Patent ID: 6821465
Filing Date: 2004-11-23
Classification: B29C,B29K,B29L,B60R

Abstract:
A process for manufacturing a door trim panel with an integral soft armrest pad comprising the steps of:(a) providing a male steam chest mold half and a female steam chest mold half; (b) loading and restraining a cover material onto the female mold half; (c) closing the male mold half relative to the female mold half to a fill position wherein a mold cavity is formed; (d) inserting at least one divider device into the mold cavity to separate the mold cavity into at least one low density volume and at least one high density volume; (e) filling the high density volume of the mold cavity with a quantity of a first polymeric material; (f) filling the low density volume of the mold cavity with a quantity of a second polymeric material, independently of filling of the high density area; (g) withdrawing the at least one divider device from the mold cavity; and (h) heating the first and second polymeric materials, using steam supplied through vapor holes in the mold halves at a temperature not less than the temperature at which particles of each of the first and second polymeric materials are melt bonded together, including where particles from the first polymeric material contact particles from the second polymeric material; whereby the low density volume becomes the integral soft armrest pad at the completion of the process.