Voplex Corporation

Gary S Klein

Dick T Van Manen

An applicator 15 deposits a solvent-carried adhesive intermittently along a moving strip 10. A sump 26 is arranged below strip 10 to contain a quantity of the solvent 27, and an adhesive wheel 16 rotates with its lower region immersed in the solvent. Adhesive wheel 16 has a continuous periphery on which adhesive is continuously applied, and an applicator wheel 17 rotates against the adhesive wheel and the bottom of the strip above the sump. Applicator wheel 17 a as an intermittent peripheral surface 18 that receives adhesive from the adhesive wheel and applies it in an intermittent pattern to the bottom of the moving strip. The sump, the adhesive wheel, the applicator wheel, and the region of contact between the applicator wheel and the strip are enclosed to retain a substantially saturated solvent vapor atmosphere within the enclosure 25 to inhibit the evaporation of solvent from the adhesive.

Intermittent adhesive applicator

An automotive trim strip laminate formed of a strip of polyester material bearing a layer of metallic material covered by a thin polyvinyl chloride layer bonded to a supporting substrate of a flexible plasticized polyvinyl chloride material is made so that the laminate can be thermally bonded to a support material along a curved path without any irregularity, which is recognized as caused by compression wrinkling from thermal stress along radially inner regions of the curved path. This is prevented by selecting the polyester strip and the thin polyvinyl chloride layer with physical characteristics and dimensions to provide the metallized polyester strip with sufficient dimensional stability relative to the polyvinyl chloride substrate to prevent any such compression wrinkling, and one preferred way is to make the thin polyvinyl chloride layer substantially unplasticized and formed of a smooth, medium impact material.

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Canandaigua, NY, United States of America

Gary S Klein