Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Tops – Roof structure
Reexamination Certificate
1997-02-28
2001-12-25
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Tops
Roof structure
C296S214000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332644
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive sunshade panel formed from a hollow panel having a two-dimensional or three-dimensional curved surface conforming to a bent curved surface in the form of the top of an automobile, and to a method of manufacturing such an automotive sunshade panel.
b) Description of the Prior Art
To manufacture a bent panel having a large radius of curvature such as an interior side sunshade panel for an automotive sunroof, in the prior art techniques, the pressed body obtained from press work using dies and reinforcing members such as ribs were assembled together by bonding means including spot welding, riveting, adhesion, etc, since typical roll-based bending work often gave birth to spring back resulting in a dimensional instability. Japanese Patent Laid-open Pub. No. 96-90080 discloses a method of manufacturing through bulging a bent panel having inflations serving as reinforcing ribs from an aluminum Roll-Bond panel stock. For the manufacture of the bent panel, in the above invention, use was made of a forming machine provided with a forming surface having a curved surface of a radius of curvature to be formed. A planar stock is disposed on the forming machine. A punch holder of the forming machine is then lowered to chuck the peripheries of the planar stock. With the peripheries being chucked, the planar stock is finally brought into abutment against the forming surface. In the case of press forming an automotive sunshade panel by means of dies as in those conventional methods, however, a multiplicity of dies corresponding to various types of vehicles are required, and hence relatively small-lot products result uneconomically in a relative increase of cost used up by the dies.
Furthermore, the invention described in the above publication uses an aluminum Roll-Bond panel as stock. This stock tends to bring about a decrease in the gauge direction with a forming force during the press forming, as well as deficiencies such as collapse of the inflated portions. Although fabrics are typically laminated to the automotive sunshade panel, they must be laminated to the curved surface after pressing since lamination before pressing may possibly allow the fabrics to peel off under the action of lubricant used in the pressing process. This resulted in increased number of working steps and was costly.
Typical stock for the automotive sunshade panel can be a thermoset resin sheet, a steel sheet, or an aluminum sheet, with a recent attention paid to the aluminum sheet (including aluminum alloy sheet) in terms of its lightweight and recyclability. In view of rigidity and cost-saving, the aluminum sheet has a gauge of the order of 0.8 to 1.0 mmt for pressing process. On the contrary, it has been hitherto known to bend the stock by use of twin rolls consisting of a metal roll and a resin roll as shown in FIG.
2
. In the case of bending the aluminum sheet of the order of 0.8 to 1.0 mmt in gauge by using the above metal/resin roll pairs serving as rigid/elastic roll pairs, it would be possible to perform bending with a relatively small radius of curvature, but impossible to bend the stock having a relatively large radium of curvature of the order of 2500 to 10000 mm due to the influence of the spring back. Thus, the reinforcing members such as ribs become indispensable and the configuration is unstable, leaving unsolved the problems including dependence on the press forming and fabric lamination after press forming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automotive sunshade panel and a method of manufacturing the same which have overcome the above problems involved in the prior art techniques.
Another object of the present invention is to obtain an automotive sunshade panel by use of means capable of coping with a wide variety of types of vehicles through a simple method without additional processes such as bulging with expensive dies, as well as means extremely effective for the manufacture of products in relatively small lots.
The other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.
The present inventors hardly researched an approach to use of twin rolls consisting of a rigid roll and an elastic roll as shown in
FIG. 2
to form aluminum panel stocks having large radii of curvature such as automobile sunshade panels. As a result of this, we reached a knowledge that use of hollow panels as the aluminum stocks would enable two-dimensional or thee-dimensional bending process to be relatively easily performed by means of the twin rolls consisting of the rigid roll and elastic roll, without giving rise to any reduction in the panel gauge direction which may often occur in the press forming process. The present invention was conceived based on such a knowledge.
Thus, according to the present invention, there is provided an automotive sunshade panel having longitudinal flanged edges and having a two-dimensional or three-dimensional curved surface formed at least partially of the central part excepting the peripheries of the metallic hollow panel. For use in the present invention, a fabric may be laminated to at least one side of the hollow panel. The metallic hollow panel can be formed into a one-side inflated Roll-Bond panel, a two-side inflated Roll-Bond panel, a both-side flat three-layer Roll-Bond panel or a honeycomb panel.
In order to obtain such an automotive sunshade panel of the present invention, the metallic hollow panel is first bent in the roll circumferential direction (Y—Y axis) by means of twin rolls consisting of a rigid roll and an elastic roll, and then is subjected to a flanging process in which its longitudinal edges are flanged by press forming or roll forming. Alternatively, the metallic hollow panel may be first subjected to the flanging process in which its longitudinal edges are flanged by press forming or roll forming, and then be bent in the roll circumferential direction (Y—Y axis) by means of the twin rolls consisting of the rigid roll and the elastic roll. For this manufacture, the above hollow panel may carry fabrics laminated to at least one side thereof. The hollow panel can be a one-side inflated Roll-Bond panel, a both-side inflated Roll-Bond panel, a both-side flat three-layer Roll-Bond panel or a honeycomb panel. Upon the execution of bending process in the roll circumferential direction (Y—Y axis) by means of the twin rolls consisting of the rigid roll and the elastic roll, there may be used as the twin rolls so-called crown rolls, that is, cambered rolls having curvatures in the roll axial direction, so as to achieve bending in the roll axial direction (X—X axis) in addition to the bending in the roll circumferential direction (Y—Y axis) to consequently effect three-dimensional bending.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1625061 (1927-04-01), Trout
patent: 2159783 (1939-05-01), Dayes
patent: 2428591 (1947-10-01), Slayter
patent: 3016263 (1962-01-01), Rehmann
patent: 3033608 (1962-05-01), Golde
patent: 3394514 (1968-07-01), Lindner
patent: 3534463 (1970-10-01), Molin et al.
patent: 3689730 (1972-09-01), Campbell
patent: 4131702 (1978-12-01), Alfter et al.
patent: 4175785 (1979-11-01), Leiter
patent: 4274672 (1981-06-01), Kuroda
patent: 4414257 (1983-11-01), Haraga et al.
patent: 4650244 (1987-03-01), Boots
patent: 4717200 (1988-01-01), Kruger
patent: 4722565 (1988-02-01), Kanou et al.
patent: 4890880 (1990-01-01), Sakamoto
patent: 4981290 (1991-01-01), Huyer
patent: 5207258 (1993-05-01), Lennard
patent: 5326615 (1994-07-01), Tsuchihashi et al.
patent: 5356695 (1994-10-01), Mori et al.
patent: 5503903 (1996-04-01), Bainbridge et al.
patent: 2178377 (1987-02-01), None
patent: 67622 (1986-04-01), None
patent: 8-90080 (1996-04-01), None
Akagi Toshiji
Ito Tomio
Ito Yuko
Suda Masayuki
Flynn ,Thiel, Boutell & Tanis, P.C.
Morano S. Joseph
Nguyen Long Bao
Showa Denko K.K.
LandOfFree
Automotive sunshade panel and method of manufacturing same does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Automotive sunshade panel and method of manufacturing same, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Automotive sunshade panel and method of manufacturing same will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2602925