CA2013998C - Method of producing automotive body - Google Patents

Method of producing automotive body

Info

Publication number
CA2013998C
CA2013998C CA 2013998 CA2013998A CA2013998C CA 2013998 C CA2013998 C CA 2013998C CA 2013998 CA2013998 CA 2013998 CA 2013998 A CA2013998 A CA 2013998A CA 2013998 C CA2013998 C CA 2013998C
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
primer
metal
passing
phosphate
oven
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 - Fee Related
Application number
CA 2013998
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
CA2013998A1 (en
Inventor
James Richard Campbell
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
Priority to CA 2013998 priority Critical patent/CA2013998C/en
Publication of CA2013998A1 publication Critical patent/CA2013998A1/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA2013998C publication Critical patent/CA2013998C/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Fee Related legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • BPERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B05SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05DPROCESSES FOR APPLYING FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL
    • B05D7/00Processes, other than flocking, specially adapted for applying liquids or other fluent materials to particular surfaces or for applying particular liquids or other fluent materials
    • B05D7/14Processes, other than flocking, specially adapted for applying liquids or other fluent materials to particular surfaces or for applying particular liquids or other fluent materials to metal, e.g. car bodies

Abstract

METHOD OF PRODUCING AUTOMOTIVE BODY
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A method is disclosed in which a semi-finished automotive body is passed through an oven placed immediately after a metal finishing stage, to cure hot melt strip and solder used in preceding stages, before the body is subjected to the application of liquid substances such as phosphate rinse or E-coat. The method improves the quality of finish by avoiding the release of tiny particles into the bath of the paint application device and from there to the surface of the body being finished.

Description

~- 20~3J ~

METHOD OF PRODUCING AUTOMOTIVE BODY
SPECIFICATION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVEN~ION
The present invention relates to a method of the production of a body of a motor vehicle. The production of an automobile body is a highly automated procedure. The process of making a car body can be summarized as a sequence of steps each of which steps is well known in the art.
A number of metallic parts of the body of a car are welded ~ - -together. During the welding, certain parts are placed in --contact with each other ready for being welded to each other.
Before the welding, so-called ~hot melt strips" are placed between the metallic parts. The two or more metal parts are then --~
welded to each other, e.g. by spot welding. The hot melt strips --are plastic strips containing sealant. When the body is submitted ~ ~ -to an elevated temperature, typically in an oven after the application of paint, the "hot melt strips" are cured and in the curing process, the sealant fills the selected void between the two metal parts welded together. The purpose of this process i~
to secure waterproof quality of the respective section of the body, e.g. the so-called fire wall separating the engine 25 compartment from the interior of the body. -. .
In what is a subsequent or a simultaneous step, other parts of the body are soldered to each other. This operation is usually carried out on exterior part~ of the body. A good example is a - -30 the soldering of a roof component to the columns of a car body. ;
The soldered parts are eventually welded to the rest of the metal components of the body being produced. ;i When the welding and soldering of the body component6 is finished an intermediate produ¢t is obtained whiah is referred to a~ a prefinished body portion. It is followed by mechanical attachment of further components, suah as doors, to the prefinished body portlon, to arrive at what is referred to as a "metal finished body."

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', :,,' .

20139~8 The metal finished body i8 then passed through a phosphate rinse or shower as a preparation for paint application and the phosphate rinsed body is then submerged in a bath of primer. The primer is so called E-coating. It is attracted to the metal body 5 by a very high voltage applied to the body. Typically the voltage is in the range of 12,000 volts. The primer coated body is then passed through an oven and thereafter provided with layers of paint. Each application of paint is usually followed by another oven. In the oven, the body is heated to a temperature of about 10 400 degrees Celsius or even more. One of the desired effects of --the treatment in the oven is the curing of the sealant inserted between adjacent metal parts at the outset of the production.

