Interiors of past vehicles were created to satisfy specific functions with appearance being a secondary consideration, but in the present & future market with ever increasing vehicle luxury, decoration of vehicle has become a prime focus in automobile industry along with the safety & economy. Automotive interiors have evolved over the years from a collection of trims covering bare sheet metal panels to add quality & richness of interior cabin, ultimately delivering greater value to customers. One such area in interiors is Side door trims serving the dual purpose of functionality and creating a pleasing environment too. The aesthetic appeal to the Side door trim is added usually through a Door trim insert having a decorative skin pasted on to the plastic base. And the selection of pasting technique for pasting decorative film on to the plastic base insert is a challenge for an automotive interior designer. The objective of this paper will be to review technologies available for manufacturing Door trim inserts with decorative skins, and discuss a direction toward selecting an appropriate pasting technique with cost effectiveness.
In automotive industry, for Side door trim insert decoration, five bonding techniques are used ranging from Adhesive pasting, Thermo compression molding using natural fiber reinforced PP, Pressure lamination, Kimikomi, and Low pressure injection molding, all these will be discussed in this paper. A brief synopsis of the advantages and disadvantages of each process including cost effectiveness, design considerations, shape & complexity of Door trim inserts, Door trim insert skin types & their physical property requirements, process considerations and its testing methods are covered. In addition to this, the necessary tooling investment will also be discussed in this paper.
