MOULDING ASSEMBLY FOR OBTAINING A DASHBOARD FOR A VEHICLE AND DASHBOARD OBTAINED

Abstract

A moulding assembly includes a foaming mould having two parts which when assembled together define a moulding inner cavity; a furnishing front part and a support part of a dashboard having a first breakable flap for allowing the exit of a passenger airbag when inflated during a crash. The support part is attached to the first part of the mold and the furnishing front part is attached to the second part of the mold such that an inner space is defined between the support part and furnishing front part. The support part includes slots and the first part includes perforation tabs passing through the slots. The slots are distributed conforming a perforation web defining weakening lines around at least a part of an outline of the first breakable flap of the support part and a longitudinal length of the perforation tabs is greater than the depth of the slots.

Claims

1. A moulding assembly comprising: a foaming mould comprising a first part and a second part which when assembled together define a moulding inner cavity; a furnishing front part of a dashboard; and a support part of a dashboard comprising a first breakable flap for allowing the exit of a passenger airbag when inflated during a crash, the support part of the dashboard being attached to the first part of the foaming mold and the furnishing front part of the dashboard being attached to the second part of the mold foaming such that an inner space is defined between the support part and the furnishing front part of the dashboard, and wherein the support part of the dashboard comprises a plurality of slots and the first part of the foaming mould comprises a plurality of perforation tabs passing through the slots of the support part of dashboard, the slots being distributed conforming a perforation web defining weakening lines around at least a part of an outline of the first breakable flap of the support part and wherein a longitudinal length of the perforation tabs is greater than the depth of the slots such that a portion of the perforation tabs protrudes inside the inner space defined between the furnishing front part and support part of the dashboard.

2. The moulding assembly as in claim 1, wherein the support part comprises a plurality of inner reinforcement ribs in the rear side of the first breakable flap and also a plurality of outer reinforcement ribs in the closest area surrounding the first breakable flap such that an outline of the first breakable flap is surrounded and delimited between the inner and outer reinforcement ribs.

3. The moulding assembly as in claim 1, wherein the first breakable flap is parallelogram shaped and comprises slots in three of the lateral sides such that the fourth side without slot can be bended as a hinge when the other sides are broken through the slots.

4. The moulding assembly as in claim 1, wherein the support part comprises a second breakable flap, the second breakable flap being placed side by side to the first breakable flap such that one of the weakening lines in the outline of the first breakable flap is common to the second breakable flap defining therein an exit window for the airbag.

5. The moulding assembly as in claim 1, further comprising a sealing element to seal a space between the perforation tabs of the first part of the mold and the slots of the support part of the dashboard.

6. The moulding assembly as in claim 5, wherein the sealing element is a slide placed in the first part of the mold surrounding a base of the perforation tabs or an O-ring placed in the slots of the support part and fixed tightly around the perforation tabs.

7. A dashboard for a vehicle obtainable with the assembly of claim 1, the dashboard comprising: a support part comprising a first breakable flap for allowing the exit of a passenger airbag when inflated during a crash, comprising a plurality of slots distributed in the support part defining weakening lines around at least a part of an outline of the first breakable flap; a furnishing front part; and a foamed core obtained by foam in place process between the support part and the furnishing front part and comprising a plurality of hollowings in correspondence with the slots of the support part generating weakened areas in the foam core in correspondence with the breaking lines produced by the slots in the support part.

8. The dashboard for a vehicle as in claim 7, wherein the first breakable flap comprises at least 10 slots and the foamed core comprises at least 10 hollowings.

9. The dashboard for a vehicle as in claim 7, wherein the support part comprises a plurality of inner reinforcement ribs in the rear side of the first breakable flap and also a plurality of outer reinforcement ribs in the closest area surrounding the first breakable flap such that an outline of the first breakable flap is surrounded and delimited between the inner and outer reinforcement ribs.

10. The dashboard for a vehicle as in claim 7, wherein the support part comprises a second breakable flap, the second breakable flap being placed side by side to the first breakable flap such that one of the weakening lines in the outline of the first breakable flap is common to the second breakable flap defining therein an exit window for the airbag.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0035] To complete the description and in order to provide for a better understanding of the disclosure, a set of drawings is provided. Said drawings form an integral part of the description and illustrate embodiments of the disclosure, which should not be interpreted as restricting the scope of the disclosure, but just as examples of how the disclosure can be carried out. The drawings comprise the following figures:

[0036] FIG. 1 shows a partial view of the front side of a support part of a dashboard.

[0037] FIG. 2 shows a partial view of the rear side of a support part of a dashboard.

