Interior parts covered with surface material

Abstract

The present invention provides an automotive interior part in which a surface material is coated onto the surface of a core material without using staples or adhesives, and without leaving wrinkles on the surface of the corners. [Solution] This is an interior component in which a surface material 15 is covered on the surface of a core material 14 which has an outer wall around it and numerous protrusions formed on its back surface. At the straight sections 11 of the core material 14, the ends of the surface material are folded back and inserted into numerous protrusions formed on the back surface of the core material. At the corner sections 13 of the core material, two protrusions 31 and 32 provided at the corners of the surface material are locked to two protrusions 35 and 36 formed at positions away from the outer wall on the back surface of the core material. Furthermore, at numerous points around the entire circumference of the back surface of the core material, the ends of the surface material are welded to the back surface of the core material.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an interior part for an automobile in which a skin material is coated on the surface of a core material.

Background Art

[0002] Interior parts such as the lid of a console box of an automobile have a structure in which a skin material covers the surface of a resin core material. The core material has an outer wall that extends to the back side around the top plate, and the skin material generally has a urethane foam layer formed on the back surface of the skin. The skin material is covered from the surface side of the core material, that is, from the top plate side, and the peripheral edge of the skin material is folded back and fixed to the back surface of the outer wall of the core material over the entire circumference.

[0003] As a means for fixing the peripheral edge of the skin material to the back surface of the outer wall of the core material, a tacker has been mainly used conventionally. A tacker is a tool for driving a metal needle and is operated manually. Therefore, there are large individual differences, and if the operator is not a skilled person, there is a risk that the skin material may not be securely fixed. Also, depending on the length and driving angle of the metal needle, there are problems such as the tip of the metal needle protruding outside or the metal needle coming off. In addition, driving a large number of metal needles will cause a slight increase in the vehicle body weight. Furthermore, there were many problems such as the need for maintenance of the tacker gun.

[0004] Also, fixing using a bond instead of a tacker has been carried out. However, the bond requires a drying furnace with appropriate temperature control for drying, has an odor and deteriorates the working environment, requires exhaust equipment for discharging the solvent vapor contained in the bond, requires measures such as masking to prevent the bond from adhering to unnecessary parts, and requires removing the bond that has scattered accidentally around with a solvent. There were many problems.

[0005] Therefore, the inventors developed a technique in which a core material made of a resin band is sewn to the periphery of the surface material, the periphery of the surface material is elastically folded back to the back surface of the outer wall of the core material together with the core material, and the tip of the core material is inserted into a groove formed on the inside of the outer wall and fixed in place, and this technique was proposed as Patent Document 1. If this technique is used, staples and adhesives will not be necessary. However, this technique requires the process of sewing a resin band-shaped core material to the periphery of the surface material, and there was a problem that folding back the core material at the corners required skill.

[0006] Furthermore, regardless of the fixing method used, it is not easy to fold the outer material into the curved corners of the core material without causing wrinkles. Since the outer material is basically flat, wrinkles inevitably occur when folding it into the corners of the three-dimensional core material. Fixing it so that these wrinkles do not appear on the surface and sides of the core material required considerable skill. [Prior art documents] [Patent Documents]

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 7242013 [Overview of the project] [Problems that the invention aims to solve]

[0008] The objective of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide an automotive interior part in which a surface material is coated on the surface of a core material without using staples or adhesives and without leaving wrinkles on the surface of the corners. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The present invention, made to solve the above problems, is an interior component comprising a core material having an outer wall around it and numerous protrusions formed on its back surface, with a surface material covering the surface of the core material, wherein in the straight sections of the core material, the ends of the surface material are folded back and inserted into numerous protrusions formed on the back surface of the core material, in the corner sections of the core material, two protrusions provided at the corner sections of the surface material are engaged with two protrusions formed at positions away from the outer wall on the back surface of the core material, and furthermore, at numerous points around the entire circumference of the back surface of the core material, the ends of the surface material are heat-welded or ultrasonically welded to the back surface of the core material.

