SEMI-RIGID SHELL OF TRAVELING BAG AND METHOD FOR ITS MANUFACTURE

摘要

PURPOSE: To make a molded travelling bag furthermore deformable and restorable to a specified shape, by sticking an outer side material onto the first part of a base sheet constituted of a nonwoven batting of thermoplastic resin fibers and fixing removably the second part of the base sheet to a thermoforming apparatus and thermoforming the outer side material and the base sheet to form a shell with a specified shape. CONSTITUTION: The outer side material 10 with a dimension smaller than the area of a base sheet material 18 is fixed to one face of the base sheet material in such a way that a part of the base sheet material have not the outer side material 10 fixed thereon. The outer side material 10 is fixed or bonded by using an adhesive, heat fusion or needle punch operation. The outer side material 10 can be backed in advance with a layer 11 of a fabric material or a water-nonpermeable film 15. Then, this assembly is thermoformed under heating and pressing condition to elevate temp. up to the softening temp. of at least a part of the thermoplastic resin base fiber in a core batting 14. The softened fiber is hardened again and is at least partly bonded mutually when it is cooled thereafter under restriction of a mold to keep a specified shape and to form a semirigid shell for a travelling bag.