Sealing, trimming or finishing strips and methods for making them

Abstract: A sealing, trimming or finishing strip, for use in vehicle body construction for example, comprises two strip members (5,6) such as made by extrusion from vulcanised rubber which are joined together by a corner piece (8) produced by an over-moulding process. The over-moulding process is a bi-injection process. It produces relatively hard thin layers (10,12) of thermoplastic elastomer which respectively form interfaces with the vulcanised rubber of the two strip members (5,6). Relatively soft thermoplastic elastomer material (14) is positioned between and interconnects the relatively hard layers (10,12). By ensuring that the only interfaces are between (a) between the vulcanised rubber of the strip-like members (5,6) and the relatively hard thin layers (10,12), and (b) between the relatively hard layers (10,12) and the relatively soft material (14), risk of subsequent rupture between the strip-like members (5,6) and the overmoulded part (8) is reduced.

Description: The invention relates to a sealing, trimming or finishing strip, comprising two channel-shaped base parts joined together by an added part which is over-moulded onto and between the base parts, the added part comprising a soft body portion. The invention also relates to a method of making a sealing, trimming or finishing strip, comprising the steps of forming two channel-shaped base parts and joining them together by means of an added part which is over-moulded onto and between the base parts, the added part comprising a soft body portion. Such a strip and such a method are shown in US-A-5 505 602. Here, two weather strips are joined together by a moulded-on corner piece. The invention is concerned with the problem of ensuring a good connection between each end of the weather strip and the moulded-on corner piece. In accordance with the invention, therefore, the strip as first set forth above is characterised in that the added part also comprises respective layers of harder material which mouldedly connect each base part with the body portion. Furthermore, the method as first set forth above is characterised in accordance with the invention in that the steps of forming respective layers of harder material on the body portion which connect each base part with the soft body portion. Sealing, trimming or finishing strips embodying the invention, and methods according to the invention from making such strips, will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing which shows a side view of one of the sealing, trimming or guiding strips such as used in vehicle body construction. As shown in the Figure, a sealing, trimming or finishing strip comprises two strip members 5,6 which are joined together by an added part in the form of a corner piece 8. The strip members 5,6 may be lengths of soft material for sealing purposes, for example, of channel-shape (viewed from the side in the Figure) such as for guiding a window glass. Preferably, the strip members 5 and 6 are produced from rubber by an extrusion process, the rubber then being vulcanised in any suitable way. It is often required to modify extruded strip-like products of the form shown at 5 and 6, after extrusion, by adding other parts. A convenient way of carrying this out is by using an over-moulding process in which the extruded product or products is or are placed in a suitable mould and the added part produced by over-moulding such as by means of injection moulding. As shown in the Figure, an example of the use of such an over-moulding process is to produce the corner piece 8 for joining the two strip members 5,6 together at a right angle. In accordance with the invention, the over-moulding process used to form the corner piece 8 is a bi-injection process, forming the corner piece 8 from hard and soft thermoplastic elastomer or other suitable materials. As shown more particularly, the corner piece 8 is formed to produce thin layers 10,12 of relatively hard injected material and a wider layer 14 of relatively softer injected material. The injected material is preferably a thermoplastic elastomer. In this way, the interfaces which exist in the corner piece 8 are only (a) between vulcanised rubber (strip members 5,6) and hard thermoplastic elastomer (layers 10,12), and (b) between hard thermoplastic elastomer (layers 10,12) and soft thermoplastic elastomer (layer 14). It is found that the use of such a bi-injection process producing relatively hard and relatively soft over-moulded layers of thermoplastic elastomer produces a substantially stronger connection to the vulcanised rubber with significantly reduced risk of rupture during use. In particular, the risk of such rupture is significantly reduced as compared with a corresponding risk which arises if a simple injection process is used to connect the two rubber strip members 5,6 with a single layer of over-moulded soft thermoplastic elastomer.

Claims: A sealing, trimming or finishing strip, comprising two channel-shaped base parts (5,6) joined together by an added part (8) which is over-moulded onto and between the base parts (5,6), the added part (8) comprising a soft body portion (14), characterised in that the added part (8) also comprises respective layers of harder material (10,12) which mouldedly connect each base part (5,6) with the body portion (14). A strip according to claim 1, characterised in that each base part (5,6) is produced by extrusion. A strip according to claim 2, characterised in that each base part (5,6) is made of vulcanised rubber. A strip according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the soft body portion (14) and the harder layers (10,12) of the added part (8) are made from thermoplastic elastomer material. A strip according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the added part (8) is over-moulded onto the base parts (5,6) by a bi-injection process. A strip according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the added part (8) is a corner piece between the two base parts (5,6) which are inclined to each other. A method of making a sealing, trimming or finishing strip, comprising the steps of forming two channel-shaped base parts (5,6) and joining them together by means of an added part (8) which is over-moulded onto and between the base parts (5,6), the added part (8) comprising a soft body portion (14), characterised by the steps of forming respective layers (10,12) of harder material on the body portion (14) which connect each base part (5,6) with the soft body portion (14). A method according to claim 7, characterised by the step of forming each base part (5,6) by extrusion. A method according to claim 8, characterised in that each base part (5,6) is made of vulcanised rubber. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterised in that the soft body portion and the harder layers of the added part (8) are made from thermoplastic elastomer material. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 10, characterised in that the added part (8) is over-moulded onto the base parts (5,6) by a bi-injection process. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterised in that the added part (8) is a corner piece between the two base parts (5,6) which are inclined to each other. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 12, characterised in that it is for use in vehicle body construction.

Inventors: LEGROS HERVEE, LEGROS, HERVEE
Applicants: GENCORP PROPERTY INC, GENCORP PROPERTY INC.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: B29C70
IPC codes: B29C70, B29C65