Patent Application
20240416848
In current vehicles, such as automobiles, heating provided to the occupants is realized by air conditioning of the vehicles. However, the heating effect of automobile air conditioners is slow for occupants, especially for some parts of the body, there are blind spots for heating, and the heating consumes a lot of energy, and especially will have an influence on the cruising range of electric vehicles.
In one embodiment, the air-conditioning heating scheme will generate an amount of noise, and the thermal air flow of the air-conditioning heating may also cause dryness and discomfort to the occupants' faces and eyes.
Therefore, an interior trim and an interior component for a vehicle are needed to improve the user experience of an occupant.
The present disclosure provides an interior trim for a vehicle.
The present disclosure provides an interior component for a vehicle.
The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing an interior trim for a vehicle.
The present disclosure provides an interior trim for a vehicle according to embodiments of the disclosure. The interior trim includes a decorative layer having an outer surface and an inner surface; and a heating configuration including a first heating layer, an electrode, and a second heating layer, and the heating configuration is located on the inner surface of the decorative layer; wherein the first heating layer and the second heating layer both include a heating element extending in the plane of the heating layer, and the heating element is made of heating carbon material; and the first heating layer and the second heating layer are connected with the electrode on its outer side and inner side respectively to fix the electrode, and the he first heating layer, the electrode and the second heating layer form a sandwich-like structure.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the electrode is a copper wire mesh.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the heating carbon material comprises at least one among carbon nanotube, carbon fiber, and graphene.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the heating element of the first heating layer is screen-printed on the inner surface side of the decorative layer, and the heating element of the second heating layer is screen-printed on the electrode.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the interior trim further includes a first isolating layer, and the first isolating layer is located between the first heating layer and the decorative layer, to isolate the first heating layer and the decorative layer.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the interior trim further includes a substrate, and the substrate is set on the inner side of heating configuration, to support the heating configuration.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the interior trim further includes a second isolating layer, and the second isolating layer is located between the second heating layer and the substrate, to isolate the second heating layer and the substrate.
Further, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the interior trim further includes a connector connecting the electrode, and the connector being connected to an ECU to control the operation of the heating configuration.
In addition, the present disclosure provides an interior component for a vehicle according to embodiments of the disclosure, and the interior component includes the interior trim according to the above-mentioned embodiments of the disclosure, and an interior component body, and the interior trim is set on the interior component body, and the outer surface of the decorative layer of the interior trim provides at least part of a surface of the interior component.
In addition, the present disclosure provides method of manufacturing an interior trim for a vehicle according to embodiments of the disclosure, and the method includes following steps: preparing a decorative layer; preparing a first heat generating layer on the inner side of the decoration layer; setting an electrode to the first heating layer; and preparing a second heating layer to the electrode on its inner side.
The above embodiments of the present disclosure will be better understood after reading the detailed description of the embodiments of the present disclosure in conjunction with the following figures. In the figures, components are not necessarily drawn to scale, and components having similar related features may have the same or similar reference numerals.
The implementations of the present disclosure are described below by some embodiments. Embodiment of the present disclosure from the contents disclosed in the description. Although the description of the present disclosure is introduced together with other embodiments, it does not mean that the features of the present disclosure are limited to the embodiments. On the contrary, the purpose of introducing the present disclosure in combination with the embodiments is to cover other embodiments that may be extended based on the claims of the present disclosure.
It should be noted that in the following description, for example, “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, and/or “some embodiments” refer to a feature, structure or characteristic related to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be emphasized and noted that “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” or “one or more embodiments” mentioned twice or more in different positions in this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, some features, structures or characteristics in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be appropriately combined.
Although the interior trim and interior component disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to automobiles, they are not limited thereto. For example, they can also be applied to other vehicles, such as railway train, ship, and airplane, as long as they are vehicles, the interior trim and interior component disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied.
