Skin material, skinned cushion, and process for producing...

Details Skin material, skinned cushion, and process for producing... Skin material, skinned cushion, and process for producing...

2001-02-21

2003-09-16

Dixon, Merrick (Department: 1774)

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Structurally defined web or sheet

Discontinuous or differential coating, impregnation or bond

C428S198000, C428S200000, C428S213000, C428S220000, C156S291000, C156S292000, C156S295000, C156S307300, C156S308400, C156S312000, C156S325000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06620488

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a skin material, a skinned cushion, and a process for producing the skinned cushion.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Among the cushions for use in automotive seats and the like are skinned cushions such as that shown in FIG.
12
. This skinned cushion
60
comprises a cushion main body
55
formed by foam molding in a mold so as to have a given shape and a skin material
50
bonded to a surface of the cushion main body
55
in a later step. Frequently used as this skin material
50
are sheet materials having a three-layer structure formed by bonding a flexible polyurethane foam to the back side of a fabric, plastic sheet, or the like and bonding a tricot, nonwoven fabric, or the like as a backing fabric to the back side of the flexible polyurethane foam for the purposes of imparting to the skin material improved slip properties required for sewing and of improving the strength and other properties of the skin material which are required during use.
However, the conventional skinned cushion
60
has the following drawback. The skin material
50
covering a surface of the cushion main body
55
is bonded thereto throughout the whole surface. Because of this, even when the skin material
50
used is air-permeable, the spaces among the weaving or knitting yarns in the skin material
50
or the breathing holes in the skin material
50
are clogged with the adhesive
57
and this impairs the air permeability of the surface of the cushion
60
. As a result, the person sitting on the cushion
60
feels uncomfortable because the buttocks in contact with the surface of the cushion
60
become moist. This cushion
60
further has a drawback that since the surface pores of the cushion main body
55
are clogged by the complete bonding of the skin material
50
to the cushion main body
55
, cushioning properties are impaired.
Furthermore, production of the skinned cushion
60
has the following drawback. In the production thereof, a solvent-based adhesive
57
is applied by spraying on a surface of a cushion main body
55
, and a skin material
50
is superposed on the coated surface of the cushion main body
55
in preparation for press molding. However, once the skin material
50
comes into contact with the coated surface of the cushion main body
55
, it is difficult to shift the skin material
50
thereon because the surface coated with the solvent-based adhesive
57
has become tacky. Namely, precise positioning of the skin material
50
on the cushion main body
55
is extremely difficult. There is hence a problem that not only great care should be taken in bonding the skin material
50
, making this operation difficult, but also bonding failures are apt to result. In addition, there is an environmental problem that solvent volatilization occurs during the adhesive application by spraying to impair the working atmosphere.
Moreover, there has been a problem that when the three-layer skin material is put on the cushion main body or when the cushion main body covered with the skin material is set in a mold for pressing, the skin material surface is apt to crease in curved areas such as corners to impair the appearance of the skinned cushion obtained.
Further, JP-A-6-182067 proposes a cushion material comprising a cushion pad part and a skin layer which is bonded and formed on the surface thereof through an adhesive layer, wherein the skin layer comprises an air-permeable surface layer for decoration, a flexible polyurethane foam sheet layer which arranged on the lower side of the air-permeable surface layer by bonding and a thermoplastic resin film layer which is arranged on the lower side of the flexible polyurethane foam sheet layer by bonding, numerous recesses are arranged at least on the contacting surface of the flexible polyurethane foam sheet layer with the thermoplastic resin film layer, and the surface other than the numerous recesses is covered with the thermoplastic resin film layer with the top of the recesses being opened, and wherein a moisture hardening type reactive hot melt adhesive is used to bond a skin material on the pad, and steam is supplied to the reactive adhesive through the air-permeable skin material to harden by activating the adhesive, by which the cushion material is provided which is somewhat improved in seating confortableness and is hard to allow the impairing of texture of the surface to some extent with resistance to possible wrinkling on a surface layer even when it is bent being placed inside. (The term “JP-A” as used herein means an “unexamined published Japanese patent application”)
JP-A-7-195600 proposes a sheet material which is characterized in that a vinyl resin is adhered on at least one side surface of a foamed polyurethane sheet in such a manner as to form scattering dots of the vinyl resin, by which the manufactured sheet material is provided which is improved in sliding properties required at the time of manufacturing a skin material such as a sheet for a vehicle to some extent, and accordingly can be stitched and sewed on a sewing machine and does not generate few crease.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has been achieved in view of the problems described above. An object of the invention is to provide a skin material which gives a skinned cushion having excellent air permeability and excellent cushioning properties in the seating area and can be precisely and easily bonded to a cushion main body while preventing the working atmosphere from becoming worse due to solvent volatilization, and which is less apt to crease in curved areas. Another object of the invention is to provide a skinned cushion. Still another object of the invention is to provide a process for producing the skinned cushion.
The invention provides a skin material which comprises an air-permeable sheet and an adhesive layer formed on the back side of the sheet by applying a melt of a hot-melt adhesive in such a manner as to form scattering dots of the melt or to leave scattering uncoated dot areas and hardening the melt.
The invention further provides a skinned cushion produced by bonding a skin material comprising an air-permeable sheet constituting the front side surface of the skin material to a surface of a cushion main body through an adhesive layer formed on the back side of the skin material, wherein the adhesive layer is constituted of a hot-melt adhesive interposed between the air-permeable sheet and the cushion main body so as to form scattering dots of the adhesive or to leave scattering uncoated dot areas.
The invention furthermore provides a process for producing a skinned cushion comprising a cushion main body and a skin material bonded to a surface thereof, which comprises: applying a melt of a hot-melt adhesive on the back side of an air-permeable sheet in such a manner as to form scattering dots of the melt or to leave scattering uncoated dot areas and hardening the melt to form a skin material comprising the air-permeable sheet having an adhesive layer on the back side thereof; and superposing the skin material on a surface of a cushion main body so that the adhesive layer faces inside and hot-pressing the skin material against the cushion main body to activate the hot-melt adhesive of the adhesive layer and thereby bond the skin material to the surface of the cushion main body while leaving unbonded areas between the skin material and the cushion main body.


REFERENCES:
patent: 6-182067 (1994-07-01), None
patent: 7-195600 (1995-08-01), None

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