Sandwich-type, composite component having an injection molded backside protective covering

Abstract

A sandwich-type, composite component having an injection molded backside protective covering including 3-D structures which provide at least one pattern at an outer surface of the component is provided. The component includes a first outer layer having an outer surface, a second outer layer and a core bonded to and positioned between the outer layers and having a plurality of cavities. The covering is integrally formed from at least one elastomeric material and includes the 3-D structures bonded to the outer surface by injection molding. The 3-D structures are sized, shaped and arranged in one or more patterns at the outer surface. The one or more patterns may form a textured surface finish, a logo or indicia such as instructions at the outer surface. The component may be a vehicle interior component such as a vehicle load floor component.

Claims

1. A sandwich-type, carpeted, vehicle load floor comprising: a sandwich-type, carpeted cover including: a first outer layer having an outer surface; a protective, acoustic barrier layer bonded to the outer surface of the first outer layer wherein the barrier layer overlies and is in contact with the first outer layer; a second outer layer having an outer surface; a substantially continuous carpet layer which covers and is bonded to the outer surface of the second outer layer and is bonded to a top surface of the rest of the load floor wherein an intermediate portion of the carpet layer between the carpeted cover and the rest of the load floor is not bonded to either the carpeted cover or the rest of the load floor to form a living hinge which allows the carpeted cover to pivot between covered and uncovered positions relative to the rest of the load floor; and a cellular core positioned between the outer layers and having a plurality of cavities wherein the outer layers are bonded to the core and wherein the barrier layer is integrally formed from at least one elastomeric, sound-damping material, the elastomeric, sound-damping material being a rubberized plastic material comprised of a mixture of a thermoset material and a thermoplastic material and the elastomeric, sound-damping material including 3-D structures bonded to the outer surface of the first outer layer, the 3-D structures being embossments sized, shaped, and arranged in at least one pattern at the outer surface of the first outer layer and wherein the at least one pattern comprises indicia indicative of instructions for use of the carpeted cover and wherein the barrier layer reduces a level of undesirable noise in the covered position of the carpeted cover and provides an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the carpeted cover in the uncovered position of the carpeted cover and wherein the protective, acoustic barrier layer is bonded to a backside of the rest of the load floor to reduce the level of undesirable noise in a passenger compartment of the vehicle.

2. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cellular core is a honeycomb core.

3. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cellular core is a plastic core.

4. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cellular core is a plastic honeycomb core.

5. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer layers are fiber-reinforced plastic layers.

6. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second outer layer is configured to be a load-bearing layer.

7. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carpet layer is a plastic carpet layer.

8. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carpet layer is a resin carpet.

9. The load floor as claimed in claim 8, wherein the resin is polypropylene.

10. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the carpet layer is made of a woven or non-woven material.

11. The load floor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer layers are fiber-reinforced thermoplastic layers.

12. A vehicle comprising: a passenger compartment having a deck with a storage area located below a part of the deck; and a sandwich-type, carpeted, load floor arranged on the passenger compartment deck; the load floor including a sandwich-type, carpeted load floor portion and a sandwich-type, carpeted cover, the carpeted cover being arranged adjacent the passenger compartment storage area; the carpeted cover including: a first outer layer having an outer surface; a protective, acoustic barrier layer bonded to the outer surface of the first outer layer wherein the barrier layer overlies and is in contact with the first outer layer; a second outer layer having an outer surface; a substantially continuous carpet layer which covers and is bonded to the outer surface of the second outer layer and is bonded to a top surface of the load floor portion wherein an intermediate portion of the carpet layer between the carpeted cover and the load floor portion is not bonded to either the carpeted cover or the load floor portion to form a living hinge which allows the carpeted cover to pivot relative to the load floor portion between a covered position in which the carpeted cover covers the passenger compartment storage area and an uncovered position in which the carpeted cover uncovers the passenger compartment storage area; and a cellular core positioned between the outer layers and having a plurality of cavities wherein the outer layers are bonded to the core and wherein the barrier layer is integrally formed from at least one elastomeric, sound-damping material, the elastomeric, sound-damping material being a rubberized plastic material comprised of a mixture of a thermoset material and a thermoplastic material and the elastomeric, sound-damping material including 3-D structures bonded to the outer surface of the first outer layer, the 3-D structures being embossments sized, shaped, and arranged in at least one pattern at the outer surface of the first outer layer and wherein the at least one pattern comprises indicia indicative of instructions for use of the carpeted cover and wherein the barrier layer reduces a level of undesirable passenger compartment storage area noise in the covered position of the carpeted cover and provides an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the carpeted cover in the uncovered position of the carpeted cover; and wherein the protective, acoustic barrier layer is bonded to a backside of the load floor portion to reduce the level of undesirable noise in the passenger compartment.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is an environmental view, partially broken away, of a prior art load floor having a movable cover in its open position;

