Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-11
2003-06-03
Aftergut, Jeff H. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S199000, C156S200000, C156S201000, C072S179000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06572721
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 pressing 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 resiliency resulting in a dimensional instability. Japanese Patent Laid-open Pub. No. 96-90080 discloses a method of manufacturing through bulging a bent panel having expansions which serve as reinforcing ribs from an aluminum Roll-Bond® panel stock (Roll-Bond® is a registered trademark of Showa Aluminum Corporation). 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 in 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 have a decrease in the gauge direction with a forming force during the press forming, as well as deficiencies such as collapse of the expanded 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 the lubricant used in the pressing process. This resulted in an 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 recent attention being paid to the aluminum sheet (including an aluminum alloy sheet) in terms of its light weight 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 the pressing process. On the contrary, it has been hitherto known to bend the stock by the 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 gage 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 stock's resiliency. Thus, reinforcing members, such as ribs, become indispensable and the configuration is unstable, leaving unsolved the problems including dependence on 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 the use of a 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 a 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 of using 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 obtained the knowledge that the use of hollow panels as the aluminum stock would enable two-dimensional or three-dimensional bending process to be relatively easily performed by means of 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 this knowledge.
Thus, according to the present invention, there is provided an automotive sunshade panel having longitudinal flanged edges and 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 expanded Roll-Bond® panel, a two-side expanded 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 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 expanded Roll-Bond® panel, a both-side expanded Roll-Bond® panel, a both-side flat three-layer Roll-Bond® panel or a honeycomb panel. Upon the execution of the 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: 471407 (1892-03-01), Westaway
patent: 3150707 (1964-09-01), Howell
patent: 8-90080 (1996-04-01), None
Akagi Toshiji
Ito Tomio
Ito Yuko
Suda Masayuki
Aftergut Jeff H.
Flynn ,Thiel, Boutell & Tanis, P.C.
Showa Aluminum Corporation
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