A vehicle headliner includes a preformed headliner substrate which can be of molded construction and which includes an upper surface facing the roof of a vehicle. Attached at a plurality of locations on the upper surface of the headliner are magnets bonded to the upper surface of the headliner and positioned for engaging contact with aligned metallic vehicle roof structure once installed. In one preferred embodiment, the magnets are flexible extruded magnetic strips positioned to at least partially surround a relatively large aperture formed in the headliner such as one defining a sunroof opening. In a preferred embodiment of the invention also, the magnetic strips are attached to the headliner using a cushioning material such as a foam to provide acoustical damping for the headliner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention pertains to a vehicle headliner and particularly to a 
structure for mounting the headliner to the roof of a vehicle. 
Headliners have been attached to the roof of vehicles in a variety of 
manners. Some headliners are attached using screw or snap-in fasteners 
while others have employed adhesives. Hook and loop type fasteners such as 
VELCRO have also been recently employed. One difficulty with such 
fastening structures, including hook and loop fasteners, is that once 
attached the headliner locks into position and no longer can be shifted 
laterally thereby requiring that the alignment and attachment of the 
headliner to the vehicle roof be precise when it is initially made. This 
is difficult to achieve in an assemblyline environment. 
A particular problem area for attaching a headliner to the roof of a 
vehicle has been in the area of a sunroof where relatively large 
rectangular openings for the sunroof are required The edge of such opening 
formed through the roof of a vehicle frequently has little supporting roof 
structure immediately adjacent the opening. It is difficult therefore to 
adequately support the edges of the correspondingly aligned opening in the 
headliner. While a variety of vehicle accessories such as grab handles, 
visors, overhead consoles and the like have been used to assist in 
mounting headliners to a vehicle, the area near the sunroof has posed a 
continuous problem in terms of providing a neat trim appearance to the 
edge of the headliner while holding it closely adjacent the vehicle 
sunroof opening. 
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
The system of the present invention overcomes the difficulty of providing 
the efficient alignment and attachment of a headliner to a vehicle roof 
during assembly and provides a neat and trim appearance to the headliner 
area adjacent apertures of a vehicle such as a sunroof opening. The 
invention provides a mounting structure for a vehicle headliner which 
allows the headliner to be installed and move slightly into a final 
position during its installation. Headliners embodying the present 
invention include a preformed headliner substrate which can be of molded 
construction and which includes an upper surface facing the roof of a 
vehicle. Attached at one or more locations on the upper surface of the 
headliner is magnet means bonded to the upper surface of the headliner and 
positioned for engaging contact with aligned metallic vehicle roof 
structure once installed. 
In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the magnet means included a 
plurality of spaced elongated magnetic strips positioned to at least 
partially surround a relatively large aperture formed in the headliner 
such as one defining a sunroof opening. In a preferred embodiment of the 
invention also, the magnetic strips are attached to the headliner using a 
cushioning material such as a foam to provide acoustical damping for the 
headliner. 
Such construction allows the headliner to be initially placed in the roof 
of a vehicle during assembly of the vehicle and held using the magnetic 
strips which permit some shifting of the headliner into final alignment 
prior to the installation of grabhandles, visors and other vehicle 
accessories when employed. These and other features, objects and 
advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the 
following description thereof together with reference to the accompanying 
drawings in which:

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring initially to FIG. 1 there is shown an integrally formed and 
molded headliner 10 for mounting to cover the roof 25 of a vehicle 11 
(FIG. 3) such as an automobile. Shown in FIG. 1 is the top plan view of 
the headliner in which the upper surface 12 which faces the supporting 
roof structure when installed is shown. Opposite surface 12 is a 
decorative lower surface 13 covered by an upholstery material 14 (FIG. 3), 
such as a fabric, to provide a decorative surface exposed to the interior 
of the vehicle. Headliner 10 includes a relatively large rectangular 
central opening 16 defining a sunroof opening. Forward of opening 16 is a 
small rectangular opening 18 near the forward edge 19 of the headliner for 
receiving an overhead console such as an electronic compass module. On 
either corner near edge 19 are triangular apertures 20 and 22 for 
receiving visor mounting brackets therein Along the lateral sides of 
headliner 10 are rectangular slots 24, 26, 27 and 28 for receiving grab 
handles which are positioned above the vehicle doors. 
