JPH11156978A - Interior material for vehicle and recycling method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an interior material for a vehicle and a recycling method thereof which enable maintenance of the same product characteristics as initial ones even when waste or scrap materials brought about in processes of production are used as raw materials, by using a constitution excellent in recycling properties. SOLUTION: In an interior material for a vehicle wherein a skin 4 is made integral with a foamed molded base 5 by a method wherein a sheet base not yet foamed is foamed by heating and molded with the skin under pressure, the skin is constituted of tricot 5 for mounting and a nonwoven sheet 6 stuck on the back of the tricot, and the nonwoven sheet is constituted of the one having a mass weight of 100-250 g/m<2> .

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular interior material, particularly a vehicular interior material obtained by integrating a skin tricot with a foamed base material, and a recycling method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art From the viewpoint of environmental conservation and effective use of resources,
As for interior materials for vehicles, research on recycling has progressed, and cut end materials such as trunks and door trims and a part of resin molded bodies that have become waste materials have been reused. In the recycling of vehicle interior materials, in particular, it is fundamental to separate the resin base material from other materials such as the skin, and if completely separated, recycling can be easily realized. This separation technique separates each material after finely pulverizing offcuts and waste materials. In a dry method, a wind separator is generally used. The separation performance of this wind separator is based on the material of the skin,
At this stage, 100% complete separation is impossible at this stage, depending on the degree of pulverization, uniformity of particle size, wind power control and the like.

[0003]

Such a limitation on the separation performance or efficiency is one of the vehicle interior materials shown in FIG.
When a tricot is used as the skin 32 on the foam-formed base material 31 as in the conventional formed ceiling material 30 shown in (b), the following problem appears. The outer skin 32 is a knitted tricot 33 for covering and a urethane foam 34.
And a non-woven fabric 35. Tricot 33 is brushed and has a basis weight of 130 to 1
40 g / m ² . The urethane foam 34 is used for shape retention and cushioning, and is a backing material having a density of 0.02 to 0.03 g / cc and a thickness of 1 to 3 mm. The nonwoven fabric 35 is a barrier material for preventing the base material from seeping out during the pressure molding of the foam molded base material 31, and usually has a basis weight of 30 to 60 g / m ² .

[0004] When the above-mentioned scrap material or waste material of the molded ceiling material 30 is pulverized and the pulverized material is separated by a wind separator, the fibers of the non-woven fabric 35 and the urethane foam 34 tend to float lightly. Thus, fibers of the crushed non-woven fabric 35 and a container of the urethane foam 34 enter the crushed material side of the foam molding base material 31 and are mixed therein.
For this reason, after the pulverized material of the foam-molded base material 31 is formed into a non-foamed sheet base material as a raw material, when the raw blank is heated and foamed, a small amount of fibers of the mixed nonwoven fabric 35 form a lump to form a foam. Not only appears on the substrate surface,
Due to the presence of a small amount of urethane foam 34, unfoamed or low-density portions are locally formed, and the physical properties are extremely deteriorated. Due to such circumstances, at present, scraps of the molded ceiling material 30 generated in the production process are exclusively incinerated.

As a countermeasure for the above, it is considered that the foaming substrate 31 and the shell 32 (urethane foam 34, nonwoven fabric 35) are more completely separated by a wet separation method and a water flow separation method. However, it is not realistic due to cost and additional equipment. In addition, this type of molded ceiling material 30 is about 25% (20% foam molding base material, 5% skin) with respect to the raw blank, even if the scrap material generated in the production process is limited.
This has occurred, and if the foamed molding substrate 31 alone can be completely restored, the cost can be considerably reduced.

