For several years, there has been an increasing trend towards using high quality materials such as leather and artificial leather for making automobile interior parts. Composites with polyurethane foams or cut pieces of spacer fabrics make leather an attractive, soft-touch decorative material. Press lamination processes are the standard technology for processing the high-quality but delicate material. The material and the increasing volumes make heavy demands on the production equipment and process.
FRIMO supplies diverse laminating solutions to ensure that the process requires only a small number of personnel and is reliable. The individual processes of surface treatment, adhesive application and actual lamination of the leather are combined in a continuous process.
If, for example, a PP injection molded instrument panel carrier part is to be finished with leather, it must first undergo a surface treatment to allow an indissoluble adhesive bond with the decorative material. This takes place in a separate robot cell in which the surface tension of the plastic is increased by means of flame treatment in the lamination area, preparing it for subsequent application of hot melt adhesive.
In the next process stage, a first application of adhesive is provided in the areas where a particularly soft feel is required for the finished part. To achieve this a millimeter thick spacer fabric is pressed onto it. A second application of adhesive then moistens the entire area that is to be finished with leather. A thin and even application, on the surface, in hard areas, on the edges and in the edge fold areas is required. The heated adhesive is applied finely by a multi-axis robot with carefully metered amounts of air.
The leather lamination is achieved in a rotary table system. The support section is placed on a swivel retainer and the leather covering is placed on the carrier manually. For exact positioning and seam alignment, seam blades made precisely with CAD data are used. As soon as the leather covering is in position, the automatic process can begin. With the rotary table concept involving two stations, press lamination and preliminary manual positioning work can take place in parallel. The high degree of automation and reproducibility allows mid-range and large volumes to be achieved reliably. An extended tool and system design also makes it possible to have left-hand drive and right-hand drive tools in the system at the same time, so that the operator can carry out the product change quickly and easily at the press of a button at any time.
Contact for questions and further Information:
FRIMO Freilassing GmbH
Reinhard Schäfer
Liegnitzer Straße 5
D-83395 Freilassing
Tel.: +49 (0) 8654 / 4985 - 940
Fax: +49 (0) 8654 / 4985 - 5940
E-Mail: schaefer.r@frimo.com
