JP2003225890A - Processing method and processing device for resin material - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To quickly and equally pinspot-heat the tip of a blade body as the most important heat point while improving processing efficiency and finishing precision, avoiding damage to a design surface, reducing processing cost, and improving the durability of the blade body or the like. <P>SOLUTION: A resin surface material 1 is held and supported to set a part to be processed flatter. Just before processing, the frontmost 5c of the tip 5a of a heating blade body 5 pressed to a part to be processed in the surface material 1 is heated by a semiconductor laser beam LR to a softening point or fusing point of the surface material 1 or over. The part to be processed is then pressed by the heated blade body 5 to form (process) a V-groove 14 as a deploying crack for deploying an air bag on a back surface of the surface material 1. The output of a semiconductor laser is stopped immediately after processing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vinyl chloride (PV) forming an instrument panel for an automobile, for example.
C), polyolefin (TPO), polyurethane (TP)
U) or other thermoplastic resin, or spray urethane or other thermosetting resin skin material that corresponds to the airbag storage location when a certain amount of destructive force is applied due to a collision, etc. A processing method and processing apparatus for a resin material applied when processing a linear groove having a predetermined depth to allow breakage or when cutting a thermoplastic or thermosetting resin material into a predetermined shape It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method for processing a resin material of this type, which has been generally known, is to install a heating wire such as a nichrome wire as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-151345. After heating the heating blade with the electric heater to a temperature higher than the melting point of the resin material that is the object to be processed, press the heating blade to the scheduled processing point to cut or groove the resin material. Is the way to do it.

However, in the conventional general method for processing a resin material which employs an electric heating means, heat is conducted to the blade body from a power source via a heating wire and an electric heater, so that the blade body is made of a resin material. Both the speed of heating up to a predetermined temperature above the melting point and the cooling speed for cooling the blade required for the next processing are very slow. In particular, when it is necessary to raise the temperature of the blade body to around 300 ° C. as in the case of processing a thermoplastic resin material such as TPO or TPU described above,
Alternatively, when it is necessary to raise the temperature to around 350 ° C as in the case of processing a thermosetting resin material such as spray urethane, the energizing amount is naturally limited in order to prevent the heating wire from breaking. Therefore, the temperature rising speed cannot be increased to a certain level or more, and the temperature rising and cooling times, and eventually the processing time are long, and the processing efficiency and productivity are very poor.

Further, in the case of an electric heater, when heating and cooling are repeated, troubles such as disconnection of the heating wire are likely to occur. Therefore, when a large number of resin materials are continuously processed, the first one It is necessary to keep the blade that has been raised to a predetermined temperature during processing of the resin material near that temperature even after processing one resin material, which causes a large heat loss and increases the processing cost. In addition, the durability of the electric heater and the blade itself may be significantly reduced due to the influence of high temperature heat.

Further, when grooving for expanding an airbag is performed on a skin material portion of an instrument panel for an automobile made of a thermoplastic resin, a heating blade is pressed to form a groove having a predetermined depth and a predetermined width. If the blade is pulled up immediately after being processed, not only does the so-called threading phenomenon occur, in which some of the molten resin adheres to the blade and is pulled up together. The phenomenon of re-welding occurs on the side wall portion of the groove, etc., and as a result, the finishing accuracy of the processed surface of the groove is very poor, and the design surface is greatly damaged. In particular,
Since it is closely related to the safety of passengers of a car, it is strongly required to process it so as to exhibit a constant reproducible fracture resistance. If such a stringing phenomenon or re-welding phenomenon occurs, it is not possible to process a groove having an accurate remaining thickness dimension and width dimension. There are many problems.

[0006] Therefore, as a means for solving many problems as described above which the conventional general resin material processing methods have,
The present inventor and the applicant of the present invention heat the tip portion of the heating blade body to a predetermined temperature (softening point of the resin material) or more by high-frequency induction heating immediately before processing, and then press the heating blade body to a planned processing location. Has developed a method and a device for cutting or grooving a resin material, and has already applied for a patent (Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-22138).
7) has been done (hereinafter, referred to as prior invention).

