Wheel air dam with sound-absorbing material

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wheel air gap for a motor vehicle of which according to the invention at least one section of the wheel air gap open air comprises a sound-absorbing material.

Claims

1. A wheel air dam for a motor vehicle, wherein at least one exposed section of the wheel air dam that is impacted by airflow when moving forward, comprises LWRT as a sound-absorbing material.

2. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the sound-absorbing material forms at least one section of an exposed outward-facing surface of the wheel air dam.

3. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the wheel air dam has an attachment section designed for attachment to a motor vehicle and a guide section designed to influence an airstream, wherein the sound-absorbing material forms at least one section of the guide section.

4. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the guide section has a dam wall with a dam side, which when the wheel air dam is fully installed faces the front of the vehicle and during forward movement is impacted by the airflow, and with a shadow side opposite to the dam side, which when the wheel air dam is fully installed faces the rear of the vehicle, wherein at least the dam side of the guide section is made from the sound-absorbing material.

5. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 4, wherein also the shadow side is made from the sound-absorbing material.

6. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the wheel air dam is made completely from sound-absorbing material.

7. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the sound-absorbing material forms two component surfaces that enclose an angle with one another.

8. The wheel air dam for a motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the LWRT material is provided as a multilayer sandwich material.

9. A motor vehicle having a wheel air dam wherein at least one section of the wheel air dam comprises a sound-absorbing material, said wheel air dam being provided in the forward driving direction in front of the wheel of the motor vehicle on the underbody of the motor vehicle.

10. The motor vehicle according to claim 9, wherein the wheel air dam has an attachment section designed for attachment to a motor vehicle and a guide section designed to influence an airstream, wherein the sound-absorbing material forms at least one section of the guide section; and at least the guide section is movable relative to the underbody of the motor vehicle, and in particular can be changed in its projection dimension from the underbody.

11. The wheel air dam according to claim 1, wherein the sound-absorbing material forms more than two component surfaces that enclose an angle with one another.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

(1) The present invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the attached drawings. These show:

(2) FIG. 1 a perspective representation of an embodiment of a wheel air dam according to the invention and

(3) FIG. 2 a cross-section through an LWRT material, which can be used for example for sectional manufacture of the wheel air dam.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(4) FIG. 1 shows an embodiment according to the invention of a wheel air dam generally marked with 10. The wheel air dam 10 comprises an attachment section 12 for attachments to the vehicle and a guide section 14 projecting there from at an angle, possibly a right angle or an angle slightly less than 90. The attachment section 12 is usually attached to the underbody of the motor vehicle, possibly by screws, and the guide section 14 is in front of the tire, in particular a front tire of the motor vehicle carrying the wheel air dam 10, in order to deflect the impacting airflow in the direction of the tire occurring during forward movement to the extent possible.

(5) The airflow during forward movement of motor vehicle with a properly mounted wheel air dam impacts the dam side 14a of the guide section 14. Opposite this dam side 14afacing away from the observer of FIG. 1 and therefore not discernible in FIG. 1is the shadow side 14b of the guide section 14.

(6) With a wheel air dam 10, which usually is designed in the prior art as an injection molded part, the sound energy emitted in the region of the tire by can be reduced by turning the airstream away from the particular tire.

(7) For further reduction of the sound omission arising from the region of the vehicle tired during driving, according to the invention the wheel air dam 10 is made from a multilayer LWRT material. Preferably the wheel air dam 10 is made entirely from the LWRT material.

(8) FIG. 2 shows an exemplary design of the LWRT material 240 forming the wheel air dam 10. The sectional view of FIG. 2 shows the LWRT material 20 from the dam side 14a (above) of the wheel air dam 10 as far as the shadow side 14b(below).

(9) The dam side 14a which is outwardly exposed is preferably formed by a nonwoven layer 22, which offers good stone impact protection and on the basis of its porosity the possibility of sound-absorption.

(10) Under the nonwoven layer 22 there can be provided a perforated door microperforated plastic film 24, possibly a polyolefins such as polypropylene or polyethylene. The plastic film 24 offers a barrier for the core layer 26 lying further thereunder and made of the thermoplastic bonded fiber material, preferably polyolefins bonded fiberglass material. The preferred binder plastic hereby is polypropylene.

(11) The core layer 26 can be formed from several partial layers, in the exemplary embodiments shown from three partial layers 26a, 26b, and 26c. The partial layers 26a, 26b, and 26c can have different surface weights, wherein preferably the partial layers 26a and 26c lying further outward can have a smaller surface weight than the central partial layer 26b. With respect to the specific surface weight ranges of the core layer 26 is well as the other layers of the LWRT material 20, reference is made to the above description introduction.

(12) The shadow side 14b of the guide section 14 can again be formed by a plastic film 28, which abuts the core layer 26. Plastic film 28 can be identical to the plastic film 24. Alternatively or additionally to the plastic film 28, the LWRT material 20 can also have a nonwoven layer on the shadow side 14b. Then the shadow side 14b is formed by the nonwoven layer.

(13) Based on the porous structure of the LWRT material, the latter has excellent sound absorption properties. Due to the thermoplastic leave bonded fiber structure, the surface weight of the LWRT material is low while at the same time its strength is high, so that it is excellently suited for production of aerodynamically and possibly also mechanically loaded wheel air dams 10.