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US 5,073,318 AGranted
Vehicle inner panel
AssigneeBridgestone Australia Ltd.
InventorsMilo L. Rohrlach, William J. Hall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A substrate is initially moulded from a cross-linked polymeric material reinforced with glass fibres, the substrate is subsequently placed in a die in which a facing layer is first moulded, and on that layer are injected the ingredients for a foam padding material which adhere the substrate to the facing layer. The facing layer is desirably polyurethane, although use can be made of flexible acrylic, polyvinylchloride, and some other polymeric materials.
Claims9
A method of manufacture of a motor vehicle inner panel comprising the following steps:
- (a) locating reinforcing fibers on one die part of a first two-part die set, applying moldable plastics material on that die part,
- (b) closing the die set and retaining it closed during a molding process of the plastics material,
- (c) opening the die set, and removing a molded substrate comprising the plastics material reinforced by the fibers,
- (d) spraying a flexible color film layer into a first die part of a second two-part die set and applying a second layer of elastomer over the first layer, curing the color film and elastomer layers to form a dense, soft facing layer of the panel, positioning the molded substrate into a second die part of the second die set, applying moldable foam-forming plastics material over at least part of the facing layer between the facing layer and the substrate layer, closing the second die set and retaining closed during a foaming and molding process of the facing layer, and
- (e) removing the panel from the second two-part die set, and trimming superfluous material from the panel.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.