Vehicle interior panel with backing layer
AssigneeFaurecia Interior Systems, Inc.
InventorCarl SMITH
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle interior panel includes a decorative skin layer and a backing layer. The backing layer can include a barrier material that helps prevent outgassing of a plasticizer of the decorative skin layer in a direction toward an underlying substrate of the panel. The backing layer can be formed by vacuum coating and/or formed while a slush molded layer remains on a slush molding tool surface on which it was formed. in some cases, a slush molding tool thus finds new uses in a vacuum coating process or in some other process apart from slush molding.
Claims19
A method of making an interior panel for a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a layer of plasticized polymeric material comprising a polymeric material and a plasticizer distributed within the polymeric material;
- and
- b) vacuum coating the layer of plasticized polymeric material with a barrier material, the plasticizer having a solubility in the barrier material that is less than a solubility of the plasticizer in the polymeric material,
- wherein the layer of plasticized polymeric material forms at least a portion of a decorative skin layer of the interior panel.
A method of making an interior panel for a vehicle, comprising the steps of:
- a) slush molding a layer of the interior panel on a slush molding tool surface;
- b) disposing a backing layer over the slush molded layer while the slush molded layer is on the slush molding tool surface to form a multi-layer material on the slush molding tool surface, wherein the backing layer is formed from a material different from the slush molded layer;
- and
- c) removing the multi-layer material from the slush molding tool surface,
- wherein the multi-layer material is configured to be disposed over a substrate as part of the interior panel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.