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18
2021-10
Considerations for Automotive Dashboard Mold Design
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The dashboard is a very unique component in a car, integrating safety, functionality, comfort, and aesthetics. In addition to requiring good rigidity and energy absorption, people's demands for its tactile feel, texture, color, and tone are also increasing.
Due to its unique spatial position, more and more operational functions are distributed within the dashboard. Besides reflecting the basic state of vehicle operation, it also provides more safety and driving pleasure through controls for air vents, audio, air conditioning, and lighting. Therefore, in a car, the dashboard is a very unique component that integrates safety, functionality, comfort, and aesthetics. Firstly, it needs to have a certain rigidity to support the attached parts and ensure normal operation under high speed and vibration; at the same time, it needs to have good energy absorption to reduce the impact of external forces on the driver and passenger in the event of an accident. As people's understanding of cars increasingly exceeds their functionality, the tactile feel, texture, color, and tone of the dashboard have gradually become important standards for evaluating the overall vehicle level.
The dashboard typically includes the dashboard body (housing), instruments, air conditioning control system, air ducts, air outlets, control panels, switches, audio control system, defrost vents, fog vents, glove box, left cover, decorative panels, and other components. Most dashboards also include: storage boxes, driver-side glove boxes, speakers, and other decorative items, as well as functional components like clocks, metal reinforcements, ashtrays, cigarette lighters, and cup holders; some mid to high-end cars are designed with high-end products such as satellite navigation systems, mobile intercom systems, temperature sensing systems, and USB-SD card interfaces.
1. Classification of automotive dashboards
a. Dashboards can be classified into non-airbag dashboards and airbag dashboards based on safety.
With the increasing emphasis on safety, customer demand for dashboards with PAB and KAB (knee airbags) has grown, and manufacturers have also made this a selling point. While airbags protect passengers, they can also potentially harm them, especially children. Therefore, the design of dashboard airbags has begun to include airbag shield switches. To ensure the normal deployment of airbags, many designs now feature airbag covers above the airbags, which release the airbags when opened. However, the visible wiring at the junction with the dashboard affects the overall aesthetics of the vehicle. As a result, more and more models are designed with seamless airbag dashboards, which ensure normal airbag deployment without visible wiring.
b. Dashboards can be classified into hard plastic dashboards and soft dashboards based on comfort.
Hard plastic dashboards are made from injection-molded materials, widely used due to their simple process and low investment, especially in mid to low-end vehicles. Soft dashboards are created by adhering and bonding a skin to the injection-molded frame or by co-molding during the injection process, giving them a leather-like appearance. Additionally, polyurethane foam is filled between the frame and the skin, and the back of the vacuum-formed skin can also be directly attached to a layer of foam, enhancing tactile feel and energy absorption. Currently, the skins mainly consist of vacuum thermoformed skins and soft skins. The former is made using traditional simulated leather processes; the latter has gained widespread acceptance in recent years due to its uniform patterns, lack of internal stress, and high design tolerance, becoming dominant in mid to high-end vehicles.
c. Dashboards can be classified into left-hand drive dashboards and right-hand drive dashboards based on the direction of driving.
2. Overview of dashboard processing technology
For different dashboards, the processes and workflows vary significantly and can be roughly categorized as follows:
1. Hard plastic dashboard: injection molding (dashboard body and other components), welding (main components), assembly (related components);
2. Semi-hard plastic dashboard: injection molding (dashboard frame), vacuum forming (skin and frame), cutting (holes and edges), assembly (related components);
3. Soft dashboard: injection molding frame vacuum forming (negative mold vacuum-formed skin)/soft skin (skin), foaming (foam layer), cutting (edges, holes, etc.), welding (main components, if needed), assembly (related components)
3. Introduction to dashboard injection molding technology
The process of injecting dried plastic pellets into a mold after being melted by shear and heating in an injection molding machine is the most widely used processing technology for manufacturing dashboards. It is used to produce hard plastic dashboard bodies, vacuum-formed and soft dashboard frames, and most other related components. Hard plastic dashboards primarily use PP, while the materials for dashboard frames mainly include modified materials like PC/ABS, PP, and PPO (PPE). Other components are selected based on their functions, structures, and appearance requirements, using materials such as ABS, PVC, PC, and PA. After rapidly rising in the 1940s and 1950s, injection molding technology has been vigorously developed, with continuous increases and modifications in equipment and molds, leading to various sub-technologies such as gas-assisted injection molding, insert injection molding, and two-color injection molding.
Gas-assisted injection molding is a process invented in the early 1980s and popularized in the 1990s. It involves injecting a certain amount of inert gas into the mold simultaneously with the molten plastic pellets, using design and process control to create a hollow structure in specific areas of the part. The formation of this hollow structure enhances the mechanical properties of the part while reducing wall thickness, improving appearance, and lowering material costs and molding cycles. Therefore, this technology is not only applied in the automotive manufacturing industry but has also made significant progress in the home appliance manufacturing industry, mainly used for structural components, especially those with aesthetic requirements.
In recent years, research and application of using water instead of inert gas have also achieved certain results; insert injection molding is more common in the home appliance industry, and the production of various electrical switches in dashboard manufacturing uses this process. It involves placing the metal parts to be embedded in the injection-molded part inside the mold before injection, allowing the molten plastic to partially cover them.
Two-color injection molding: In a two-color injection molding machine, different colors/types of materials are injected simultaneously or sequentially into a specialized injection mold within the same production cycle, giving the product different appearances/performance. However, due to the significant investment in equipment and molds, it is gradually being replaced by secondary injection molding. Secondary injection molding refers to using injection-molded parts as inserts in insert injection molding, mainly applied to parts with high mechanical performance and appearance requirements, where material selection is key.
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