Patent Description:
With rapid development of automotive technology, encapsulation products for auto glass are becoming more and more diverse and complex. Generally, an encapsulation is formed on a periphery of a piece of auto glass via an injection molding process, so as to improve sealing property, noise reduction performance, and safety of the auto glass. The publications <CIT> and <CIT> both relate to such kind of encapsulation to be implemented on an auto glass.

According to a Chinese patent application whose Publication Number is <CIT>, an automobile rear corner window assembly is disclosed. Referring to <FIG>, a schematic diagram of the automobile rear corner window assembly according to the above mentioned Chinese patent application is illustrated. The automobile rear corner window assembly includes: a piece of glass <NUM>, and a glass encapsulation <NUM> formed on a periphery of the piece of glass <NUM>. Further, the glass encapsulation <NUM> includes a coating glue surface <NUM>, a lip <NUM> and a glue slot <NUM>. The glue slot <NUM> which is formed on the coating glue surface <NUM> is used for being coated with glass glue. The glue slot <NUM> is able to prevent transverse flow of the glass glue, so as to avoid glue leakage. The lip <NUM> which is configured to have a sheet shape can deform under compression. The glass encapsulation <NUM> is formed via an injection molding process.

The injection molding process includes: plasticizing a raw material, so as to form a solution; thereafter, injecting the solution into a mold cavity where the solution cools and hardens, so as to form an injection-molded part which matches with a shape of the mold cavity.

However, when conventional technologies are applied to form the glass encapsulation, the solution would shrink in the mold cavity due to the cooling process, thus shrink marks may appear on a surface of the encapsulation. As a result, the glass encapsulation formed by injection molding has a dimension smaller than the designed dimension. Accordingly, the glass encapsulation is incapable of well matching with other parts of an automobile window, and the shrink marks formed on the surface of the encapsulation also affect aesthetic appearance of the automobile.

The purpose of the present disclosure is to reduce or eliminate shrink marks on an encapsulation formed by an injection molding process, and also provide vehicle window components with less shrink marks.

According to the present invention, a method for manufacturing a vehicle window component according to claim <NUM> is provided.

A basic concept is that, by adhering an elastic body to a surface of a vehicle window substrate which is close to a lateral side of the vehicle window substrate, disposing the lateral side together with the elastic body into a mold cavity and implementing an injection molding process to form an encapsulation thereon, the thickness of the formed encapsulation can be reduced because of the existence of the elastic body, which means the thickness of the solution injected onto the window substrate for forming the encapsulation is reduced. Therefore, a difference between an inside temperature of the solution and the surface temperature thereof, which would result in different shrink ratios, may not be too great. Furthermore, the elastic body which is disposed in the encapsulation of the vehicle window is able to relieve stress during the cooling of the solution. When the shrink ratio of the inner portion is inconsistent with that of the outer surface of the injection molding solution, the elastic body is able to relieve the shrinkage of the outer surface of the injection molding solution during the cooling molding process. Thus, shrink marks of the encapsulation are able to be reduced or eliminated.

In one case, the elastic body is porous. The porous elastic body is able to play an effective role of supporting a solidifying of the plasticized solution. Further, the porous elastic body has better elasticity, thus stress caused by shrink ratio difference of the injection molding solution is able to be balanced out, where the shrink ratio difference is caused by the temperature difference.

In one case, a ratio of a thickness of the elastic body to a thickness of the encapsulation is less than or equal to <NUM>%. Such a parameter preference is able to further reduce a cooling velocity difference between the inner portion and the outer portion of the injection molding solution. In addition, when the thickness of the encapsulation is not the same, the parameter preference is able to smooth the shrink ratio differences between different regions of the injection molding solution, so as to avoid shrink marks.

According to the invention, a minimum linear distance between the elastic body and an outer edge of the vehicle window substrate is larger than or equal to <NUM>, thus the encapsulation can encompass the elastic body and the vehicle window substrate well.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a vehicle window component according to claim <NUM> is provided.

A basic concept is that, the elastic body is able to restrain the inner stress of the vehicle window component, and well support the solidifying of the plasticized solution.

In one case, the elastic body is porous. The porous elastic body is able to reduce a weight of the vehicle window component, and provide a well support. Furthermore, the porous elastic body has an improved effect of stress restraining.

In one case, the encapsulation includes: a rigid plastic layer embracing the elastic body; and a flexible plastic layer overlaying at least a portion of the rigid plastic layer. During the formation of the encapsulation according to this embodiment, the shrink ratios of different parts of the encapsulation may have minor difference. Plus the stress restraining effect benefited from the elastic body, shrink marks may be further reduced.

Automobile encapsulations formed by injection molding processes tend to have shrink marks, the shrink marks will affect aesthetic appearance of automobile and lead to undesired dimensions of the glass encapsulations, thus the glass encapsulations are not able to well match with other parts of automobile windows.

