1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an emblem of an automobile part and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an emblem of an automobile part, attached to an airbag, a hood top, a hubcap, a side trim, a gear knob, and so on, to represent a manufacturer of the automobile, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, an emblem is attached to a surface of a product or the exterior of the product to embed the product manufacturer into consumers' memory.
The emblem may be a geometric figure, a sign, a character, or some combination thereof for representing a company name, a group name, a company mark, a logo, and so on, to be used as a symbol for simply representing a company or a group.
Such an emblem is conventionally made of a plastic or metal material plated with chrome to stand out. The chrome plating is performed by electric plating, chemical plating, dipping plating, and so on. Electric plating and chemical plating will be briefly described below.
In order to perform electric plating, a plating bath containing copper sulfate solution is prepared, a power supply is prepared to supply current, a variable resistor is installed to supply an appropriate amount of current, and a cathode rod connected to the power supply is installed in the plating bath.
When power is applied to the cathode rod connected to a material to be plated, the cathode rod is negatively charged, and electrons discharged from the cathode rod are transmitted to copper ions Cu+ yielding copper metal.
As a result, sulphuric acid ions SO− in the plating bath bond with copper atoms to generate a new copper sulfate in the sulfate solution so that copper sulfate is accumulated on a surface of the material to be plated at normal atomic intervals, thereby performing plating.
The electric plating method can be applied using various metals such as iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, ruthenium, silver, cadmium, gold, and so on. In addition, since the electric plating method can be used to bright-plate the surface of a product with a copper-nickel-chrome alloy, it may be applied to a product requiring anticorrosion and anti-abrasion properties.
In addition, in the chemical plating method, a non-conductive material such as plastic, fiber, paper, and so on is dipped in the plating solution, and then, the non-conductive material is plated. The chemical plating method further includes a degreasing process for removing organic materials stuck to the surface of the product to be plated by dipping the product in a degreasing bath, and an etching process for giving the surface of the product to be plated a fine roughness to improve adhesion of the plating by an anchoring effect and to make the surface of the product hydrophobic.
Then, the product passes through an activation process for forming a palladium and zinc nucleus at the roughness, and a re-activation process for completely removing elemental zinc from ionic zinc and palladium.
In addition, the product passes through a conversion process for plating the roughness formed by the etching process using palladium catalyst with nickel (Ni) metal particles to a small thickness to convert the non-conductive product into a conductive material, and a first brightening process for plating the nickel-plated part with sulphuric copper to make the surface smooth and shiny.
Then, the product passes through a second brightening process for depositing a semi-bright nickel, a bright nickel, and a duralumin nickel in a two or three-layered structure to provide electro-deposition and high anticorrosion characteristics, and a chrome plating process for plating the deposited surface with chrome (Cr) to a thickness of 0.1˜0.5 μm to provide an anti-corrosion property and durability.
Next, the product passes through a cleaning process for cleaning the surface of the plated product to remove stains stuck to the surface, and a drying process of moving the cleaned product using a moving carrier and drying the product using a hot air blower.
An emblem formed by the above method is attached to a hood top, an airbag, and so on, of an automobile. In particular, the emblem attached to the airbag is attached to the surface of a cover of the airbag, which is injection-molded and formed of plastic. In a collision of the automobile, an inflator instantly combusts a gas generating agent such as sodium nitride to inflate the airbag using the resulting nitrogen gas, and at this time, the emblem may separate from the air bag cover.
As a result, the emblem separated from the airbag may damage a passenger. In addition, since the airbag has a tear line formed at the airbag cover to instantly discharge the airbag when the airbag is deployed, the need to obtain an area for attaching the emblem makes it difficult to design the tear line.
Further, since chrome, a heavy metal, is used to make the emblem shiny, there is potential for environmental contamination such as water or soil contamination. Moreover, since an adhesion process for adhering the emblem to the airbag cover should be added, it is likely to decrease productivity as well as working performance of the product.