[0007]

According to the method of processing a resin material according to the prior invention of the present inventor and the applicant of the present invention, it is possible to rapidly heat and lower the temperature of the blade body. Compared with the conventional general method, it is possible to improve the processing efficiency of cutting or grooving, and also the finishing accuracy is high and damage on the design surface can be avoided.
Further, there are many advantages that the heat loss at the time of continuous processing can be reduced to reduce the processing cost and improve the durability of the blade body and the like.

As a result of further research by the inventor and the applicant of the processing method according to the above-mentioned prior invention, which has many advantages as described above, a. In the case of high frequency induction heating, the high frequency induction coil cannot be placed right next to the cutting edge of the blade, which is the most important heating point that is pushed into the resin material when performing the prescribed processing. Since the important heating point is located away from the magnetic field generated by the coil, it is difficult to heat the most important heating point (the leading edge of the blade) in a pin spot manner. Therefore, since the blade portion other than the most important heating point is also heated, when continuously processing a large number of resin materials, heat is accumulated in the blade body and the blade body undergoes thermal expansion deformation, resulting in processing. Accuracy tends to decrease over time. b. Further, in the case of induction heating, the heating temperature of each part of the blade tip portion differs due to the difference in the distance between each part of the blade tip portion and the coil, and it is extremely important to eliminate such temperature unevenness. Strict output adjustment is required, it takes extra time for the adjustment, and some temperature unevenness is unavoidable even if maximum output adjustment is performed to eliminate temperature unevenness. c. Further, in the case of induction heating, it is necessary to select a material having a large eddy current loss or hysteris loss as a constituent material of the blade tip portion in order to improve heating efficiency.
Materials that are preferable for improving the heating efficiency are not always preferable in terms of mechanical wear. Knowing the existence of such a technical problem, there is still room for improvement even in the processing method according to the invention of the prior application, which is extremely superior in processing efficiency and damage avoidance in terms of design compared to conventional general processing methods. I found out.

The present invention was made on the basis of the above findings, and is equivalent to the prior patents for improving processing efficiency and finishing accuracy, avoiding damage on design, reducing processing cost and improving durability of blades and the like. While maintaining the advantages, the tip of the blade, which is the most important heating point in processing, can be easily pin-spotted and can be heated uniformly without causing temperature unevenness. An object of the present invention is to provide a resin material processing method and processing apparatus capable of maintaining processing accuracy.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of processing a resin material according to the present invention is a method of cutting or grooving a resin material to be processed with a heating blade. In this method, the resin material is received and supported so that the planned processing part becomes flat, and immediately before the processing, the semiconductor laser is pressed toward the tip part of the heating blade pressed against the planned processing part of the resin material. Immediately after cutting, the resin material is cut or grooved by irradiating light to heat the tip of the blade to a temperature above the softening point of the resin material and then pressing the scheduled processing portion with the temperature rising blade. In addition, the output of the semiconductor laser is stopped.

Further, the processing apparatus for resin material according to the present invention is
This is a resin material processing device that cuts or grooves the resin material to be machined with a heating blade, and a receiving jig that receives and supports the resin material so that the area to be machined is flat. A semiconductor laser that irradiates the tip of the blade with a semiconductor laser beam to heat the tip of the blade, and the output of this semiconductor laser is the softening point of the resin material at the tip of the heating blade immediately before processing. As described above, it is characterized in that it is provided with a control unit for controlling so that the temperature is raised by heating and stopped immediately after processing.

