Covering Elements for Motor Vehicle Bodies

1,186,607. Upholstery, floor coverings. SCHAEFFLER TEPPICHBODEN G.m.b.H. 23 May 1967 [23 May, 1966], No. 23979/67. Headings A4M and A4S. [Also in Divisions B2 and B5] Covering elements, for the interior of vehicles, for example floor coverings and arm rest coverings, are made by shaping a laminate composed of a fibrous fleece needled at least twice and a thermoplastic supporting layer, the fibrous fleece being turned between each needling operation. The laminate is shaped by first heating it to render the thermoplastic layer soft, then drawing it, using vacuum blow or matched mould techniques, and then cutting it to size. A sound and heat insulating layer of e.g. wool felt, cork matting, bitumenised pulpboard, rubberised coconut matting, polyurethane foam or foamed P.V.C. may be first applied to the mould and bonded by the backing layer to the laminate. The fibrous layer may be of natural fibres such as wool, silk, cotton, linen and flox, or of synthetic fibres such as regenerated cellulose, cellulose derivatives, polypropylene, polyamide polyesters or acrylonitrile. The thermoplastic layer may be applied by powder sprinkling or applied as a preformed film and may be high or low pressure polyethylene, polypropylene, or hard and soft P.V.C. In the particular example a needled fleece of nylon fibres is sprinkled with polyethylene powder, heated to sinter the powder, and the composite then passed through cooled rolls. In the example an arm rest cover is formed between matched moulds from a laminate comprising a needled fleece of nylon fibres arid a backing layer of polythene applied by the powdering sintering method.