In addition, compared with the current air-conditioning heating solution, the present disclosure improves the user experience and the heating efficiency, but it can be understood that this does not mean that vehicles equipped with the interior trim and interior component of the present disclosure cannot be equipped with heating air conditioners at the same time. For example, the interior trim and interior component of the present disclosure, as well as the heating air conditioner, can be set at the same time in a vehicle, and the interior trim and component parts of the present disclosure can correspondingly replace partial function of the heating air conditioner, to reduce energy consumption and further improve heating effect. The meaning of occupant described below is broad, that is, all persons in the vehicle are occupants, such as driver and passenger.
Referring to
For an interior trim 10 described in the following embodiments, taking the door panel 102 shown in
Referring to
The decorative layer 1 has an outer surface 11 and an inner surface 12 opposite the outer surface 11. The outer surface 11 is normally a surface on which the interior trim 10 provides direct contact or direct visibility to the occupant. The decorative layer 1 is also defined as the outermost layer of the interior trim 10, and normally serves to provide a directly visible decoration, so it is called a decorative layer. It can be understood that the decorative layer 1 may be made of plastic, fabric, leather, artificial leather, metal, or the like, or may be made of a composite of the above materials, for example, leather plus a substrate, such as commonly used artificial leather (PVC/PU/TPU, etc.) plus a substrate fabric with a total thickness of about 1.1 mm, or leather plus foam with a thickness of about 3 mm. The materials mentioned are used as examples only and are not intended to imply any limitations on materials, for example, additional treatments such as softening, polishing, corrosion-resistant coating, etc. can also be applied to the said materials. The decorative layer 1 may be flexible and thus can be overlaid on any 3D structure.
The heating configuration 2 includes a first heating layer 21, an electrode 22, and a second heating layer 23, and the heating configuration 2 is located on the inner surface 12 of the decorative layer 1, and the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23 both include a heating element 24 extending in the plane of the heating layer, and the heating element 24 is made of a heating carbon material. The first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23 are directly connected with the electrode 22 on its outer side and inner side respectively to fix the electrode 22, and the first heating layer 21, the electrode 22 and the second heating layer 23 form a sandwich structure.
The heating carbon material here refers to a material that heats through the following principles: under the condition of electrification, carbon molecules produce atoms, ions and electrons, and friction and collision between carbon molecular groups (also known as Brownian motion) generate thermal energy, and the thermal energy is radiated through far-infrared rays with a wavelength of 5-14 microns. The heating carbon material may be a carbon material such as carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, graphene, graphite, and carbon black. In some embodiments, the heating carbon material may include at least one of carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, and graphene, and the carbon nanotubes may be in the form of single-walled carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, etc., and the carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, and graphene may also be carbon materials having doped atoms. The beneficial effect of adopting at least one of carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers, and graphene is that the conductivity is better, the heat generation performance is more stable, and the electrothermal conversion efficiency is higher. Compared with traditional carbon materials, it has the characteristics of large power per unit area and high energy efficiency, which can make the heating configuration downsized and reduce energy consumption.
Detailed process by which the heating element 24 is made of the heating carbon material may be process by coating a slurry having the heating carbon material, and the slurry normally including a solvent, a heating carbon material ink, a dispersant, a binder, and other additives, with the mass percentages of each component selected on a case-by-case basis. The process of coating slurry may be a screen-printing process, but it is not limited to this. For example, it may also be realized by a coating process such as ultrasonic spraying.
The first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 22 include heating element 24 extending in the plane of the heating layer, meaning that heating element 24 extends at least partially in the plane of the heating layer. The first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 22 may be decorative by screen printing to form circuits having different visual shapes of figures, patterns, signs, words, images or symbols, or other decorative elements. Normally speaking, the graphic part of the screen printing is opaque, and the non-graphic part is transparent.
