The present invention operates in the field of mechanics and the automobile industry. More in detail the present invention regards a new and innovative process for producing the composite cover of engines due to a particular multiple mold and to the method of use thereof.
The automobile industry is the branch of the manufacturing industry involved with the design, construction, marketing and sales of motor vehicles. After 2008 and 2009, when this was the industrial sector most hit by the economic and financial crisis, such field has since once again found momentum, with a growth greater than 25% in 2010. In 2011 nearly 80 million motor vehicles, which include cars and commercial vehicles, were produced throughout the world, making this the number one manufacturing field in the world for turnover.
This data suffices to explain the great variety of vehicles present on the market today; vehicles ranging from campers to commercial vans, utility vehicles and sports cars. However, all these vehicles—regardless of the purpose for which they were designed—today pursue the object of lowering pollutant emissions.
Indeed, most of the automobile industry research is now aimed to find solutions in order to respect international agreements and national laws on pollution, which provide for admissible CO2 percentages that have been increasingly lower over the years. Such lowering of the emissions can be reached in two ways: the first is to optimize the operation of the engines which, at least at present, does not seem to give results sufficient for respecting regulations; the second is to reduce the weight of the vehicle and hence of each component thereof.
A first object of the present invention, in order to contribute to the reduction of the vehicle emissions, is that of producing plastic components for vehicles with thickness, and consequently also weight, considerably lower than that produced up to now.
More in particular, the reduction of thickness and weight reached by means of the present patent is applied to the engine cover, a component which also requires a foam portion that provides thermal and acoustic insulation.
A second object of the invention, described in detail hereinbelow, is that of optimizing the process for producing such components.
Currently, one proceeds by making the desired form of thermoplastic material, awaiting the time for cooling the material, typically about 3 minutes, proceeding with the injection of a foam that expands within a suitable mold and, finally, extracting the product from the second mold and finishing by eliminating the excess foam that flows out from the pre-established shape.
There are several international patents aimed for optimizing the production process for the various automobile components, such as the recent Chinese patent CN105689560 A. This describes a system of molds for producing the engine cover and the hood of a car but there are no references to the insulating parts made of foam or the like that constitute an integral and essential part of the industrial process.
Due to the present invention, all the steps currently necessary for producing the cover of the engine are unified and optimized, having as a result a much quicker and less expensive production process that uses a multiple mold, described hereinbelow.
According to the present invention, a soundproof composite engine cover is made, provided with innovative characteristics and produced through a method which allows optimizing the industrial production.
Said composite cover is constituted by a shell made of thermoplastic material and at least by one insulating foam placed within said shell according to a configuration dependent on the type of engine for which the cover was designed. The materials used are polyamide or polypropylene as thermoplastic material and a mixture of polyol, isocyanate and CO2, commonly known with the name “pur” as foam. This selection of materials allows the advantage of considerably reducing the thickness of the cover with respect to the currently known techniques.
Advantageously said foam can be suitably mixed in order to also be fireproof.
The present invention makes use of new and innovative machinery which advantageously allows the management of at least two simultaneous production cycles, considerably quickening the production.
The machinery consists of a multiple mold, provided with at least two cells, each of which provided with a male element and with a female element. Said cells are suitable to take, advantageously in a simultaneous and reversible manner, a first closed configuration or a second open configuration, depending on the current production step.
Advantageously, the first cell, at said female element, is provided with a channel which enables the introduction of the thermoplastic material stored in a hot chamber.
Advantageously, when said multiple mold is situated in said first closed configuration, the male elements and the female elements of each cell are configured for generating the interspaces having the shape of the shell made of thermoplastic material (first cell) and the shape of the thermoplastic material plus the insulating foam (second cell).
Said multi-step method requires at least four steps in order to create a finished product and it is developed as follows:
Advantageously, said male element of said second cell can be provided with at least one punch, preferably metallic, adapted to contain the insulating foam during its expansion and solidification which occur during said foaming step (C).
Still in said foaming step (C), in an even more advantageous embodiment of the present invention, a predetermined amount of gas is introduced within the mixture of the insulating foam. This passage has the object of quickening the solidification of said insulating foam. More in detail, an analytical scale connected to a gas tank is adapted to release said predetermined amount of gas within the mixture of the insulating foam through an introduction channel regulated by a valve. The gas is preferably constituted by carbon dioxide CO2 or, still more preferably, by nitrogen N2.
