Soft touch interior trim for vehicles

Abstract

Soft touch interior trim for vehicles having a substrate, a soft touch layer and a double layered synthetic skin having a low weight, and comprising a decorative front layer and a supporting back layer with a filler. The synthetic skin has a reduced weight, and a good behavior when the airbag placed under the interior trim is triggered, in order to ensure a reliable release of the airbag and at the same time fulfilling the high quality aesthetic requirements usually demanded for this kind of interior parts, even after years of use.

Claims

1. Soft touch interior trim for vehicles comprising: a substrate, a soft touch layer, a synthetic skin having: a decorative front layer, and a supporting back layer, wherein the decorative front layer and the supporting back layer are intimately bonded to each other, wherein the total thickness of the synthetic skin is less than 1.2 mm, the thickness of the supporting back layer is greater than the thickness of the decorative front layer, wherein, the supporting back layer comprises a filler with a maximum size less than 0.4 mm and a weight ratio less than 10% of the total weight of the supporting back layer so as to start tearing of the synthetic skin along predefined points before it starts to flow during deployment of an airbag; wherein the filler modifies a surface of the synthetic skin in contact with the soft touch layer into a rough surface for adherence between the synthetic skin and the soft touch layer; wherein the filler comprises cellulose fibers.

2. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1 wherein the soft touch layer is either a spacer fabric, or a foam.

3. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1 wherein the maximum size of the filler is less than 0.3 mm.

4. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1 wherein the supporting back layer is a foam.

5. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 4, wherein the cellulose fibers provide homogeneous distribution of discontinuities in the supporting back layer.

6. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1 wherein the material of the synthetic skin is processed by slush molding.

7. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 6 wherein the material of the synthetic skin is selected from the group of polyvinyl chloride, thermoplastic elastomer and thermoplastic polyurethane.

8. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1, wherein the cellulose fibers are viscose fibers.

9. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 8, wherein the substrate comprises a plastic matrix.

10. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 9, wherein the viscose fibers provide homogeneous distribution of discontinuities in the supporting back layer.

11. The soft touch interior trim for vehicles according to claim 1, wherein the cellulose fibers provide homogeneous distribution of discontinuities in the supporting back layer.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) The present specification is completed by a set of figures that illustrate a preferred embodiment and in no way limit the invention.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic sectional view of the soft touch interior trim for vehicles where the different layers of its structure can be appreciated.

(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic enlarged view of the detail D represented in the FIG. 1 according to a first embodiment.

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic enlarged view of the detail D represented in the FIG. 1 according to a second embodiment.

(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic enlarged view of the detail D represented in the FIG. 1 according to a third embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(6) FIG. 1 shows the soft touch interior trim (1) for vehicles of the invention. It comprises: a substrate (2), a soft touch layer (3), and a synthetic skin (4) having: a decorative front layer (4.1), and a supporting back layer (4.2).

(7) The decorative front layer (4.1) and the supporting back layer (4.2) are intimately bonded each other. This means that the mechanical properties of the supporting back layer (4.2.) are transferred to the whole synthetic skin (4), improving this way its behaviour.

(8) The substrate (2) layer can be made for example of plastic material such as polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or can be made of composite material, such as a plastic matrix with any kind of reinforcing material.

(9) The soft touch layer (3) can be a spacer fabric, or a foam made for example of polyurethane (PU).

(10) The synthetic skin (4) can be made for example of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), or thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).

(11) This kind of materials is usually processed by slush molding. So the synthetic skin (4) of the invention is preferably manufactured by slush molding.

(12) Preferably both the decorative front layer (4.1) and the supporting back layer (4.2) are made of the same material family, but they could as well be made of different material families.

(13) The total thickness of the synthetic skin (4) is less than 1.2 mm, preferably less than 1 mm, wherein the thickness of the supporting back layer (4.2) is greater than the thickness of the decorative front layer (4.1).

(14) According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the thickness of the supporting back layer (4.2) is 0.6 mm and the thickness of the decorative front layer (4.1) is 0.4 mm.

(15) Additionally, as FIG. 2 shows, the supporting back layer comprises a filler (5) with a maximum size less than 0.4 mm, preferably less than 0.3 mm, and a weight ratio less than 10% of the total weight of the supporting back layer (4.2).

(16) The filler can be chosen from microparticles, fibers, and microspheres.

(17) In the case of microparticles, these can be chosen from natural, synthetic, and mineral materials.

(18) In the case of fibers, these can be chosen from natural, artificial, synthetic, and mineral materials. Particularly, one preferred example is the use of cellulose fibers, either natural or artificial, such as viscose. Other preferred example is the use chopped fibers made of basalt or glass.

(19) In the case of microspheres these can be chosen from synthetic and mineral materials.

(20) In the particular case in which the filler (5) comprises fibers, the adherence between the synthetic skin (4) and soft touch foam layer (3) is considerably improved due to the aspect ratio of the fibers.

(21) In general, any kind of filler (5) which achieves to modify the surface of the synthetic skin (4) in contact with the soft touch foam layer (3) into a rough surface improves the adherence between both layers (3, 4).

(22) This increase even more the transfer of the mechanical properties from the supporting back layer (4.2) to the whole assembly, improving this way the correct tearing of the synthetic skin (4) when the airbag is triggered.

(23) According to an improvement of the invention shown in FIG. 3, the supporting back layer (4.2) is a foam. In order to reduce even more the total weight of the synthetic skin (4), once the mechanical behaviour of the skin is improved due to the addition of the filler (5), it is possible to foam the supporting back layer, keeping the mechanical behaviour of the assembly under control. Therefore the supporting back layer (4.2) comprises the filler (5) formed in this particular case by fibers, and voids or cells (6) formed in the foam structure.

(24) According to a particular case represented in FIG. 4, the filler (5) comprises void microspheres (7) which allow, in addition to the induction of an homogeneous distribution of discontinuities, a syntactic foaming effect, achieving as well this way an additional weight reduction.