[0010] Furthermore, it is preferable that the corner portion of the core material is curved. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] In the automotive interior component of the present invention, at the corner portion of the core material, two protrusions provided at the corner portion of the surface material are engaged with two projections formed at a position away from the outer wall on the back surface of the core material, and further, at numerous points around the entire circumference of the back surface of the core material, the edges of the surface material are heat-welded or ultrasonically welded to the back surface of the core material, thereby covering the surface material on the surface of the core material without using staples or adhesives, and without leaving wrinkles on the surface of the corner portion. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0012] [Figure 1] This is a plan view of the console lid, which is an interior component of the embodiment. [Figure 2] This is a bottom view of the console lid. [Figure 3] This is a perspective view of the bottom of the core material. [Figure 4] This is a side view of the core material. [Figure 5] This is a bottom view of the surface material. [Figure 6] This is an explanatory diagram of the procedure for fixing the surface material at the corner. [Figure 7] This is an illustrative diagram of the corner section where the surface material is fixed. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0013] Preferred embodiments of the present invention are described below.

[0014] Figure 1 is a plan view of the console lid 10 (console box cover), which is an interior component of the embodiment. As shown in Figure 1, the console lid 10, which is an interior component of the embodiment, is substantially rectangular in shape and includes straight sections 11 and 12 and a curved corner section 13. The straight section 11 is a straight section in the longitudinal direction (left-right direction when mounted in a vehicle), and the straight section 12 is a straight section in the short direction (front-rear direction when mounted in a vehicle).

[0015] Figure 2 is a bottom view of the console lid 10 of the embodiment. The console lid 10 has a structure in which the surface of the core material 14 is covered with a surface material 15. Figure 3 is a bottom perspective view of the core material 14 before it is covered with the surface material 15, and Figure 4 is a side view of the core material 14. As shown in these figures, the core material 14 has an outer wall 16 that extends toward the back side around its periphery, and numerous protrusions are formed on the back surface of the core material 14.

[0016] As shown in Figure 2, the console lid 10 is constructed by covering the surface of the core material 14 with a surface material 15, and then attaching an inner cover (not shown) to the back surface, through which it is fixed to the vehicle body. For this reason, protrusions 17 and 18 for attaching the inner cover are formed on the back surface of the core material 14. In addition, protrusions 19, 20, and 21 are formed on the back surface of the core material 14 near the outer wall 15 of the longitudinal straight section 11. Furthermore, protrusions 22 and 23 are formed slightly away from the outer wall 15 in the central part of the transverse straight section 12. The shapes of these protrusions vary as shown in the figure. The protrusions on the corner section 13 will be described later.

[0017] FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the skin material 15 before being attached to the core material 14. The skin material 15 is the same as the conventional one, with a urethane foam layer formed on the back surface of the skin, and is made of a material having appropriate flexibility and elasticity. In this embodiment, since the surface of the core material 14 is flat, a flat plate-shaped skin material 15 cut into the shape shown in FIG. 5 is used for the skin material 15 as well.

[0018] At the peripheral portion of the skin material 15, folding pieces are formed along the outer wall 16 of the core material 14 to fold back the end of the skin material 15. In the folding piece 24 of the straight portion 11, holes 26, 27, 28 for inserting the protrusions 19, 20, 21 are formed. In the folding piece 29 of the straight portion 12, a square hole 30 for inserting the protrusion 22 is formed. As shown in FIG. 2, at the straight portions 11 and 12, the end of the skin material 15 can be easily folded back without causing wrinkles, and these holes 26, 27, 28 and the square hole 30 are inserted into the protrusions 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 on the back surface of the core material 14 to fix the end of the skin material 15 to the core material 14. However, at the curved corner portion 13, wrinkles are inevitably generated when the skin material 15 is folded back. In order to prevent these wrinkles from appearing on the surface and side surface of the core material 14, in the present invention, the following fixing structure is adopted.

[0019] First, as shown in FIG. 5, two projecting pieces 31, 32 are formed at the corner portion of the skin material 15 in FIG. 5. Holes 33, 34 are formed at the tip portions of the respective projecting pieces 31, 32. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, on the back surface of the corner portion 13 of the core material 14, two protrusions 35, 36 are formed at a position slightly separated from the outer wall 16. The protrusion 35 is larger than the protrusion 36. These protrusions 35, 36 are arranged at a position at a substantially constant distance from the outer wall 16. In this embodiment, the distance of the protrusions 35, 36 from the outer wall 16 is 15 to 40 mm, but it can be appropriately changed according to the size of the console lid 10.

