VEHICLE INTERIOR PANEL WITH AIRBAG TEAR SEAM FORMED BY MECHANICAL PIERCING

摘要

A vehicle interior panel (10) includes a decorative covering (16) with a non-visible tear seam that forms a deployment opening through the covering during airbag deployment. The tear seam is formed by mechanical piercing of a skin layer (20) of the covering using a piercing tool (30) having a compound chamfer (40). Such piercing tools allow the mechanical piercing process to produce non-visible and functional tear seams in polymeric materials and non-polymeric materials such as leather, including materials with relatively low elastic recovery characteristics. Tear seams formed in this manner can offer larger processing windows, lower manufacturing and equipment cost, and/or shorter cycle times when compared to other methods such as laser scoring.