Patent ID: 6348172
Filing Date: 2002-02-19
Classification: B29C,B29K,B29L,B60R

Abstract:
Method of making a thermoplastic skin for a vehicle body panel and having a hidden tear seam providing a door through which an air bag may deploy be tearing the skin, comprising the steps of:designing the skin to have first and second planar skin surfaces which intersect at a sharp corner coincident with the location of the tear seam; providing a mold having a mold surface with first and second planar mold surface portions which intersect at a corner coincident with the location of the tear seam; orienting the mold in a stationary position with one of the first and second planar mold surface portions in a generally horizontal orientation and the other of the planar mold surface portions oriented in a generally vertical orientation; and spraying curable thermoplastic material onto both of the planar mold surface portions and controlling the curing of the sprayed material so that the sprayed material deposits in uniform thickness on the generally horizontally oriented one of the mold surfaces and so that gravity will induce flow down the generally vertically oriented surface of the mold at the corner and thereby provide a cured skin material which is of significantly lessened at the corner of the skin than at other regions of the skin whereby an integral hidden tear seam is provided for tearing upon deployment of an air bag against the skin.