1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to a method and apparatus for securing a cover to a support with an adhesive to form an interior assembly for automotive vehicles.
2. Background Art
Development activity has been expended to eliminate the costly, labor intensive cut and sew method of attaching fabric to a cellular foam pad in automotive seat fabrications. One such development employs contact adhesives applied to the fabric layer and the foam pad to adhesively bond them together. However, once such adhesive is applied, it is difficult to properly position the fabric onto the foam pad resulting in misalignment and/or wrinkles in the bonded fabric.
Other developments include spraying an adhesive between the fabric and the foam pad and subsequently mating the surfaces to effectuate bonding. Depending upon the adhesive, mating can be done while the adhesive is still wet, or after the adhesive has dried to a tack. Either approach is time consuming.
Another technique involves heating and melting an adhesive film using heated steam injected through either a fabric layer or a foam pad. Such a technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,199 to Kozlowski et al, assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The mold surfaces may also be heated in addition to the injection of steam to assist in the melting of the adhesive as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,226 to Inoue. Certain seat cover fabrics, however, are sensitive to high temperature environments and may be damaged by the injection of superheated steam. Another disadvantage of the steam injection method is that the seat cover fabric must be sufficiently permeable. This typically precludes the use of leather and vinyl seat covers in the process.
Industrial applications of microwave radiation heating have been used for the heating of rubber as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,098 to Hush et al, and for preheating plastics prior to a forming operation as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,617 to Oberg et al and in an article appearing in the March 1987 issue of HIGH TECHNOLOGY, entitled “Industry Warms Up to Microwave Ovens,” by Zygmont. Other uses of microwave radiation are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,728,566 and 4,906,309.