Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Mechanical shaping or molding to form or reform shaped article – To produce composite – plural part or multilayered article
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-11
2002-04-02
Silbaugh, Jan H. (Department: 1732)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Mechanical shaping or molding to form or reform shaped article
To produce composite, plural part or multilayered article
C264S266000, C264S274000, C264S324000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06365084
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a composite molded product, a production process and an apparatus therefor. More specifically, the invention relates to a composite molded article to be used as interior parts of a vehicle or so forth, exterior parts of an acoustic instrument or so forth, in which a skin material and a base member are integrally molded, a production process thereof, and an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as interior parts of a vehicle or so forth, such as a lining of a vehicular door, a rear parcel shelf and so forth, a composite molded products, in which skin materials and base members are molded integrally, have been widely used.
On the other hand, in the recent years, for the purpose of enhancement of acoustic effect in a vehicular cabin or so forth, speakers are arranged in various positions in the vehicular cabin. In such a case, it is typical to preliminarily form an opening in the lining or so forth at a corresponding position to a speaker position and to fit a separately formed speaker cover or a speaker grill within the opening in order to affect for acoustic effect.
One example of a conventional rear parcel shelf is illustrated in
FIGS. 10A and 10B
. In
FIG. 10A
, a rear parcel shelf main body
100
is prepared as an intermediate product by bonding a skin material after molding a base body of a resin with openings
102
for acoustic speaker and an opening
104
for ventilation, or, in the alternative, by forming the openings
102
and
104
for the acoustic speaker and ventilation after molding the base body resin and the skin material simultaneously as a composite molded product. On the other hand, two speaker grills
106
and four ventilation grills (hereinafter referred to as “drafter grill”)
108
are prepared separately and fixed in the openings
102
and
104
of the main body
100
by means of resin clips or so forth after engaging and positioning therein, for obtaining a finished product shown in FIG.
10
B.
However, the method, in which the speaker grills and the drafter grills are formed separately from the rear parcel shelf main body, has no problem in the acoustic effect, but encounters a problem in complicatedness in color matching or so forth and in cost for requiring separate molding dies and so forth.
As a solution for the problems set forth above, there have been proposed technologies to perform formation of openings in the base member and integrally forming of the base member and the skin material, simultaneously, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Heisei 6-15671, Heisei 6-15672 and Heisei 6-15673.
Namely, the disclosed in the foregoing publications are directed to the molded product in which a base member formed with a through opening for passing a sound and a surface material are integrally molded in the form of including the through opening, or in the form of excluding the through opening, simultaneously.
However, in such a conventional skin material integrated composite molded product, when it is applied for a rear parcel shelf, the skin material is exposed over the entire surface of the base member. In this case, in order to assure sufficient strength required in view of durability for avoiding rupture and so forth by contacting with passengers, a diameter of the opening to be formed may be limited. On the other hand, for better propagation of acoustic vibration, it is preferred to have a greater opening ratio. In order to compromise these requirement, it becomes necessary to form a large number of small diameter openings.
For providing a large number of small diameter openings, it becomes inherent to provide forming pins and so forth in the number corresponding to number of openings to be formed. This makes forming dies complicated and results in high cost. Also, mold releasing characteristics is degraded to restrict material of the base member, board thickness and so forth.
Moreover, in the external appearance, at a portion corresponding to the speaker grill, only a flat skin material is present. As a result, there is no room for designing for obtaining a superior external appearance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the problems in the prior art as set forth above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a composite molded product which can assure sufficient strength of a skin material irrespective of a diameter of an opening, and permit optimal setting of an external appearance depending upon a portion to be applied.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a production process which can produce the above-mentioned composite molded product at low cost.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a production apparatus which can produce the above-mentioned composite molded product at low cost.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a composite molded product comprising:
a main body formed of a base material of a thermoplastic resin and defining at least one through opening;
a porous skin material integrally molded with the main body by thermal fusing; and
at least one rib molded on a surface of the skin material at a position corresponding to the position of the at least one through opening, the rib being integrated with the main body through porous structure of the skin material.
Here, the main body may have at least one bridging member defining a plurality of through openings underlying the skin material, and the rib is arranged perpendicularly to the bridging member.
The at least one rib may be a plurality of parallel ribs.
The at least one rib may be a plurality of concentric ribs.
The at least one rib may be a mesh-shaped configuration, and the at least one bridging member is a honeycomb-shaped configuration.
The composite molded product may be used as an interior part of a vehicle.
The composite molded product may be used as an exterior part of an acoustic instrument.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a production process of a composite molded product comprising the steps of:
providing a first molding die having at least one opening forming member projecting from a first forming surface and having a predetermined dimension in lengthwise direction;
providing a second molding die having at least one rib forming groove on a second forming surface at a position corresponding to a position of the at least one opening forming member;
arranging a porous skin material between the first and second forming dies;
supplying a base material of a thermoplastic resin at least before curing, into a cavity defined between the first and second molding dies at the first forming die side of the skin material; and
clamping the first and second molding dies and applying a pressure for performing pressure molding.
The rib forming groove may be a length longer than the predetermined dimension in the length wise direction.
The opening forming member may be movable relative to the first molding die, and contacts with the second forming surface of the second molding die at initial stage of clamping step.
In a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a producing apparatus for a composite molded product comprising:
a first molding die having at least one opening forming member projecting from a first forming surface and having a predetermined dimension in lengthwise direction;
a second molding die having at least one rib forming groove on a second forming surface at a position corresponding to a position of the at least one opening forming member;
supporting means provided in the second molding die for supporting a porous skin material; and
pressurizing means for clamping the first and second molding dies and applying a pressure for performing pressure molding for a thermoplastic resin at least before curing in a cavity defined between the first and second molding dies.
The rib forming groove may be longer than the predetermined dimension in lengthwise direction.
The opening forming member may be movable relative to
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Silbaugh Jan H.
Staicovici Stefan
Yamakawa Industrial Co.
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