JPH10315396A - Interior trim for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate forced impregnating processes of thermoplastic resin, secure rigidity, and make lightweight by exposing a mat formed of thermoplastic fiber and glass fiber to hot air, thinning melted resin on the surface, and overlaying heated skin material backed with the thermoplastic resin on the surface for press molding. SOLUTION: Thermoplastic fiber P and glass fiber G, fed from feeders 20p and 20g respectively, are formed into mixed fiber web W on an accumulating belt 21 for obtaining a base 13 through needlings 30. Next, skin material 12 composed of a fiber layer 12a on the surface, and a thermoplastic resin backing 12b on the back is heated using a far-infrared ray heater 40, etc., from the backing side. The base 12 is also heated from the surface 13a to the back 13b through hot air to temperature higher than the melting point. The heating is carried out in a heating chamber 54 by blowing heated air from a heater 52 through a fan on a conveyer belt 51. At this time, the surface 13a becomes thin composition of thermoplastic resin, and the back 13b becomes dense composition. The backing 12b of the skin material 12 is overlaid on the surface 13a for pressing between pressing molds 60.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interior material to be laid in the interior of an automobile, and more particularly to a material having a rigid base material and a decorative skin material adhered to one surface of the base material.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a decorative interior material is laid in a vehicle interior so as to cover a body panel. Many of these types of interior materials are formed according to the panel at the laying position. A ceiling interior material or the like to be laid on a ceiling panel requires a self-shape retention property from its laying mode, and has a rigid base material and a decorative skin material attached to at least one surface of the base material. . It is advantageous to use a stamping sheet of a thermoplastic resin containing glass fibers as a raw material for the rigid substrate. The dimensional stability and rigidity are improved by the glass fiber, and the thermoplastic resin develops plasticity when heated, and can be formed into a desired shape. As the skin material, a flexible material, a nonwoven fabric, a woven fabric, a knitted fabric, or the like that can follow the molded shape of the base material is selected. The attachment of the base material to the skin material is preferably performed with a low melting point thermoplastic resin film interposed therebetween.

[0003] Patent Registration No. 255709 discloses that "a molding material comprising a composite material is obtained by impregnating a fiber reinforcing material with a resin having a viscosity of 4000 poise or more using a pressure belt type pressure impregnation molding apparatus. Manufacturing method ".
This is because, in this type of stamping molding material, the thermoplastic resin is not uniformly impregnated and distributed in the thickness direction of the fiber reinforcement, and causes unevenness in the strength of the stamping molding material due to impregnation unevenness in a state of being separated into layers. This is an invention that tried to eliminate the problem. .

[0004]

The present invention seeks to further improve the step of impregnating a fiber reinforcing material with a thermoplastic resin as disclosed in the above patents and the like.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a gas permeable mat formed of thermoplastic fibers and glass fibers, wherein the thermoplastic fibers are melted from the front side to the back side. Hot air at a temperature high enough to make the molten resin of the thermoplastic fibers sparse on the front side of the mat and densely distributed on the back side of the mat. The skin material provided with a plastic resin backing is heated and the backing is plasticized, and then overlaid, and both are press-molded, whereby the plasticized backing of the skin material becomes less sparse in the resin of the base material. Car interior material that is made into the surface of the car, and the base material and the skin material are molded and laminated at the same time. The mixed fiber mat of thermoplastic fiber and glass fiber is a gas-permeable structure with many voids. Hot air above the melting point of the thermoplastic fiber is passed from the front side to the back side, and the thermoplastic resin (fiber) Is melted and softened, and the molten resin (fibers) is attracted to the back side of the mat densely by the suction force of the hot air to make the front surface sparse. A matte thermoplastic resin lined surface is coated with a thermoplastic resin-lined surface on the sparse surface of the mat, heated and plasticized, and layered. Stick to the material. The thermoplastic resin backing of the skin material enters the sparse surface of the matte thermoplastic resin and is solidified, so that the skin material is firmly adhered to the base material. The mat as the base material has a dense melt of fibrous thermoplastic resin near the back side,
Since the middle part is a low-density area mainly composed of glass fiber, the mat with a backing has a high density on the front and back sides and a sandwich panel structure with a sparse middle layer, which is advantageous for securing rigidity and reducing weight. I do.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a process for obtaining an automobile interior material of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a fiber mat during each process. Step (a): The thermoplastic fiber P and the glass fiber G are supplied onto the collecting belt 21 from the respective supply devices 20p and 20g to form a mixed fiber web W (300 to 3000 g / m ^{2 in} weight) (dispersion of fibers). In order to improve the performance, a plurality of supply devices are provided). Preferred as the thermoplastic fibers P are polypropylene fibers (melting point: 165 ° C.), high-density polyethylene fibers (melting point: 135 ° C.), and the like. A fiber diameter of 1.5 to 50 denier and a fiber length of 10 to 120 mm are suitable. The ratio of the thermoplastic fiber P to the glass fiber G is 80: 2 by weight fraction.
A range between 0 and 30:70 is suitable. Fiber web W formed
Is sent to the needling device 30 and is thrust.
Needling is preferably performed from both the front side and the back side. The thickness of the fiber mat after needling is 3
-30 mm, a density of 0.02-0.5 g / m ³ , and an air permeability of 0.3 cc / cm ² / sec or more. As a result, the mixed fiber mat 13 in which the thermoplastic fiber and the glass fiber as shown in the cross section in FIG.
Can be obtained. It is wound on a roll R and sent to the next step.

