1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminate comprising an acrylic resin layer, a thermoplastic resin layer and a propylene-based resin layer, to a structure comprising the laminate and a polypropylene resin substrate, and to an automotive part and a part of household appliances, the parts comprising the foregoing structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To produce a molded resin article of good design property by preforming a decorative or colored film by vacuum forming or the like, inserting the film preformed into a mold for injection molding, thereafter injecting a synthetic resin to allow the decorative or colored film to laminate to a part of the surface of the resulting molded article has recently been proposed as a method for improving the design property of the surface of a molded article without performing painting. For instance, Japanese Patent Kohyo Publication No. 2-503077 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open 11-207896 disclose that a colored molded article is produced by use of a laminate constituted of a transparent layer, a colored layer and a substrate, as a paintless film.
Incidentally, in the case where a molded article of good design properties is produced by such a method, it is general to use a polyolefin resin such as polypropylene as a resin for injection molding which will form a substrate of the molded article. Further, it is important for a molded article to be excellent in scratch resistance, surface luster property, weather resistance and the like. Furthermore, it is required to produce such a molded article at low cost. Therefore, at present, adopted is a method comprising the steps of preforming a laminate comprising an acrylic resin layer as a transparent layer or a colored layer, a polypropylene resin layer as a substrate layer by thermoforming such as vacuum forming into a predetermined shape, inserting the resulting preformed laminate into a mold for injection molding, and injecting, after the insertion, a polyolefin resin. In the above method, the xe2x80x9csubstrate layerxe2x80x9d indicates a layer in the laminate that will come in contact with an injection molding resin which will become a substrate.
However, it has become clear that such a conventional laminate may form cracks therein during its handling, for example, at the time of its setting for thermoforming or at its release from a mold after its forming. Such cracking will become a serious problem because it will deteriorate the appearance of a structure after the injection of a polyolefin resin.
The present invention was made for the elimination of the above problem. The object of the present invention is to provide a laminate of good crack resistance wherein the laminate does not form cracks at the time of its setting during its thermoforming or of its release from a mold after its thermoforming.
The present invention provides a laminate comprising at least:
a resin layer (A) containing a propylene-based resin (a);
a resin layer (B) containing a thermoplastic resin (b) with a tensile elongation at break of not less than 100%; and
a resin layer (C) containing an acrylic resin (c), wherein the resin layer (A),
the resin layer (B) and the resin layer (C) are disposed in layers in this order.
The present invention further provides a structure comprising the foregoing laminate and a substrate containing a polyolefin resin, the substrate being laminated to the resin layer (A) of the laminate. Furthermore, the present invention provides an automotive part and a household appliance part comprised of the foregoing laminate structure.