The present inventors have studied the interior materials for vehicles, particularly those obtained by integrating a skin tricot with a foamed base material in view of the above-mentioned background, and have studied at least a complete reuse of the foamed base material. As a result, the present invention has been completed. An object of the present invention is to improve the structure of a conventional skin tricot to make the structure excellent in recyclability. In addition, even when scrap materials and waste materials generated in the production process are used as raw materials, a dual-purpose interior material capable of maintaining the same product characteristics as at the beginning and a recycling method thereof are realized, thereby contributing to effective use of resources. Other objects will be clarified sequentially in the contents described below.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention relates to a method of forming an unfoamed sheet base material by heating and foaming the unformed sheet base material and press-molding the same with a skin. In the interior material for a vehicle, the skin is
It comprises a tricot for surface mounting and a nonwoven fabric adhered to the back surface of the tricot, and the nonwoven fabric has a basis weight of 100 to 250 g / m ² .
In the present invention, a molded ceiling material is exemplified as the interior material. According to the present invention, by using the above skin structure, of the interior material, 100% of the end material and the waste material of the foam molding base material can be converted into the original interior material (molded ceiling material) without deteriorating the quality by the following recycling method. % Reusable.

According to the recycling method of the present invention, a cut off end material for a vehicle interior material in which an unfoamed sheet base material is heated and foamed and pressure-formed together with a skin to integrate the skin with the foamed base material. Or in the method of recycling waste materials,
The skin is composed of a tricot for dressing and a nonwoven fabric having a basis weight of 100 to 250 g / m ² attached to the back surface of the tricot, and crushing the offcuts or waste material, and crushing the crushed material. While the foam molded substrate and the skin were separated by a separator, the pulverized material of the foam molded substrate was mixed as a part of the raw material for the unfoamed sheet substrate, and molded into the unfoamed sheet substrate. Thereafter, the raw blank of the unfoamed sheet base is heated and foamed, and is pressure-formed together with the skin to be reused as the interior material.

The present invention is directed to an interior material for a vehicle in which a skin tricot (tricot + backing material) is integrated with a foam-molded base material, and the structure of the skin backing material is improved to be produced on a production line. The cut off material and waste material are pulverized by a pulverizer, and the pulverized material is separated into a foamed base material and a skin by a wind separator or the like. It can be reused as interior material. That is, since the foamed molding base material is subjected to heat foaming and pressure molding, the light urethane foam and the nonwoven fabric mixed into the pulverized material of the foamed molding substrate when selected by the separator are also subjected to the pressure molding. Although it has the property of being easily buried in the wall thickness sometimes, it has the above-mentioned problem when the sorted and pulverized material of the foamed base material is melted and returned. Therefore, the first improvement is that the use of urethane foam in the conventional skin structure is abolished, and the nonwoven fabric is lined with a tricot via an adhesive. In this case, the nonwoven fabric is a substitute for urethane foam and also serves as a conventional nonwoven fabric as a barrier material. Therefore, the nonwoven fabric used is completely different from that of the conventional barrier, and has a basis weight of at least 100 g / m ² or more. is there. The second improvement is that the selected and pulverized material of the foam molding base material is not used alone, but is mixed with a pure raw material of an unfoamed sheet base material as a part thereof, thereby satisfying the quality characteristics such as bending strength and heat sagging. In addition, at the same time, it is possible to eliminate irregularities which are easily generated on the surface of the foamed molding base material due to the presence of a small amount of fibers, so that appearance characteristics can be eliminated.

In the constitution of the present invention, the tricot is previously backed with the above-mentioned nonwoven fabric via an adhesive. The adhesive is a film or powder, and a thermoplastic is more preferable in terms of moldability and the like. The nonwoven fabric used has different shape retention, buffering and barrier functions depending on the basis weight.
Those 250 g / m ^2, more preferably from basis weight 100 sufficiently function as a substitute for urethane foam and non-woven fabric is conventional backing material as long as the 200 g / m ^2, about the same degree in terms of such a surface texture from can get.

