Design and Development of an Engineering Thermoplastic Energy Absorbing System for Automotive Knee Bolsters

970725

02/24/1997

Event
International Congress & Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
Traditional knee bolster designs consist of a first-surface plastic component covered by paint or vinyl skin and foam, with a subsurface steel plate that transfers knee loads to 2 steel crush brackets. The design was developed to meet FMVSS 208 and OEM requirements. More recently, technological developments have allowed for the steel plate to be replaced by a ribbed plastic structure, which offers cost and weight savings to the instrument panel system. However, it is still a hybrid system that combines plastic with the 2 steel crush brackets.
This paper will detail the development of an all-plastic design, which consolidates the plastic ribbed reinforcement plate with the 2 steel crush cans in a single engineering thermoplastic component. The new system is expected to offer further cost and weight savings. To develop this design in thermoplastics, it was necessary to understand and account for the dependence of the failure mode of these materials to changing strain rates, temperatures, and stress states.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/970725
Pages
8
Citation
Sherman, K., and Florence, R., "Design and Development of an Engineering Thermoplastic Energy Absorbing System for Automotive Knee Bolsters," SAE Technical Paper 970725, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/970725.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 24, 1997
Product Code
970725
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English