(2) FIG. 2 is a view, similar to the view of FIG. 1, that shows an injection molded protective covering on the backside of a cover of a load floor constructed in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention;

(3) FIG. 3 is a side-sectional view, partially broken away, showing various separate layers of a prior art stack or blank of thermoplastic layers of material;

(4) FIG. 4 is a top perspective sectional view of the stack of FIG. 3 but without outer carpet layers after low pressure, cold compression molding of the prior art;

(5) FIG. 5 is a view, partially broken away and in cross section, of a molding apparatus performing an injection molding process to injection mold a protective covering, generally of the type shown in FIG. 2, on the backside of a sandwich-type composite component such as a load floor; and

(6) FIG. 6 is a view, similar to the view of FIG. 5, but with mold halves of the molding apparatus in their open position prior to removing the now-protected component.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(7) As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.

(8) Referring to FIGS. 2, 5 and 6 there is shown a carpeted, automotive vehicle, load floor, generally indicated at 110, including a compression-molded, composite panel constructed in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention. A cover, generally indicated at 112, of the load floor 110 covers a storage area 113 of the vehicle and is pivotally connected to the composite panel. A substantially continuous carpet layer 120 (not shown in FIGS. 5 and 6) may be bonded to the outer, top, class-A surface of the panel and the top surface of the cover 112 to at least partially form the carpeted load floor 110 having the carpeted cover 112. A living hinge 123 allows the carpeted cover 112 to pivot between different use positions including the open position of FIG. 2. A decorative, noise-management covering layer or protective covering, generally indicated at 125, is bonded to the bottom surface 127 of the cover 112 to reduce the level of undesirable noise in a passenger compartment of the vehicle in its closed position and to provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the bottom of the cover 112 in its open position (i.e. FIG. 2).

(9) The covering 125 is integrally formed from at least one elastomeric material and includes 3-D structures 129 bonded to the outer surface 127 by injection molding. The 3-D structures 129 are sized, shaped and arranged in at least one pattern at the outer surface 127. The resulting mat provides a heavy-duty, long-lasting, easy to clean surface. A variety of textures and styles can be formed during the injection molding process.

(10) The 3-D structures 129 may provide a textured surface finish to the outer surface 127.

(11) The 3-D structures 129 may be embossed above the outer surface 127.

(12) The 3-D structures 129 may provide style features at the outer surface 127.

(13) The at least one pattern may comprise a logo, a mark, a symbol, a graphic image or a monogram as shown in FIG. 2.

(14) The at least one pattern may provide information at the outer surface 127 as shown in FIG. 1.

(15) As is well known in the art, the load floor 110 is typically manufactured by providing a stack of material located or positioned within a mold (not shown). The cover 112 includes first and second reinforced thermoplastic skins or outer layers 114 and 118, respectively, a core 116 having a large number of cavities such as a thermoplastic cellular core disposed between and bonded to the skins 114 and 118 by press molding. The substantially continuous covering or carpet layer 120 is typically made of thermoplastic material and covers the first skin 114. The skins 114 and 118 are heated typically outside of the mold to a softening temperature. The mold is preferably a low-pressure, compression mold which performs a thermo-compression process on the stack of materials.

