Collapsible tube for car door handles

DRIVE July 24, 2002
Source
A collapsible tube (7) is provided to fix the handles (1) of car doors, to avoid serious injuries in case of inner deformation due to side impacts on the vehicle. This prevents risks of damages for the passengers of the vehicle, as it expands radially and shortens. This invention provides a simple technical solution to achieve the automatic reduction of the length and the rigidity of the tubes through which the handle is assembled to the door. It consists in that the wall of these tubular parts (7) incorporate longitudinal grooves (6) with an uniform angular distribution, reaching the end distant from the door, where it is connected to the wing that forms the handle, laid between two tubular parts (7). Contributing to the "collapsible" quality of the tubular piece (7), the walls have a longitudinal section decreasing from both ends of the tube towards the centre, thus forming a ring-shaped weakening line (8).

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