The use of hot melt sealant, its method of using and 15 application is well known in the art. Reference may be had, for instance, to U.S. Patent 4,749,434 (Harrison), in which the sealant, its use and production is described in detail. The heat treatment of the coating applied is also known. See, for instance, U.S. Patent 4,7871,728 which contains description of 20 treatment of the E-coat referred to above but also of a paint.
The pre-rinsing of the workpiece prior to being immersed in a phosphatic or electro-painting solution is referred to for instance, in U.S. Patent 4,600,491. Other patents describing prior art relevant to the present invention include U.S. Patent 25 4,621,187 ~Petro, Jr.) and U.S. Patent 4,662,086 (Hennecke et al.). --one of the drawbacks of the known methods is that the high voltage required to attract the E-coat (primer), causes undesired 30 release of small particles from the previously applied hot melt i3trips. These are uncured synthetic material bits. They become released into the bath of the primer and subsequently attached, together with the primer, to the surface of the body submersed in the bath.
Furthermore, the solder bakes out at the same stage giving rise to still further defects of the same nature. These defects 2~t~ 3u are normally disoovered only after the application of at least the primer and often even after the sub~equent baking which follows the application of the paint.

Despite the fact that these defects have long been recognized, no effective solution has been found as yet. It is an object of the present invention to alleviate the above problems.

SUMMARY OF THE I NVENTI ON
In accordance with the present invention the problems associated with the release of the particles of the sealant from the hot melt strips and the solder can be substantially reduced and even entirely avoided by an extremely simple and therefore even more surprising solution: the introduction of an additional -oven through which the body is passed before the stage of the phosphate rinsing. This has the result that the sealant which is ~ -the essential material of the hot melt strips wilI become cured ~
and that the solder will bake out before the body is phoæphate -rinsed metal finishing is carried out. The defects can be relatively easily spotted eliminated and during the subsequent treatment in the phosphate rinse and E-coat bath the possibility -~
is eliminated of uncured particles and there sticking to the surface since all of the material had already been cured during the passage through the additional oven.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is diagrammatically shown in the enclosed drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a block diagram of a typical known method of producing an automobile body;
Figure 2 is a block diagram similar to that,of Figure 1 but showing a first embodiment of the method of the present invention; and Figure 3 is a block diagram similar to that of Figure 1 but showlng a second embodiment of the method of the pre~ent invention. ~ ' .. . ':

~ 3 DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Turning firstly to Figure 1 and referring to the preceding description, reference number 10 designates the step of welding the respective metallic components of a car body to each other.
While a large number of components is involved, for the sake of clarity, reference may be had to "at least two" such components.
The step 10 also includes the placement of hot melt strips mentioned above, between the respective two or more components welded together.

The block 11 shows the step of soldering as outlined above and the subsequent step 12 is the final part of concluding what is referred to as metal finishing stage of the body by attaching to it components such as doors, bumpers etc. The metal finished body is then passed through a phosphate rinsing stage 13 which is a part of an intense cleaning of the body prior to the application of paint. In the next step 14, the electrodepositio.n described above takes place. This stage is commonly referred to as E-coat or E-dip. The body emergi~g from the E-coat stags is referred to as a primer "covered" body. If desired, it may be passed through an oven 15 and from there a number of paint layers is applied in paint application steps 16, each usually followed by a paint baking oven and 17. The number of stages 16 and 17 is optional. It is not neaessary that each be followed by an oven.
Nor is it vital that the E-coating stage 14 be followed by an oven. It i5 important to note, however, that the purpose of the first oven following the E-coating stage 14 (in the example shown, the oven 15) is not only to bake th0 deposited primer but -also to cure the plastic sealant inserted at the step 10.
. . .
Thus, the prior art method depicted in Fig. 1 can be described, in a very simplified summary, as follows: welding -.
soldering - metal finishing - phosphate treatment - E-coat -paint - baklng.
.:
Turning now to Fig. 2, it will be seen that the same exemplary basic steps 10 - 17 are included in the first : ~ .
: , . , ~ J ~ ~ J l j ~
~ 6 embodiment of the inventive method. They are referred to with the same reference numbers. However, the method of the present invention includes a heat treatment in an oven 18 placed, in the embodiment shown, between the metal finishing stage 12 and the phosphate rinsing stage 13.

