Fruehauf Corporation

Fred G Heimann

Richard Abbott

In the making of vehicle bodies such as truck and trailer bodies, the roof sheets are secured to the roof bows by means of a hot melt adhesive. Premature cooling of the adhesive which otherwise does not allow sufficient time to position the roof sheet and then mate it with the roof bows properly after the adhesive is applied, is prevented by employing a heat-insulating layer of glass fiber scrim cloth on the roof bows and upon which the hot melt adhesive is applied. Temporary clamping pressure forces the hot melt adhesive through the pores of the scrim cloth and into contact with the roof bows whereupon it rapidly cools and sets. The presence of the scrim cloth provides a substantial increase in the otherwise unacceptably low bonding strength of the hot melt adhesive.

Method of assembling roof sheets to roof bows

A method of manufacturing foam filled laminated planks which includes continuous means for forming and feeding a longitudinally corrugated plastic reinforcing core between, and bonding it to, top and bottom cover sheet laminae consisting of roll-fed strips of resin-impregnated fabric. The corrugations of the core define channels extending lengthwise through the assembly consisting of the core and cover sheets, and lengths are cut off and fed laterally therefrom to a position wherein each channel is aligned with an elongated lance, and then fed longitudinally into overfitted relation on the lances. The outer ends of the channels are closed, and foaming plastic is fed into the channels through the lances. The planks are then moved off of the lances toward a desired delivery position.

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Mount Clemens, MI, United States of America

Fred G Heimann