[0020] Next, while referring to FIG. 6, the fixing procedure of the skin material 15 at the corner portion 13 will be described. FIG. 6 shows the corner portion 13 at the lower left of FIG. 2, but it is substantially the same for the other corner portions 13.

[0021] First, as shown in (B) of FIG. 6, one projecting piece 31 of the corner portion 13 is pulled from between the projection 35 and the outer wall 16, and the hole 33 at the tip of the projecting piece 31 is inserted from the tip of the projection 36. Next, as shown in (C) of FIG. 6, the other projecting piece 32 is pulled from between the projection 36 and the outer wall 16, and the hole 34 at the tip is inserted from the tip of the projection 35. In this way, in the corner portion 13, the skin material 15 is fixed to the projections 35 and 36. Wrinkles generated in the corner portion of the skin material 15 are collected on the back surface of the core material 14 and do not appear on the front surface or side surfaces of the core material 14. As described above, since the skin material 15 is made of a material having appropriate flexibility and elasticity, the projecting pieces 31 and 32 are fixed in an elastically stretched state. In this embodiment, the projecting piece 31 and the projecting piece 32 are fixed in a crossed manner as shown in the figure, but crossing is not essential.

[0022] Merely fitting the end portion of the skin material 15 into the projections on the back surface of the core material 14 in this way may cause loosening. Therefore, in the present invention, the end portion of the skin material 15 is further welded to the back surface of the core material 14 at a large number of points over the entire circumference of the back surface of the core material 14. The positions of the welded portions 40 and 41 are shown in FIGS. 2 and 6(D). As the welding method, it is preferable to use a thermal welding or an ultrasonic welding method. The ultrasonic welding method is a method of vibrating and heating an object by oscillating an ultrasonic horn and applying it to the object for welding. Since the core material 14 is also a thermoplastic resin of the skin material 15, the end portion of the skin material 15 can be accurately and surely welded to the back surface of the core material 14. With such fixation by welding, fixation by a tacker or a bond becomes unnecessary. [[ID=⑦]] [[ID=⑧]]

[0023] [[ID=⑨]] [[ID=⑩]]FIG. 7 shows an image diagram of the corner portion after fixation. As shown in this figure, the projecting pieces 31 and 32 are in an elastically stretched state, and the hole 34 is also greatly stretched. Such stretching is effective in preventing wrinkles that inevitably occur in the corner portion 13 from appearing on the front surface or side surfaces of the core material 14. [[ID=⑪]] [[ID=⑫]]

[0024] [[ID=⑬]] In this way, the surface of the core material 14 is covered with the outer material 15, and then the inner lid is attached to the back surface of the core material 14, so that the back surface of the core material 14 is not exposed to the outside. Wrinkles that occur on the back side of the core material 14 at the corners 13 are also sealed inside the inner lid, resulting in an interior part with a superior appearance. This interior part covers the surface of the core material with the outer material without using staples or adhesives, and without leaving wrinkles on the surface of the corners. Moreover, by devising a fixing structure for the outer material 15 at the corners 13, even inexperienced workers can attach the outer material 15. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0025] 10 Console Lid 11. Straight section 12. Straight section 13. Curved corner section 14 Core material 15 Skin material 16 Exterior Wall 17 Protrusion 18 protrusions 19 Protrusion 20 protrusions 21 Protrusion 22 protrusions 23 Protrusion 24 Folded pieces 26 holes 27 holes 28 holes 29 Folded piece 30 square hole 31 Corner protrusions 32 Corner protrusions 33 holes 34 holes 35 Protrusion 36 Protrusion 40 Welded area 41 Welded area

Claims

1. An interior component comprising a core material having an outer wall around it and numerous protrusions formed on its back surface, with the surface of the core material covered with a surface material, In the straight section of the core material, the end of the surface material is folded back and inserted into a number of protrusions formed on the back surface of the core material. At the corner of the core material, two protrusions provided at the corner of the surface material are engaged with two projections formed at a position away from the outer wall on the back surface of the core material. An interior component covered with a surface material, characterized in that the edges of the surface material are heat-welded or ultrasonically welded to the back surface of the core material at numerous points along the entire circumference of the back surface of the core material.

2. An interior component covered with a surface material according to claim 1, wherein the corner portion of the core material is curved.

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