Exterior Vehicle Trim Part

Abstract

An exterior structural trim part for a vehicle, comprising at least an area comprising at least 3 layers superposed and laminated together to form a structural unit whereby the two outer layers are compressed and consolidated fibrous layers and with an inner layer situated in-between the two fibrous outer layers being an impervious polyester foam layer.

Claims

1. An exterior structural trim part for a vehicle, comprising: an area comprising at least three layers superposed and laminated together to form a structural unit, wherein two outer layers are compressed and consolidated fibrous layers, and wherein an inner layer situated in-between the two fibrous outer layers is an impervious polyester foam layer (11).

2. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the area of the trim part not containing the structural unit comprises at least one of the outer fibrous layers compressed and consolidated.

3. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the consolidated fibrous layer is comprised of filler fibers and a binder in the form of thermoplastic binder, whereby the binder forms small binding points between the filler fibers to consolidate the fibrous material.

4. The exterior trim part according to claim 3, whereby the filler fibres are at least one of thermoplastic fibers, preferably polyester fibers, preferably polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) or polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) or the filler fibers are a mixture of such fibers.

5. The exterior trim part according to claim 3, whereby the thermoplastic binder is either a copolymer of polyester, or a polyamide, preferably polyamide-6 or polyamide-66.

6. The exterior trim part according to claim 4, whereby the filler fibers and the binder are combined in a bicomponent fiber, preferably of a core sheath type with the filler fiber forming the core and the binder forming the sheath.

7. The exterior trim part according to claim 3, whereby the filler fibers can be staple fibres or endless filaments.

8. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the polyester foam layer has an approximate thickness of less than 15 mm.

9. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the polyester foam layer has an approximate thickness of at least 2 mm.

10. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby at least one of the compressed and consolidated fibrous layers in the area of the structural unit has an approximate thickness of less than 3 mm.

11. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby at least one of the compressed and consolidated fibrous layers in the area of the structural unit has an approximate thickness of at least 0.5 mm.

12. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby at least one of the fibrous layers has an area weight of less than 1500 g.Math.m.sup.2.

13. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby at least one of the fibrous layers has an area weight of at least 200 g.Math.m.sup.2.

14. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the polyester foam layer is thermoplastic polyester foam preferably polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam.

15. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, whereby the polyester foam layer is preferably closed cell foam.

16. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, further comprising an adhesive layer between the fibrous layer and the polyester foam layer.

17. The exterior structural trim part according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of a film layer, a nonwoven scrim layer, a heat radiating layer, a metal film, or a heat radiating coating layer, superposed and laminated to the outer surface of at least one of the outer consolidated fibrous layers.

18. A method of using the exterior structural trim part on a vehicle according to claim 1 as an under body trim part, such as an under body panel, an under engine shield, a rear under body panel or an under centre panel or as an engine bay trim part such as a bonnet liner or an engine shield.

19. The exterior trim part according to claim 5, wherein the copolymer of polyamide is at least one of polyamide-6 or polyamide-66.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0055] FIG. 1 shows the vehicle from underneath.

[0056] FIG. 2 shows possible exterior trim parts according to the state of the art.

[0057] FIG. 3 shows a schematic picture of a trim part according to the invention.

[0058] FIG. 4 shows a schematic cross section of a trim part according to the invention.

[0059] FIG. 1 shows a drawing of a vehicle from underneath with two non-exhaustive examples of possible locations of exterior trim parts according to the invention. The trim parts are mostly mounted parallel to the car floor facing the road. They are typically placed under the engine compartment (1) or passenger compartment (2).

[0060] FIG. 2 shows possible exterior trim parts, for instance under body panel (3), rear under body panel (4), engine under shield (5) and centre panel (6) according to the state of the art, that can be replaced with a trim part according to the invention including a structural unit. By using the material according to the invention ribs might be replaced by the structural unit and the surface can be flattened. Due to the higher stiffness the trim parts shown can also be combined together to form a larger trim part, even to form just one trim part covering the whole under body surface.

[0061] FIG. 3 is showing a top view of one example of an exterior trim part (7) with the structural unit (9) according to the invention. The structural unit (9) is partially covering an area of the trim part and the remaining area comprises at least of two fibrous layers (8). This large area of the structural unit is creating a flat area towards the road surface improving the aerodynamic behaviour of the vehicle compared to other solutions available on the market where ribs and/or embossments might be required in order to provide enough stiffness of the trim part.

[0062] The coverage percentage and location of the areas with the structural unit can be designed to optimise the overall stiffness and weight of the exterior trim part and or minimise the number of fixation points. FIG. 3 is showing the structural unit (9) as one large area with regular shape, but the structural unit area or areas can basically have any shape and or there might be two or more areas. The areas of the structural unit can cover a very small area of the trim part for example in the form of a small strip for local stiffening, one or more areas partially covering the trim part or up to basically covering the complete trim part. A-A is indicating the cross section shown in FIG. 4.

[0063] FIG. 4 is showing cross section A-A (10) of the trim part shown in FIG. 3. The trim part is formed by a first area having a structural unit (9), with a PET foam layer (11) laminated between two compressed and consolidated fibrous layers (12 and 13) and a second remaining area (8) with two compressed and consolidated fibrous layers (12 and 13) laminated together. The fibrous layers 12 and 13 are the continuing layers covering the entire surface of the trim part. The PET foam is mouldable and can be moulded to a smaller thickness, for example smaller than 2 mm, where at the edge of the PET foam layer the thickness of the foam is changing down to a very small thickness as shown on the picture, allowing for a smooth transition from the area with foam to the area without foam. Although the overall thickness of the main area of foam layer is favourably above 2 mm to achieve the overall structural stiffness needed, locally it might be that the foam is (further) compressed to a lower thickness, for instance at the border between the structural unit and the area without it, but also possible in areas following protrusions in the main vehicle body, or other areas with limited space.