Method of manufacturing a steering wheel
AssigneeBreed Automotive Technology, Inc.
InventorsGiuseppe Testa, Adolfo Ridolfi, Paolo Vian
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing a motor car steering wheel with an external shell made of carbon fibers begins with preparing a pile of sheet materials which is then hot molded to yield respective half-shells with a shape corresponding to that of respective halves of the steering wheel being manufactured. Next comes mechanical flattening of the front surfaces of the two half-shells, followed by mounting of the two half-shells above and under a steering wheel body formed by a metallic core covered by resin. The steering wheel body has lateral profile members which act as fixing supports for the two half-shells.
Claims11
A method of manufacturing a steering wheel with an external shell made of carbon fibers, which comprises:
- preparing a pile of sheet materials;
- hot molding the pile for obtaining respective half-shells with a shape corresponding to that of respective halves of the steering wheel being manufactured, said shape comprising a curved central part and two lateral fins;
- mechanical flattening of exterior surfaces of the two half-shells by removing the lateral fins;
- providing a steering wheel body with lateral profile members, each lateral profile member having two lateral flanges arranged at a side of the steering wheel body and an intermediate rib, said lateral profile members configured to mate with and support circumferentially extending edges of the curved central parts of the two half shells;
- and
- mounting the two half-shells above and under the steering wheel body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.