[0038] FIG. 3 shows a detailed view of the rear side of the breakable flap of the support part.

[0039] FIG. 4 shows a partial cross section of a first embodiment of the foaming moulding assembly of the disclosure.

[0040] FIG. 5 shows a partial cross section of a second embodiment of the foaming moulding assembly of the disclosure.

[0041] FIG. 6 shows a partial view of the front side of a support part of a dashboard mounted in the foaming mould.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0042] FIG. 1 shows the front side of a support part (4) of a dashboard. The support part (4) comprises a breakable flap (40) which opens when the passenger's airbag inflates due to a crash or a sudden deceleration. The breakable flap (40) is constituted by multiple slots (41) distributed along three sides of a rectangle. The fourth side of the rectangle has no slots acting as a hinge during the breakage of the flap. To assure the breaking of the flap (40) along the contour defined by the slots (41) the support part comprises a plurality of inner reinforcement ribs (42) in the rear side of the first breakable flap (40) and also a plurality of outer reinforcement ribs (43) in the closest area surrounding the first breakable flap (40) such that an outline of the first breakable flap (40) is surrounded and delimited between the inner and outer reinforcement ribs (42, 43). The reinforcement ribs (42, 43) can be seen clearly in FIGS. 2 and 3.

[0043] FIGS. 4 and 5 shows a cross section of the foaming moulding assembly comprising a first part (1) and a second (2) part which when assembled together define a moulding inner cavity. A furnishing front part (3) of a dashboard is attached to the second part (2) of the mold and a support part (4) of a dashboard is attached to the first part (1) of the mold. As can be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, the support part (4) and the furnishing front part (3) are spaced apart in the moulding cavity to define an inner space which can be filled with a foaming material to form a foam core (5) of the dashboard.

[0044] The support part (4) as in FIG. 1 comprises a first breakable flap (40) for allowing the exit of a passenger airbag when inflated during a crash.

[0045] The support part (4) of the dashboard comprises a plurality of slots (41) and the first part (1) of the mold comprises a plurality of perforation tabs (11) passing through the slots (41) of the support part (4) of dashboard. The slots (41) are distributed conforming a perforation web defining weakening lines around at least a part of an outline of the first breakable flap (40) of the support part (4). As can be seen in FIG. 3 the longitudinal length of the tabs (11) is greater than the depth of the slots (41) such that a portion of the perforation tabs (11) protrudes inside the inner space defined between the furnishing front part (3) and support part (4) of the dashboard. As can be seen also in FIG. 3 the protruding part of the perforation tabs (11) provokes the formation of a plurality of hollowings (51) in the foamed core (5) obtained, by foam in place process, between the support part (4) and the furnishing front part (3). As the perforation tabs (11) pass through the slots (41), the hollowings (51) formed are placed in correspondence with the slots (41) generating weakened areas in the foam core (5) in correspondence with the breaking lines produced by the slots (41) in the support part (4).

[0046] The hollowings (51) in the foamed core are obtained in the same operation of foaming, in the foaming mold, used to form the foamed core thus avoiding a special operation of cutting or emptying after the foaming of the core.

[0047] The assembly comprises a sealing element to seal a space between the perforation tabs (11) of the first part (1) of the mold and the slots (41) of the support part (4) of the dashboard. This sealing element prevents the foam material from escaping during the injection operation in the mold in the inner cavity.

[0048] The sealing element can be a slide placed (12) in the first part (1) of the mold surrounding a base of the perforation tabs (11), as can be seen in FIG. 4. The base of the perforation tabs (11) being the union area between the perforation tab (11) and the first part (1) of the mold.

[0049] In FIG. 5 the sealing element is an O-ring placed in the slots (41) of the support part (4) and fixed tightly around the perforation tabs (11). It is also possible to design the whole slider in a material, which seals to the mold part.

[0050] In this text, the terms first, second, third, etc. have been used herein to describe several devices, elements or parameters, it will be understood that the devices, elements or parameters should not be limited by these terms since the terms are only used to distinguish one device, element or parameter from another. For example, the first device could as well be named second device, and the second device could be named first device without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0051] In this text, the term “comprises” and its derivations (such as “comprising”, etc.) should not be understood in an excluding sense, that is, these terms should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility that what is described and defined may include further elements, steps, etc.

[0052] On the other hand, the disclosure is obviously not limited to the specific embodiment(s) described herein, but also encompasses any variations that may be considered by any person skilled in the art (for example, as regards the choice of materials, dimensions, components, configuration, etc.), within the general scope of the disclosure as defined in the claims.