges for the original equipment manufacturers and the governing authorities. Introduction of Pedestrian Protection regulation, a recent development in the automotive industry, has thrown several questions in front of original equipment manufacturers.
This work explains the procedure to address such question and the learning associated with it. With an attempt to comply Pedestrian regulation, following were the major challenges:
- 1
Common Platform and Engine
- 2
High Hood Styling
- 3
Limited freedom to increase vehicle front overhang
- 4
Location of hood switch
With above mentioned constraints, a team of design, evaluation and testing set forth its aim to make the Hood system pedestrian headform compliant while giving priority to styling and common platform. Also the location of safety device, hood switch, can’t be changed which becomes a major constraint in reducing the HIC values as the gap required for energy absorption was not available between hood and member hood lock. This paper presents all the facets and the outcomes of this important activity. Final design corroboration was done at Physical testing laboratory. The scope of this work lies in the application of the learning obtained during the activity for future deployment on various models.