Through deep analysis of existing technical processes and principles of the injection molding process, reasons of shrink marks generated on surfaces of the automobile encapsulations are able to be conceived. Specifically, some automobile encapsulation products have large injection molding thicknesses, when injection molding solution cools in a mold cavity, an outer surface of the solution has lower temperature and cools faster, an inner portion of the solution has higher temperature and cools slower. As such, when the outer surface of the solution has already cooled down to shape up, the inner portion thereof has not been molded yet. Thereafter, during the cooling of the inner portion, the volume of the inner injection solution tends to reduce, so stress will be generated between the already molded outer portion and the shrinking inner portion. Therefore, convex and concave marks will be generated on the outer surface of the automobile encapsulation which has already been molded through cooling. In some other automobile encapsulation products, such as terrace-shaped automobile encapsulations, the thickness of the automobile encapsulations varies. In this case, at different positions of the automobile encapsulation, quantities of the solutions injected are different, so shrink ratios at the different positions are different. Therefore, shrink marks tend to appear on junctions between the different positions with different thicknesses.

Based on the above analysis, in the present disclosure, an encapsulation is formed via an injection molding process as follows: adhering an elastic body on a surface of a vehicle window substrate which is close to a lateral side of the vehicle window substrate; disposing the lateral side together with the elastic body into a mold cavity; and forming the encapsulation by injection molding. A solution is used in the injection molding, which is injected onto the lateral side and the elastic body. When the solution cools down and shape up, it constitutes the encapsulation. The elastic body occupies some amount of the designed volume of the encapsulation, so that the encapsulation formed on the elastic body can be made thinner, which means the thickness of the solution can be reduced. Therefore, a difference between an inside temperature of the solution and the surface temperature thereof may be reduced. Furthermore, the elastic body which is disposed in the encapsulation of the vehicle window is able to relieve stress during the cooling process of the solution. Accordingly, when the shrink ratio of the inner portion is inconsistent with that of the outer surface of the injection molding solution, the elastic body is able to reduce the shrinkage of the outer surface of the injection molding solution during the cooling molding process. Thus, shrink marks of the encapsulation are able to be reduced or eliminated.

Referring to <FIG>, a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a vehicle window component is illustrated, including follow steps.

S101, providing a vehicle window substrate and an elastic body.

In the present disclosure, the vehicle window substrate may be made of transparent material such as organic glass, polyvinyl chloride or inorganic glass. Further, the vehicle window substrate may be configured to have any suitable shape and size. In another word, there is no limitation to the specific shape and size of the vehicle window substrate. Person skilled in the art may select a preferable shape and size of the vehicle window substrate according to requirements of the vehicle window component being manufactured. Thus, present disclosure should not be limited by the shape and the size of the vehicle window substrate.

The elastic body may be made of triphenyl phosphate, vulcanized rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) rubber or polyurethane. The elastic body may be porous, so as to play an effective role of supporting the solidifying of the plasticized solution. In addition, the porous elastic body has better elasticity, thus stress caused by shrink ratio difference of the injection molding solution is able to be balanced out effectively, where the shrink ratio difference is caused by temperature difference.

In <FIG>, the vehicle window substrate <NUM> which is configured to have a triangle shape is taken as an example for illustration. It should be noted that the vehicle window substrate <NUM> may be configured to have a trapezoid shape, a rhombus shape or a rectangle shape.

A shape of the elastic body is determined by the shape and the size of the vehicle window substrate. As shown, referring to <FIG>, the elastic body <NUM> is configured to have a strip-shape which is corresponding to a surface of the vehicle window substrate, wherein the surface is close to a lateral side of the vehicle window substrate. Thus, the elastic body <NUM> is able to be easily adhered to the surface of the vehicle window substrate which is close to the lateral side of the vehicle window substrate. Thereafter, the elastic body <NUM> is able to be used for supporting the solidifying of the plasticized solution.

S102, adhering the elastic body to a surface of the vehicle window substrate, wherein the surface is close to a lateral side of the vehicle window.

Referring to <FIG>, the elastic body is adhered to the surface of the vehicle window substrate via an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive or a silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive.

The elastic body is fixed to the vehicle window substrate by means of adhering, thus the fixation will be simplified and the rework cost will be reduced.

In order to reduce the shrink marks of the vehicle window component in a solidifying process, an installation site of the elastic body <NUM> is set to be a surface of the vehicle window substrate, wherein the surface is close to the lateral side of the vehicle window substrate. By such way, in the cooling process thereafter, a cooling velocity of the inner portion of the plasticized solution and that of the outer portion of the plasticized solution tend to be consistent, and temperatures of the plasticized solution in different positions of the vehicle window component <NUM> also tend to be consistent. Accordingly, the entire vehicle window component may have uniform shrink ratio in the solidifying process, thus there is less possibility of generating severe shrink marks.

S103, implementing an injection molding process for forming an encapsulation which embraces the elastic body, wherein the injection molding process is performed at an injection molding temperature lower than a melting temperature of the elastic body.

In one case, the injection molding process is implemented to the lateral side which is adhered with the elastic body, for forming the encapsulation, by disposing the lateral side which is adhered with the elastic body into a mold cavity and implementing the injecting molding process for forming the encapsulation thereafter, wherein the encapsulation embraces the elastic body, and the mold cavity matches with the automobile glass encapsulation being formed.

It should be noted that, the elastic body is fixed to the surface of the vehicle window substrate, wherein the surface is close to the lateral side of the vehicle window substrate. Thus, in a cooling process of the injection molding process for forming the encapsulation, as the elastic body is embraced by the encapsulation, stress caused by inconsistence of the cooling velocity of the inner portion and that of the outer portion of the injection molding solution is able to be relieved by the elastic body. Furthermore, as the thickness of the formed encapsulation can be reduced because of the existence of the elastic body, the thickness of the solution injected onto the window substrate for forming the encapsulation is reduced. Thus, the temperature difference of the inner portion and that of the outer surface of the injection molding solution is reduced. Plus the stress restraining effect of the elastic body, shrinkage of the outer surface of the injection molding solution will be further relieved. Therefore, the shrink marks of the encapsulation may be reduced or eliminated.

Referring to <FIG>, sectional diagram of the vehicle window component along line A-A in <FIG> after the encapsulation being formed by the injection molding process is illustrated. It can be seen that, the encapsulation <NUM> is formed on a lateral side of the vehicle window substrate <NUM>, wherein the lateral side is adhered with the elastic body <NUM>.

Optionally, the elastic body is porous. The porous elastic body is able to play an effective role of supporting in the solidifying process. Further, the porous elastic body has better elasticity, thus stress caused by shrink ratio difference of the injection molding solution is able to be balanced out, where the shrink ratio difference is caused by the temperature difference.

Specifically, the injection molding process which is used for forming the encapsulation is implemented by: forming a plasticized solution; pouring the plasticized solution into a mold cavity where the plasticized solution shapes up through cooling.

It should be noted that, the injection molding process should be performed at an injection molding temperature lower than a melting temperature of the elastic body, thus the elastic body is able to maintain the stress restraining effect in the injecting molding process.

In order to make the encapsulation <NUM> encompassing the elastic body <NUM> and the vehicle window substrate <NUM> well, in one embodiment, a ratio of a thickness d1 of the elastic body <NUM> to a thickness d2 of the encapsulation <NUM> is less than or equal to <NUM>% (referring to <FIG>). The thickness d1 of the elastic body <NUM> refers to a distance between a top surface of the elastic body and a bottom surface of the elastic body; the thickness d2 of the encapsulation <NUM> refers to a distance between a top surface of the encapsulation and a bottom surface of the encapsulation. In one embodiment, the encapsulation <NUM> being formed has a top with a flat surface and a bottom with a flat surface, the thickness d2 of the encapsulation <NUM> refers to a distance between the flat surface of the top and the flat surface of the bottom. In another embodiment, the encapsulation <NUM> being formed has a top (or a bottom) with a arc-shaped surface and a bottom (or a top) with a flat surface, the thickness d2 of the encapsulation <NUM> refers to a distance between a tangent line of the arc-shaped surface of the top (or the bottom) and the flat surface of the bottom (or the top). In another embodiment, the encapsulation <NUM> being formed has a top and a bottom which are both have a arc-shaped surface, the thickness d2 of the encapsulation <NUM> refers to a distance between a tangent line of the arc-shaped surface of the top and a tangent line of the arc-shaped surface of the bottom. Furthermore, a minimum linear distance s between the elastic body <NUM> and an outer edge of the vehicle window substrate <NUM> is larger than or equal to <NUM> (referring to <FIG>).

In <FIG>, implementing an injection molding process for forming the encapsulation includes the follow steps.

S201, implementing the injection molding process for forming a rigid plastic layer.

The injection molding process is implemented to the lateral side which is adhered with the elastic body so as to form the rigid plastic layer. The rigid plastic layer may be made of polypropylene, polyamide, polyethylene or nylon <NUM>, so that the rigid plastic layer is able to have a larger strength. Therefore, the rigid plastic layer is able to effectively protect the transparent substrate from being damaged by external factors, and prevent rain and air from penetrating through.

The rigid plastic layer may have a thickness ranges from <NUM> to <NUM>. For example, the rigid plastic layer may have a thickness of <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, and so on, which may vary according to different requirements.

S202, implementing the injection molding process for forming a flexible plastic layer on at least a portion of the rigid plastic layer.