The method for recycling the interior material of the present invention includes:
It is preferable that the separated pulverized foamed base material is mixed with the raw material for the unfoamed sheet base at a compounding ratio of 29% by weight or less. This is because, when mixed with a raw material for an unfoamed sheet substrate at a compounding ratio of 29% by weight or more, it is difficult to maintain the flatness of the foam molded substrate surface after heat foaming together with the product performance such as bending strength. . Further, the blending ratio is not limited to the lower limit as long as it is 29% by weight or less in terms of performance, but is generally preferably in the range of 15% to 29% by weight for cost reduction and the like. Further, as described above, in the case of the molded ceiling material, as described above, the offcuts generated in the production process are of a normal specification, and about 25% of the raw blank is generated. %, But exceeds that value (29% or less of the blending ratio).
In other words, the recycling method of the present invention can be used as a part of the raw materials by returning all of the foam molding base materials among the end materials generated in the production process to the initial production line and reusing them as the original interior materials The point is that this method makes it possible to recycle the same interior material many times,
Because it is reused for the same interior material, it is characterized by its excellent handleability and processability, and is extremely useful.

The unfoamed sheet base material of the present invention is a raw material that becomes a foamed base material by heating and foaming. However, it is not limited to a literally completely unfoamed sheet base material. In a process or the like, even a sheet substrate initially foamed slightly, that is, up to about 20% is naturally included.

[0013]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1A shows a material structure of a molded ceiling material which is an interior material of the present invention. The molded ceiling material 1 is obtained by heat-foaming an unfoamed sheet substrate as described later, and immediately thereafter, press-molding the same with the skin, thereby integrating the skin 4 with the foam-formed substrate 3. Among these, the foam molding base material 3 is a raw material configuration of a thermoplastic polypropylene resin, glass fiber, and a foaming agent. The skin 4 is obtained by attaching a predetermined nonwoven fabric 6 to a brushed tricot 5 for surface mounting. The brushed tricot 5 has a basis weight of about 1 as before.
40 g / m ² . The nonwoven fabric 6 has a basis weight of about 200 g / m ^{2 which} is completely different from the conventional nonwoven fabric, and a thickness of about 1.5 g / m ^2.
mm. Next, the production of the molded ceiling material 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a process of forming the unfoamed sheet base material used for the formed ceiling material 1 until the unfoamed sheet base material is formed by using the scraps generated from the production line of the formed ceiling 1. Are schematically shown together with the above. In the following description,
Because the material composition is different between genuine products and recycled products,
In the case of genuine products, an A symbol is added after the number, and in the case of recycled products, a B code is added after the number to distinguish them as necessary. Here, the target molded ceiling materials 1A, 1B
And the end materials thereof are foamed base materials 3A, which are obtained by heating and foaming the unfoamed sheet base materials 2A and 2B in the steps shown in FIGS.
3B is obtained by pressure molding the skin 4 and integrating it. The genuine product of the unfoamed sheet base material 2A has a material composition of a thermoplastic polypropylene resin having excellent heat resistance, glass fiber as a reinforcing material, and a foaming agent. The skin 3 has the above-described configuration.

The genuine unfoamed sheet base material 2A is formed by a known sheet forming machine, that is, a pure (virgin) mixture of a polypropylene resin, glass fiber and a foaming agent as schematically shown in FIG. The raw material is melted, extruded from a T-die 10 of an extruder, and taken up by a winder 12 via a take-up machine 11. In the case of the unfoamed sheet base material 2B regenerated by using the scrap C shown in FIG. 4B, among the pulverized materials of the scrap C, the foam-molded base material 3A selected by the separator 14 described below. Alternatively, the pulverized material of 3B and the pure raw material are preliminarily mixed and then melted, and are similarly extruded from the T-die 10 to remove the material.
It is created by winding on the winder 12 through the first winding device 1. The unfoamed sheet base material 2A or 2B wound up by the winder 12 is transferred to a cutting machine via an earning device (not shown), and the unfoamed sheet base material 2A or 2B corresponding to the molded ceiling material 1 as a product. It is cut into large blank blanks 20.

