Appeal No. 1997-2256
Application No. 08/427,706
remaining in the application. Claims 1 through 5 have been
canceled.
Appellants’ invention relates to a process for producing
a multilayer molded article comprising a core layer and a skin
material laminated thereon. As summarized in their brief
(page 5), appellants have more specifically
discovered a method for controlling the tension
applied to a skin material during molding so
that the occurrence of both breakages and
wrinkling in the skin material can be prevented.
Specifically, the present invention secures a
skin material to a plurality of pre-positioned
pins such that during mold closing an
appropriate edge portion of the skin material is
locally cut by one or more of the pins, thereby
allowing additional skin material to slide into
the mold at a high tension portion. The
introduction of this additional skin material at
the high tension portion prevents the skin from
breaking. Moreover, because the skin is not
universally added to the mold, sufficient
tension is maintained in the low tension
portions such that wrinkling does not occur. In
this way, the tension of the skin material
during the mold closing step is controlled by
the location of the pins in response to the
shape of the molded article whereby breakage and
wrinkling are both avoided.
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