The oven 18 is of a type well known in the art and described in a vast number of prior art references, some of which have been mentioned above. The structure of the oven itself i8 not a part of the present invention. It will suffice to say that the purpose of placement of oven 18 at the position shown is to --subject the body to heat treatment which is sufficient to cure the hot melt strip applied in step 10 and, if necessary, the -solder applied in step 11. A typical temperature, as mentioned, -~
for instance, in the aforesaid U. S. Patent 4,749,434 is 240-F to about 300 F. The temperature used may differ from the above depending on the type of hot melt sealant used. The purpose of -the oven 18 is to subject the body to heat treatment which results not only in the curing mentioned but also in release of small particles of the hot melt sealant and solder. However, since the body is dry, the released particles do not stick to its surface and even if they do, they can be eaæily removed, for instance by vacuuming or some other method. As a consequence, there is not further release of the particles during the application of the E-coat at stage 14 with a substantially improved finish at the end of the process.
-. ' ' Figure 3 is intended to show that the placement of the additional oven 18 does not necessarily have to follow the step -12 of metal finishing but may precede such step. In Figure 3, the oven 18 follows immediately after the welding an soldering 10, 11.

The actual se~uence of the entire method is not important as ~:
long as there is the step of heat treatment following the welding and soldering but preceding the step of pho~phate treatment and preferably preceding the step of metal finishing.
' ' ' ' ' ~ 3 ~ 3 ~

It will thus be appreciated that many other embodiments of the present invention may exist whioh may differ in detail from the sequence described and shown in the drawings, without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, I
wish to secure by letters patent document i~sued on this application all such embodiments as properly fall within the scope of my contribution to the art.

Claims (5)

1. A method of the production of a body of a motor vehicle, comprising the steps of:
(a) placing at least two metal parts of the body in contact with each other, with a plastic sealant material disposed therebetween;
(b) welding said at least two metal parts to each other;
(c) soldering other parts of the body to each other and fixedly securing said other parts to said at least two parts to thus produce a prefinished body portion;
(d) concluding a metal finishing stage of the production of the body by attaching doors or other parts to said prefinished body portion to produce a metal finished body;
(e) passing the metal finished body through a phosphate rinse or shower to produce a phosphate rinsed body;
(f) applying a primer coating to the phosphate rinsed body by submerging the phosphate rinsed body in a bath of a liquid primer and by simultaneously attracting the primer to the body by electric voltage applied to the body to produce primer covered body;
(g) passing the primer covered body through a primer treating oven to produce a primer coated body;
(h) passing the primer coated body through subsequent steps of paint applications and oven treatments of paint applied to the body;
wherein the step of phosphate rinsing is preceded by a heat treatment in an additional oven, where the metal finished body or the prefinished body portion is subjected to temperatures sufficient to cure the plastic sealant material to cause same to fill a predetermined portion of a void between the two metal parts and to bake out solder left from said soldering, whereby particles of said plastic sealant material and of said solder released during the baking in the metal finishing oven can be removed prior to the passing of the metal finished body through the phosphate rinse thus virtually eliminating the formation and release of such particles into said bath during the step of application of the primer coating.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the heat treatment follows said steps of welding and soldering and precedes said step of concluding the metal finishing stage.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the heat treatment follows the step of concluding the metal finishing stage and precedes said step of phosphate rinsing.
4. In a method of producing a motor vehicle body, comprising the steps of interposing plastic sealant strip between adjacent members of the body, welding the members of the body to each other and passing the body through a series of primer and paint applications and curing ovens: the step of passing the body through an additional oven prior to the passage through said series of primer and paint applications and curing ovens.
5. In a method of producing a motor vehicle body, comprising the steps of interposing plastic sealant strip between adjacent members of the body, welding and soldering members of the body to each other and passing the body through a series of primer and paint applications and curing ovens: the step of passing the body through an additional oven prior to the passage through said series of primer and paint applications and curing ovens.
CA 2013998 1990-05-07 1990-05-07 Method of producing automotive body Expired - Fee Related CA2013998C (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2013998 CA2013998C (en) 1990-05-07 1990-05-07 Method of producing automotive body

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA 2013998 CA2013998C (en) 1990-05-07 1990-05-07 Method of producing automotive body

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2013998A1 CA2013998A1 (en) 1991-11-07
CA2013998C true CA2013998C (en) 1993-11-02

Family

ID=4144693

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA 2013998 Expired - Fee Related CA2013998C (en) 1990-05-07 1990-05-07 Method of producing automotive body

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA2013998C (en)

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CA2013998A1 (en) 1991-11-07

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