German, 10 pages, 6 figures
Keywords: HGV, passive safety

This paper presents a new safety concept for commercial vehicles, which is based on an improved construction: the board frame. The board frame is a fully supporting frame for commercial vehicles. The main part of the frame’s structural strength is provided by a circumferential beam, the size of which in top view equals the exterior dimensions of the vehicle. In side view, it stretches from the rim’s lowest point to the upper edge of the tyres. The circumferential beam results in noise encapsulation. The levelled surface presented to the collision opponent more often leads to glancing collisions, which leads to less damage and injuries respectively. The paper describes a feasibility study with 5 prototypes that were put to a number of crash tests with passenger cars, which proved the improvement of passive safety for the car driver. It turned out that the board frame works in case of an accident like a guard rail or a crush zone.