JPH0737109B2 - Wheel cover - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to an automobile wheel cover.

(Prior Art) A synthetic resin wheel cover is lightweight and has a high degree of freedom in design, but the appearance of synthetic resin on the surface may not be suitable for the body of an automobile or the tastes of consumers. Therefore, conventionally, a wheel cover with a metallic appearance is created by metallic coating on a wheel cover base made of synthetic resin or by attaching metal by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method such as vacuum deposition or sputtering. It has been put to practical use.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, even with the wheel cover, a metallic appearance having a beauty and high quality comparable to a disc wheel formed by casting or forging an aluminum alloy or a magnesium alloy is obtained. Not obtained. Because metallic coating only adds a metallic feeling due to the weak diffuse reflection of light by the metallic material, and physical vapor deposition of metal forms a uniform mirror surface, so it feels natural after processing the metal. This is because it cannot be obtained.

Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is directed to a ring-shaped peripheral flat surface portion, which is made of a synthetic resin material, and which extends from the peripheral flat surface portion toward the central portion. In a wheel cover including a plurality of protrusions extending in parallel with each other and a recess surrounded by the peripheral flat surface portion and the protrusion, a rough surface shape is formed on each surface of the peripheral flat surface portion and the protrusions and recesses. And the surface of the sprayed metal layer provided on the peripheral flat surface and the upper surface of the protrusion was ground to form a glossy surface having a finer surface roughness than the sprayed metal layer on the surface of the recess.

(Function) That is, the sprayed metal layer in the recess is a unique rough surface having a surface roughness (undulation) like polishing cloth paper and a color and reflectance peculiar to metal. Therefore, when it is exposed to light, it is strongly diffused and slightly diffused. It has a whitish metallic color.

On the other hand, when the flat surface of the peripheral edge and the glossy surface of the ridge are exposed to light, they are strongly reflected at a constant reflection angle, and are also slightly diffused depending on the surface roughness different from the sprayed metal layer.

In addition, the rough surface of the sprayed metal layer in the recess and the glossy surfaces of the peripheral flat surface portion and the top surface of the ridge have a synergistic effect of emphasizing the contrasting appearances of each other and making them stand out.

(First Embodiment) Hereinafter, a first embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a wheel cover to be mounted on a disc wheel of an automobile is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
It will be described with reference to the drawing.

A central plane portion 2 is provided in the center of a wheel cover body 1 integrally molded of synthetic resin, and a shallow circular recess 2a is formed in the center thereof, and a wheel nut is provided on the circumference of the circular recess 2a. Five through holes 4 for insertion are formed. An annular peripheral flat surface portion 3 is formed on the peripheral edge portion of the wheel cover body 1, and eight projecting ridges 5 having a rectangular cross section are radially provided from the central flat surface portion 2 to the peripheral flat surface portion 3. . The upper surfaces of these ridges 5 are flush with the edges of the central flat surface portion 2 and the peripheral flat surface portion 3.

A recess 6 having a substantially triangular front shape is formed between the protrusions 5,
A slit 7 for heat dissipation is provided in the peripheral portion of the recess 6. Further, a fitting claw (not shown) for mounting the wheel cover body 1 on the disc wheel is provided on the back surface of the wheel cover body 1 so as to project therefrom.

As the synthetic resin material of the wheel cover body 1 having the above-described configuration, ABS resin, phenylene oxide resin, polyamide resin, polypropylene resin, and other various synthetic resins having good impact resistance can be adopted.

By the way, a base coat layer 11 is provided on the surface of the wheel cover body 1 to enhance the adhesion of a sprayed metal layer 12 described later. In this example, a urethane two-component coating material was used as the material of the base coat layer 11, and the compounding ratio (weight ratio) of the main agent / curing agent / thinner was set to 15: 1: 8-10. After spraying an appropriate amount of the same urethane-based two-component paint on the surface of the wheel cover body 1 and baking at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes, a base coat layer 11 having a layer thickness of 20 μm was obtained.

Subsequently, the surface of the base coat layer 11 is provided with a surface-roughened sprayed metal layer 12 formed by spraying a low melting point metal such as aluminum, zinc or tin. The sprayed metal layer 12 acts as a primer for the base coat layer 11. Therefore, it is firmly attached to the wheel cover body 1.