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned constitutional requirements, the semiconductor laser light is irradiated toward the tip portion of the heating blade immediately after processing after the heating blade is pressed against the planned processing portion of the resin material. As a result, it is possible to rapidly heat up and heat the tip of the heating blade, which is the most important heating point in performing predetermined processing, in a pin spot manner. Linear (two-dimensional)
It is possible to uniformly heat the entire area by heating to a very low level with very little unevenness in temperature. By pressing the blade body, which is heated in a pin-spot-like and uniform manner, at the planned processing location of the resin material, the location can be efficiently and accurately cut or grooved into a predetermined shape. Is possible. Also, since it is pin spot heating, the blade body other than the heating point will not be heated and heat will not be accumulated in the blade body. It is possible to always maintain a high processing accuracy without the accuracy gradually decreasing.

Further, in the case of grooving, by stopping the output of the semiconductor laser immediately after the grooving, the tip portion of the blade can be rapidly cooled to a temperature below the melting point of the resin material and cooled. Even if the blade is pulled up after a very short time after processing, the above-mentioned stringing phenomenon and re-welding phenomenon do not occur at all, damage on the design surface can be avoided, and it can be reproduced. It is possible to very accurately and efficiently process a groove for deploying an air bag having an accurate residual thickness dimension and a width dimension that exhibit a constant fracture resistance.

Further, as described above, since the blade can be rapidly heated and raised in temperature and cooled, in order to stabilize the temperature of the blade and to cope with continuous machining as in the case of the electric heating type. It is not necessary to keep the blade at a temperature near the melting point of the resin material, and it is possible to introduce a control mode in which the output of the semiconductor laser is turned on and off at each processing even during continuous processing, and heat loss ( (Power consumption) can be reduced to reduce the processing cost, and the durability of the blade or the like due to high temperature heat can be suppressed.

In addition, since the semiconductor laser has a shorter laser light wavelength than the CO 2 laser or the YAG laser, even if the cutting edge portion which is the most important heating point of the blade bites into the resin material. Also, there is no fear that the resin material portion through which the laser beam passes will be melted, and from this point as well, it is possible to avoid design damage and ensure high processing accuracy.

In the resin material processing method and processing apparatus according to the present invention as described above, as described in claims 2 and 6, the output of the semiconductor laser immediately after processing is stopped and the tip portion of the heating blade body is stopped. It is possible to shorten the cooling time, speed up the continuous machining cycle, and further improve the productivity by taking a means for rapidly cooling.

The resin material to be processed according to the present invention may be a thermoplastic resin such as TPO or TPU, or a thermosetting resin such as spray urethane.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an entire processing apparatus used for carrying out the method for processing a resin material according to the present invention, FIG.
Is a schematic plan view. This processing apparatus is roughly classified into vinyl chloride (P) that forms an instrument panel for automobiles.
VC), polyolefin (TPO), polyurethane (T
PU) or the like skin material 1 (an example of a resin material), for example, the rear surface of the V groove processing planned portion which becomes each linear portion of the split portion (not shown) for deploying the airbag of the double Y type pattern A surface plate 2 serving as a receiving jig for receiving and supporting the surface side so as to be flattened, and driven up and down via an elevating device 3 such as an air cylinder which is arranged immediately above the surface plate 2. Elevating underframe 4 configured freely, a heating blade 5 having a double Y-shape corresponding to the above-mentioned cleaving portion for airbag deployment, and attached to the lower portion of the uplift underframe 4, and this heating blade 5. Is a separate body, and as shown in FIG. 3, the heating blade body 5
Of the five semiconductor laser heads 7 which are arranged on the sides of the five linear portions 5i and are suspended and supported by the lifting frame 4 via suspenders 6, and a DC power source for supplying a direct current to each of the semiconductor laser heads 7. 8 and a controller 9 that controls the output of the DC power supply 8.

The surface plate 2 adsorbs the resinous skin material 1 placed on the upper surface 2a thereof by depressurizing the air in the cavity by the suction force of a vacuum pump or the like (not shown) and adsorbing the skin material 1 The surface of the semiconductor laser 8 is structured so as to be fixed and held in a close contact state, and the semiconductor laser 8 has a generation wavelength of 8
00 nm and maximum output of about 1 kW.

