JPH09193733A - Manufacture of airbag cover - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form a design pattern free from the scatter of broken pieces upon the occurrence of a cleavage, easily and to arbitrary design by forming the design pattern by irradiation of a laser beam to the surface of a molding. SOLUTION: A resin material 10 is molded into a desired shape, depending on the form of an airbag device as an attaching object, and formed into a molding. Then, laser beams 3 are applied to the surface of the compact for forming a design pattern 14. An airbag cover 1 is thereby provided. In this case, the resin material 10 to form the airbag cover 1 is discolored, due to the irradiation of the laser beams 3. When the irradiation locus of the laser beams 3 is controlled, therefore, a design pattern 13 can be easily formed on the surface of the airbag cover 1. The design pattern 13 is formed via the discoloration of the resin material 10 itself. Thus, broken pieces do not scatter, upon the cleavage of the airbag cover 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an airbag cover having a design pattern.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an airbag device has been installed in a driver's seat, a passenger's seat, etc. of an automobile, etc., and its exterior portion is covered with an airbag cover. The airbag cover is
It is cleaved by the operation of the airbag device. Then, the airbag deploys from the opened portion of the airbag cover. When the airbag cover is torn, it is more important for safety that fragments of the airbag cover do not scatter around.

By the way, since the above-mentioned airbag cover is installed in a portion which is visible to the human eye, it is required to have a design property. On the other hand, a design pattern in a general design product is usually composed of a coating film formed by a means such as a separate ornament or masking coating or screen printing.

However, when a design pattern is formed on the airbag cover by a separate ornament or coating, the separate ornament or coating is broken at the time of the cleavage, and the fragments are scattered around. May occur. For this reason, conventionally, a design pattern is rarely applied to the airbag cover, and it is necessary to strengthen the attachment of the separate ornament with metal fittings or paint the entire surface of the airbag cover while paying attention to the adhesion with the paint. Was customary.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved] However, although the method of attaching the separate ornament by strengthening it with the metal fitting as described above is excellent in designability, it is economically expensive.
Also, the appearance obtained by painting the entire surface is a single color,
The design was poor and the degree of freedom in design was low. Further, in order to prevent the coating film from scattering, it may be considered to improve the adhesion between the coating film and the substrate. However, this method is technically difficult and may be economically expensive.

In view of the above problems, the present invention intends to provide a method of manufacturing an airbag cover, which can easily and easily form a design pattern in which fragments are not scattered at the time of tearing into an arbitrary design. It is a thing.

[0007]

The present invention provides a resin material for an airbag cover, which contains a coloring material having a property of coloring by laser irradiation, and molds the resin material into a desired shape to obtain a molded product. Next, there is provided a method for manufacturing an airbag cover, characterized in that a design pattern is formed by irradiating the surface of the molded product with a laser.

The operation of the present invention will be described below. In the present invention, by irradiating a portion where a design pattern is desired to be formed with a laser, the resin material in that portion is discolored. Therefore, by controlling the locus of laser irradiation, a design pattern can be formed extremely easily on the surface of the airbag cover. The design pattern obtained by the present invention is formed by discoloring the resin material. Therefore, when the airbag cover is torn, the debris of the design pattern does not scatter.

Further, according to the present invention, the design pattern can be changed by appropriately changing the locus of laser irradiation. That is, it is possible to deal with a wide variety of arbitrary design patterns by changing the software of the laser irradiation control device. Therefore, the degree of freedom in design is high, and a design pattern of an arbitrary design can be formed at low cost. The coloring material may be contained in at least the surface portion of the molded product. Further, the design pattern includes characters, figures, symbols, color patterns and the like.

Next, as the coloring material, it is preferable to use at least one of a dye, a pigment, and an additive foamable by laser. By using the above substances, it is possible to obtain the effect that the color development is changed by the chemical change of the coloring material by the laser, or the surface ridge caused by the foaming of the foaming additive causes diffuse reflection of light and the color is changed. .

