DESC:FIELD
The present disclosure relates to the field of structures for instrument panels in vehicles. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to the field of a common structure for instrument panels of LHD and RHD vehicles.
BACKGROUND
The background information herein below relates to the present disclosure but is not necessarily prior art.
A dashboard of a vehicle comprises instrumentation and control, including steering wheel, display of vehicle health information, heating and ventilation ports and controls, glovebox compartment, entertainment system controls, airbags and so on. Legislatures of certain countries mandate left hand drive (LHD) and that of others, right hand drive (RHD), for vehicles. The dashboards for LHD and RHD versions of the same model of a vehicle require different support structures to be manufactured. Typically, the instrument panel structure (hereinafter referred to as ‘instrument panel carrier’) is made of PPE mixed with additives for inducing specific characteristics. Manufacture of such an IP carrier involves injection moulding using tooling that includes a core and a cavity.
Conventionally, separate tooling is required for manufacturing IP carriers of LHD and RHD vehicles, which requires separates moulds. Overall, manufacturing separate IP carriers for LHD and RHD vehicles becomes costly. Moreover, the process involves post-punching operation for removal of material, for occupying a shroud for the steering column. Issues associated with the post-punching operation are related to perceived quality, such as see-through gaps between the instrument panel structure and the steering column shroud, raw edges, white marks, flashes etc.
Therefore, there is felt a need of a tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, which alleviates the aforementioned drawbacks of prior art.
OBJECTS
Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows:
A primary object of the present disclosure is to provide a tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, that eliminates issues associated with perceived quality, such as see-through gaps, raw edges, white marks, flashes etc.
Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, that is cost-efficient.
Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide a tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, that provides modularity.
Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description, which is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
SUMMARY
The present disclosure envisages a tooling for manufacturing both left-hand drive and right-hand drive instrument panel carriers. The tooling comprises a mould, a driver-side interchangeable insert and a non-driver-side interchangeable insert. The mould is configured to receive mouldable material and provide the form of an instrument panel to the mouldable material. The driver-side interchangeable insert is adapted to be placed in the mould at a first location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at a second location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier. The non-driver-side interchangeable insert is adapted to be placed in the mould at the second location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at the first location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier.
In an embodiment, the inserts are removable from the instrument panel obtained after moulding.
In an embodiment, the tooling is configured to provide a groove in the instrument panel which is configured to hide an extended material obtained along a driver-side insert parting line.
In a preferred embodiment, the driver-side interchangeable insert is selected from the group consisting of trapezoidal, rectangular, rhombus, oval, polygonal, oblong, triangular, square or any irregular shape, or of any derivable shape corresponding to the shroud interface for the steering column of the vehicle.
Also envisaged is a process for manufacturing either a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier or right-hand drive instrument panel carrier with the tooling as summarized above.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWING
The common tooling and the process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, of the present disclosure, will now be described with the help of the accompanying drawing, in which:
Figures 1A-1B illustrate a tooling and a process of prior art for obtaining a blank of an instrument panel;
Figure 1C illustrates a close-up view showing raw edges in the blank of Figures 1A-1C;
Figures 2A-2B illustrate an instrument panel of prior art with a shroud for a steering column;
Figure 3 illustrates the tooling according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
Figures 4A-4B illustrate the positioning of the interchangeable inserts according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;
Figures 5A-5B illustrate instrument panel carriers obtained using the tooling of Figures 3A-3B;
Figure 6 illustrates an instrument panel carrier of Figure 5A with a shroud for a steering column; and
Figures 7A-7B illustrate an inserting parting line and a groove provided therealong, in an instrument panel carrier of the present disclosure.
LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS
10a’ RHD instrument panel carrier of prior art
20’ blank of prior art
22’ post punching
24’ raw edges
26’ see-through gap
100 tooling of the present disclosure
102 mould
104a driver-side interchangeable insert
104b non-driver-side interchangeable insert
10a RHD instrument panel carrier
10b LHD instrument panel carrier
30 shroud for a steering column
40 insert parting line
45 groove
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Description of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practised and to further enable those of skill in the art to practise the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiment herein.
The description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.
The terminology used, in the present disclosure, is only for the purpose of explaining a particular embodiment and such terminology shall not be considered to limit the scope of the present disclosure. As used in the present disclosure, the forms "a,” "an," and "the" may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly suggests otherwise. The terms "comprises," "comprising," “including,” and “having,” are open ended transitional phrases and therefore specify the presence of stated features, elements, modules, units and/or components, but do not forbid the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Due to various limitations associated with styling, vehicle architecture and instrument cluster packaging, having a common styling intent for instrument panels of both left hand drive (LHD) and right hand drive (RHD) vehicles is preferred in the automotive industry. Therefore, the instrument panel is designed in such a way that a single tool is used for manufacturing, through moulding, of the instrument panel structure for both LHD and RHD vehicles, usually through careful selection of mounting methods of various parts on the panel and by maintaining symmetry in the styling as far as possible.
The issues associated with the conventional tooling and the conventional process of manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers are illustrated through Figures 1A, 1B, 1D, 2A, 2B. The conventional process illustrated through Figures 1A-1C uses a tooling that comprises only a cavity and a core. The process of making the blank 20’ involves moulding the blank 20’ with the tooling 100’. The blank 20’ thus obtained, as shown in Figure 1A, is further subjected to post-punching 22’, the shape of which is shown in Figure 1B. Raw edges 24’, as shown in Figure 1C, are obtained. Further, when the shroud 30 that encloses a steering column, as shown in Figure 2A, is fitted onto the RHD instrument panel carrier 10a’ obtained using the process described above, see-through gaps 26’, shown in Figure 2B, are likely to be formed at their interface region. Such raw edges 24’, see-through gaps 26’, white marks on the edges and flashes are not desirable from the perspective of perceived quality.
The present disclosure envisages a common tooling 100 comprising a mould 102, a driver-side interchangeable insert 104a and non-driver-side interchangeable insert 104b, for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, i.e., instrument panel carriers for LHD and RHD vehicles, as shown in Figure 3.
The mould 102 is configured to receive mouldable material and provide the form of an instrument panel to the mouldable material. The driver-side interchangeable insert 104a is adapted to be placed in the mould 102 at a first location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at a second location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier. The non-driver-side interchangeable insert 104b is adapted to be placed in the mould 102 at the second location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at the first location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier. In an embodiment, the inserts are removable from the instrument panel obtained after moulding.
The inserts 104a, 104b are arranged with respect to a mould 102 as shown in Figures 4A, to obtain the RHD instrument panel carrier 10a of Figure 5A, and arranged as shown in Figures 4B to obtain the LHD instrument panel carrier 10b of Figure 5B.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the driver-side interchangeable insert 104a is of a shape corresponding to the shroud interface for the steering column. In an embodiment, the driver-side interchangeable insert 104a is selected from the group consisting of trapezoidal, rectangular, rhombus, oval, polygonal, oblong, triangular, square or any irregular shape e. Hence, the desired shape is obtained in the moulding operation itself, thereby eliminating the post-punching operation of the conventional process. For instance, when the shroud 30 is fitted on to the RHD instrument panel carrier 10a as shown in Figure 6, no see-through gap is visible in their interface region. Along the driver-side insert parting line 40, an extended material is obtained, which is hidden by configuring a groove 45, as shown in Figures 7A, 7B.
Also envisaged is a process for manufacturing either a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier or right-hand drive instrument panel carrier with the tooling 100. The process includes the steps of:
i. Placing a driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) in a mould (102), at a first location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at a second location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier;
ii. Placing a non-driver-side interchangeable insert (104b) in said mould (102), at a second location for obtaining a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at a first location for obtaining a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier;
iii. Filling said mould (102) with mouldable material;
iv. Allowing said mouldable material to cool; and
v. Removing the instrument panel thus obtained from said mould (102).
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Individual components of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, are interchangeable. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the present disclosure, and all such modifications are considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure.
TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS
The present disclosure described herein above has several technical advantages including, but not limited to, the realization of a common tooling and a process for manufacturing LHD and RHD instrument panel carriers, that:
• minimizes tooling components;
• eliminates issues associated with perceived quality, such as see-through gaps, raw edges, white marks, flashes etc.
• eliminates the post-punching operation involved in the conventional process;
• is cost-efficient; and
• provides modularity.
The foregoing disclosure has been described with reference to the accompanying embodiments which do not limit the scope and ambit of the disclosure. The description provided is purely by way of example and illustration.
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.
Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, or group of elements, integers or steps.
While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the components and component parts of the preferred embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the disclosure. These and other changes in the preferred embodiment as well as other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the disclosure and not as a limitation.

,CLAIMS:WE CLAIM:
1. A common tooling (100) for manufacturing left-hand drive and right-hand drive instrument panel carriers, said tooling (100) comprising:
a. a mould (102) configured to receive mouldable material and provide the form of an instrument panel to the mouldable material;
b. a driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) adapted to be placed in said mould (102) at a first location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a left-hand drive vehicle, and at a second location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a right-hand drive vehicle;
c. a non-driver-side interchangeable insert (104b) adapted to be placed in said mould (102) at the second location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier, and at the first location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a right-hand drive vehicle.
2. The tooling (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inserts (104a, 104b) are removable from the instrument panel obtained after moulding.
3. The tooling (100) as claimed in claim 1, which is configured to provide a groove (45) in the instrument panel which is configured to hide an extended material obtained along a driver-side insert parting line (40).
4. The tooling (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) is of a shape corresponding to the shroud interface for the steering column of the vehicle.
5. The tooling (100) as claimed in claim 4, wherein the shape of said driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) is selected from the group consisting of trapezoidal, rectangular, rhombus, oval, polygonal, oblong, triangular, square or any irregular shape.
6. A process for manufacturing a left-hand drive instrument panel carrier and a right-hand drive instrument panel carrier using the common tooling (100) claimed in any of the claims 1-4, said process comprising the steps of:
i. Placing a driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) in a mould (102), at a first location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a left-hand drive vehicle, and at a second location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a right-hand drive vehicle;
ii. Placing a non-driver-side interchangeable insert (104b) in said mould (102), at a second location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a left-hand drive vehicle, and at a first location for obtaining an instrument panel carrier for a right-hand drive vehicle;
iii. Filling said mould (102) with mouldable material;
iv. Allowing said mouldable material to cool; and
v. Removing the instrument panel thus obtained from said mould (102).
7. The process as claimed in claim 6, which involves removing said driver-side interchangeable insert (104a) and said non-driver-side interchangeable insert (104b) after the mouldable material has cooled.
Dated this 10th day of August, 2021

_______________________________
MOHAN RAJKUMAR DEWAN, IN/PA – 25
of R.K.DEWAN & CO.
Authorized Agent of Applicant