Bumper beam for a vehicle and a method of adapting a bumper beam to various vehicle models

Abstract

A bumper beam for a vehicle comprises a hat beam ( 10 ) with a cover ( 14 ). The hat beam has a crown ( 11 ) and side flanges ( 11, 13 ), and the cover ( 14 ) is fastened to the side flanges. The crown is fastened to the vehicle body. The cover ( 14 ) extends past at least one of the side flanges ( 12, 13 ) and it is stiffened by being transversely corrugated.

1 . A bumper beam for a vehicle comprising a hat beam ( 10 ) with a crown ( 11 ) and side flanges ( 12 , 13 ), and a cover ( 14 ) fastened to the side flanges, wherein the crown faces the vehicle and is fastened to the vehicle, characterised in that the cover ( 14 ) extends past at least one of the side flanges ( 12 , 13 ) and has transverse stiffening means.  
     
     
         2 . A bumper beam according to  claim 1 , characterised in that the transverse stiffening means comprise transverse corrugation of the cover ( 14 ).  
     
     
         3 . A method of adapting a bumper beam to various vehicle models built on the same platform when the ground clearance is not the same for all the models,  
     
     
         4 . characterised in that a hat beam is used which is mounted to the platform with its crown and a cover wider than the hat beam is fastened to the side flanges of the hat beam and in that one adaptes the bumper beam to the various ground clearances of the various vehicle models by fastening the cover with different extension past at least one of the flanges for different models.