In this example, aluminum was used as the spraying metal and arc spraying was used as the spraying method. Specifically, an arc was generated at the tip of the wire-shaped aluminum, and aluminum melted by the arc heat was blown onto the surface of the base coat layer 11 of the wheel cover body 1 by compressed air to form the sprayed metal layer 12. The thermal sprayed metal layer 12 became a rough surface having undulations (surface roughness) almost equal to those of # 100 to # 200 sandpaper.

Further, in the sprayed metal layer 12, other than the circular recess 2a, the central flat surface portion 2, the peripheral flat surface portion 3 and the upper surface portion of the ridge 5 have their surfaces grindstone, abrasive cloth, loose abrasive grains, and other tools. The first glossy surface 13 is formed by the grinding method using. In this example, the first glossy surface 13 having a slightly rough surface and leaving a hairline was obtained by performing manual grinding with abrasive cloth.

Further, on the inner bottom surface of the circular recess 2a of the sprayed metal layer 12,
Second glossy surface obtained by grinding the surface by the above grinding method
14 are formed. In this example, the second glossy surface 14 having a fine surface roughness and a mirror surface was obtained by performing manual grinding by buffing.

Next, a transparent top coat layer 15 is provided on the surface of the sprayed metal layer 12 (including the first glossy surface 13 and the second glossy surface 14) to prevent the sprayed metal layer 12 from peeling off, dirt, rust and the like. Has been.
In this example, a urethane two-component clear coating material was used as the material of the top coat layer 15, and the compounding ratio (weight ratio) of the main agent / curing agent / thinner was 100: 7: 40. After spraying an appropriate amount of the same urethane-based two-component clear paint on the surface of the wheel cover body 1, baking it at 70 ° C for 60 minutes, the layer thickness
A colorless and transparent top coat layer 15 having a thickness of 30 μm was obtained.

According to the wheel cover configured as described above, the base coat layer 11 is strongly adhered to the wheel cover body 1, and the sprayed metal layer 12 is strongly adhered to the base coat layer 11.
Since the base coat layer 11 acts as a primer, the sprayed metal layer 12 adheres strongly to the wheel cover body 1,
Sprayed metal layer even if some impact is applied to the wheel cover
12 peeling is prevented.

Further, in the sprayed metal layer 12, the inner bottom surface of the recess 6 and the both side wall surfaces of the ridge 5 are unique in that they have the surface roughness (undulation) and the color and reflectance peculiar to the metal like the above-mentioned abrasive cloth paper. The surface is rough, and when it is exposed to light, it is strongly diffused as shown by the arrow on the right side of Fig. 1 and has a slightly whitish metallic color, giving a beautiful appearance with a rich metallic feel. To be

On the other hand, a first glossy surface 13 having a rough surface and a hairline remaining is formed on the upper surfaces of the central flat surface portion 2, the peripheral flat surface portion 3 and the ridges 5 other than the circular recess 2a. As shown by the arrow in the middle of Fig. 1, it strongly reflects at a constant reflection angle and also causes some diffuse reflection at the hairline, so it has a rich metallic luster and has a natural metallic appearance like a grounded disk wheel. Is obtained.

Further, a second glossy surface 14 having a fine surface roughness and close to a mirror surface is formed on the inner bottom surface of the circular recess 2a, and when the light hits this, a constant reflection angle is shown as indicated by an arrow on the left side of FIG. It strongly reflects and slightly diffuses, but the surface roughness is different from the first glossy surface 13 and it is close to a mirror surface, so the degree of irregular reflection is extremely small, and higher luminous efficiency can be obtained.

Further, the rough surface, the first glossy surface 13 and the second glossy surface 14 of the sprayed metal layer 12 adjacent to each other have a synergistic effect of emphasizing and contrasting the respective contrasting appearances described above. This combination of rough surface and two or more kinds of glossy surfaces by thermal spraying is the first attempt in the field of synthetic resin moldings (particularly wheel covers), and a beautiful appearance with a novel accent and rich feeling can be obtained. .

Moreover, since the first glossy surface 13 and the second glossy surface 14 are formed by grinding the sprayed metal layer 12, the processing is easy and no separate plating step or the like is required.

