Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Web or sheet containing structurally defined element or... – Composite having voids in a component
Patent
1995-01-19
1997-09-02
Kuhns, Allan R.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Web or sheet containing structurally defined element or...
Composite having voids in a component
4283099, 264 464, 264255, 264309, 26432818, B29C 4406, B29C 4412
Patent
active
056629966
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method for manufacturing self-supporting synthetic trim parts, in particular car interior parts such as dashboards, doorpanels, consoles and glove compartments, having an elastomeric polyurethane skin, a rigid synthetic carrier and a mainly open-cell polyurethane foam layer therebetween.
Such a method is for example already disclosed in the Belgian patent application No. 08900228 of the same applicant. In this method, a layer of polyurethane elastomer is first sprayed against an inner surface of a mould. Then, a previously manufactured insert is positioned into this mould and the space between the insert and the elastomeric layer is filled with a polyurethane foam.
A drawback of this known method consists in that the insert, or in other words the rigid carrier, has to be manufactured in advance in a separate mould. This insert must moreover be accurately positioned into the second mould in order that the foam layer would have everywhere the desired thickness. Especially when this foam layer has to be thin, an exact positioning of the insert is important since a small variation of the foam thickness becomes in this event soon perceptible from the outside. In the case of thin foam layers, extending over a large surface, it is further difficult in the known method to spread the reaction mixture for obtaining this foam sufficiently homogeneously over this surface.
The invention aims now to obviate these different drawbacks and this by proposing a new method for manufacturing self-supporting synthetic trim parts which permits moreover the trim parts to be recycled in a simpler way after they have been put out of use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This method is characterized according to the invention by the fact that, in a first step, a polyurethane skin of a polyurethane elastomer and prepared either or not in advance is applied against a mould surface; in a second step, a reaction mixture for obtaining said polyurethane foam layer is applied by spraying against said polyurethane skin; and, in a third step, a suitable polyurethane or polyisocyanurate reaction mixture for obtaining said rigid synthetic carrier is applied against the polyurethane foam layer.
A similar method for manufacturing a trim part having an elastomeric skin, a rigid synthetic carrier and a foam layer therebetween is disclosed in JP-A-2047022. In this known method a PVC/ABS skin having an adjoining polyolefin foam layer is positioned into a mould and the rigid carrier, in this case rigid polyurethane, is subsequently, after having closed this mould, applied against the back of the foam layer by a RIM-proces (Reaction Injection Moulding). According to this Japanese patent application, it is however essential for the polyolefin foam layer to be of a closed cell-structure, in contrast therefore to the polyurethane foam layer according to the present invention. Since the material of these closed cell foam layer and also the material of the skin layer are essentially different from the material of the carrier, the trim parts obtained by this known method are hard to recycle.
According to the invention, however, it has now been found that, when the open-cell polyurethane foam layer is applied by spraying against the polyurethane skin, it is possible to apply also against this open-cell foam layer a rigid polyurethane carrier by a mould or a spray process. Due to the open-cell structure of the polyurethane foam layer, it is possible to obtain a trim part having an outer surface which, upon touching, gives a feeling which approaches Very closely the touch of a natural leather skin, whereas for a closed-cell structure a rather pneumatically resilient effect is obtained upon touching. Moreover, it has been observed that by the spray process a foam layer having a natural or integral skin is obtained which prevents the reaction mixture for the carrier from penetrating therein while a good adhesion is anyway also obtained. The used spray technique for applying the foam layer against the polyuretha
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Debaes Bernard
Du Prez Eddie
Jourquin Lucien
Kuhns Allan R.
Recticel
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