Here, the crushed material of the offcuts C is sorted out as follows. The end materials C of the molded ceiling materials 1A and 1B are collected in a trimming process (see FIG. 4B) at the time of manufacture, and are collected by a belt conveyor or the like into the crusher 13 of FIG. After the mixture is finely and uniformly pulverized to a predetermined particle size, the pulverized material of the foam molding base material 3A or 3B and the pulverized material of the skin 4 are separated by the separator. In addition, in the case of the molded ceiling material 1 made of a waste material, it is needless to say that it is roughly cut by a cutter before being put into the crusher 13 and then put into the crusher 13. In some cases, the crusher 13 may be gradually made finer through the first and second crushers. The pulverizer 13 is for finely pulverizing the foamed base materials 3A and 3B and the skin 4 so that they can be separated, and is usually pulverized to about 5 mm. As the separator 14, a wind separator having a simple and excellent separation efficiency is used. The crushed material is thrown in from the upper part, the light crushed material of the skin 4 is raised by an air flow, and the crushed material is moved from the upper duct to the upper reservoir 14a. The pulverized material of the heavy foamed base materials 3A and 3B is dropped to the lower part and separated and collected in the lower reservoir 14b. Such a separator 14 may be any of an inclined type, a horizontal type, a vertical type and the like.

Also, the cut blank blank 20
Is formed through the respective steps of FIG. 3 and FIG.
A, 1B. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 schematically show the respective molding steps, which will be described below with reference to FIG. The blank blank 20 has a thickness of about 0.8 to 0.9.
mm, and heated by the heating means 15 with the heater 15a as shown in FIG. In this heating step, the raw blank 20 is heated to a surface temperature of about 220 to 230 degrees, and FIG.
As shown in (b), the foam is heated and foamed (the foam is foamed about 5 times in thickness in this embodiment). Reference numeral 17 denotes this foamed foam 2 that has been heated and foamed.
1 is a member such as a nonwoven fabric which prevents deformation by its own weight. After the heat foaming, the raw foam 21 is immediately pressure-formed by the metal mold 18 shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C.

The metal mold 18 is a general press molding machine, in which an upper mold 18a is set with a skin 4 blank-cut on the molding surface side.
And the skin 4 is integrated at the same time. By this pressure molding, the foam molding base material 3A or 3B
Are formed in a predetermined ceiling shape, and the skin 4 is adhered integrally. After being cooled to a predetermined temperature, the foam molded base material 3A or 3B with the skin 4 is transferred to a trimming process.

In this trimming step, as shown in FIG. 4A, a trim mold 19 is used, and the foam molding base material 3A or 3B with the skin 4 is positioned on the lower mold 19b. The upper mold 19a has a cutting blade 19c, and is lowered onto the lower mold 19b, whereby the foam molding base material 3 with the skin 4 is formed.
A or 3B is trimmed via the cutting blade 19c.
By passing through this trimming step, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the unneeded part C, which is an unnecessary part, is cut to form a molded ceiling material 1A or 1B having a product shape. In the molded ceiling material 1B of the recycled product, as shown in the enlarged portion of FIG.
Of the tricot 5 and the nonwoven fabric 6 are mixed in the thickness of the non-woven fabric 6. This lump 4c is 0.5 to 1 mm larger, and it can be seen that it is a fiber of the epidermis 4 even to the naked eye.

[0020]

EXAMPLES The usefulness of the method of the present invention will be described below with reference to examples. This embodiment is based on the molding method of the above embodiment, and is based on the case where the unfoamed sheet base 2A described in paragraph 0015 is pure (virgin) and the case where the unfoamed sheet base 2B
The surface condition of the molded ceiling material 1A or 1B in the state where the pulverized material of the foam molding base material 3A of the end material C was changed with respect to the pure (virgin) raw material, and the product physical property test were performed. It is a thing of the time. Of these, Table 1 lists the conditions and results of examining the surface condition.

