VEHICLE SEAT CONTAINING FIBER COMPOSITE MATERIAL AND EXPANDED THERMOPLASTICS

Abstract

The invention relates to a seat for a vehicle, preferably for a land craft, a watercraft, and/or an aircraft, comprising at least one multilayer structural component (1) with at least one first (6) and at least one second ply (5) of a composite material, in each case containing fibers which are integrated into a thermoplastic, and with a layer (7) which is arranged between said plies and is made of at least one foamed thermoplastic; to a method for producing same, said method having at least the following steps (A): providing at least one first and at least one second ply of a composite material, in each case containing fibers which are integrated into a thermoplastic, (B) thermoforming the first ply of composite material into a lower seat shell, (C) thermoforming the second ply of composite material into an upper seat shell, (D) arranging the lower seat shell and the upper seat shell in a tool, such that a gap is formed between the two seat shells, (E) introducing foamed particles made of a thermoplastic into the gap, and (F) pressing the two seats shells and the foamed particles in order to obtain the seat; and to the use of the seat in a vehicle, preferably in a land craft, a watercraft, and/or an aircraft.

Claims

1.-14. (canceled)

15. A seat for a vehicle comprising at least one multilayer structural component comprising at least one first and at least one second layer of composite material, in each case containing fibers which are embedded in a thermoplastic polymer, and a layer of at least one foamed thermoplastic polymer arranged in between, wherein the number of first and second layers of composite material present on the front side and the rear side of the seat according to the invention and/or in different regions of the seat, for example the backrest part, seat part and the region connecting the backrest part and the seat part, is not the same.

16. A seat for a vehicle, comprising at least one multilayer structural component comprising at least one first and at least one second layer of composite material, in each case containing fibers which are embedded in a thermoplastic polymer, and a layer of at least one foamed thermoplastic polymer arranged in between, wherein the fibers are in each case unidirectionally oriented continuous fibers and the unidirectionally oriented continuous fibers in the at least one first layer and/or in the at least one second layer and/or in various parts of the seat according to the invention can be arranged parallel to one another or at an angle of from 30° to 130°.

17. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein the fibers are continuous fibers which are oriented unidirectionally within the respective layer.

18. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein in each case more than one first or more than one second layer of composite material are present on top of one another, with the continuous fibers in adjacent layers being at an angle of from 30° to 130° to one another.

19. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein the fibers in the composite material are embedded in a homopolycarbonate- and/or copolycarbonate-based polymer.

20. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein the foamed thermoplastic polymer is a homopolycarbonate- and/or copolycarbonate-based polymer.

21. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein it consists of an appropriately shaped, multilayer structural component.

22. The seat as claimed in claim 21, wherein the multilayer structural component comprises a backrest part, a seat part and a region connecting the backrest part and the seat part.

23. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein at least one protective coating, decorative coating, coating which improves the feel and/or coating which improves the seating comfort is present on the outside of the first and/or second layer of composite material.

24. The seat as claimed in claim 15, wherein the density of the foamed thermoplastic polymer is from 0.03 to 0.7 g/cm.sup.3.

25. A process for producing a seat as claimed in claim 15, comprising at least the following steps: (A) provision of at least one first and at least one second layer of composite material, in each case containing fibers which in each case are embedded in a thermoplastic polymer, (B) thermoforming of the at least one first layer of composite material to form a lower seat shell, (C) thermoforming of the at least one second layer of composite material to form an upper seat shell, (D) positioning of the lower seat shell and the upper seat shell in a tool so that a gap is formed between the two seat shells, (E) introduction of foamed particles composed of a thermoplastic polymer into the gap and (F) pressing together of the two seat shells and the foamed particles in order to obtain the seat.

26. The process as claimed in claim 25, wherein step (B) and step (C) are each carried out at a temperature of from 290 to 300° C., a pressure of from 10 to 100 bar(a) for a time of from 90 to 120 s.

27. A method comprising utilizing the seat as claimed in claim 15 in a vehicle and/or in an aircraft.

28. The use as claimed in claim 27, wherein the vehicle is a land vehicle.

Description

DRAWINGS

[0216] FIG. 1 shows a side view of the seat according to the invention consisting of a multilayer structural part (1). The multilayer structural part (1) consists of a seat part (2), a backrest part (3) and a region (4) connecting the seat part (2) and the backrest part (3). The multilayer structural part (1) comprises a second layer of composite material (5) and a first layer of composite material (6), in each case containing continuous fibers embedded in polycarbonate. A layer (7) of a foamed polycarbonate is present in between.

[0217] FIG. 2 shows a further side view of the seat according to the invention. A plurality of layers of composite material are present on the rear side (8) of the seat. A plurality of layers of composite material (5) are arranged in the region (4) connecting the seat part (2) and the backrest part (3), but these do not extend over the entire rear side (8) of the adjoining backrest part (3) or do not extend over the entire rear side (8) of the adjoining seat part (2). Only one layer of composite material (6) which extends over the entire front side (9) of the backrest part (3) and over the entire front side (9) of the seat part (2) is present on the front side (9).

EXAMPLES

[0218] In order to show that the seat according to the invention has advantages in respect of the mechanical strength, in particular in respect of the modulus of elasticity under tension and in bending (tensile modulus or flexural modulus, respectively), the following examples were calculated by methods known to a person skilled in the art:

1. Experimental determination of the mechanical properties of a single layer containing unidirectionally oriented continuous fibers.

[0219] The following values were determined:

Tensile modulus in fiber direction: 96 250 MPa, corresponds to about 96 GPa, measured in accordance with ISO 527-5 2010-01
Tensile modulus transverse to the fiber direction: 5950 MPa, corresponds to about 6 GPa, measured in accordance with ISO 527-5 2010-01
Poisson's ratio: 0.29, measured in accordance with ISO 527-5 2010-01
Shear modulus: 2550 MPa, measured in accordance with ISO 14129 1998-02
Thickness of the individual layer: 0.175 mm
2. Theoretical calculation of the tensile modulus and flexural modulus for different layer structures on the basis of the experimental values from 1. with the aid of the laminate theory in the 0° direction and 90° direction.
3. Calculation of the flexural stiffness using the following formula E*I/b (normalized to the breadth) for a rectangular cross section
E from table 1, in the case of flexural modulus
I sheet inertia, for a rectangular cross section: I=(b*h.sup.3)/12
b breadth of the cross section
h height of the cross section

[0220] The values determined under No. 2 and 3 are reported in table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Tensile Flexural Flexural Orientation of the modulus modulus stiffness/b fibers in the Thickness [GPa] [GPa] [Nmm] No. layers [°] [mm] 0° 90° 0° 90° 0° 90° 1 0/0/0/0 0.7 96 6 96 6 2.7 0.2 2 0/90/90/0 0.7 51 51 85 17 2.4 0.5 3 0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0 1.4 96 6 96 6 22.0 1.4 4 0, 90, 90, 0, 0 1.4 51 51 60 43 13.7 9.8 5 45, −45, 0, 90, 45 1.4 36 36 36 27 8.2 6.2 6 45, 0, −45, 90, 90 1.4 36 36 49 23 11.2 5.3 7 30, −30, 0, 90, 30 1.4 51 30 60 13 13.7 3.0