The sandwich-like structure formed by the first heating layer 21, the electrode 22, and the second heating layer 23 means that the electrode 22 is also a part that occupies a thickness space, and is fixed by the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23 directly connected outside and inside, and the electrode 22 can be in a stable and reliable contact with the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23, and the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23 can be stably and reliably energized and excited. Especially in the operating scene of the vehicles facing vibration conditions, stably and reliably run is particularly important. In addition, because the electrode 22 is fixed on both sides by the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23, the electrode 22 itself can use a relatively low-cost part, such as a copper wire mesh, instead of using a relatively expensive silver part, nor a process of forming the electrode by a silver screen printing, but only needs to directly arrange a prepared copper wire mesh on the first heating layer 21, and then perform a covering process of the second heating layer 23. In some embodiments, the heating element 24 of the first heating layer 21 is attached to the inner surface 12 side of the decorative layer 1 by screen printing; and the heating element 24 of the second heating layer 23 is attached to the electrode 22 by screen printing, and the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 23 can be fixed more reliably, and the shapes of the first heating layer 21 and the second heating layer 22 can be set by screen printing.
It can be seen from the above that the interior trim 10 and the interior component 100 described in the above embodiments have a beneficial effect that by using a heating element formed of a slurry of a heating carbon material as a heating layer, high-efficiency heating is realized, the heating of the interior trim is realized to provide a heating effect, and the heating effect can be provided to the parts of the occupant where the thermal air flow is difficult to reach. And it can reduce the dryness that the occupants feel similar to the heating of the air conditioner. In addition, the heating configuration include the first heating layer, the electrode and the second heating layer to form a sandwich-like structure, to realize the electrode to be manufactured at a low cost and be fixed stably, and the electrode can be stably and reliably contacted with the heating layer to stimulate the heating layer, and the manufacturing cost of the interior trim is low at the same time is able to provide reliable heating.
As shown in
Continuing with reference to
Referring to
It can be understood that flowcharts are used in the present disclosure to illustrate operations performed by the system according to embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that, depending on the actual situation, the preceding or following operations are not necessarily performed precisely in order. One can also add additional steps to these procedures, or remove a step or steps from them.
As described above, with reference to
For example, the decorative layer 1 can be obtained by a process such as injection molding, or a decorative layer 1 can be obtained from a supplier.
For example, as described above, using a screen-printed process to screen print the slurry having the heating carbon material on the inner side of the decorative layer 1, which may be directly printed, or printed to the first isolating layer 3 on the inner surface 12 of the decorative layer 1;
For example, as described above, the electrode 22 is a copper wire mesh, and after the screen printing of the first heating layer 21 is completed, the copper wire mesh piece can be directly placed on the inner side of the first heating layer 21.
For example, as described above, using a screen-printed process to screen print the slurry having the heating carbon material on the inner side of the decorative layer 1, to form the sandwich-like structure of the first heating layer 21, the electrode 22, and the second heating layer 23, and sufficient contact between the heating layer and the electrode and stable and reliable fixation are realized at a relatively low cost, and high heating efficiency of the interior trim is realized and a relatively comfortable heating experience for the user is realized.
In summary, using the interior trim, the interior component, and the manufacturing method described in the above embodiments have beneficial effects that, by using a heating element formed of a slurry of a heating carbon material as a heating layer, high-efficiency heating is realized, the heating of the interior trim is realized to provide a heating effect, and the heating effect can be provided to the parts of the occupant where the thermal air flow is difficult to reach. And it can reduce the dryness that the occupants feel similar to the heating of the air conditioner. In addition, the heating configuration include the first heating layer, the electrode and the second heating layer to form a sandwich-like structure, to realize the electrode to be manufactured at a low cost and be fixed stably, and the electrode can be stably and reliably contacted with the heating layer to stimulate the heating layer, and the manufacturing cost of the interior trim is low at the same time is able to provide reliable heating.
Although the above embodiments of the present disclosure are disclosed as above, they are not used to limit the present disclosure. Therefore, any amendments, equivalent changes and modifications made to the above embodiments according to the essence of the present disclosure without departing from the proposal of the present disclosure fall within the embodiments of protection defined in the claims of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202310708508.6 | Jun 2023 | CN | national |
