JP2000070070A - Foam molding - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a foam molding having a sufficient strength as a seat side armrest by using a core member comprising a glass fiber-reinforced resin. SOLUTION: A core member 2 is molded of glass fiber-reinforced resin including glass long fibers longer than the whole length of the core member 2 in the length direction of the core member 2 into a specified form by thermal compression molding. This glass fiber-reinforced resin has an extremely high strength, so by using the core member 2 formed of this, a seat side armrest of light weight and having a sufficient strength can be provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a foam molded article having a core made of fiber reinforced resin. The foam molded article of the present invention has excellent strength and is useful as a seat side armrest for automobiles and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A general interior material for a vehicle, such as a headrest and an armrest for door trim, has a core material disposed therein for the purpose of maintaining shape and imparting strength.
The structure is such that the periphery of the core material is covered with a foamed molded product in order to provide cushioning properties, and the periphery of the foamed molded product is covered with a skin made of polyvinyl chloride or the like in order to enhance the appearance quality.

In recent years, a core material is placed in a bag-shaped skin, and the skin is placed in a foaming mold, and a foam resin is injected into the skin and foamed, whereby the skin is molded by foaming pressure. In addition, the mainstream is a manufacturing method in which the outer skin and the core material are integrally joined with a foam filled in the outer skin while being pressed. As the core material arranged in the foam molded product,
A core made of a hard resin is sufficient for the purpose of shape retention, but a resin core is insufficient for the purpose of imparting strength, and a metal core may be used. For example, a seat side armrest of an automobile is swingably fixed to a side surface of a seat, and can be held at a substantially horizontal use position and a substantially vertical storage position. A steel core is placed inside the armrest so that it will not be damaged even if an excessive load is applied at the position of use, and the core is swingably fixed to the seat, so that the armrest is attached to the seat. Is to be retained.

[0004]

By the way, a seat side armrest of an automobile needs to have a strength so as not to be damaged even when a person's weight is added to the tip of the armrest, for example. Therefore, a high-strength steel material is used as the core material. A rotating shaft projecting from the side of the seat or the like is fixed to the core member, and the armrest swings with the rotation of the rotating shaft. In such a configuration, for example, an engagement hole into which a rotation shaft is inserted and engaged with a core material is provided.

However, when a steel core material is manufactured by press molding or the like, it may be difficult to impart a shape such as a curved surface, and other forming steps are required, resulting in a large number of steps. Also, the degree of freedom of the shape is small, and in many cases, another sheet metal part is welded. And, since steel is heavy, it is against the weight reduction of the vehicle body for the purpose of reducing the fuel consumption of the automobile from the viewpoint of environmental pollution prevention.

Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the weight of the core material of the seat side armrest as well, and the use of resin is being studied. However, since the required strength is large in the seat side armrest, the strength is insufficient with the resin core material. Therefore, it has been attempted to use a reinforced resin in which a reinforcing material such as fiber or powder is compounded. However, for example, even when a glass fiber reinforced resin mixed with glass fibers is used as a reinforcing material, the strength as a seat side armrest is insufficient when a core material is formed by injection molding or the like.

That is, when a rotation shaft extending from the seat is inserted into the engagement hole and held swingably on the side surface of the seat, and a load is applied to the front end of the armrest while projecting substantially forward from the side surface of the seat, Since the periphery of the engagement hole was broken with a lower load than the steel core material, it could not withstand severe use. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a foam molded article having a sufficient strength as a seat side armrest using a core material made of glass fiber reinforced resin.

[0008]

The features of the foam molded article according to the first aspect of the present invention, which solves the above-mentioned problems, include a core material, a foam molded article covering the core material, and a skin covering the core material and the foam molded article. The core material is formed into a predetermined shape by thermocompression molding from a glass fiber reinforced resin containing glass long fibers longer than at least the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material.

A feature of the foam molded article according to the second aspect is that, in the foam molded article according to the first aspect, the core material contains more than 30% by weight of long glass fibers, and the rotating shaft extending from the sheet has a rotating shaft. It is intended to be used as a seat side armrest having an engagement hole to be engaged and fixed.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the foam molded article of the present invention, the core material is formed of a glass fiber reinforced resin containing glass long fibers longer than at least the entire length of the core material in the longitudinal direction. Since this glass fiber reinforced resin has extremely high strength, by using the core material formed therefrom, it is possible to form a foam molded article having sufficient strength as a seat side armrest.