The headliner is a three-dimensional curvilinear shape made to conform to 
the vehicle roof for a given vehicle and defines the upper interior 
exposed surface of the vehicle. Headliner 10 can be made in a variety of 
presently employed commercial processes such as by molded material such as 
a resin impregnated compressed fibrous bat material defining a core or 
substrate 15 (FIG. 3) covered by the fabric 14 which can be integrated in 
the molding process. This headliner construction can be of the type 
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,910 entitled SOUND ABSORBING LAMINATE 
issued on May 9, 1989; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by 
reference. 
Mounted to the headliner adjacent the peripheral edge 17 of opening 16 and 
at least partially circumscribing opening 16 along at least three sides 
thereof are a plurality of magnetic mounting means such as flexible strip 
magnetic mounting assemblies 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38. Magnet assemblies 30 
and 38 are positioned laterally adjacent the sides of aperture 16 and 
spaced from the peripheral edge 17 of the aperture while magnet assemblies 
32, 34 and 36 are Positioned in generally equally spaced relationship 
adjacent and spaced from the rear facing edge of aperture 17. FIGS. 2 and 
3 illustrate a first embodiment of the magnet assemblies 30 which includes 
a foam polymeric pad 40 bonded to surface 12 of the headliner by a layer 
of hot melt adhesive 42. A flexible bar magnet 46 is mounted on the 
opposite side of pad 40 and is secured to the pad by a layer of adhesive 
44. 
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the hot melt glue 42 is applied 
using a conventional gun and the foam layer 40 was pressed over the bead 
of molten glue resulting in a final layer of adhesive having a thickness 
of from about 0.010 to about 0.015 inches The hot melt glue is a generally 
available type such as Findley Adhesive #1745. The foam layer 40 is a 
closed-cell PVC or cellular urethane with a density of approximately 7 to 
50 #/ft.sup.3 and in a preferred embodiment was 20 #/ft.sup.3. The 
thickness of the foam material ranges from about 0.080 to 0.4 inches 
depending upon the particular headliner and vehicle combination in which 
the attachment system is employed. The adhesive layer 44 is a pressure 
sensitive acrylic adhesive for withstanding the substantially high 
temperatures incurred in the roof area of a vehicle and a commercially 
available 3M adhesive such as 3M468 having a thickness of approximately 
0.005 inches roller coated to the surface of foam section 40 was employed. 
Magnet means 46 is an extruded flexible magnetic material which includes a 
iron ferrite bonded in a polymeric substrate such as NYLON with the 
ferrite constituting typically about 80 percent of the total volume of the 
magnetic strip 46 so formed Material for such magnets is commercially 
available from the Dynacast Magnetics Division of Flexmag Industries Inc., 
of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 
1-3, each of the magnetic strips were multiple-pole magnetized and had a 
thickness of from about 030 to 120 inches. The width ranged from 1/4 inch 
to 11/2 inches with the typical width being approximately 1 inch. In an 
alternative embodiment of the invention, the magnet means 46' is used in 
place of magnet 46 in FIGS. 1-3. Magnet means 46' includes, as seen in 
FIG. 4, a bipolar magnet 50 of the same material as magnet 46 but 
magnetized in a bipolar fashion. On either side of magnet 50 is a steel 
pole piece having a thickness of approximately 1/3 of the thickness of the 
magnetic material itself. The pole pieces 52 and 54 can be bonded to the 
sides of the magnetic 50 using the same 3M468 adhesive identified above. 
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the magnet 50 is preferably bipolar 
which concentrates the attractive force through the pole pieces with 
respect to the underlying sheet metal roof structure 25 (FIG. 3) of the 
vehicle. 
The headliner 10 of the present invention is installed during assembly of 
the vehicle typically by flexing the headliner and inserting it through 
the open windshield area of the vehicle on the assemblyline. The headliner 
is then inserted upwardly in general alignment for installation with the 
magnetic strips 30-38 securing the edge of the headliner proximate the 
sunroof opening 16 in adjacent relationship to the vehicle roof and in 
general alignment with the remaining underlying support structures of the 
other accessory apertures of the headliner. The utilization of the 
magnetic strips permit the headliner to be relatively easily shifted for 
precise alignment as necessary while holding the headliner in position for 
assembly of the remaining structural elements including visors, 
grabhandles, consoles, maplamps and the like. The utilization of the 
cushioning material isolates the headliner from the underlying support 
structure and therefore provides additional acoustical damping allowing 
the elimination of additional acoustical damping material sometimes 
required. Although rectangular strips of flexible magnetic material were 
used in the preferred embodiment of the invention, other magnetic material 
and shapes could also be used in the system of the present invention. 
These and other modifications of the preferred embodiments of the present 
as described herein can be made without departing from the spirit or scope 
thereof as defined by the appended claims.