(16) The thermoplastic carpet layer 120 not only covers the skin of the load floor 110, but also covers and is bonded to an outer surface of the outer skin 114 of the cover 112. An intermediate portion of the layer 120 may not be bonded to either the outer skin of the load floor or the outer skin 114 may form the living hinge 123. The living hinge 123 allows the carpeted cover 112 to pivot between the different use positions.

(17) The carpet layer 120 may be resin carpet and the resin may be polypropylene. One side of the cover 112 may be covered with the carpet layer 120 which may be made of a woven or nonwoven material (typically of the carpet type).

(18) The cellular core 116 may be a honeycomb core. In this example, the cellular core 116 has an open-celled structure of the type made up of tubes or a honeycomb, and it is made mainly of polyolefin and preferably of polypropylene. It is also possible to use a cellular structure having closed cells of the foam type. Alternatively, the core 116 may be made of cellulose (treated paper) or may be made of solid plastic.

(19) Each of the skins 114 and 118 may be fiber reinforced. The thermoplastic of the skins 114 and 118, the covering layer 120 and the core 114 may be polypropylene. At least one of the skins 114 and 118 may be woven skin, such as polypropylene skin. Each of the skins 114 and 118 may be reinforced with fibers, e.g., glass fibers, carbon fibers or natural fibers. At least one of the skins 114 and 118 may advantageously be made up of woven glass fiber fabric and of a thermoplastic material.

(20) In one example method of making the hinged load floor 110, stacks of material may be pressed in a low pressure cold-forming mold. The stack is made up of a first skin, a cellular core, a second skin and the covering layer 120, and is pressed at a pressure lying in the range of 10×10.sup.5 Pa. to 30×10.sup.5 Pa. The first and second skins are preferably pre-heated to make them malleable and stretchable. Advantageously, in order to soften the first and second skins, heat is applied to a pre-assembly constituted by the stack made up of at least the first skin, the cellular core, and the second skin so that, while a part of the load floor 110 is being formed in the mold, the first and second skins have a forming temperature lying approximately in the range of 160° C. to 200° C., and, in this example, about 180° C. In like fashion, the cover 112 may be formed.

(21) The protective covering 125 may be integrally formed from a molten elastomeric material. The molten material typically is a low-viscosity, rubber, sound-damping compound based on liquid rubbers or elastomers and vulcanization agents, which may contain small quantities of structure-reinforcing fiber fillers, and have a low viscosity in the application state. Acoustic compounds of this kind are moldable with the aid of a conventional injection molding system 140 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. As shown in FIG. 5, the preformed panel or cover 112 has been placed into a mold of the molding system 140 and the elastomeric material is in the process of being injected over the cover 112. The material of the outer skin 118 and the injected material are compatible materials and a melt bond occurs at the interface between the two materials.

(22) The elastomeric material may be either a thermoset material or a thermoplastic material or a mixture of both.

(23) The elastomeric material may be a textured material.

(24) The elastomeric material may be synthetic rubber material or a rubberized plastic material. The acoustic barrier layer or covering 125 is injected directly on the outer surface 127 of the skin 118 as shown in FIG. 5 in the injection molding process. The elastomeric material may be specialized rubber and rubber-like plastics for injection molding such as TPE, TPU and TPV elastomers. Examples of such materials are: Versa Flex (TPE), Elastollan (TPU) and Santoprene (TPV). Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) are part of the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) family of polymers and have elastomeric properties close to EPDM thermoset rubber.

(25) The use of injection molding saves costs associated with the multiple processes of the prior art. Also, mats thinner than prior art mats can be provided on the underside of the load floor thereby providing weight savings. Finally, the process allows for repeatable patterns and added logo detail.

(26) While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended that these embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention.