Abstract:
In order to make weather seals from closed cell elastomer foam material, molten plastic is extruded over a substrate of the foam material. Surface reactions during extrusion are avoided by continuously pulling the substrate through an oven chamber to degas (and remove moisture from) the material at least on its outside to a limiting thickness of the order of 10-30 mil to form a skin or crust. The extrusion of the over-coating is carried out to form a sleeve while the substrate is still hot. Since the skin is a degassed region on the outside of the foam substrate, reactions which may cause blistering and prevent the extrusion of a smooth and firmly adhering skin are avoided. The substrate material is preferably a thermosetting EPDM rubber closed cell foam, and the over coating material is a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE).

Description:
[0001]    The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for over-coating closed cell elastomeric foam material without engendering reactions which may cause blistering or bubbling at the surface of the foam during coating. The invention is especially suitable for use in making foam weather seals.  
           [0002]    Weather seals have been made of closed-cell plastic foam material which are over-coated to form a skin having a lower coefficient of friction than the foam material, see, for example, the following patents: Waskewicz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,260, issued Dec. 9, 1982; Yackiw, U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,273, issued May 4, 1982; Yardley, U.S. Pat No. 4,537,825, issued Aug. 27, 1985; Yackiw, U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,564, issued Aug. 29, 1985; Collinder, U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,380, issued Sep. 3, 1985; Yackiw, U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,785, issued Apr. 14, 1987; and Mertinooke, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,586, issued Mar. 9, 1993.  
           [0003]    It has been found that when the coating is over preformed plastic or thermoset elastomer foam material such as closed-cell EPDM rubber, reactions occur during extrusion which give rise to bubbles and poor adhesion of the coating. Such rubbers have been developed in the past, see, for example, Brenner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,780, issued Jan. 1, 1980, however, neither the problem caused by the extrusion of the molten plastic for over-coating has not been either addressed or solved.  
           [0004]    Accordingly, it is the principal object of the invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for making weather seals utilizing flexible strips (preferably cylinders or tubes) of closed-cell foam material such as thermosetting EPDM.  
           [0005]    It is a further object of the present invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for over-coating a skin of plastic material by extrusion thereof on a closed-cell foam substrate, which is operative to raise the temperature of the substrate above a temperature critical to induce off-gassing of any materials or moisture in the pores thereby substantially eliminating the release of gas from the pores during over-coating, which can affect the quality of the coating.  
           [0006]    It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved method of over-coating closed-cell foam materials which enables such materials to be prefabricated and unwound from reels into an extruder which carries out the over-coating process.  
           [0007]    It is still a further object of the present invention to provide improved methods and apparatus for over-coating foam material in the production of weather-stripping or other products using the foam material by pre-curing, pre-heating or out-gassing a surface layer of the foam while the foam is fed through an oven chamber through which heated air is blown.  
           [0008]    Briefly described, a weather seal made in accordance with the invention has a flexible foam substrate which prior to the extrusion of a skin of molten plastic material is heated to outgas at least a surface layer thereof. This layer is a crust which is essentially devoid of cells from which gas can be released. Accordingly, during extrusion and over-coating, the foam substrate is essentially unreactive with the skin material and the quality of the skin as regards to its adhesion to the substrate and smoothness is improved. 
       
    
    
       [0009]    The forgoing and other objects features and advantages of the invention, as well as a presently preferred embodiment of the apparatus for carrying out the invention will become more apparent from a reading of the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating an embodiment of the invention;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus for driving and preheating a closed-foam plastic elastomeric substrate prior to extrusion of a plastic over-coating thereon;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the closed-foam substrate after preheating and outgassing to form a crust or skin;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 taken from the right side;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is a cross-section of the weather seal product as it is wound on the finished product reel for shipment to the customer; and  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is a side elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]    Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a first extruder  10  which extrudes an attachment member  50  which is part of the finished weather seal (see FIG. 5). The attachment member is illustrated as a T-shaped strip  50  of plastic material, suitably polypropylene, which is inserted in a T-slot which holds the weather seal in a window frame or jam in a manner, as is conventional in fenestration applications. The attachment strip is cooled in a water bath  13  and is advanced along a path through the process by a puller  14 , which may be provided by a pair of belts which engage the strip  50  on opposite sides thereof. The strip  50  bypasses the process which is provided in accordance with a feature of this invention for handling the thermosetting foam elastomer  51 , which is the core or substrate to which the attachment strip  50  and the rest of the material providing the weather seal is secured. The attachment member  50  proceeds to an extruder  17  which attaches the strip  50  to the foam substrate and applies a coating  52  which is of a material that protects the foam and serves as a low-friction skin (the coefficient of friction of the skin  52  being less than the coefficient of friction of the foam substrate  51 ), as shown in FIG. 5.  
         [0017]    The foam substrate  51  is prefabricated, and is in the form of a cylindrical body, preferably a tube  51 , as shown in FIG. 3. The tube is wound on a reel  15 . The reel  15  is also shown in FIG. 4. The foam substrate  51  is preferably a thermosetting, elastomeric (rubber) foam material. A suitable foam is a closed-cell, non-oil resistant grade 2 EPDM rubber. This material is defined by standard ASTM D-1056. It may have a compression load deflection of from 3 to 15 pounds per foot at 50% of its outer diameter. It will be appreciated, of course, that the material used for the tube may be of different sizes. The size may vary from 50 mils to 600 mils in diameter (O.D.). The wall thickness of the tube may vary from approximately 25 mils to 300 mils. The cross-section of the substrate is preferably tubular, however, it may be a solid cylinder or have other cross-sectional shapes such as square, hexagonal or diamond shape, depending upon the application for the weather seal. The material of the coating  52 , which is applied by the extruder  17  is preferably a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). It has been found that a rubberized polypropylene is a suitable TPE material.  
         [0018]    The foam substrate  51 , is outgassed in an oven  16 . This oven is part of the apparatus shown in greater detail in FIGS. 2, 4 and  6 . The apparatus assures a sufficient dwell time in the oven and a sufficient temperature to induce off-gassing in a surface layer or crust  54 , as shown in FIG. 3. This crust may be approximately 10-30 mil thick.  
         [0019]    While the invention is not limited to any theory for the formation of the crust, it is presently believed that the crust is formed as follows. Due to the heating to a critical temperature, say approximately 230° F., the foam core expands, that is its outer diameter increases approximately 10% to 30% depending on the size and composition of the foam and the process speed and temperature. In the process of increasing diameter, volatile gasses and moisture in the pores in an outer layer  54  of the foam are released. The remaining foam is without pores and therefore has a texture somewhat like the crust  54 , as shown in FIG. 3.  
         [0020]    Upon leaving the oven  16 , the material cools slightly and may, for example, be about 200° F. upon reaching the extrusion dye  17   a  of the extruder  17 . The attachment strip  50  is combined and fed along the outside of the foam substrate  51 , reaching approximately to the outer surface of the substrate as shown in FIG. 5. Then, the TPE in molten form is extruded to form the coating  52 . The molten TPE may, for example, be about 400° F. Because of the crust, and the elevated temperature of the foam substrate  51 , there is provided a stable region which is not reactive with the over-coating TPE material. Accordingly, there is no blistering or bubbling as would occur if the foam were not outgassed prior to overcoating in the extruder  17 . The coating  52  obtained is therefore smooth and adheres completely to the substrate  51  thereby providing a product of increased quality over that which would be provided without the oven and outgassing process provided by the invention.  
         [0021]    The overcoated substrate  51 , with the attachment strip  50  secured thereto by the overcoating  52 , is then passed through a water bath  18  and cooled, the cooled, totally solidified, weather seal is advanced by means of a puller mechanism  19  which may be similar to the puller  14 . The weather seal is then fed over a dancer  56  and grabbed by a winding mechanism  20  which winds the weather seal product on a spool for shipment to the customer.  