The five linear portions 5 of the heating blade 5
As shown in FIG. 4, the tip portion 5a of i is formed in a V shape, and the semiconductor laser head 7 emits the semiconductor laser light LR toward the tip portion 5c of the tip portion 5a. It is configured as
A cooling water circulation passage 10 for rapid cooling is formed in the thick portion 5b other than the tip portion 5a.

Further, a temperature sensor 12 is attached to the tip portion 5a of the heating blade 5, and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 12 is a set temperature equal to or higher than the softening point or the melting point of the resinous skin material 1. When the temperature reaches, the feedback signal is input to the controller 9 through the temperature controller 13 and the output of the DC power source 8 is automatically controlled.

Next, by using the resin material processing apparatus having the above-mentioned structure, a back surface portion of a predetermined portion of the resin skin material 1, that is, a V groove processing planned portion corresponding to the double Y-shaped pattern airbag tearing portion. A method of processing the V-grooves that will be the straight line portions of the airbag deployment cleaving portion will be described below. First, the planned processing portion of the resin skin material 1 is placed on the upper surface 2a of the surface plate 2 with the surface thereof facing down, and then the air in the cavity is sucked and depressurized by the suction force of a vacuum pump or the like. The skin material 1 is fixedly held on the surface plate 2 so that the surface of the skin material 1 is in close contact with the upper surface of the surface plate 2.

Then, the elevating underframe 4 is lowered through an elevating device 3 such as an air cylinder, and the tip end 5a of each linear portion 5i of the heating blade 5 attached to the lower part of the elevating underframe 4 is advanced. As shown in FIG. 5, the portion 5c is pressed against the scheduled processing portion on the back surface of the skin material 1. Immediately before this processing, the DC power supply 8 is operated (ON) to turn on the controller 9.
The laser light LR is emitted by supplying the output power preset to the semiconductor laser heads 7, and the emitted laser light LR is the tip of the tip portion 5a of the linear portion 5i of the heating blade 5. Irradiation is directed toward the portion 5c, whereby the tip end portion 5c of each of the five straight line portions 5i of the blade body 5 is rapidly heated in a pin spot manner and uniformly heated and raised in two dimensions. It is possible to warm.

When the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 12 reaches a set temperature equal to or higher than the softening point or melting point of the skin material 1, the output of the DC power source 8 is controlled by a feedback signal from the temperature controller 13, and thereafter. The tip portion 5c of the heating blade body 5 is always automatically maintained at a temperature equal to or higher than the softening point or melting point of the skin material 1.

Incidentally, the semiconductor laser light LR emitted from the five semiconductor laser heads 7 heats and heats each linear portion 5i of the heating blade 5 to a preset temperature (250 ° C.), and the circle shown in FIG. As a result of measuring the temperature of each site (the most advanced site 5c) surrounded by, the temperature distribution having the values shown in parentheses in FIG. 6A was obtained. Further, the temperature of each linear portion 5i of the heating blade body 5 is heated to a set temperature by the induction heating means according to the invention of the prior application to measure the temperature of each portion surrounded by a circle in FIG. When I tried it, Fig. 6
The temperature distribution having the values shown in parentheses in (b) was obtained. As is clear from the comparison of these temperature distributions, the heating means using the semiconductor laser light LR has a much smaller temperature difference in the tip portion 5c of the tip portion 5a of the heating blade body 5 than the induction heating means, and the blade has a very small temperature difference. It can be seen that the entire body 5 is heated substantially uniformly with very little temperature unevenness.