Next, as the resin material, it is preferable to use either an olefin-based or styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer. By using the above substances, the tearing performance of the airbag cover can be satisfied.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiment Example A method of manufacturing an airbag cover and an obtained airbag cover according to an embodiment example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. First, as shown in FIG.
The resin material 10 for the airbag cover 1 including the color-developing material 12 having a property of being colored by the irradiation of is prepared.

Next, the resin material 10 is molded into a desired shape in accordance with the shape of the airbag device to be mounted, to obtain a molded product (see FIG. 2). Next, the surface of the molded product is irradiated with the laser 3 to form a design pattern 14. As described above, the airbag cover 1 according to this example is obtained.

The resin material 10 is made of an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer containing a coloring material 12 made of a pigment. Its thickness is 2.5 mm. Further, the coloring material 12 is heated by an extruder at a cylinder temperature of 180 ° C to
It is contained in the resin base material 10 by kneading at 220 ° C. An injection molding machine is used to mold the resin material 10 into the desired shape (FIG. 2) as described above.

Irradiation of the laser 3 is carried out under the conditions of a line pitch of 7 μm, a line width of 4 μm and a speed of 200 mm / sec using SL475E manufactured by NEC as a laser marker. Due to the above, the discolored portion 1 is attached to the airbag cover 1.
30 are formed. The discolored portion 130 becomes the design pattern 13 of the airbag cover (FIGS. 1 and 2).

As shown in FIG. 2, the airbag cover 1 of this embodiment is attached to an airbag device installed in a driver's seat of an automobile. The airbag device is housed in the handle 2, and the airbag cover 1 is provided on the inner peripheral portion of the handle 2. A folded airbag 20 is housed inside the airbag cover 1. The airbag 20 is connected to a gas generator (not shown).

Further, the airbag cover 1 is provided with a cleavage portion 14 which is partially thin. The surface of the airbag cover 1 is provided with the three design patterns 13 formed by the irradiation of the laser 3 as described above.

Next, the operation and effect of this embodiment will be described. In this example, the resin material 10 forming the airbag cover 1 is discolored by the irradiation of the laser 3. Therefore, by controlling the trajectory of the irradiation of the laser 3, the design pattern 13 can be easily formed on the surface of the airbag cover 1.

The design pattern 13 described above is formed by discoloring the resin material 10 itself. Therefore, no fragments are scattered when the airbag cover 1 is torn. The resin material 10 itself is made of a material that does not easily scatter into small pieces.

Furthermore, according to this example, the design pattern 13 can be changed by appropriately changing the locus of irradiation of the laser 3. That is, a wide variety of arbitrary design patterns can be dealt with by changing the software of the laser 3 irradiation control device. Therefore, the degree of freedom in design is high, and a design pattern of an arbitrary design can be formed at low cost.

The air bag device provided with the air bag cover 1 of the present embodiment is operated at a low temperature (-35.degree. C.) and a normal temperature (23.degree.
C.) and a high temperature (85.degree. C.) temperature atmosphere. As a result, in any case, the airbag cover 1
The cleaving portion 14 was cleaved, and the inside airbag 20 was deployed from the cleaved part. Then, in the portion of the design pattern 13, no scattering of fragments occurred.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a method of manufacturing an airbag cover, which can easily form a design pattern in which fragments are not scattered at the time of tearing and can have an arbitrary design. You can

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of an airbag cover according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of mounting the airbag cover in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1. . . Airbag cover, 10. . . Resin material, 12. . . Coloring material, 13. . . Design pattern,

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Nao Yamamoto 1 Ochiai, Nagahata, Kasuga-cho, Nishikasugai-gun, Aichi Toyota Gosei Co., Ltd. Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A resin material for an airbag cover, which comprises a color-forming material having a property of being colored by laser irradiation, is prepared, and the resin material is molded into a desired shape to form a molded article. A method of manufacturing an airbag cover, which comprises irradiating a laser on the surface of the airbag to form a design pattern. 2. The method for manufacturing an airbag cover according to claim 1, wherein the coloring material is one or more of a dye, a pigment, and an additive foamed by laser. 3. The method for manufacturing an airbag cover according to claim 1, wherein the resin material is either an olefin-based or styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer.