JPH0698712B2 - FRP steering wheel core material manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for producing a FRP (fiber reinforced resin) steering wheel core material, and more specifically, for obtaining an FRP steering wheel core material having improved flutter characteristics, The present invention relates to a manufacturing method thereof.

(Prior Art) In recent years, steering wheels that are mainly attached to vehicles such as automobiles and small boats such as motor boats have higher strength, mitigation of impact at the time of collision, or reduction of vertical vibration of steering wheel (improvement of shake characteristics). FRP which is lightweight to achieve
The core material, that is, long fibers such as glass fiber and carbon fiber is impregnated with synthetic resin such as polyester resin and epoxy resin, and wound around a predetermined molding die to form a laminated body, and the synthetic resin is cured by heating. Use of the core material obtained at most has been studied.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an example of an apparatus for manufacturing the FRP steering wheel core material is shown in FIG.

The device comprises an impregnating device 4 for continuously impregnating continuous fibers withdrawn from a bobbin 16 with a synthetic resin, a mold 1 for winding up the resin impregnated continuous fibers F withdrawn from the impregnating device 4, and A multi-joint type having a rotary table 14 on which a resin saucer receiving plate 15 is mounted and a guide jig 8 for guiding the resin-impregnated filaments F drawn from the impregnating device 4 to the mold 1 at the arm tip. Robot (hoisting machine) 7, control device 17 for controlling the operation of said rotary table 14 and robot 7.
And a tensioner 18 that applies a predetermined tension to the resin-impregnated filamentary fiber F that is adjacent to the impregnating device 4 and is guided to the molding die 1.

Here, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the molding die 1 includes a disk-shaped first jig 3a fixed to a rotary shaft 5 and the first jig 3a.
Schematic configuration of a winding die 3 including a ring-shaped second jig 3b attached in conformity with 3a, and a boss metal fitting 2 attached to one end of a rotary shaft 5 extending through the winding die 3 Has been done. Each of the peripheral parts of the first and second jigs 3a, 3b,
A groove having a semicircular cross section is formed, and a circumferential groove 6 having a U-shaped cross section is formed on the winding die 3 in the above-mentioned combined state. Further, the second jig 3b is formed with a notch groove 10 for branching the ring and the spoke.

As a result, the molding die 1 is appropriately rotated to wind the resin-impregnated continuous fiber F around the circumferential groove 6, and from the circumferential groove 6 to the boss fitting 5 and from the boss fitting 2 to the circumferential groove 6 via the notch groove 10. When the steering wheel-shaped laminated body is formed by winding it and then heat-cured, the boss portion 12, the spoke portion 11 and the ring portion are formed.
A steering wheel core material having 13 integrally is obtained.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, when the steering wheel made of the FRP core material manufactured as described above is actually installed in an automobile and used, the steering wheel vibrates in the circumferential direction (alternates left and right rotations). There is a problem that repeated micro vibrations are likely to occur. This is especially noticeable when driving at high speeds, and one of the basic characteristics of FRP is its light weight, which reduces the moment of inertia of the FRP steering wheel core material and deteriorates the flutter characteristics.

The following two methods are conceivable as methods of increasing the moment of inertia for preventing the deterioration of the flutter characteristics.

As shown in FIG. 5, the first method is to bury a heavy object 19 in the cavity 21 of the ring part, which is currently performed on the magnesium steering wheel core material 20, and is to use the FRP steering wheel core material. Is also applicable.

The second method is to increase the weight of the ring portion by increasing the number of long fibers wound around the ring portion.

However, there are the following problems in applying the above two methods to the manufacture of the FRP steering wheel core material.

That is, the method of embedding the first heavy object must be carried out after winding the fiber, and compared to the magnesium core material which already has cavities, to embed it in a wound laminate without cavities. Since a laborious work is required, the manufacturing cycle becomes extremely long and the productivity becomes very poor.

In addition, the second method of increasing the number of fiber windings to increase the weight of the ring part is that the volume increase is larger than the weight increase because the specific gravity of FRP is small, and this is due to dimensional constraints and design. Not only is it unacceptable, but the impact relaxation characteristics at the time of collision deteriorate due to the imbalance of the fiber laminated state at the ring / spoke branching portions.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems,
FRP that can improve flutter characteristics while maintaining good design, strength characteristics, shake characteristics, etc., and has excellent mass productivity
An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method of a steering wheel core material.

(Means for Solving Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the method for producing an FRP steering wheel core material according to the present invention is a resin-impregnated continuous fiber that is continuously supplied in a molding die in an appropriate fiber distribution direction. When manufacturing a steering wheel core material that integrally has a ring portion, a boss portion, and a spoke portion by winding while changing it, a fiber having a specific gravity larger than that of the long fiber is wound around the ring portion forming portion. To do.

It is important that the long fibers having a relatively small specific gravity be mainly wound around the boss portion and the spoke portion, and the fibers having a large specific gravity be wound only around the ring portion. Examples of fibers having a large specific gravity include metal wires such as iron wires, copper wires, and lead wires. In that case, it may be a single wire or a bundled wire,
The thickness of the metal wire and the number of windings may be selected so as to obtain an appropriate weight.

When two types of fibers, such as fibers with a large specific gravity (metal wire, etc.) and resin-impregnated long fibers, are wound around the ring part, they may be wound simultaneously or alternately, but they are different in automatic winding. It is preferable to wind from the supply port, and at the end of winding the FRP fiber, the winding of a predetermined weight of metal wire or the like may be finished. After winding, a desired core material is obtained by heating and curing the resin according to a conventional method.

(Operation) By winding a metal wire having a large specific gravity, the weight of the FRP steering wheel core material increases and the moment of inertia increases. Further, the effect of increasing the moment of inertia is greater when the metal wire or the like is wound around the ring portion than when it is wound around the boss portion or the spoke portion, even if the weight increases. Therefore, the flutter characteristic is significantly improved without deteriorating the shake characteristic.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Example 1 The manufacturing apparatus of the steering wheel core material used in this example is almost the same as that described in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 above, except that a metal wire supply device is newly provided. It is a point. That is, as can be seen from FIG. 1 schematically showing the main part of the present manufacturing apparatus, the present apparatus is provided with a ring portion-spoke portion-
The long fiber F for winding the boss portion and the metal wire W for winding the ring portion can be wound around the molding die 1 at the same time through different supply system paths. At the time of winding, the ring part made of glass fiber-spoke part-boss part long fiber F for winding
Is impregnated with resin through an impregnating device 4a filled with epoxy resin, the direction is changed by a roller 9, and the molding die 1 is passed through a hole 8a at the tip of a guide jig 8 called a delivery eye attached to the arm tip of the robot 7. Fix one end to.
On the other hand, the metal wire W made of iron wire of φ0.1 is impregnated with resin through the impregnating device 4b filled with the same epoxy resin as described above, and the direction is changed by the roller 9 to form a circumferential groove for forming the ring portion of the winding die 3. Fix one end to.

When the rotary table (not shown) is rotated in one direction, one end of the resin-impregnated metal wire W for winding the ring portion is fixed to the circumferential groove for forming the ring portion of the winding die 3, It is wound up in a groove. On the other hand, at the same time when the rotary table is rotated, the robot 7 is operated to move the guide jig 8 so as to cut the resin-impregnated ring-spoke-boss wrapping filament F into the notch groove 10 of the winding die 3. To the outer circumference of the boss metal fitting 2 to form a spoke portion, and to wind around the boss metal fitting 2 and hang it again on the winding die 3 and hook it on a pin (not shown) at the branching portion to set the ring portion to a predetermined length. A series of winding and winding from the other position of the ring part to the boss metal fitting 2 is made to coincide with the winding direction of the ring part only, and this is repeated a predetermined number of times to wind the ring part, the spoke part and the boss part. .

By winding as described above, the winding of only the ring portion and the winding of the ring portion-spoke portion-boss portion are performed in parallel, and finally the fiber F and the metal wire W are A laminated body in which only the fiber F is wound is formed on the boss portion and the spoke portion. Next, this is held together with the molding die 1 in a furnace set at a temperature of 120 ° C. for 2 hours to cure the resin, and then the die is removed to obtain an FRP steering wheel core material having good flutter characteristics.

Example 2 Example 1 was repeated except that the diameter of the resin drawing die of the glass fiber was set to be larger than that in Example 1, and the iron wire was φ0.5 and was wound directly around the ring portion molding site without passing through the resin impregnation device.
The FRP steering wheel core material is manufactured in the same manner as in. The iron wire was not impregnated with resin, but the amount of resin contained in the glass fiber was larger than that in Example 1, so no large pores were observed when the cross section of the ring portion of the obtained core material was observed.

FRP containing 200 g of iron wire obtained in Examples 1 and 2 above
Examine the flutter and shake characteristics of the steering wheel core material (the product of the present invention), and examine the conventional iron core material and FRP.
Compared with only core material. The results are shown in the table below.

The flutter characteristic of the product of the present invention is equivalent to the conventional iron core material,
It was clearly superior to FRP-only core material. Regarding the shake characteristics, the product of the present invention was inferior to the core material of FRP alone, but was superior to the iron core material.

(Effect of the invention) As is apparent from the above description, according to the method for manufacturing a core material of an FRP steering wheel of the present invention, a fiber having a considerably large specific gravity than a normal resin-impregnated long fiber, for example, a metal wire is wound, so that the ring portion is wound. It is possible to achieve a sufficient important increase without increasing the volume of the FRP steering wheel, and to obtain an FRP steering wheel core material with significantly improved flutter characteristics. Since the metal wire wound around the ring has a lower strength than FRP, the strength characteristics are less affected.

That is, according to the method of the present invention, it is possible to impart the merits as a lightweight core material, that is, the flutter characteristics, which are the merits of a weighted core material, with almost no loss of excellent shake characteristics and impact relaxation properties. Moreover, since no work for increasing the weight is required after the winding operation, a good FRP steering wheel core material can be manufactured with high productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a FRP steering wheel core material according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an apparatus for manufacturing an FRP steering wheel core material, and FIG. 3 is a molding die thereof. Plan view FIG. 4 is a side view of the same mold, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a flutter characteristic improving method which is performed with another core material. In the figure, 1 ... Molding die, 2 ... Boss metal fitting 3 ... Winding die, 4, 4a, 4b ... Impregnation device 8 ... Guide jig, 13 ... Ring part F ... Long fiber, W ... … Metal wire

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A steering wheel core material having a ring portion, a boss portion, and a spoke portion integrally formed by winding continuously supplied resin-impregnated long fibers around a molding die while appropriately changing the fiber distribution direction. At this time, a FR characterized in that a fiber having a specific gravity larger than that of the long fiber is wound around the ring portion forming portion.
P Steering wheel core material manufacturing method.