Non-visible tear seams for airbag coverings

摘要

A vehicle interior panel includes a decorative covering with a non-visible tear seam that forms a deployment opening through the covering during airbag deployment. The tear seam is formed by mechanical piercing of a skin layer of the covering from the decorative side. The skin layer is formed from a self-healing material, allowing a piercing tool to form microholes that are smaller than the effective piercing diameter of the tool without the need for subsequent processes intended to otherwise hide the formed tear seam. Tear seams formed in this manner can offer larger processing windows, lower manufacturing and equipment cost, and/or shorter cycle times when compared to other methods such as laser scoring. Tear seam function may also be improved and/or more predictable.

主权项

1. A method of making a vehicle interior panel having a non-visible airbag tear seam, comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a decorative covering having a self-healing skin layer; (b) disposing the covering over a substrate to at least partly form the panel, the substrate having a pre-determined airbag deployment opening location; and (c) mechanically piercing the self-healing skin layer using a piercing tool to form microholes at a plurality of spaced apart locations corresponding to the airbag deployment opening location, wherein the piercing is performed from a decorative side of the covering and a non-visible tear seam comprising the microholes is formed in the covering, each microhole being smaller than an effective piercing diameter of the piercing tool so that the tear seam is non-visible without the need for a subsequent process intended to hide the formed tear seam.