In Table 1, the column of type shows the virgin product in which the unfoamed sheet base material 2A is formed by foaming the base material 3A using pure raw materials (polypropylene resin, glass fiber, foaming agent). . Separated skin product is unfoamed sheet substrate 2B
Is a mixture of pure raw materials (polypropylene resin, glass fiber, and foaming agent) and a pulverized material of the foam molding base material 3A, and the mixing ratio (% by weight) is a mixing ratio of the recycle pulverized material to the pure raw material. The unit of the foam thickness is mm,
The expansion ratio is the thickness of the foamed base material / the thickness of the unfoamed sheet base material.

[0022]

[Table 1]

When the method of the present invention is adopted, as shown in Table 1,
When the blending ratio is less than 30% by weight among the separated epidermis products, the flatness can be maintained at substantially the same level as that of the virgin product. However, in this case, if the blending ratio is 30% by weight or more, the unevenness of the surface of the foam molding base material 3B becomes large, and due to this, streaks and the like are generated on the surface of the skin 4, and the quality tends to be poor. . In addition, as a result of measuring the basic physical properties of the separated epidermis product at a blending ratio of 20% by weight, it was confirmed that the basic physical properties were almost the same as those of the virgin product, and there was no problem in physical properties. And, under the condition that the compounding ratio is 20% by weight,
The decrease in physical properties due to the number of recyclings (all of the blending ratios were 20% by weight) was examined. Even if the results show that the method of the present invention was applied, there was almost no reduction in physical properties due to the number of recyclings, and even if the product was recycled four times, It was also confirmed that the virgin product was maintained at about the same level.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the skin tricot structure of the interior material is improved, and the improvement itself can be easily carried out. By adopting this, at least the foam molding base material of the offcuts or waste material generated in the production process is returned to the initial production line and utilized as a part of the raw material, and is reused as the original interior material. Since it can be used and recycled into the same interior material, it has excellent handling and processing properties,
Recycling offcuts or waste can contribute to cost savings as well as environmental conservation and effective use of resources.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an interior material configuration of the present invention together with a conventional configuration.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an example of steps of forming a non-foamed sheet base material using offcuts generated from a production line of a formed ceiling material in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a molding process from the blank of the unfoamed sheet substrate molded in FIG. 2 to pressure molding.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a molding process from trimming the molded product in FIG. 3 to a molded ceiling material.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1A and 1B are molded ceiling materials (interior materials) 2A and 2B are unfoamed sheet substrates 3A and 3B are foam molded substrates 4 is a skin 5 is a brushed tricot 6 is a nonwoven fabric 20 is a raw blank 21 is a raw foam C is scrap material

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification symbol FI B60R 13/02 B60R 13/02 Z // B29K 105: 04 105: 26 B29L 9:00 31:58

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An interior material for a vehicle in which an unfoamed sheet base material is heated and foamed and pressure-formed together with a skin to integrate the skin with the foamed base material, wherein the skin is a tricot for dressing. And a nonwoven fabric adhered to the back surface of the tricot, wherein the nonwoven fabric has a basis weight of 100 to 250 g / m ² . 2. The interior material is a molded ceiling material.
The vehicle interior material described. 3. A method for recycling a cut off end material or a waste material of an interior material for a vehicle in which an unfoamed sheet base material is heated and foamed and pressure-formed together with a skin to integrate the skin with the foamed base material. In the above, the outer skin is composed of a tricot for dressing and a nonwoven fabric having a basis weight of 100 to 250 g / m ² adhered to the back surface of the tricot, and crushing the scraps or waste materials, Is separated into the foam molded base material and the skin by a separator, the pulverized material of the foam molded base material is mixed as a part of the raw material for the unfoamed sheet base material, and the unfoamed sheet base material is A method of recycling an interior material for a vehicle, comprising: after molding, heat-foaming the unfoamed sheet base material blank, and press-molding with the skin to make it reusable as the interior material.