As a resin serving as a matrix of the core material, a thermoplastic resin such as polyolefin, polyamide, polyester, polyacetal, polycarbonate, acrylic resin and methacrylic resin can be used. Also, the long glass fiber included as a reinforcing material may include at least a fiber longer than the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material,
It is desirable that the entire glass long fiber is longer than the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material. The more long glass filaments,
In addition, the longer the long glass fiber, the higher the strength.
If the length of the long glass fiber is shorter than the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material, the strength required for the seat side armrest cannot be obtained.

It is desirable that the long glass fibers longer than the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material be contained in the core material in an amount of 30% by weight or more. More preferably, the content is desirably 40% by weight or more. When the amount of the long glass fiber is less than 30% by weight,
The strength required for the seat side armrest cannot be obtained. The state of the long glass fibers in the core material may be a state in which the orientation is random, or a state in which it is oriented in one direction. If the core material is oriented in one direction, it is most preferable that the core material is oriented along the longitudinal direction. Further, in the case of a core material having an engagement hole to which a rotation shaft extending from the sheet is engaged and fixed, it is preferable that the glass long fiber is wound so as to surround the periphery of the engagement hole. With such a configuration, the strength of the seat side armrest as a core material is further improved. The fiber diameter of the long glass fiber is not particularly limited, but those having a diameter of 20 to 25 μm are mainly used.

Heretofore, a glass fiber reinforced resin containing 30% by weight or more of glass fiber has been known, and a predetermined molded product has been produced by injection molding using the glass fiber reinforced resin. However, a large shear stress acts in the screw at the time of melt-kneading during injection molding, and the glass fiber breaks to shorten the fiber length, so that the strength is insufficient for use as a seat side armrest or the like.

Therefore, in the present invention, the core material is formed into a predetermined shape by thermocompression molding. According to the thermal compression molding, a large shear stress does not act at the time of thermal compression,
The glass fiber is prevented from being broken. Therefore, the obtained core material contains at least glass long fibers longer than the entire length of the core material in the longitudinal direction, whereby sufficient strength for use as a core material of the seat side armrest is obtained.

In order to manufacture the foam molded article of the present invention, first, a sheet material made of glass fiber reinforced resin containing extremely long glass long fibers is prepared. Such a sheet material is manufactured by arranging almost endless glass filaments uniformly on the flat substrate surface while folding them at both ends randomly or uniformly in one direction, flowing the molten resin there, and compression molding. can do. Then, the sheet is cut into a predetermined shape, placed in a predetermined molding die, and subjected to thermal compression molding to form a core material.

Next, with the core material placed in the bag-shaped skin, the skin and the core material are both placed in a mold, and a foamed resin is injected and foamed to form a foamed molded article. The core material is buried in the foam molded body to be integrated, and the foam molded body fills the inside of the skin and presses the skin against the mold surface to shape it into a predetermined shape. Thereby, the foam molded article of the present invention can be manufactured. In addition, it is also possible to form a foamed molded article in which only the core material is disposed in a mold and bury the core material, and cover it with a separately formed bag-shaped skin.

[0017]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the structure and characteristics of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to examples and comparative examples. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show foam molded articles of the present example and a comparative example. This foam molded product is a seat side armrest, and is engaged with and fixed to the fabric 1, a core material 2 disposed in the skin 1, a foam molded product 3 filling the interior of the skin 1, and the core material 2. And a cap 4.

A square-shaped engaging hole 20 to which a rotating shaft extending from the sheet is fixed, and an inlet 21 are formed in the core material 2.
The engagement hole 20 and the injection port 21 are exposed from the first opening 10 of the skin 1. A pair of engaging portions 22 integrally formed with the core material 2 project from the peripheral edge of the engaging hole 20 toward the foam molded body 3. The peripheral edge of the first opening 10 is in contact with the surface of the core material 2. Further, on the side opposite to the first opening 10, a through hole 30 penetrating through the skin 1 and the foam molded body 3 to reach the core material 2 is formed. The head 41 is fixed by engaging with the hole 23 formed.

(Example 1) As a raw material of the core material 2, a glass fiber reinforced resin sheet containing 40% by weight of long glass fiber ("X sheet P4038" manufactured by Idemitsu NS Co., Ltd.)
Was used. In this resin sheet, since the glass long fibers are arranged in a complicated meandering state, they have a length longer than the entire length from one end to the other end of the resin sheet and are randomly oriented and contained.

