CA1233490A - Vehicle air foil - Google Patents

Vehicle air foil

Info

Publication number
CA1233490A
CA1233490A CA000457115A CA457115A CA1233490A CA 1233490 A CA1233490 A CA 1233490A CA 000457115 A CA000457115 A CA 000457115A CA 457115 A CA457115 A CA 457115A CA 1233490 A CA1233490 A CA 1233490A
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
article
plastic
foam core
shell sections
curing
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired
Application number
CA000457115A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
William E. Gordon
Norman Loren
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1233490A publication Critical patent/CA1233490A/en
Expired legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B62LAND VEHICLES FOR TRAVELLING OTHERWISE THAN ON RAILS
    • B62DMOTOR VEHICLES; TRAILERS
    • B62D35/00Vehicle bodies characterised by streamlining
    • B62D35/007Rear spoilers
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02TCLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION
    • Y02T10/00Road transport of goods or passengers
    • Y02T10/80Technologies aiming to reduce greenhouse gasses emissions common to all road transportation technologies
    • Y02T10/82Elements for improving aerodynamics

Abstract

VEHICLE AIR FOIL

Abstract of the Disclosure A vehicle air foil consists of two injection molded half sections having a plastic foam core bonded integrally thereto.

i.

Description

~33~ 71087-28 This invention relates yenerally to hollow plas-tic parts and particularly to a vehicle air foil.
Air foils are frequent]y mounted on the rear deck lid of a vehicle. Such foils usually serve a functional purpose in connection with the air currents over the top of the vehicle and, in the opinion ofmany, also enhance the appearance of the vehicle.
Vehicle ai`r toils are usually formed as hollow tubular members having a streamllned cross section. They extend transversely of the vehicle and have upright stanchions at the opposite ends for mounting on the rear deck lid of the vehicle. Such air foils usually comprise two thin, injection molded, plastic half sections which are cemented together at their mating peripheral edges to form a hollow light-weight structure.
As presently constructed, such air foils have several disadvantages. Since the half sections are rather flimsy and their mating edges are relatively long and very narrow, it is dif-icult to mold the two half sections so that, when assembled, the edges mate perfectly around the entire periphery of the air foil.
us a result, it is sometimes extremely difficult to obtain a con-tinuous, permanent seal when these edges are cemented together. Itis noi uncommon to observe small gaps between edge portions of the two half sections. When this occurs water will seep into the in-terior of the air foil. Furthermore, because of their light weight and hollow construction, such air foils are normally rela-tively flimsy and flexible, even when assembled As a consequence, they tend to distort and flutter excessively at high vehicle speeds.
Because of their hollow construction they are also noisy. In add-ition, because the bonding surfaces of such foils are very narrow, separation of the bonded edges frequently results.

,. . .

~233~
710~7-28 The primary object of the present invention is -to pro-vide vehicle air foils of rigid construction without unduly in-creasing the cost thereof.
According to one aspect of the invetnion there is pro-vided an air foil for an automobile comprisirlg:
an elongated, hollow structural body defining an aero-dynamically desirable shape adapted to be mounted on the auto-mobile transverse to the longitudinal axis of the automobile, said body including first and second plastic shell sections join-ed in mating relation;
a semi-rigid foam core molded in situ filling substan-tially all of the interior volume of the hollow structural body and in adhesive contact with the interior walls of the shell sections to provide a unitary assembly; and mounting means, connected to the body, for mounting the body on the automobile.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawing, in which:
FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the rear end of a vehicle having an air foil mounted thereon;
FIGURE 2 is a plan view of one end portion of the air foil;
2 -~33~

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the air foil;
FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 in FIG. 2; and FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5-5 in FIG. 2.
In FIG. 1 there is illustrated a vehicle 10 having an air foil 12 mounted thereon. In the embodi-ment illustrated air foil 12 is mounted on the rear deck lid 14 of a hatchback type vehicle. An air spoiler 16 is mounted on the rear deck lid 14 at a position below and rearwardly of air foil 12. From the standpoint of functionality, air foil 12 is designed to direct air downwardly against spoiler 16 and thus apply a downward, road-hugging force at the rear end of the vehicle.
- Air foil 12 has a generally flat and thin hollow portion 18 which extends transversely across the vehicle.
At each end the hollow section 18 is formed with stanchions 20 by means of which the air foil is adapted to be mounted on the vehicle, as by fasteners through mounting openings 21. The central portion 18 and preferably also the stan-chions 20 are formed as upper and lower half sections 22, 24 which are injection molded from a suitable plastic material and joined together around their peripheral edges 26. At the present time it is preferred to injection mold these half sections from a polycarbonate resin.

