Method and apparatus for manufacturing steering wheel
AssigneeMitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsIsamu Yano, Kiyoshi Hani, Shu Yamashita, Kazuo Kawabata, Naoyuki Kogure
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To manufacture a steering wheel rim, a sleeve 21 is formed by a braiding machine 12 by interlacing and braiding unidirectional fibers 10. A coil-shaped lightweight core 9 is then inserted by a covering apparatus 14 into the braided sleeve, and core rings are cut out from the coil. The ends of the cut rings are butted to form the rims, and after being joined with a spoke 2 are placed in a mold 31, where an outer molded layer 11 is formed by injecting a thermosetting resin into the mold and heat curing it.
Claims12
A method for manufacturing a vehicle steering wheel having a ring-shaped rim (1) forming a hand grip, a boss (3) for connection to a steering shaft, and a spoke (2) connecting the rim and the boss integrally, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a braided sleeve (21) by braiding in a sleeve shape a plurality of unidirectional fibers (10);
- (b) inserting a lightweight core (9) of said rim into said braided sleeve;
- (c) cutting said core covered with said braided fiber sleeve into a predetermined length of a ring shape;
- (d) butt joining both ends of said cut length to form a ring-shaped rim;
- (e) joining said ring-shaped rim and said spoke;
- and
- (f) forming an outer molded layer (11), after the joining steps, by placing said joined rim and spoke in a metal mold, injecting a thermosetting resin into the mold, and curing said thermosetting resin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.