Step (b): The skin material 12 and the base material 13 (mixed fiber mat) are heated respectively. The skin material 12 comprises a fiber layer 12a on the front surface and a thermoplastic resin backing 1 on the back surface of the fiber layer.
2b. Examples of the fiber layer include a tufted carpet and a needle punched carpet (nonwoven fabric) made of polyester, polypropylene, nylon fiber, and the like. Examples of the backing thermoplastic resin include a low-density polyethylene resin, a polypropylene random copolymer, a high-density polyethylene resin, a linear low-density polyethylene resin, and a polyethylene resin using a metallocene catalyst. As a backing method, it is preferable that a thermoplastic resin sheet extruded by a sheet extruder is pressure-bonded to the back surface of the skin material. The basis weight of the lining is 20
0~400g / m ² there is preferred. Heating of the skin material is performed by a far-infrared heater 40 or the like from the side on which the backing is applied. The degree of heating is such that the backing temperature is higher than the melting point of the backing resin by about 30 ° C., and the heater temperature and the heating time are adjusted so that excessive heating is not performed on the fiber layer side. The heating of the base material 13 (mixed fiber mat) is performed by passing hot air from the front surface side to the back surface side of the base material.
It is suitable to use a suction heater 50 as shown. A heating belt 54 is provided with a mesh-like carrying belt 51,
The mixed fiber mat is heated with hot air while being fed onto the belt. The air heated by the heater 52 is sent into the heating chamber by the fan 53. The temperature of the hot air is preferably about 30 ° C. higher than the melting point of the thermoplastic fibers in the fiber mat. Heating time is 3
0 to 60 seconds. In this hot air treatment, the thermoplastic fibers in the mat are melted, and the melted thermoplastic fibers are drawn by hot air and move from the front side to the back side of the mat. result,
As shown in FIG. 2B, the front side 13a of the mat has a sparse composition of thermoplastic resin. On the other hand, on the back side 13b of the mat, the thermoplastic resin has a dense composition.

Step (c): The heated skin material 12 and the base material 13 are overlaid, and placed between the press molds 60 while the thermoplastic resin component contained in each of them keeps plasticity. At the same time, both are laminated and integrated. The molded shape is fixed by the solidification of the thermoplastic resin contained in the skin material and the base material.
Get 1. At this time, by adjusting the pressing pressure, the backing 12b on the side of the skin material in the plasticized state is moved to the position shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), the thermoplastic resin of the base material can enter the sparse surface side 13a. Thereby, the base material and the skin material can be laminated and integrated without using an adhesive.
In the obtained automobile interior material, the thermoplastic resin is densely located on the front side and the back side of the base material, and the middle 13c thereof has a low-density sandwich structure, which is a lightweight and rigid interior material.

[0009]

FIG. 3 shows an electron micrograph of a cross section of the interior material of the embodiment. It can be seen that the thermoplastic resin is densely present on the skin material side (upper side in the figure) and on the back side of the base material (lower side in the figure), and is sparse between them. This example interior material is
Obtained under the following conditions. Skin material: needle-punched carpet with low density polyethylene resin lined on the back (basis weight 400 g /
m ² ). Mat: polypropylene resin fiber and glass fiber (diameter 1
To 10 μm) at a weight ratio of 40:60, and formed by needling (weight per unit area: 1100 g / m ² ). Manufacturing condition: The heating condition of the skin material is performed from the side with the backing by the far-infrared heater, and the temperature of the backing material is 140 to
The temperature was adjusted to 150 ° C. On the other hand, substrate (mat)
The side was heated by a suction heater by sending hot air at 180 to 200 ° C. from the front side to the back side of the substrate for 60 seconds. While the thermoplastic resin component contained in the skin material and the base material was in a plastic state, both were overlapped and pressed into a flat plate shape.

[0010]

According to the present invention, it is possible to omit the step of impregnating a conventional stampable sheet with a general thermoplastic resin into a glass mat by impregnating the conventional stampable sheet, and to obtain an automobile interior material with a skin material at a stretch.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a process for obtaining an automobile interior material according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a change in cross-sectional structure of a mat during a process.

FIG. 3 shows a change in the cross-sectional structure of the interior material of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Car interior material 12 ... Skin material 12a ... Fiber layer 12b ... Backing 13 ... Mixed fiber mat (base material) 13a ... Front side 13b ... Back side 13c ...・ Intermediate 30 ・ ・ ・ Needling device 40 ・ ・ ・ Far-red heater 50 ・ ・ ・ Suction heater 60 ・ ・ ・ Press mold W ・ ・ ・ Mixed web P ・ ・ ・ Thermoplastic fiber G ・ ・ ・ Glass fiber R ···roll

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A hot air at a temperature high enough to melt the thermoplastic fibers from the front side to the back side is passed through the air-permeable mat formed by the thermoplastic fibers and the glass fibers, The molten resin is sparse on the front side of the mat, and the base material is densely distributed on the back side of the mat, and the skin material with the thermoplastic resin lining on the back surface of this base material is heated. After plasticizing the backing, the two layers are press-molded to allow the plasticized backing of the skin material to enter the resin-sparse surface of the base material,
An interior material for automobiles, wherein a base material and a skin material are simultaneously formed, laminated and integrated.