As described above, the elevating frame 4 is set via the elevating device 3 such as an air cylinder in a state in which the tip portion 5c of each linear portion 5i of the heating blade body 5 is heated and maintained above the set temperature. By lowering the amount by a certain amount and pressing the intended processing portion of the skin material 1 from the back surface side through the tip portion 5c of the heating blade body 5, the resin at the intended processing portion of the skin material 1 is sequentially melted, and FIG. As shown in, the tip portion 5 a of the heating blade body 5 enters into the thickness of the skin material 1. This Figure 7
In the state as shown in FIG. 2, that is, in the state in which the most distal heating point 5c of the heating blade body 5 penetrates into the inner thickness of the skin material 1, the laser light LR transmits a part of the skin material 1. Will be done. However, since the semiconductor laser light LR originally has a shorter wavelength (800 nm) than the CO2 laser light or the YAG laser light, there is no fear that the skin material part through which the laser light passes will be melted, and therefore the design damage will occur. In addition to being able to avoid the above, it is possible to ensure a high processing accuracy, and finally, the scheduled processing portion of the skin material 1 has the shape of the tip portion 5a of the heating blade body 5, that is, a V-shape. The V-grooves 14 that are deformed and serve as the linear portions of the tearing portion for expanding the airbag having a predetermined pattern are formed (worked).

Immediately after the V-grooves 14 which become the respective linear portions of the predetermined airbag deployment cleavage portion are formed (worked), the operation of the DC power supply 8 is stopped (OFF) to turn off the laser light from the semiconductor laser head 7. When the irradiation of the LR is stopped and the heating of the heating blade body 5 is stopped, each linear portion 5 in the heating blade body 5 is stopped.
The tip portion 5b of i is rapidly cooled to a temperature below the melting point of the skin material 1 and cooled. At this time, the tip portion 5
By circulating the cooling water through the cooling water circulation passage 10 formed within the thickness of the portion 5b other than a, it is possible to rapidly lower the temperature of the heating blade 5 and cool it.

In this way, when the heating blade body 5 is cooled to a temperature below the softening point or melting point of the skin material 1 and cooled,
By raising the elevating underframe 4 by a set amount through the elevating device 3 such as an air cylinder and pulling up the heating blade body 5 above the V groove 14, no stringing phenomenon or re-welding phenomenon occurs, and the design is improved. There is almost no damage on the surface,
As shown in FIG. 8, a V-groove 14 which is a linear portion of the tearing portion for deploying the airbag with a very high accuracy that has an accurate remaining thickness dimension t and a width dimension w and exhibits a reproducible constant fracture resistance is formed. The back surface side of the skin material 1 can be processed.

In the above embodiment, the object to be processed is the skin material 1 of the instrument panel for automobiles made of the thermoplastic resin, and the skin material 1 has the V-grooves which are the linear portions of the tearing portion for airbag deployment. Although the case of processing No. 14 has been described, it is also applicable to cutting of a thermoplastic resin material, cutting of a thermosetting resin material such as spray urethane, or grooving in addition to this. The tip portion 5a of the heating blade body 5 used for cutting is formed in a shape as shown in FIG. 9, and the semiconductor laser beam LR is formed on the sharp tip portion 5c.
It is possible to rapidly and evenly heat the sharp tip 5c by irradiating.

Further, the tearing portion for expanding the airbag, which is processed in the skin material 1 of the instrument panel for an automobile, is not limited to the double Y-shaped one shown in the above embodiment,
It may be a straight line shape or an H shape.

Further, as shown in FIG. 10, the semiconductor laser head 7 is arranged on the back surface side of the resin material 1 to be processed, and the laser beam LR passing through the resin material 1 to be processed causes the tip portion 5c of the blade body 5 to move. It is also possible to adopt a configuration of heating in a pin spot manner. When adopting this configuration, as the resin material 1 to be processed, use is made of a pure material such as carbon, talc, glass fiber, etc. that does not contain a substance that generates heat when irradiated with the laser beam LR. Is desirable.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, as the heating means of the heating blade for pressing the planned processing portion of the resin material,
By using a semiconductor laser beam, it is possible to rapidly heat and heat the tip of the blade body, which is the most important heating point for performing a given process, in a pin spot manner, and to rapidly cool and cool it. Not only can this be done, but the tip of the blade can be heated linearly (two-dimensionally) to minimize temperature unevenness and heat the entire tip of the blade uniformly. Therefore, not only can the resin material be cut or grooved into a predetermined shape efficiently and very accurately, but especially in grooving, the heating blade is cut very shortly after processing. Even if the body is pulled up, it is possible to prevent the stringing phenomenon and re-welding phenomenon caused by the molten resin adhering to the blade body, so that damage to the design surface can be avoided and a certain reproducible fracture resistance is exhibited. It is extremely effective for grooving a tear portion for deploying an air bag that requires accurate residual thickness dimension and width dimension as described above.