         [0022]    Referring to FIGS. 2, 4 and  6 , the apparatus which provides the oven  16  is shown in greater detail. The oven itself, is a U-shaped, sheet-metal box. The metal may preferably be stainless steel to withstand the temperatures involved. The box in operation is closed by a cover  58 , which is not shown in FIG. 2 to illustrate the internals of the oven. The oven is open at the bottom and also at the top so that a plurality of turns of the substrate may be reeled through the oven. These turns are provided by pulleys  26  and  27  at opposite ends of the oven. These pulleys are driven positively by a drive mechanism including a motor  31  which is connected to a drive pulley system including belts within guards  32  and  37 . The belts are connected to the shaft of the pulley. In a typical embodiment, the length of the oven chamber  16  may be six feet and there may be seven turns of the substrate foam around the pulleys. The feed rate of the substrate may be sixty feet per minute. This rate may be kept constant and the temperature in the oven changed in order to accommodate different sizes of substrate, that is the temperature may be higher for larger diameter substrate and lower for smaller diameter substrate.  
         [0023]    The oven is heated by a forced air blower system. A pair of centrifugal blowers  24   a  and  24   b  are situated at the top of manifolds  23  and  30 . The manifolds are of a length corresponding to the length of the oven chamber  16 . The manifolds are connected to the oven chamber by tubes  25   a  and  25   b  which are spaced from each other longitudinally along the sides of the oven chamber to provide a more or less uniform flow of air into the oven chamber. The tubes  25   a  and  25   b  may be electrically heated by heater wire on the inside thereof. The controls for the drive motors and heaters may be in a box  22  which is electrically connected to circuitry in enclosures  33  and  34 . The manifolds and the enclosures are mounted on a movable framework  28 . The framework is movable by virtue of lower legs thereof being mounted on casters.  
         [0024]    The substrate is supplied from a reel  15  which is mounted on a journal having sufficient friction to provide back tension against the force applied to the substrate by the pulley  26  and  27  and its motor drive  31 . In the event that the substrate is fragile, the spool  15  may be motor driven via a clutch which provides the necessary back tension.  
         [0025]    Incoming substrate  51  is first wound around the lower pulley  27 . The outgoing substrate after heating also leaves at the lower pulley  27 . The substrate is then fed to a tensioner  21 . A pair of rollers having peripherys in contact but with grooves to permit the substrate  51  to pass are located and the input and output sides  63  and  64  of the tensioner  21 . The tensioner is therefore between the oven and the extruder as will be further apparent from FIG. 1.  
         [0026]    The purpose of the tensioner is to minimize the force applied to the substrate foam  51  by the puller  19 . To this end, the tensioner has a weighted shuttle  68  which rides on wire guides  70 . The shuttle has a roller  73  which contacts the substrate  51 . As the tension increases, a loop of the substrate  51  between the side rollers  63  and  64  on opposite sides of the shuttle changes in size. When the tension increases, the shuttle moves upward, and when the tension decreases, the shuttle increases the size of the loop. An ultrasonic sensor  75  measures the distance between the shuttle and the face of the sensor. If the shuttle is above an upper limit, the sensor detects this condition and increases the speed of the motor  31  which drives the pulleys  26  and  27  so as to increase the size of the loop. If the shuttle is below a lower limit, the sensor detects this condition and decreases the speed of the motor  31  which drives the pulleys  26  and  27  so as to decrease the size of the loop. The tension of the foam substrate  51  is regulated by the weight of the shuttle which can be altered to handle very flimsy, small-diameter substrate material as well as large diameter material.  
         [0027]    From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that there has been provided improved methods and apparatus for fabricating weather seals of the type utilizing elastomeric (rubber) foam substrates which are coated with a skin to provide the weather seal. Variations and modifications in the herein described methods and apparatus will undoubtedly suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, such as the use of open cell elastomeric foam substrates or the co-fabrication of the foam substrate during the fabrication of the weather seal. Accordingly, the foregoing description should be taken as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.