In accordance with the -,l~s-nt invention the two half sections 22S24 which are relatively thin and, when assembled, impart to the central portion 18 of the air foil a tubular configuration, are filled with a plas-tic foam, preerably of the self-skinning type so that the two half sections enclose a foam core 25. The plastic foam presently preferred is of the pGlyurethane type.
The air foil is filled with the foamable plastic either by pouring a predetermined amount in one of the half sec-tions and then clamping the otherhalf section to it sothat, when the foam expands, it substantially fills the hollow space between the two half sections. Alternative-ly, the two half sections can be assembled together, plugged at one end if necessary and a predetermined amount of molten foamable plastic poured into the open end of the air foil.
Most plastic foams are compatible with many in-jection molded resins in the sense that they become inte-grally bonded thereto. This is true, for example1 in the case of polyurethane foam and a polycarbonate molded part.
When the half sections 22,24 are injection molded from a resin to which the foam readily bonds, there is no need to apply adhesive to either the peripheral edges 26 or to theinterior surfaces of the two half sections. On the other hand, if the half sections are molded from resins such as polypropylene or polyethylene to which plastic ~2~

foams do not readily adhere, then the inner surf,~_es of these half sections are preferably treated in a suitable manner so that the foam will bond to these surfaces or, in the alternative, these inner surfaces should have an adhe-sive applied thereto. Many such adhesives are available Resins to which foams do not readily bond can be rendered bondable by surface treatments such as oxidizing or by the applieation of a suitable primer.
The rigidity of the foam core 25 can be varied as desired through the use of conventional additives to the foamable plastic composition. A semi-rigid foam core is preferred because it adds stiffness to the air foil and thereby imparts sufficient rigidity to prevent it from fluttering at high speeds. A highly rigid structur-al foam is not normally recommended because the air foilthen becomes too stiff and will break too readily.
In the case of vehicle air foils and other pro-ducts where the external appearance and ornamentation is extremely important a self-skinning foam is preferred.
When a self-skinning foam is employed, if there are any gaps between the mating edges of the two half sections (it is sometimes impossible or impractical to assemble the two half sections so that there is no separation between the mating edges), the foam will flow into the gaps, such as illustrated at 28 in FIG. 4, and present ~2313~

a ~nse solid surface at the exterior of the air foil that can be finished and decorated, such as by sanding, painting, etc., so that the gap 28 at the separated edges of the two half sections is imperceptible in the S finished product.
In some cases, depending upon the size and shape of the air foil, the shrinkage of the foam core bonded to the outer shell has a tendency to cause broad flat surfaces on the half sections to become depressed and, thusl form a concavity on the outer surface of the air foil. In the embodiment illustrated the section 22 has such a broad flat surface. To overcorne this problem, either, and preferably both, half sections are molded with opposed ribs 30,32 which, when the sections are assembled, form a reinforcing strut which extends between the opposed walls of the air foil and prevent them from collapsing.
It therefore follows from the above that the present invention is admirably suitable for application to hollow parts formed of two half sections and especial-ly suited to the manufacture of vehicle air foils. Whenthe hollow part is filled with a plastic foam as describ-ed, it substantially increases the inherent rigidity of the part. This is extremely important in the case of air foils. Any foam that expands into gaps between the mating edges of the two half sections effectively seals the air 33~

oil against the insress of water. In addition, when the foam is o the self-s~inning type, any foam that expands into spaces between separated edge portions of the two half sections can be finished and decorated in a very simple manner so that the ornamental appearance of the par is not affected by such gaps in the mating edges.

Claims (23)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OF PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. An air foil for an automobile comprising:
an elongated, hollow structural body defining an aerodynamically desirable shape adapted to be mounted on the automobile transverse to the longitudinal axis of the automobile, said body including first and second plastic shell sections joined in mating relation;
a semi-rigid foam core molded in situ filling sub-stantially all of the interior volume of the hollow structural body and in adhesive contact with the interior walls of the shell sections to provide a unitary assembly; and mounting means, connected to the body, for mounting the body on the automobile.
2. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein the foam core is chemically bonded to the interior walls.
3. The article as defined in claim 2 wherein the foam core is caused to have adhesive contact with the interior walls by both a chemical bond and an applied adhesive agent.
4. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein the foam core is sufficiently rigid to add necessary stiffness to the body but resilient enough to withstand aerodynamic forces.
5. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein the foam of the core is self skinning.
6. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein the mount-ing means include stanchions formed as integral extensions of the body.
7. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein at least one of the first and second sections is formed with integrally molded internal ribs.
8. The article as defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second sections are molded of polycarbonate resin and the core is formed of foamed polyurethane.
9. A process for making the article of claim 1 compris-ing the steps of:
forming first and second shell sections mateable to form the body;
assembling said first and second shell sections into mated relation to form the body; and filling substantially all of the interior volume body with a plastic foam core.
10. The process of claim 9 wherein the step of filling the body comprises introducing a predetermined amount of fluid foamable plastic into an opening in the body.
11. The process of claim 9 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to a semi-rigid state.
12. The process of claim 9 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to form an integral adhesive bond between the foam core and the inner surfaces of the body.
13. The process of claim 9 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to form a skin.
14. The process of claim 9 further comprising the step of preparing the inner surfaces of the shell sections for ad-hesive contact with the foam core in advance of filling the in-terior volume of the body.
15. The process of claim 9 wherein the forming step comprises a plastic molding operation.
16. The process of claim 9 further comprising the step of finish treating the exterior surface of the article.
17. A process for making the article of claim 1 compris-ing the steps of:
forming first and second plastic shell sections mate-able to form the body;
introducing a foamable plastic into one of said shell sections;
assembling said shell sections in mated relation to form the body; and allowing expansion of the foamable plastic to fill substantially all of the interior volume of the body.
18. The process of claim 17 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to a semi-rigid state.
19. The process of claim 17 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to form an integral adhesive bond between the foam core and the inner surfaces of the body.
20. The process of claim 17 further comprising the step of curing the foamable plastic to form a skin.
21. The process of clam 17 further comprising the step of preparing the inner surfaces of the shell sections for adhesive contact with the foam core in advance of filling the interior volume of the body.
22. The process of claim 17 wherein the forming step comprises a plastic molding operation.
23. The process of claim 17 further comprising the step of finish treating the exterior surface of the article.
CA000457115A 1983-07-01 1984-06-21 Vehicle air foil Expired CA1233490A (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US51006683A 1983-07-01 1983-07-01
US510,066 1983-07-01