Moreover, when continuously processing a large number of resin materials,
It is not necessary to keep the blade at a temperature near the softening point or melting point of the resin material, and it is possible to introduce a control mode in which the output of the semiconductor laser is turned on and off each time processing is performed. It is possible to reduce the power consumption) and to reduce the processing cost and the durability of the blade or the like due to the influence of high temperature heat. In addition, CO2 laser and YAG
By using a semiconductor laser light, which has a shorter laser light wavelength than a laser, even if the cutting edge part, which is the most important heating point of the blade, bites into the resin material, the resin material part through which the laser light passes There is no fear that the metal will be melted, and from this point as well, there is an effect that design damage can be avoided and high processing accuracy can be secured.

In particular, by stopping the output of the semiconductor laser immediately after processing and also using another means for rapidly cooling the heating blade, the cooling time can be shortened, the continuous processing cycle can be accelerated, and the productivity can be further improved. Can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an entire processing apparatus used for carrying out a method for processing a resin material according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a shape of a heating blade and an arrangement state of semiconductor laser heads in the same processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of a main part of the same processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state immediately before processing.

FIG. 6 (a) is a temperature distribution of each part when the tip portion of the heating blade in the resin material processing apparatus according to the present invention is heated by a semiconductor laser beam, and (b) is an induction heating means shown in the prior invention. It is explanatory drawing of the temperature distribution of each site | part when it heats by.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state in which a planned processing portion is pressed by a heating blade.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing a state of a processed V groove.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged front view of a main part showing a tip shape of a heating blade used when cutting a resin material.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Resin skin material (resin material) 2 Surface plate (receiving jig) 5 heating blade 5a V type tip 5b Other parts 5c Cutting edge part (most important heating point) 5i Straight part 7 Semiconductor laser head 8 DC power supply 9 Controller (control unit) 10 Cooling water circuit 14 V-groove on the cleaving part for airbag deployment

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A method for processing a resin material, which comprises cutting or grooving a planned portion of the resin material with a heating blade, wherein the resin material is received and supported so that the planned portion is flat. Above, immediately before processing, after irradiating a semiconductor laser beam toward the tip of the heating blade pressed against the intended processing point of the resin material to raise the temperature of the blade tip above the softening point of the resin material. A method for processing a resin material, characterized in that the resin material is cut or grooved by pressing a planned processing portion with the temperature raising blade and the output of the semiconductor laser is stopped immediately after the processing. 2. The method for processing a resin material according to claim 1, wherein the heating blade is rapidly cooled at the same time when the output of the semiconductor laser is stopped immediately after the processing. 3. The method of processing a resin material according to claim 1, wherein the resin material to be processed is a thermoplastic resin material. 4. The method for processing a resin material according to claim 1, wherein the resin material to be processed is a thermosetting resin material. 5. A resin material processing device for cutting or grooving a planned portion of a resin material with a heating blade, which receives and supports the resin material so that the planned portion is flat. The jig, the semiconductor laser that irradiates the tip of the heating blade with the semiconductor laser light to heat the tip of the blade, and the output of this semiconductor laser An apparatus for processing a resin material, comprising: a control unit that controls to heat the resin material to a temperature higher than its softening point and stop the temperature immediately after processing. 6. The heating blade body or / and a portion in the vicinity thereof is provided with a cooling means for rapidly cooling the heating blade body as well as stopping the output of the semiconductor laser immediately after processing. Machine for resin materials.