WHEEL ARCH LINER FOR A VEHICLE

Abstract

Wheel arch liner for a vehicle, comprising at least a fibrous layer comprising of thermoplastic bicomponent filaments, consisting of a first polymer forming the core of the bicomponent filament and a second polymer forming the sheath of the bicomponent filament, whereby that the sheath of the bicomponent filament comprises at least one repellent additive of fluorinated or per-fluorinated short chain molecules with a chain length in the range of C4-C14 and whereby the fibrous layer is consolidated by heating thereby melting the sheath polymer forming binding points between the filaments and redistributing the repellent additive forming a liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer.

Claims

1. A wheel arch liner for a vehicle, comprising at least a fibrous layer comprising of thermoplastic bicomponent filaments, consisting of a first polymer forming the core of the bicomponent filament and a second polymer forming the sheath of the bicomponent filament, characterized in that the sheath of the bicomponent filament comprises at least one repellent additive of fluorinated or per-fluorinated short chain molecules with a chain length in the range of C4-C14 and whereby the fibrous layer is consolidated by heating thereby melting the sheath polymer forming binding points between the filaments and redistributing the repellent additive forming a liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer.

2. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the amount of the repellent additive is 0.03 to 3 weight percentage (wt %) of the liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer.

3. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the core polymer is polyester, preferably polyethylene-terephthalate (PET), or polybutylene terephthalate (PBT).

4. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the sheath polymer is a copolymer of polyester, preferably a copolymer of polyethylene terephthalate (coPET), or a Copolymer of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), or polypropylene.

5. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the amount of the sheath polymer, in weight percentage of the consolidated fibrous layer, is preferably between 10 and 60%.

6. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer has an approximate thickness between 1 and 8 mm, preferably between 1 and 5 mm.

7. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer has an area weight between 100 and 1700 g.Math.m.sup.2, preferably between 300 and 1500 g.Math.m.sup.2, preferably between 500 and 1300 g.Math.m2

8. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the liquid repellent consolidated fibrous layer has an air flow resistance between 100 to 5000 Ns/m.sup.3, preferably between 200 to 3000 Ns/m.sup.3, preferably between 200 to 3000 Ns/m.sup.3.

9. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the wheel arch liner has at least one hinge in the form of at least one folding line.

10. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the fibrous layer consists of bicomponent filaments.

11. The wheel arch liner of claim 1, whereby the bicomponent filaments are cut bicomponent filaments.

12. The wheel arch liner of claim 11, whereby the fibrous layer further comprises thermoplastic staple fibers, preferably polyester staple fibers such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or recycled staple fibers or shoddy fibers.

13. The wheel arch liner of claim 11, whereby the bicomponent cut filaments comprises at least between 30% by weight, preferably at least 50% by weight, preferably 100% by weight.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0041] FIG. 1 schematic figure of a wheel arch liner.

[0042] FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the fibrous layer in the length direction of the wheel arch liner.

[0043] FIG. 3 shows an example of an outer wheel arch liner with a hinge.

[0044] FIG. 4 shows a schematic picture of a cross section of a bicomponent filament.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0045] FIG. 1 shows a picture of a wheel arch liner

[0046] Outer wheel arch liners according to the invention was produced using bicomponent filaments, where the core of the filament was made of polyester and the sheath was made of copolymer of polyester mixed with a repellent fluorinated additive. The ratio of the sheath was 30 wt % and the core was 70 wt %. The area weight was 1000 g.Math.m.sup.2.

[0047] The fibrous layer were compressed and consolidated to a thickness of about 4 mm.

[0048] Examples consolidated fibrous layers with an area weight of 1000 g/m2 were made from CoPET/PET sheath-core bicomponent filaments with a copolymer of PET as the sheath and PET as the core. The weight ratio of sheath to core was 30 to 70. The reference sample had no additive added, while example 1 had 0.17% repellent additive according to the invention added, and example 2 had 0.25% of repellent additive according to the invention added (as weight percentage of the final consolidated fibrous layer).

[0049] The surface energy, also known as surface tension, was measured using the ink test of Arcotest. In principle a volume of ink with a predefined surface tension is placed on the surface. For the analyses the method description of the test was followed. For the test the test inks were used.

[0050] Following results were found:

[0051] The reference sample without the repellent additive has a surface energy of 46 mN/m for the 4 mm sample.

[0052] Reference 1 with 0.17 wt % repellent additive has a surface energy of 38-39 mN/m for the 4 mm sample.

[0053] Reference 2 with 0.25 wt % repellent additive has a surface energy of 35 mN/m for the 4 mm sample.

[0054] The examples show a clear decrease of the surface energy with the repellent additive according to the invention and in addition show that with increased concentration of the repellent additive a further decrease can be obtained although not in the same extension as the increased concentration used.

[0055] An outer wheel arch liner for a vehicle according to the invention, whereby the wheel arch liner has at least one hinge in the form of at least one folding line. The hinge or folding line can be made during moulding of the outer wheel arch liner, by compressing the fibrous layer more along a line creating a folding line. The folding line is formed over the width of the arch so that the part can be folded open as is depicted in FIG. 3. More than 1 fold line over the width of the arch might be advantageous. Whereby preferably each of those folding lines is formed by 2 ridges (FIG. 2, (3)) formed by further compressing locally the fibrous layer (2), preferably the ridges are placed at the same fold line with the deepest area of the ridge opposite of each other. Preferably the ridge on one site is deeper than on the other side.