The flexible plastic layer may be made of thermoplastic elastic body or polyvinyl chloride, so as to achieve a better fitting with the vehicle.

The flexible plastic layer may have a thickness ranges from <NUM> to <NUM>. For example, the flexible plastic layer may have a thickness of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, and so on.

In practice, the flexible plastic layer may be formed on a portion of the rigid plastic layer, depending on requirements of the vehicle window component.

In other cases, the flexible plastic layer may overlay the entire rigid plastic layer.

In this case, the rigid plastic layer is formed firstly, and the flexible plastic layer is formed on the rigid plastic layer thereafter. In the step of forming the rigid plastic layer, the thickness of the rigid plastic layer is able to be selected flexibly. As the rigid plastic layer has a relatively high cooling velocity, and plus the stress restraining effect of the elastic body, different positions of the rigid plastic layer may have a synchronous cooling velocity. Accordingly, the shrink marks may not appear on the rigid plastic layer, thus the surface of the rigid plastic layer may have better uniformity and smoothness. Thereafter, the flexible plastic layer is able to be formed on a high quality rigid plastic layer. The flexible plastic layer itself is able to restrain the stress, and the elastic body which is fixed to the lateral side is also able to restrain the stress, thus an inner stress generated in the cooling process may have little effect to the flexible plastic layer. Therefore, shrink marks may not appear on the surface of the flexible plastic layer.

Referring to <FIG>, the present disclosure also provides a vehicle window component, including:.

Specifically, in the present disclosure, the vehicle window substrate may be made of transparent material such as organic glass, polyvinyl chloride or inorganic glass. Further, the vehicle window substrate may be configured to have any suitable shape and size. In another word, there is no limitation to the specific shape and size of the vehicle window substrate. Person skilled in the art may select a preferable shape and size of the vehicle window substrate according to requirements of the vehicle window component being manufactured.

The elastic body <NUM> may be made of triphenyl phosphate, vulcanized rubber, EPDM rubber or polyurethane. The elastic body may be porous, so as to play an effective role of supporting the solidifying of the plasticized solution. Further, the porous elastic body has better elasticity, thus a stress caused by shrink ratio difference of the plasticized solution is able to be balanced out, where the shrink ratio difference is caused by the temperature difference.

In order to make the encapsulation <NUM> encompassing the elastic body <NUM> and the vehicle window substrate <NUM> well, according to the invention, a ratio of a thickness of the elastic body <NUM> to a thickness of the encapsulation <NUM> is less than or equal to <NUM>%, and a minimum linear distance s between the elastic body <NUM> and an outer edge of the vehicle window substrate <NUM> is larger than or equal to <NUM>.

The elastic body is adhered to the surface of the vehicle window substrate via acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive or silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive.

In <FIG>, a vehicle window component is provided, including:.

In this figure, the rigid plastic layer <NUM> is formed firstly, and the flexible plastic layer <NUM> is formed on the rigid plastic layer <NUM> thereafter. In the step of forming the rigid plastic layer <NUM>, the thickness of the rigid plastic layer <NUM> is able to be selected flexibly. As the rigid plastic layer has a relatively high cooling velocity, and plus the stress restraining effect of the elastic body, different positions of the rigid plastic layer may have a synchronous cooling velocity. Accordingly, the shrink marks may not appear on the rigid plastic layer, thus the surface of the rigid plastic layer may have better uniformity and smoothness. Thereafter, the flexible plastic layer is able to be formed on a high quality rigid plastic layer. The flexible plastic layer itself is able to restrain the stress, and the elastic body which is fixed to the lateral side is also able to restrain the stress, thus an inner stress generated in the cooling process may have little effect to the flexible plastic layer. Therefore, shrink marks may not appear on the surface of the flexible plastic layer.

In this case, the flexible plastic layer <NUM> overlays the entire rigid plastic layer <NUM>.

Claim 1:
A method for manufacturing a vehicle window component, comprising:
providing a vehicle window substrate (<NUM>; <NUM>) and an elastic body (<NUM>; <NUM>); and
adhering the elastic body (<NUM>; <NUM>) to a surface of the vehicle window substrate (<NUM>), wherein the surface is close to a lateral side of the vehicle window substrate (<NUM>; <NUM>); and
implementing an injection molding process for forming an encapsulation (<NUM>; <NUM>), the injection molding process is performed at an injecting molding temperature lower than a melting temperature of the elastic body (<NUM>; <NUM>),
wherein the minimum linear distance between the elastic body (<NUM>; <NUM>) and the closest outer edge of the vehicle window substrate (<NUM>; <NUM>) is larger than or equal to <NUM>, and the encapsulation encompasses the elastic body (<NUM>; <NUM>) and the vehicle window substrate (<NUM>; <NUM>).