Thermoformed composite article of manufacture and process for producing said article
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsCharles M. Mulcahy, Kurt A. Weiss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a novel method of manufacturing a composite article of manufacture such as an integrated sink/counter combination from a single sheet of solid surfacing material and a single substrate material. The present invention also relates to a thermoformed composite article of manufacture produced from such a process. The novel method comprises adhering the coating material and substrate material and then thermoforming the coating material through an opening in the substrate material. Preferably, the coating material is a thermoplastic resin composition and the substrate material is a non-thermoplastic material.
Claims16
A method for thermoforming a composite article of manufacture, comprising the steps of:
- (A) adhering a sheet of thermoplastic material to a non-thermoplastic substrate to form a laminate wherein a first portion of the sheet is supported on the substrate and a second portion of the sheet is not supported on the substrate;
- (B) aligning the second portion of the sheet with a mold for thermoforming the second portion of the sheet into a predetermined shape;
- and
- (C) thermoforming said second portion of the sheet to form the composite article, wherein the composite article comprises a continuous layer of the thermoplastic material, said layer having a first region wherein the layer is supported on said substrate and having a second region wherein the layer is not supported on the substrate and the layer exhibits the predetermined shape.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.