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1233490A true CA1233490A (en) 1988-03-01

Family

ID=24029234

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA000457115A Expired CA1233490A (en) 1983-07-01 1984-06-21 Vehicle air foil

Country Status (15)

Country Link
JP (1) JPS6025863A (en)
AU (1) AU568381B2 (en)
BE (1) BE900033A (en)
BR (1) BR8403204A (en)
CA (1) CA1233490A (en)
DE (1) DE3422241A1 (en)
DK (1) DK320184A (en)
ES (1) ES295766Y (en)
FR (1) FR2548087B1 (en)
GB (1) GB2142287B (en)
IT (1) IT1177820B (en)
NL (1) NL8401993A (en)
NO (1) NO159151C (en)
PT (1) PT78821B (en)
SE (1) SE8403467L (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN107599999A (en) * 2016-07-11 2018-01-19 本田技研工业(中国)投资有限公司 Vehicle rear constructs

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JPH054473Y2 (en) * 1987-02-13 1993-02-03
EP0303012B1 (en) * 1987-08-14 1990-10-31 Phoenix Aktiengesellschaft Shaped article, in particular a rear spoiler
US5240536A (en) * 1989-12-16 1993-08-31 Sakae Riken Kogyo Co., Ltd. Method for manufacturing hollow air spoiler
US5172954A (en) * 1990-02-19 1992-12-22 Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. Integral automobile trunk lid and air spoiler
JPH03113284U (en) * 1990-02-19 1991-11-19
GB2274857B (en) * 1993-01-19 1997-01-15 Iain Norman Bridge Composite structure
FR2707584B1 (en) * 1993-07-01 1995-10-06 Transformat Mat Plastiques System for fixing a deflector on the body of a motor vehicle.
DE19727685C2 (en) * 1997-06-20 1999-08-05 Porsche Ag Air control device
US6851229B2 (en) * 2001-09-14 2005-02-08 Metal-Era, Inc. Anchor bar splice
EP2537713B1 (en) * 2005-11-22 2014-09-17 Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Resin-made vehicular garnish structure and method for attaching the garnish structure
DE102009031250A1 (en) 2009-07-01 2011-01-05 Dr. Ing. H.C. F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft Motor vehicle and boot lid for a motor vehicle
EP2927103A1 (en) * 2014-03-31 2015-10-07 Volu Ventis Aps An air flow deflector device, use of an air flow deflector device and a large transport vehicle
CN113734302B (en) * 2021-09-29 2022-08-09 东风汽车集团股份有限公司 Annular tail wing structure and vehicle tail structure

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US3120570A (en) * 1961-04-20 1964-02-04 Southern California Plastic Co Process for forming an insulated container
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GB1068834A (en) * 1963-03-29 1967-05-17 Wilmot Breeden Ltd Bumpers for vehicles
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Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN107599999A (en) * 2016-07-11 2018-01-19 本田技研工业(中国)投资有限公司 Vehicle rear constructs

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
NO159151B (en) 1988-08-29
FR2548087B1 (en) 1988-07-08
IT8448436A0 (en) 1984-06-21
SE8403467L (en) 1985-01-02
JPS6025863A (en) 1985-02-08
NO842627L (en) 1985-01-02
AU2917284A (en) 1985-01-03
FR2548087A1 (en) 1985-01-04
GB2142287A (en) 1985-01-16
DK320184D0 (en) 1984-06-29
SE8403467D0 (en) 1984-06-29
BE900033A (en) 1984-10-15
AU568381B2 (en) 1987-12-24
GB2142287B (en) 1987-06-17
BR8403204A (en) 1985-06-11
ES295766U (en) 1987-11-01
ES295766Y (en) 1988-05-16
DK320184A (en) 1985-01-02
IT1177820B (en) 1987-08-26
PT78821B (en) 1986-07-15
GB8414666D0 (en) 1984-07-11
DE3422241A1 (en) 1985-01-03
NO159151C (en) 1988-12-07
NL8401993A (en) 1985-02-01
PT78821A (en) 1984-07-01

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