Aluminum Company of America

Romeo C Pascasio

Dinesh C Seksaria

John W Cobes

Daniel L Serafin

Robert E Bombalski

Frank A Mozelewski

Donald L Nock

A lightweight tailgate assembly for pickup trucks includes several metal panels that are preferably made from a single metal sheet, a plastic reinforcing module between inner and outer metal panels, and fastener means joining the reinforcing module to the inner panel. A preferred assembly also includes hinge means for connection with truck body, and latch means for locking the assembly between opposed rear corner posts in a truck body. A particularly preferred tailgate assembly made with AA 6022 aluminum alloy sheet and a reinforcing module containing nylon and glass fibers weighs about half as much as a conventional steel struck tailgate.

Lightweight tailgate assembly

A shaped strip of highly reflective aluminum protected by an anodic oxide coating and a light-permeable fluoropolymer coating which is non-adhesively interstitially mechanically bonded to the microscopic irregularities of the anodic oxide surface. There is no adhesive used to obtain chain entanglement. The highly reflective strip may be substituted for polished stainless steel and/or bi-metal and used under comparably aggressive conditions for a prolonged period without deleteriously affecting the initial D/I (distinctness of reflected image) of the shaped strip. The strip of arbitrary length is shaped in rolling dies so that at least a portion of the strip has a radius of less than 10 mm without damaging or separating the fluoropolymer coating. The specific steps of the claimed process require starting with a clean strip which is brightened to a nearmirror-like finish, then treated to carry a thin porous aluminum oxide coating in a phosphoric acid bath under direct current (DC). After rinsing and drying, the reflective surface is coated with the fluoropolymer while maintaining at least 80% D/I. The strip, now dual-coated, is then formed to a desired profile. The dual-coated strip, in turn, may be treated with a corona discharge to activate its surface so as to non-adhesively bond an adhesive chosen to bond a thermoplastic strip of synthetic resin to the activated fluoropolymer surface.

Method of making a shaped reflective aluminum strip, doubly-protected

Growing community of inventors

Lower Burrell, PA, United States of America

Romeo C Pascasio