Safety Shield for a Vehicle

Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns a safety shield for use on a vehicle where the safety shield is flexible and provided at the ends of the vehicle, preferably at the front, for example on a lorry or a lorry trailer, where the safety shield extends substantially across the width of the vehicle.

Description of Prior Art From lorries it is commonly known that a guard is fitted under the rear bumper to prevent a car from driving in under the lorry. Similar accidents are prevented at the front in that the position of the bumper is somewhat lower.

It is also well-known that a side guard is fitted in the opening between the wheels. The purpose of such a side guard is to provide an effective protection for exposed road users against the risk of falling in under the sides of the vehicle and get in under the wheels. Exposed road users in this connection are defined as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists or others using the road in a way so that they are prone to be run into and thereby fall in under the vehicle and be run over by one or more wheels.

Moreover, from US 4,688,824 is known a safety device for mounting primarily on school buses. This device may be adjusted manually or automatically at positions from no protection at all to the point where the safety device extends from the chassis of the bus and to the roadway. However, this device has another purpose, as the purpose is to prevent children from crawling in under the bus, e.g. for getting a ball or similar, while the bus is standing still. Moreover, the system is not suited to be activated when the bus is driving, as it is not designed to withstand contact with the road surface.

From DE 43 08 021 is also known a device for mounting on lorries, whereby serious accidents allegedly may be prevented at collisions with animals and humans. The shown solution is an inflatable run-under guard which according to need may be emptied from air in order thereby to attain a greater ground clearance for the vehicle. However, there is the inexpediency that regulation of ground clearance as well as the

distance from the lower edge of the guard and to the ground cannot be adjusted rapidly and optimally.

The requirements from the authorities to a side shield are, however, not sufficient to prevent accidents. The side shield can be mounted with a distance of up to 55 centimetres from the lower edge to the roadway. If a cyclist during a right turn of a lorry comes into contact with the side guard, there is thus a great risk that the cyclist is thrown off the bicycle and comes under the wheels, side shield or not.

The prior art shielding solutions surely prevent some accidents, but cannot be said to be sufficiently safe. It is thus the purpose of the invention to indicate a safety shield for mounting at the ends of a lorry or at the ends of a lorry trailer, where the shielding is adjustable, flexible and where the interspace between lorry and roadway or between trailer and roadway is filled more optimally than by the prior art types.

Description of the Invention

The safety shield according to the invention includes regulating means for adjusting the spacing between the lower edge of the safety shield and the roadway, where this adjustment is effected wholly or partially by means of adjustable chambers, preferably air chambers, where the regulating means furthermore include at least one actuator, preferably at least one linear actuator which is powered electrically or by a pressurised fluid.

By adjusting the distance between the lower edge and the roadway there is obtained the advantage that the spacing can be adjusted to the actual situation and the actual conditions. According to the invention, this adjustment is effected by one or more chambers being filled with a fluid, preferably with air, whereby the safety shield is unfolded and achieves the required stiffness while at the same time still maintaining sufficient elasticity. In principle, the safety shield acts as a balloon or a buffer.

The purpose of using actuators is that the safety shield can be regulated according to the desired distance between lower edge and roadway. The actuators may be known hydraulic or pneumatic actuators, but may also be electric. The actuators can be

double-acting so that they are not only pressing the safety shield down, but may also move it back to initial position, hi order to assist retraction to the initial position, where air is to be evacuated from the air-filled chambers, springs can be fitted, e.g. helical springs -that are fixed at the lorry and at the lower edge of the safety shield, respectively.

When driving in areas where cyclists and other soft road users, e.g. pedestrians, are around, the safety shield is advantageously used with a spacing of about 4 cm between lower edge and the roadway. With this small spacing it is ensured that a soft road user, who is run down, will not come in under the vehicle, but is pushed aside instead. A collision will of course not be safe, however less dangerous than if the soft road user comes into contact with the wheels of the vehicle.

hi a variant of the invention, the regulating means include at least one distance sensor for detecting the distance between the lower edge of the safety shield and the roadway.

Such a sensor is known from the industry, where different types are used, and by using such a sensor there is achieved the advantage that the distance between the lower edge of the safety shield and the roadway may be monitored at any time. This monitoring may occur either manually or automatically via an adjusting unit. When driving in areas where soft road users are around, the safety shield may advantageously be lowered so that there is a spacing of about 4 cm between lower edge and the roadway.

This distance may be adjusted according to need and there may be some pre-set distances. Distances of 4 to 6 cm, 6 to 8 cm or 8 to 10 cm may e.g. be the options.

Other distances may be attractive by various individual conditions, and in such cases the safety shield may be adapted to be set according to these.

A particularly preferred variant according to the invention is where the distance between the lower edge of the safety shield and the roadway is adjusted via an adjusting unit as a function of the speed of the vehicle. The adjusting unit may e.g. be adapted so that the safety shield is activated when the vehicle is driven at a speed below 60 km/h. This situation is typical for traffic in cities where there are also many soft road users. It is thus in a city environment that the safety shield is justified and efficient.

In some situations, e.g. by much water, snow or mud on the roadway, in order to achieve a usable solution it may be necessary to perform a manual adaptation of the distance between the lower edge and the roadway. This possibility may be used alone or as a supplement for the automatic adjustment. The manual- operation may also be used on construction sites or in other situations where there is no immediate risk of accidents.

