Ford’s Design Topples Rolls-Royce

Harmonious Suicide Doors: Pillarless Design.

Ford has achieved a reinvention of the 4-door vehicle with newly designed suicide doors, enabling the front and back entrances to be opened independently. Not just does this concept look majestic when all entrances are broad open, however it is incredibly utilitarian too, forming a much larger gap where inhabitants can easily access their seats.

CarBuzz uncovered a patent lodged with the US Patent and Trademark Office that Ford has successfully engineered ways of disposing of the B-pillar without enduring the same downside as the BMW i3 and Mazda RX-8. To illustrate, the i3 necessitates unbuckling the seatbelt before a backseat passenger may access their door as the seatbelt was connected to the rear door’s built-in pillar.

Ford had formerly tinkered with two back coach access on the Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition; however, this did not encompass disposing of the B-pillar completely.

The essential factor in realizing this thought was the capacity to let the front and back portals secure together unswervingly.

The recent patent incorporates the features of the old B-Max design, but with an added improvement. By placing door latches in extensive regions of the body shell or doors, strong pins interlock to automated revolving cams either at the top or bottom (or both) of the automobile’s frame to assemble a solid framework which works similarly to B-pillars. Furthermore, automatic door functioning is enabled with this newly improved system.

It is feasible for this spanking new door configuration to not just utilize mechanized locking cams, mechanically shift the doors between their contrasting places, and even ascertain the vigor required to appropriately engage the conflicting elastic door seals in dissimilar states.

Hence, the car will use a series of detectors to assess different factors such as wind velocity and bearing, the tilt at which it is stationed, spacing between the automobile and the pathway kerb, and nearness sensors to work out if, and to what scope, the portal can be opened.

The present control system appears to be inspired by a recent Ford patent for door-opening, decreasing the danger of accidents because of unintentional slamming shut or unawareness.

Nevertheless, the patent also giving further instructions, as taking out the B-pillar from a car is not something that can be done with no implications.

The B-pillars of a covered motor vehicle are essential for its structural stability and play a massive role in both side crash and overturn security. Thus, Ford’s engineers did not completely remove such pillars during the development of this newest model. Instead, they have been placed in the doors themselves.

The peripheral borders of the forward and rear access portals, at which they unite, have been heightened with robust steel. When sealed shut, they come together forming another B-pillar, which will swing outward upon opening to produce a continuous side doorway.

The body of the auto is constructed with enhanced box sections found in its ceiling and below the entryways to ensure a sturdiness in the frame. However, it is crucial to recognize that when the doors are shut, the sometimes shifted B-pillars still sustain structural implications.

Another factor that differentiates this type of door from standard doors is the use of rubber seals. These are made with special elastomeric polymers, which are programmed to move in a way that prevents damage while simultaneously providing a complete seal when the door is shut. The seals will deflate when the door opens, then they expand when the doorway closes and fill any gaps, creating a total seal.

Where this technology may take us is unclear, for the Continental has been rendered obsolete. Nevertheless, Ford’s patent filing, it seems, makes use of a Lincoln Nautilus as an illustrative vehicle. Could there be a Lincoln Nautilus Coach Door Edition in the works? Perhaps, however, it could just be featured on a future Lincoln Electric motorized vehicle. Since, after all, the Lincoln Star Concept showed off butterfly rear doors as well as no B-pillar, so this novel concept can potentially be adopted in a mass-market automobile.