Process and a aparatus for production of multilayer trim elements for vehicles
AssigneeJohnson Control S.p.A.
InventorsFrancesco Mascia, Cristiano Puppi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Panels and elements for vehicle interiors are obtained by co-extrusion or co-lamination of a layer (10a) of themoplastic support material containing a reinforcement filler with a layer (9a) of thermoplastic covering material containing an amorphous thermoplastic and by thermoforming the resulting sheets in a press.
Claims13
A method for the production of autovehicle trim panels and similar products shaped by thermoforming, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:
- providing a layer of support material comprising thermoplastic material containing from 10% to 80% of a filler selected from vegetable fibers, wood powder and fiber mats;
- providing a layer of covering material comprising a thermoplastic material comprising 30% to 50% of an amorphous thermoplastic material selected from a group consisting of amorphous polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, ABS, EVA, TPU, SBR, EP(D)M, SEBS, rubbers and mixtures thereof;
- bonding said layer of support material to said covering material to form a substantially flat multi-layer sheet;
- and
- shaping said sheet by thermoforming.
An apparatus for the production of autovehicle trim panels, comprising an extruder (5, 10) configured to extrude support material (7, 10a), an extruder (9) configured to extrude covering material, at least one calendar (8, 12) arranged and configured to bond together said extruded materials and a press (14) configured to thermoform multilayer sheets of the extruded materials that were bound together by said calendar (5) said at least one calendar (8, 12) being arranged downstream of both of said extruders (5, 10, 9) to receive the extruded material from both of said extruders, said press being arranged downstream of said at least one calendar (8, 12) to receive the bound together extruded materials from said at least one calendar.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.