A variant of a safety shield according to the invention is constructed as rubber bellows with air chambers or with chambers intended for air bags. These rubber bellows can be made as accordion bellows or with other suitable design. By this design is achieved the possibility of having a contracted safety shield where the material is lying in ordered folds, and where there is sufficient excess length in the bellows for the safety shield to be unfolded sufficiently when activated, without overloading the rubber bellows. In this connection, by rubber bellows is meant bellows made of an elastic material, e.g. rubber or other suitable material.

In one variant of the rubber bellows, these are with through-going ducts for actuators and/or spring elements, where these ducts are extending largely perpendicularly to the surface of the roadway. In these ducts actuators and/or spring elements are located and protected against dirt and water from the roadway. The joints between these ducts and the previously mentioned air chambers may advantageously be made air tight. Alternatively, air bags - a kind of balloon - can be used and disposed in the bellows and interact with the latter by inflating. The safety shield is activated by pumping air into air chambers or air bags and by activating the previously mentioned actuators.

In order to provide the safety shield with additional downwards force and a lesser air resistance, a variant of the invention may be equipped with one or more air ducts extending largely in the driving direction, preferably at an acute angle in relation to the roadway, hi this way an airflow is conducted through these ducts, obviously providing less air resistance, but the ducts may also be adapted to apply a downward force on the safety shield due to the design and disposition of the duct.

A safety shield according to the invention may advantageously be mounted behind a bumper on a lorry or lorry trailer. On far the most vehicles, there is ample space for this device, and a transverse load-bearing beam member with the safety shield and with actuators and spring elements may readily be mounted behind the bumper. Alternatively, the lorry or lorry trailer may be adapted by the factory for mounting a safety shield according to the invention.

A safety shield according to the invention may also be with indication lamps, e.g. diode lights in colours suited for the purpose. The lamps may be warning lights that flash, or they may be position lights marking the vehicle.

When activated, a safety shield according to the invention may prevent a pedestrian or a cyclist coming in contact with the vehicle in a right turn or in a similar situation from getting under the wheels of the vehicle. The situation may, of course, still be serious, but the risk that the soft road user comes in under the wheels is largely non-existent.

The safety shield according to the invention may have a wearing edge at the edge facing the roadway, preferably a replaceable wearing edge. This wearing edge may be of metal, rubber, plastic or other suitable material. The main thing is that it can withstand contact with the roadway without being destroyed or worn rapidly. With such a wearing edge, the safety shield can be used with very small distance to the roadway.

A safety shield according to the invention may, as mentioned previously, be with air chambers and possibly with pneumatic actuators. Pressurised air for these elements may continuously be supplied from the compressor of the vehicle or by occasional activation.

Besides its primary function as protection, a safety shield may be used as advertising space. This space for advertisements may of course be used according to wish, and may possibly also be used as mark of warning that a vehicle is about to - or is waiting to - perform a right turn. The mark of warning may be signs, but may also be light signals and sound signals.

Short Description of the Drawing

The invention is described in more detail with reference to the drawing, where: FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of a not activated safety shield, as seen from the side; FIG. 2 shows a cross-section of an activated safety shield, as seen from the side; FIG. 3 shows an activated safety shield, as seen from the front; FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of an activated safety shield with air ducts.

Detailed Description of the Invention Fig. 1 shows a safety shield 1 as seen from the side and in not activated position. The safety shield 1 is built up with rubber bellows 2, and a spring element 3 is incorporated in a duct 4 extending from the lower edge 5 of the safety shield to the attachment beam 6 under the lorry 7. The safety shield 1 here appears mounted under a lorry 7 between the front bumper 8 and the front wheels 9.

In principle, Fig. 2 shows the same safety shield as Fig. 1, however shown here in an active position instead. Air has been pumped into the bellows 2, alternatively in not shown air bags disposed internally of the rubber bellows 2, and it appears that the spring element 3 is now drawn out and that the lower edge 5 is immediately over the roadway 10. The safety shield 1 is made with sufficient stiffness so that it does not bend backward under the action of what corresponds to a so-called soft road user. However, if e.g. a high curb stone or similar is run on, this action will be sufficient to bend the safety shield 1 so that it is not destroyed.

In Fig. 3 appears the safety shield 1 as shown in Fig. 2, but shown here from the front. The safety shield 1 is shown transparent here, and behind the safety shield 1 appears the wheels 9. Three spring elements 3 and two actuators 11, shown here as telescoping pneumatic cylinders, are seen in the air-filled rubber bellows 2. Spring elements 3 and actuators 11 are all placed in ducts 4 which protect the spring elements 3 and the actuators 11 against dirt and water from the roadway 10 and which are part of the airtight rubber bellows 2.

The safety shield is lowered to the desired level above the roadway by activating the actuators 11. The distance between the lower edge 5 and the roadway 10 before, during and after lowering as well is monitored by a not shown distance meter constituting a sensor disposed in connection with the safety shield. This sensor communicates with an adjustment unit, and input from the sensor as a parameter is part of the adjustment of the safety shield 1.

hi Fig. 4 appears a variant of a safety shield 1 according to the invention where there are air ducts 12 extending through the rubber bellows 2. The air ducts 12 form an acute angle between the roadway and the direction of the air ducts. This angle may be adapted so that a downward force arises in the safety shield 1, whereby it is more easily kept in place. These air ducts 12 may also have the effect that there is not so great air resistance on the safety shield 1 itself. The size, number and disposition of these air ducts is chosen according to need, but typically several will be disposed in the width direction of the safety shield.