TANKS FORMING RACK SUPERSTRUCTURE

摘要

A tank formed rack structure comprising at least two modules affixed to each other via bases and a method of reduced weight vertical storage of fuel tanks for use in motor vehicles wherein the fuel tanks form a portion of the rack superstructure.

主权项

1. A fuel tank rack structure comprising at least two modules (10/10′) affixed together,
wherein each module comprises:
a cylindrical fuel tank (15);two front bottom bases (30A′/30A″) and two back bottom bases (30B′/30B″) affixed to the bottom of the cylindrical fuel tank (15);two front top bases (20A′/20A″) and two back top bases (20B′/20B″) affixed to the top of the cylindrical fuel tank (15); wherein the at least two modules are fastened together in a vertical arrangement with the modules fastened together by affixing the front bottom bases of each successively higher module (10′) to the front top bases of the previous module (10) and affixing the back bottom bases of each successively higher module (10′) to the back top bases of the previous module (10); wherein the top and bottom bases are sized to allow the modules(10/10′) to be fastened together in a vertical arrangement without allowing the tanks (15) to touch; and, wherein the front top bases and the back top bases comprise an interface (22) corresponding to the curvature of the fuel tank, a head latch 25 extending upwards, and a pin guide (27) disposed in the head latch;
the front bottom bases and the back bottom bases comprise an interface (22) corresponding to the curvature of the fuel tank, a head catch (35) forming a well in the bottom base, and a pin guide (27) disposed in the head catch; and,the pin guides of each pair of top and bottom bases that are affixed together are aligned and a fastener (37) is inserted through the aligned pin guides and fixed in place.