This resin sheet was cut into a size required for forming the core material 2. At this point, the resin sheet contains at least glass long fibers longer than the longitudinal direction of the core material 2.
Then, the resin sheet was heated to 190 to 220 ° C. to be softened, arranged between a pair of molds, and subjected to thermal compression molding to form the core material 2 shown in FIG. The obtained core material 2 was placed in a foaming mold using a jig (not shown) together with the skin 1, and a predetermined amount of urethane foam resin was injected into the skin 1 to perform foam molding. As a result, the foam molding 3 filled the inside of the skin 1, and the skin 1 was pressed against the mold surface by the foaming pressure to produce a foam molding.

A rod having a rectangular cross section is engaged with the engaging hole 20 of the obtained seat side armrest, and the seat side armrest is set so that the longitudinal direction of the core material 2 is horizontal and the width direction is vertical. Fixed to. Then, the amount of deflection in the horizontal direction when a load of 30 kg is applied to the tip of the seat side armrest in the horizontal direction, and 60 k in the horizontal direction
The amount of settling after applying a load of g was measured, and the results are shown in Table 1.

The vertical deflection when a load of 50 kg is applied to the tip of the seat side armrest in the vertical direction and the settling after the load of 90 kg is applied to the vertical direction were measured. It is shown in FIG. (Example 2) As a raw material of the core material 2, 4 glass long fibers were used.
Glass fiber reinforced resin sheet containing 2% by weight ("X sheet U
42 "manufactured by Idemitsu NS Co., Ltd.), and a core material 2 was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1. A seat side armrest was manufactured using the core material 2 in the same manner as in Example 1. In addition, in this glass fiber reinforced resin sheet,
In a part of the 3 to 5 fiber layers, glass long fibers longer than the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the core material 2 are oriented in one direction,
The long glass fibers in the core material 2 are oriented parallel to the longitudinal direction.

With respect to the obtained seat side armrest, the amount of bending and the amount of set were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, and the results are shown in Tables 1 and 2. (Comparative Example 1) As a raw material of the core material 2, 40 glass fibers were used.
The core material 2 was manufactured by injection molding using a glass fiber reinforced resin made of polypropylene containing by weight. Although the glass fiber length in this glass fiber reinforced resin is 8 mm, the glass fiber length in the core material 2 is about 2 mm on average because the glass fiber was broken by kneading in the screw during injection molding. I was

Using this core material 2, a seat side armrest was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1. For the obtained seat side armrest, the amount of deflection and the amount of settling were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, and the results are shown in Tables 1 and 2. (Evaluation)

[0025]

[Table 1]

[0026]

[Table 2] From Tables 1 and 2, it can be seen that the foam molded article of the example of the present invention is extremely superior in strength as compared with Comparative Example 1.
It has sufficient strength as a seat side armrest. The specific gravity of the core material 2 used in each embodiment is 1.2, which is 1/6 or less of that of the conventional steel core material, so that the weight is extremely reduced.

Further, since the strength of the second embodiment is slightly higher than that of the first embodiment,
It can also be seen that those oriented in parallel to the longitudinal direction are more preferable than those oriented at random.

[0028]

According to the foam molded article of the present invention,
It is superior in strength to that having a core material manufactured by conventional injection molding. Therefore, by using the core material according to the present invention as a substitute for the metal core material, remarkable weight reduction can be achieved. In addition, since the core material is manufactured by thermal compression molding, the degree of freedom of the shape is improved as compared with the case where a conventional metal core material is manufactured by press molding, and the number of steps for forming a predetermined shape is greatly reduced. be able to.

When the foamed molded article of the present invention is applied to a seat side armrest, it has strength comparable to that of a conventional seat side armrest having a steel core material under severe service conditions assumed, and is remarkable. The weight can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a seat side armrest according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a seat side armrest according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a core used in one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 1: Skin 2: Core material
3: molded foam 4: cap

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A foam molded article comprising a core, a foam molded body covering the core, and a skin covering the core and the foam molded body, wherein the core is at least a longitudinal axis of the core. A foam molded article formed by thermocompression molding from a glass fiber reinforced resin containing glass long fibers longer than the entire length in the direction. 2. The core material contains more than 30% by weight of the long glass fiber, and is used as a seat side armrest having an engagement hole into which a rotation shaft extending from the sheet is engaged and fixed. The foam molded article according to claim 1.