Advantageously, in addition, said multi-step method for producing a soundproof composite cover for internal combustion engines can comprise additional steps aimed to provide a more complex finished product according to a specific design. Said steps can consist of:
In a more complex and advantageous embodiment, moreover, said multiple mold can be provided with one or more further cells, also provided with the corresponding male element and the corresponding female element, and these too being suitable to take, reversibly and simultaneously with the other cells, a first closed configuration and a second open configuration.
It is advantageously possible, moreover, to configure the multiple mold as is more convenient within the production plant, both for logistical and for production motives. In particular, the cells of the multiple mold can be stacked one on the other, one beside the other or mutually remotely positioned.
The advantages offered by the present invention are evident in light of the description described up to now and will be even clearer due to the enclosed figures and to the relative detailed description.
The production method, in a more general vision of the industrial process, advantageously enables a considerable reduction of the production costs, not requiring any post-production step to be carried out piece-by-piece by a specialized operator. Therefore, nearly all of the assembly operations and relative costs are eliminated, the internal movements of the product are eliminated and the engine cover is thinner and more durable than the covers produced with the known techniques.
The invention will be described hereinbelow in at least one preferred embodiment, as a non-limiting example and with the aid of the enclosed figures in which:
The present invention will now be illustrated as a merely non-limiting or non-constraining example, with reference to the figures which illustrate several embodiments relative to the present inventive concept.
With reference to
Preferably, the materials used in making the composite cover for an internal combustion engine, object of the present invention, are: polypropylene or, still more preferably, polyamide as thermoplastic material 200 and the “pur” as insulating foam 300. The foam commonly known with the name “pur” is constituted by a suitably metered mixture of polyol, isocyanate and carbon dioxide.
In one possible embodiment, additionally, the insulating foam 200 also has fireproof function.
The selection of the abovementioned materials is given from the fact that, by means of their use and by means of the use of the production method described in detail hereinbelow, the thickness of the composite cover can be considerably reduced with respect to that done up to now.
The production makes use of an innovative machinery, whose operation is illustrated in
Said multiple mold 100, depending on the production step in which it is situated, is adapted to take, in a reversible manner, a first closed configuration and a second open configuration. Said first closed configuration is characterized in that said male elements 101.a-102.a and said female elements 101.b-102.b are partially in contact with each other by means of the respective contact areas 101.c-102.c, respectively defining a first interspace 101.d suitable to be filled with the thermoplastic material 200 and a second interspace 102.d suitable to be filled with the solidified thermoplastic material 201 and with the insulating foam 300.
As an alternative to said first closed configuration, depending on the production step, said multiple mold 100 can reversibly take a second open configuration, characterized in that said male elements 101.a-102.a and said female elements 102.a-102.b of both said cells 101-102, are mutually spaced by a predetermined distance adapted to allow the extraction of the finished product from said multiple mold 100.
In other possible configurations of the present invention, not represented in the enclosed figures but in any case falling within the protective scope offered by the present patent, said cells 101, 102, . . . of said multiple mold 100 can be arranged in a vertically stacked configuration, in which the cells 101, 102, . . . are arranged one on the other, or in a lined up configuration, in which the cells 101, 102, . . . are arranged in horizontal sequence one beside the other, or in a configuration in which the cells 101, 102, . . . are mutually remotely positioned.
The multi-step method, object of the present invention, schematically depicted in
Said steps consist of:
With reference to
Finally, based on the characteristics required by the specific composite cover to be produced according to the present invention, additional steps can be inserted in the production cycle. One of these could be a step of spraying any one release agent at least on the internal surfaces of said cells 101-102. Such further step could be particularly useful if a sandwich-like structure is provided for the composite cover (
Still in a possible additional step between the transfer step (B) and the foaming step (C), said solid flexible panel 150 can be inserted which is preferably made of aluminum and suitable to serve as a heat shield or protection (visible in
Finally, if the thermoplastic material 200 is constituted by polypropylene, in some cases it could be useful and preferable to carry out a flaming step, between said transfer step (B) and said foaming step (C), which allows the perfect adherence between the solidified thermoplastic material 201 and the insulating foam 300 by activating the contact surface.
Finally, it is clear that modifications, additions or variations that are obvious to the man skilled in the art can be made to the invention described up to now, without departing from the protective scope that is provided by the enclosed claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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102017000019731 | Feb 2017 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2018/051022 | 2/20/2018 | WO | 00 |