Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – Pore forming in situ – Composite article making
Patent
1997-03-13
2000-11-14
Kuhns, Allan R.
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
Pore forming in situ
Composite article making
264 464, 156 79, 156245, B29C 4406, B29C 4412
Patent
active
06146564&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention concerns a process for the production of plastic molded parts with decorative lamination, as well as a foam layer between the decorative material and the plastic molded part. The foam layer is placed first in an unfoamed state between the decorative material and the plastic molded part, and then expanded by the application of heat.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Plastic molded parts used in the automobile industry for interior trim often have a lamination of decorative material. The decorative material may be, for instance, cloth, carpet, synthetic leather, leather, and the like.
The lamination material is often applied to the plastic part after the part is formed. Such a process is costly, and in many cases also not technically and aesthetically satisfactory.
Therefore, a process was already known in the art of working with the so-called back-injection technique. In this back-injection technique, the molded part is produced together with the decorative material in one step. However, the known back-injection technique normally requires decorative materials that can withstand the high pressures and temperatures that occur in the injection molding process. Even if the pressures are significantly reduced by the use of costly hot runner systems, decorative materials made of cloth, for example, must be provided with an additional lamination of nonwoven fabric or foam for this process. These backside layers serving as protective layers are normally applied with an adhesive compound or by flame lamination. The use of nonwoven fabric or foam layers has the disadvantage that the finished part surface does not always meet the required specifications. Using the known process, unattractive surface imperfections cannot be ruled out, such as those that ensue from the so-called "clothes-iron effect," especially in the case of surface areas with complicated forms.
A process is also known for the production of a padded polypropylene trim component, especially for automobiles (DE 40 24 274 A1). In this process, the trim component has three different layers, a backing, a padding layer and a film-like surface laminate. The backing consists of a polypropylene injection-molded part produced in a single injection-molding step. The backing layer or part and the film-like surface laminates are laid together at the walls in complementary mold halves. Unfoamed polypropylene material is inserted into the free space between the surface laminate and the backing part, and afterwards, the initially unfoamed, expandable material is expanded to form the padding within the closed mold.
This known process is costly. It automatically requires two different machines, a first machine to form the backing part and another machine in which the actual lamination takes place. Furthermore, the application of carefully dosed quantities of unfoamed material into the open space between the backing layer and the surface laminate in the main mold is problematic.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Based on the state of the art summarized above, the present goal of the invention is to design an improved process for the method known that is simple and inexpensive to carry out, and that leads to a surface appearance of high quality, while creating forms of any kind.
The solution of this problem is found by the present invention method, in which the decorative material is equipped with an initially unfoamed backside layer, the backside layer is connected to the plastic molded part, and the backside layer is expanded while being connected to the plastic molded part.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the expansion takes place within a mold in which the exterior side of the decorative material lies against the wall of the mold, with the backside layer in an unexpanded state.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the plastic molded part to be laminated is an injection-molded part. It can also be preferred for the molded part to be from a blowing mold or deep-draw mold.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention-specific pr
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Kuhns Allan R.
Moller Plast GmbH
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