Here, since the top coat layer 15 is transparent, the sprayed metal layer 1
2. Do not block the above appearance by the first glossy surface 13 and the second glossy surface 14. In this specification, the term "transparent" is used to mean not only colorless and transparent, but also colored and translucent. If the top coat layer 15 is made colorless and transparent as in this embodiment, the color of the sprayed metal layer 12 and the like will appear outside as it is,
If it is colored and transparent, a mixed color of the color and the sprayed metal layer 12 and the like appears, so that various color tones can be obtained.

In addition, the top coat layer 15 is the sprayed metal layer 12 (first glossy surface 13
And the second glossy surface 14), and a thermally sprayed metal layer
Protect 12 from foreign matter and the atmosphere. Therefore, even if foreign matter such as stones hits the wheel cover, the sprayed metal layer 12 hardly peels off. In addition, mud or oil adheres to the sprayed metal layer 12 to prevent the sprayed metal layer 12 from rusting or corroding.

Second Example As shown in FIG. 3, the second example of the present invention is that the second glossy surface 14 is formed by a plating method such as an electroless plating method or a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method. This is different from the first embodiment.

That is, in this embodiment, the aluminum plating layer 16 is formed on the entire surface of the wheel cover body 1 by a sputtering method, which is one of the PVD methods, and the surface of the plating layer 16 formed in the circular recess 2a is mirror-like. Which constitutes the second glossy surface 14 of. Incidentally, for the portion other than the circular recessed portion 2a,
A structure similar to that of the first embodiment is provided on the plating layer 16.

Therefore, this embodiment also has the same effects as the first embodiment, and since the second glossy surface 14 has high glitter, the first glossy surface 13
The contrast with and becomes stronger, and a more innovative and accentuated appearance is obtained.

The present invention is not limited to the configurations of the above-described embodiments, but may be embodied by being arbitrarily modified within the scope of the gist of the invention as follows, for example.

(1) Change the metal material of the sprayed metal layer 12. In particular, a low melting point metal such as zinc, tin, or an alloy thereof can be easily changed and adopted. Also, it is not impossible to directly spray a metal having a high melting point such as copper, nickel, chromium or alloys thereof, stainless steel, etc.,
Since the wheel cover body 1 is easily burned by heat, it is desirable to spray the low melting point metal on top of it.

Furthermore, by using two or more kinds of metal materials of the sprayed metal layer 12,
You may spray it so that those different colors may adjoin.

(2) In addition to the arc spraying, various methods such as flame spraying, explosive spraying, plasma spraying, and line explosive spraying can be adopted as the spraying method.

(3) The surface roughness of the sprayed metal layer 12 is not particularly limited as long as it is rough.

(4) If the first glossy surface 13 and the second glossy surface 14 are both higher in glossiness than the rough surface of the sprayed metal layer 12 and have different surface roughness from each other, The degree is not limited. The surface roughness of the first glossy surface 13 may be finer than that of the second glossy surface 14.

(5) Two or more types of second glossy surface 14 with different surface roughness
May be provided.

(6) A colorless and transparent top coat layer may be provided, a colored and transparent top coat layer may be provided, or the colored and transparent color may be changed according to each part of the wheel cover.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the sense of metal wall thickness due to the rough-surfaced sprayed metal layer in the recess and the surface roughness of the peripheral flat surface portion and the top surface of the ridges as compared with the sprayed metal layer. Since the metallic luster of the fine glossy surface acts synergistically, it has an excellent effect that a beautiful metallic appearance with a novel accent and rich feeling can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of an essential part showing a first embodiment in which the present invention is embodied in a wheel cover, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the whole of the wheel cover, and FIG. FIG. 1 …… Wheel cover body, 11 …… Base coat layer, 12
...... Sprayed metal layer, 13 …… First glossy surface, 14 …… Second glossy surface, 15 …… Top coat layer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An annular peripheral flat surface portion (3) made of a synthetic resin material, a plurality of protrusions (5) extending from the peripheral peripheral surface portion (3) toward a central portion and connected to each other, and the peripheral edge. A wheel cover comprising a flat portion (3) and a recess (6) surrounded by a ridge (5), the peripheral flat portion (3) and each surface of the ridge (5) and the recess (6) A rough surface-formed sprayed metal layer (12) is provided on the upper surface, and the surface of the sprayed metal layer (12) provided on the upper surfaces of the peripheral flat surface portion (3) and the protrusions (5) is ground to form the recess. (6) Glossy surface (13) with a finer surface roughness than the surface sprayed metal layer (12)
And the wheel cover.