What Is a Stanchion?

Generally, the car body has three pillars, which are the front pillar (A pillar), the middle pillar (B pillar), and the rear pillar (C pillar). For cars, besides supporting the pillars, they also play the role of door frames.

In front of the pillars are the connecting pillars connecting the roof and the front cabin on the left front and right front. The front pillar is between the engine compartment and the cockpit, and above the left and right rear-view mirrors, which will obscure some of your turning horizons, especially left turns, so I have discussed more.

Designers must also consider the angle at which the front pillar blocks the driver's line of sight when considering the geometry of the front pillar. Under normal circumstances, the driver sees through the front pillar, and the binocular overlap angle is 5-6 degrees. From the driver's comfort, the smaller the overlap angle is, the better, but this involves the stiffness of the front pillar. It is a contradiction to have a certain geometric size to maintain the high stiffness of the front pillar and reduce the effect of the driver's line of sight. The designer must try to balance the two for best results. Volvo Sweden presents latest at 2001 North American International Auto Show

The center pillar not only supports the roof cover, but also bears the support force of the front and rear doors. It also needs to install some additional components on the center pillar, such as the seat belts of the front seats, and sometimes a wire harness. Therefore, most of the pillars have convex radii to ensure better force transmission performance. The cross-sectional shape of the center pillar of a modern car is relatively complicated, and it is welded from multiple stamped steel plates. With the development of automobile manufacturing technology, a hydraulically formed closed section center pillar without welding has been introduced. Its rigidity is greatly improved and the weight is greatly reduced, which is conducive to the lightweight of modern cars. However, some designers simply canceled the center pillar because of the convenience of passengers getting on and off the bus. The most typical is France

The difference between the rear pillar and the front pillar and the middle pillar is that there are no problems such as line-of-sight obstruction and obstacles to getting in and out of the vehicle. Therefore, it is OK to have a larger size. The key is that the rear pillar and the body must be reliable.

Rigidity is an indicator of the design of a car body. Rigidity refers to the ability of the car body not to deform easily when ordinary external forces are applied so as not to destroy the car body. The car will be deformed by various external forces during the driving process. A small degree of deformation means good rigidity. Generally, the rigidity is good and the strength is good. Poorly stiff cars tend to creak when driving on uneven roads. The rigidity of the pillar largely determines the overall rigidity of the vehicle body. Therefore, the pillar is a key component in the entire body structure, and it must have a high stiffness. ^[1]