Movable or removable closures – Closure seal; e.g. – striker gasket or weatherstrip – U-shaped member or portion mounts seal
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-21
2003-06-03
Strimbu, Gregory J (Department: 3634)
Movable or removable closures
Closure seal; e.g., striker gasket or weatherstrip
U-shaped member or portion mounts seal
C049S498100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06571514
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weather strip including a molded portion and an extruded portion, wherein the molded portion is integrally formed on the end of the extruded portion.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 5
to
8
show a conventional opening trim
50
of a weather strip. The opening trim
50
is formed by connecting integrally an end portion of a first extruded portion
51
a
to an end portion of a molded portion
61
and connecting the opposite end portion of the molded portion
61
to a second extruded portion
51
b
linearly. The symbol “S” designates a borderline, or an outline of the connecting end portions between the extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
and the molded portion
61
. Extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
are substantially same components and will be referred to generically as extruded portion
51
.
The extruded portion
51
shown in FIG.
7
and the molded portion
61
shown in
FIG. 8
comprise attachment portions
52
and
62
, respectively, having a generally U-shaped cross section. Attachment portions
52
and
62
attach to a flange
2
at the periphery of a door opening of an automobile body
1
, as shown in FIG.
9
. Further, the extruded portion
51
and the molded portion
61
comprises a hollow sealing portion
53
and
63
, respectively, which are deformable elastically under the pressing of a door
3
when the door
3
is closed. Further, either extruded portion
51
a
or
51
b
may include a covering lip portion
54
protruding from the attachment portion
52
and covering the edge of an inner garnish (not shown). The conventional opening trim
50
shown in
FIGS. 5
to
8
is also illustrated within dotted circle A depicted in FIG.
9
.
The extruded portion
51
in
FIG. 7
is integrally formed by co-extrusion molding the attachment portion
52
, the hollow sealing portion
53
and the covering lip portion
54
. A solid ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer (EPDM) rubber forms the attachment portion
52
and the covering lip portion
54
, and a sponge EPDM rubber forms the hollow sealing portion
53
. A metal insert
55
, which may be made of separable pieces, is embedded in the attachment portion
52
. A decorative cover
56
, extending from the attachment portion
52
to the covering lip portion
54
, is formed on the outer surface of the extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
by thermal fusion bonding of a resin film, a thermoplastic elastomer film or a piece of fabric (cloth) after the completion of the extrusion molding process.
The attachment portion
62
and the hollow sealing portion
63
are molded from a solid EPDM rubber to integrally form the molded portion
61
shown in FIG.
8
. More specifically, the end portions of the two extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
are held in a metal mold (not shown), whereby the end portions of the extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
are set facing a cavity of the metal mold. Then, a solid EPDM rubber material is injected into the cavity and vulcanized to thereby form the molded portion
61
. Simultaneously with this injection molding process, the extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
are integrally connected to the resulting molded portion
61
.
However, when the molded portion
61
is formed from a solid EPDM rubber material, the metal mold temperature required for the vulcanization of the rubber is as high as 180 to 200° C. Such a high metal mold temperature causes the decorative cover
56
to melt. Thus, to prevent such melting or to concealing the melting defects, the following countermeasures are employed.
(1) When the decorative cover
56
extends to the end of the extruded portion
51
, the decorative cover
56
is also held within the metal mold. When the injection molding process occurs, the decorative cover
56
is also melted which causes melting flaws or holding flaws to form at the segment where the ends of the extruded portion
51
are held. Then, as shown in
FIG. 5
by a double-dotted chain line, a decorative cover portion
56
x
at the end portion of the extruded portion
51
, a part of the attachment portion
52
, and the covering lip portion
54
were removed together by a stepwise cutting process. However, the stepwise cutting was an extremely troublesome process.
(2) Further, without such stepwise cutting, the decorative cover
56
is melted to form the molten flaws or holding flaws as described above. Thus, it was necessary to remove and conceal the flaws by buffing. The buffing process required extra process steps. In addition, there were other manufacturing problems, for example, in cases where a decorative cover
56
was applied with an embossed pattern, the embossed pattern was erased. Another example is in the case of a decorative cover
56
made of a fabric, the buffing process could not be applied. Furthermore, when the molded portion
61
is formed of a solid EPDM rubber, both the attachment portion
62
and a sealing portion
63
have a black color appearance due to carbon black being used as a reinforcing material for the rubber.
Then, in the case where the extruded portions
51
a
and
51
b
, positioned on both sides of the molded portion
61
, include the decorative cover
56
, respectively, the outer color differs from the molded portion
61
causing a deterioration in the appearance of the weather strip. Further, in a case where the molded portion
61
is formed of a solid EPDM rubber, the attachment portion
62
and the sealing portion
63
are formed of an identical material. So, if the design emphasis is placed on the softness of the rubber for sealing of the sealing portion
63
, the rubber material may be made too soft. As a result, the gripping force of the attachment portion
62
to the flange is weakened. On the other hand, if the design emphasis is placed on the gripping force of the flange and the rubber material may be made too hard, the sealing quality and door closing capability of the weather strip deteriorated. Accordingly, it was difficult to design a weather strip while establishing a balance between the sealing quality and the gripping force to the flange.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to form a molded portion at a low temperature, that does not contain molten flaws or holding flaws on an extruded portion by forming a sealing portion of the molded portion from a soft or sponge thermoplastic elastomer (hereinafter referred to as TPE), and forming an attachment portion of the molded portion from a semi-rigid resin. This configuration is designed to obtain a load necessary for the elastic deformation of the sealing portion of the molded portion by forming the sealing portion with a soft or sponge TPE material, and to obtain the required gripping force of the molded portion by forming the attachment portion with the semi-rigid resin material.
It is another object of the invention to unify the tone and improve the appearance of the entire weather strip connected in series by making the color of the semi-rigid resin of the attachment portion of the molded portion identical to the color of a decorative cover of the extruded portion.
A first invention resides in a weather strip comprising an extruded portion and a molded portion which is integrally connected to an end portion of the extruded portion. The extruded portion comprises a sealing portion formed by extrusion molding a sponge rubber, soft TPE or sponge TPE and an attachment portion having a separable core member embedded therein and formed by co-extrusion molding from a solid rubber, low foamed rubber or TPE. The molded portion comprises a sealing portion formed of a soft TPE or sponge TPE and an attachment portion formed of a semi-rigid resin. The semi-rigid resin employed within the present invention has a hardness such that it does not lose its own shape after the molding process, and the concept of this semi-rigid resin also encompasses a thermoplastic elastomer.
A second invention resides in a process for manufacturing a weather strip comprising an extruded portion and a molded portion wherein the mo
Posz & Bethards, PLC
Strimbu Gregory J
Toyoda Gosei Co,., Ltd.
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