The interior of an automobile consists of several major parts such as the main dashboard, sub-dashboard, inner door guards, pillar guards, headliner, carpets, seats, etc. In traditional automobiles, they are mainly made out of metal and wooden materials. But the use of these two materials will appear difficult to avoid the problem, such as metal material interior will increase the weight of the car, is not conducive to energy saving and emission reduction. Another example is that wooden materials will increase the manufacturing cost of the car, which is not conducive to the later market sales. The plastic material can be a good solution to this problem, not only can reduce the weight, but also reduce costs.
Dashboard assemblies can be categorized into hard dashboards and soft dashboards according to their surface texture.
Rigid instrument panels are plastic instrument panels that are molded directly by injection molding process, and the materials used are PP and TOP materials. This type of instrument panel has a special texture on the surface, which requires high quality of appearance. Injection molded instrument panels are simple and low-cost, and are generally used in low-end passenger cars, buses and trucks. Soft instrument panels are soft to the touch, allowing people to sit in the cab in a comfortable and cozy atmosphere, mostly used in high-end cars.
Soft instrument panel is generally composed of injection molded skeleton and foam surface layer, with the function of collision energy absorption. Skeleton is mainly made of PC/ABS, PPE, PP + EPDM + T20 injection molding, the use of these materials can not only reduce the cost of car manufacturing, and injection molding out of the product performance is excellent. The foam layer is generally made of PU material, which is also called polyurethane, and it can connect the skin and the skeleton together well, reduce noise and vibration, and improve the appearance and texture of the instrument panel as a whole.
The skin material is usually made of PVC powder through the plastic lining process, so it is also known as plastic lined skin in the industry. PVC material has many advantages, first of all, the cost is not high, so the manufacturer can use the lowest cost to get the best performance, in order to seek the most profit. Secondly, the product is easy to color and smooth in appearance, which greatly enhances the feel of the product. Finally, it is durable and wear-resistant, which prolongs the service life of the product. The whole process of skin lining refers to the rotation of the lining mold, so that the PVC material in the centrifugal force and heat, uniformly coated, fused, adherent and mold cavity of the entire surface of the molding, and finally cooled and shaped. Enameled skin, sharp edges, clear texture, touch is equivalent to the touch of leather, but not as expensive as leather, so loved by consumers.