Novel IP Skin Scoring with Unique Cold Knife Approach

摘要

In the past, the airbag, particularly the passenger airbag, was on display in a conspicuous location as an "extra", available at an additional charge and was considered a status symbol. Now, in the era of complete safety equipment for small cars, more often the trend is to install the airbags invisibly. The necessary opening flap in the interior component is covered with a decorative layer which must be scored from the B-side for safe opening. Realization of this scoring involves two conflicting objectives. On the one hand, the scoring of the component must be executed at a depth that ensures certain opening and, on the other hand, sufficient residual wall thickness must remain intact so that, even after years of intensive use and stress, the scoring line will continue to remain invisible. Due to these requirements and due to the high economic risk associated with any potential failure of this highprofile safety component, extremely rigorous requirements have been imposed on the residual wall thickness tolerance value. Meeting these values is currently only able to be accomplished with the use of complex and expensive process engineering technology. This paper introduces a novel approach that achieves the precision and quality attained today, but at a significantly reduced cost and operating complexity, yet with increased operational reliability.