Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-25
2001-06-12
Yao, Sam Chuan (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S071000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06245173
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of, and an apparatus for, mounting a vehicular window glass (or window pane) on a window portion in a vehicle body of a vehicle such as a motor vehicle or the like by means of an adhesive agent, particularly by means of a hot melt type of adhesive agent (hereinafter called a hot melt adhesive agent).
2. Description of the Related Art
As can be seen in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 81641/1995, there has hitherto been known a method of mounting a window glass, which has applied or coated thereto an adhesive agent, on a window portion by pushing or forcing the window glass to a window frame of the window portion in a state in which the window glass is held by a jig which is mounted on a robot.
As the adhesive agent for the window glass, there is ordinarily used a moisture-hardened adhesive agent. However, since it takes time to harden the adhesive agent, the window glass is conventionally temporarily held in position by attaching a temporary holding member such as a fastener, or the like. This method has a disadvantage in that the number of parts and the number of working steps increase.
If a rapid-hardening adhesive agent is used, the temporary holding member becomes unnecessary, whereby the above-described disadvantage can be eliminated. The rapid hardening adhesive agent is also used in the art described in the above-described Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 81641/1995. However, since this adhesive agent has a high initial viscosity, fluctuations occur in the thickness of a bead of the adhesive agent when the bead is crushed (i.e., pushed or forced out of shape) by the pushing of the window glass. Therefore, the control of the pushing force becomes troublesome.
As a solution, there has recently been used a hot melt type of one-liquid urethane adhesive agent which has added thereto a thermoplastic resin. Since this adhesive agent is low in initial viscosity, the control of the pushing force becomes easy. In addition, the viscosity of the adhesive agent increases with a lowering (or decrease) in the temperature of the adhesive agent. Therefore, there can be obtained a function of temporarily holding the window glass, and there is an advantage in that the temporary holding member becomes possesses.
While the hot melt adhesive agent has various advantages as described hereinabove, it has also the following disadvantages. Namely, the temperature of the adhesive agent lowers between the time of applying the adhesive agent to the window glass and the time of pushing the window glass to the window frame, resulting in too high a viscosity. If the temperature of the adhesive agent is increased, it takes time before the temporary holding function can be obtained, resulting in a troublesome temperature control.
Furthermore, if the hot melt adhesive agent that has been applied to the window glass comes into contact with the window frame, the hardening of the adhesive agent is accelerated by the temperature decrease due to thermal shrinkage. As a result, the pushing force required to crush the bead of the adhesive agent to a required thickness increases. Here, in case there is provided a jig for the window glass at a front end of a robot arm, there is applied to the front end of the robot arm a pushing reaction force in a direction which is normal to the window portion. With the increase in the pushing force, the bending moment which is applied to the robot arm also increases. Then, due to the deflection of the robot arm by the bending moment, the jig is tilted in the direction in which the bending moment is applied, with the result that the window glass can no longer be mounted in an ordinary pushed state.
In view of the above-described points, the present invention has an object of facilitating a satisfactory mounting of a window glass only by controlling the temperature of an adhesive agent when the adhesive agent is applied to the window glass, and also to facilitate the mounting of the window glass to the window portion of the vehicle body in a normal pushed state even if a deflection occurs to a robot arm.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention is a method of mounting a vehicular window glass in which the window glass to which a hot melt adhesive agent is applied is pushed to a window frame of a vehicle body while the window glass is held by a jig which is mounted on a robot. The method comprises the steps of: setting an allowable range of temperature of the adhesive agent, an upper limit of the range being defined to be an upper limit temperature of the adhesive agent at which the adhesive agent possesses such a holding force above a predetermined value as to prevent deviation of the window glass, a lower limit of the range being defined to be a lower limit temperature of the adhesive agent at which a compression reaction force when a bead of the adhesive agent applied to the window glass is crushed to a predetermined thickness becomes smaller than a predetermined value; and applying the adhesive agent to the window glass at such a temperature of the adhesive agent that the temperature of the adhesive agent at the time of completion of pushing of the window glass falls within the allowable range.
According to this method, at the time of completing the pushing of the window glass, the temperature of the adhesive agent is below the above-described upper limit, whereby the function of temporarily holding the window glass can be obtained. In addition, since the temperature of the adhesive agent is above the above-described lower limit, the bead of the adhesive agent can be crushed to a required thickness with a relatively small force without much trouble. The window glass can thus be well mounted without giving rise to fluctuations in the thickness in the bead of the adhesive agent.
Due to the difference in time between the start of applying the adhesive agent to the window glass and the completion of applying thereof, the temperature of the adhesive agent at the initial portion of applying thereof becomes lower than the temperature of the adhesive agent at the final portion of applying thereof. Here, if the temperature of the adhesive agent at the initial portion of applying thereof becomes lower than the above-described lower limit, the bead thickness is likely to fluctuate. Therefore, it is preferable to arrange that the temperature of the adhesive agent at the initial portion of applying thereof falls within the above-described allowable range at the time of completion of pushing the window glass.
Further, if the time of pushing the window glass is delayed due to an abnormality such as the line stopping or the like, the temperature of the adhesive agent that has been applied to the window glass sometimes falls below the lower limit temperature at the time of pushing the window glass. As a solution, it is preferable to heat the adhesive agent that has been applied to the window glass by means of a heating means which is provided in a suitable place. In this case, since the lowering of the temperature of the adhesive agent varies with the ambient temperature, the adhesive agent can be adequately heated without an excessive heating nor insufficient heating by operating the heating means at a predetermined timing according to the ambient temperature.
In case the jig is provided at the front end of the robot arm, there can be taken the following steps, i.e., the steps of supporting the jig at the front end of the robot arm such that the jig is tiltable relative to the robot arm in a direction in which a bending moment is applied to the robot arm, the bending moment being due to a load on the front end of the robot arm in a direction which is normal to the window portion of the vehicle; positioning the jig such that the window glass lies right opposite to the window portion in a state in which the tilting of the jig is restrained; and thereafter advancing the jig in the direction which is normal
Furuta Takeshi
Koseki Shigenori
Kuribayashi Masao
Maekawa Keiichirou
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Yao Sam Chuan
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