Appointment
The bumper is an energy-saving element in the form of a sails in the front and rear of the car. Its purpose is to absorb the energy of impact in the collision, with the ultimate sacrifice: the bumper itself is formed or cracked, and its fastenings are destroyed.
The structure of the bumper may be different: in some domestic cars, a solid blurb made of aluminium or steel. However, more than one plastic bumper is found which is attached to the body with special support brackets. It is possible to observe the plastic bumper with the energy absorbing insert. It is a honeycomb or foam insert. The bumper has been made of thermoplastic material, which can be used after a rapier impact. He has a number of advantages: it is available, in treatment and in processing, as well as does not make it difficult to dispose of a car.
The bumpers have their own "protectors": metal and plastic bumper stickers are sometimes pasted from soft plastic or rubber, which can also absorb the impact energy at a low speed.
But all cars are different-if we collide, say, Range Rover and Renault Logan, then it would seem that the bumpers would not save the body from damage. In order to standardize the height of the bumpers, standards have been introduced in the world to determine the height of the bumper. And, in addition, the regulation specifies their impact-absorbing characteristics.
Thus, according to European standards, the body should not be deformed by a collision at a speed of 4 km/h. In North America, the laws are tougher: the body should remain a target for 8 km/h. And speaking of the height of the bumpers, the European independent crash test committee, known as the Euro NCAP, tests bumpers at a height of 454 mm from the road surface.
History
The first cars, built like mounted crews, had no bumpers.
For the first time, the bumper was introduced only at the end of the 19th century on the cars of President, which is now known as Tatra. It is believed that Leopold Svidak, which in 1898 equipped a vehicle with an impact-absorbing component in the front, is believed to have been discoverer in this area.
Up to the 20s, bumpers were rarely seen in cars. They were later used in the design of premium cars, such as Packard. They were offered as a fairly expensive option.
The first bumper cars were Ford Model A. At that time, the role of the bumper was performed by two parallel horizontal steel stripes attached to the front and rear of vehicles. The spring-loaded brackets were used as the anchorage, and it was the springs and the energy of the impact. This design soon became popular-it was used by practically all producers all over the world. She recommended herself as a virgin: in collisions at low speeds, but like the other bumpers, she didn' t save the body in serious accidents.
More often than not, the stripes were made with chrome or nickel, but sometimes they were seen and painted under the colour of the body.
In the 1930s, the bumper designs upgraded significantly: they now represented massive steel beams with a C-profile. These bumpers have been working on a different principle-they have not been buzed but deformed. It was easy to get it back, or simply to replace it-the good, this part was available in large quantities and at low prices.
The springs, however, did not continue to be used by manufacturers. For example, Packard created a "spring-loaded" bumper as one wide stripe in the form of an ellipse. The ends of the construction were cut off, and it was also broken with three stacks of rigid linings on the edges and on the centre. Later, these jumpers on some models turned into "fangs".
Companies have continued to improve their bumper, so that by the end of the decade, the simple construction has become a crafty, often even pretentious, chrome-plated feature with multiple overlapping elements. Thus, the bumper gradually became a mandatory decorative element, the "business card" of the car.
In the postwar years, the so-called "ears" included the elements of the bumper, which were dislocated on the sides of the body, thereby protecting it. Over time, the "aprons"-the horizontal steel plates which were fixed between the bumper and the body panels, became popular.
The bumper cars of North American production vehicles were different. It was there that the integrated bumpers were born-they were part of the body panel, not fasted on it. For example, in a US-produced Mercury car, the bumper performed several functions: it was both a protection and an apron, and a partial grille, and even a part of the front wings.
At that time, the bumper was far outweighed by the fastenings of the fog lamps, and the blinkers, and the many turnips facilitated the entry of the air into the engine compartment through the grille grille.
In the ' 60s the world is literally broken: conservative Europeans continued the tradition of the 30-year-old bumper cars of this period represented a metal beam with rounded edges and nothing superfluous. Unless rubber elements have been added to protect the chrome emal from slight scratches. While the "Big Three" continues to create integrated bumpers.
This lasted until the French company SIMCA spread its invention, the minimalist plastic bumper.