Patent Application
20150140277
This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 102221356, filed Nov. 15, 2013, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an anti-scattering structure for a silicon-based substrate which is adaptive to the surface with irregular shape.
The conventional way to achieve the anti-scattering feature is to laminate an anti-scattering film on the substrate. Please refer to
The conventional method of manufacturing the anti-scattering film is by roll-to-roll processing as shown in
The cost of the aforementioned way to laminate a substrate is high because of the cost of the anti-scattering film is not able to reduce effectively due to certain processes need to be incorporated. It is not convenient to store and to transport the anti-scattering film as the film needs to be stored in the autoclave with monitored pressure. The defect rate is high as it is harder to laminate the substrate properly when the substrate is not flat. As shown in
Various patents and technologies have been published to propose different structures for anti-scattering glasses or anti-scattering film. These proposals, however, only provide partial solutions to the problems, so they have not become practical. For example, TW. Patent Application No. 99123505 discloses a flat substrate for flatting a first optical adhesive material thereon, then curing the first optical adhesive material as the hardness layer. After the hardness layer is formed, another layer of optical adhesive material is coated, following by another curing process to form an anti-scattering structure. The laminated substrate needs to be flat so the optical adhesive can be flattened to form a flat hardness layer after a full curing or pre-curing.
Other anti-scattering structures are illustrated in TW. Patent No. M433,951 discloses an anti-scattering film to adhere on the glass by users in a D.I.Y. manner, the film proposed is way too thick for the precision electronics design; M378,831 discloses an anti-scattering structure by stacking Calcium Silicate boards, PVC film, fabrics between glasses, such structure is way too bulky to be implemented to have a slim design.
The above mentioned inventions do not provide an overall solution and structure to the aforementioned problems. Hence, there is a need to solve these issues.
In this disclosure, a few embodiments are revealed. Firstly, an anti-scattering structure which comprises a layer of a urea polymer formed on a substrate. The substrate is made of any silicon-based material regardless of surface geometric contour and transparency level, i.e. the coating surface has a geometric shape selected from a group consisting of a flat shape, a curved shape, an uneven shape, an irregular shape, an engraved shape and a combination thereof. The substrate is opaque, translucent or transparent. The way to apply the coating material on the substrate is done via spray coating, slot die coating, immersion coating, curtain coating, air knife coating and a combination thereof. Following by thermal curing or ultraviolet curing to make the urea polymer layer hardened, forming an anti-scattering film. The said polymer is a waterborne polymer, a solvent-based polymer and a combination thereof.
Optionally, an ink layer formed on at least one of the surfaces of the substrate by spray printing, screen printing, transfer printing, inkjet printing, plating and a combination thereof between the substrate and the anti-scattering film. The type of ink could be a Polyvinyl Chloride-based ink, an Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene-based ink, an Acrylic-based ink and a combination thereof. There is no requirement of the opacity of the ink, i.e. the ink could be an opaque, translucent or transparent ink. The next step is to coat a layer of polymer which has a urea chain in its molecular structure as the anti-scattering layer formed on the surface of the ink layer. The ways to coat the anti-scattering layer on the ink layer is done via spray coating, slot die coating, immersion coating, curtain coating, air knife coating and a combination thereof. Following by a thermal curing or an ultraviolet curing to make the urea polymer layer hardened, forming an anti-scattering film. The polymer is a waterborne polymer, a solvent-based polymer and a combination thereof.
The anti-scattering structure can also stack up repeatedly into a multiple anti-scattering layers structure. An anti-scattering laminated structure comprises of a plurality of coating layers. Each of the coating layers comprises a substrate and a urea polymer layer as an anti-scattering film coated on the substrate.
a is a schematic diagram illustrating a 0.8 mm glass laminated with a conventional anti-scattering film after a free-fall test.
b is a schematic diagram illustrating a 0.8 mm glass with an anti-scattering structure according to the present invention after a free-fall test.
a is a schematic diagram illustrating the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
b is a schematic diagram illustrating the possible application of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
c is a schematic diagram illustrating a possible application of the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
The present disclosure will be described with respect to particular embodiments and with reference to certain drawings, but the disclosure is not limited thereto but it only limited by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn according to scale for illustrative purposes. The dimensions and the relative dimensions do not necessarily correspond to actual implementation in practice.
It is to be noticed that the term “including” used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means listed thereafter; it does not exclude other elements or steps. It is thus to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps or components as referred to, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps or components, or groups thereof.
The substrate of the present invention is preferably, but not limited to, any silicate-based material including one of a Fused silica substrate, vitreous silica substrate,
Soda-lime-silica substrate, Sodium borosilicate substrate, Lead-oxide substrate, crystal substrate, Aluminosilicate substrate and the like. There is no restriction to the surface texture and geometric shape of such a substrate.
The way of coating with the mentioned polymer is preferably, but not limited to wet coating methods such as spray coating, slot-die coating, immersion coating, curtain coating, air-knife coating and a combination thereof to obtain the anti-scattering film. The polymer is a thermosetting polymer. Therefore, the substrate with the anti-scattering film has to have on-line curing in order to obtain the anti-scattering structure. The curing method is preferably, but not limited to thermal curing, ultra-violet light curing and a combination thereof. The polymer is also an elastomer;
therefore, it is provided an additional function as a waterproofing structure. The said polymer exhibits relatively high physical properties, particularly tensile strength and/or tear strength.
The anti-scattering film possesses the following optical properties: the transmittance rate is over 90% and the refractive index is 1.48˜1.61. A test about the proposed anti-scattering structure is conducted by measuring the impact lose rate. A 67 g steel ball is free-falling from lm above the test object. The impact lose rate is measured by calculating the weight of the test object after the impact over the weight of the test object before the impact.
The measured impact lose rate of the proposed anti-scattering structure is less than 1%, which is the same as a test object laminated with the conventional anti-scattering film. The illustrations of the two objects after the free fall test are shown in
The disclosure will now be described by a detailed description of several embodiments in order to show how the anti-scattering structure presented in this invention is able to solve the aforementioned problems. It is clear that other embodiments can be configured according to the knowledge of persons skilled in the art without departing from the true technical teaching of the present disclosure, the claimed disclosure being limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
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With the disclosed anti-scattering structure, the cost of providing an anti-scattering structure on a substrate is greatly reduced because of many additional processes are no longer needed such as trimming the film into required size. It is much simpler to store and to transport the polymer instead of store and transport the conventional anti-scattering film in the autoclave with monitored pressure. The defect rate is greatly reduced with the proposed anti-scattering structure as it is able to laminate the substrate without trapped air. Hence, the geometric shape of the substrate no longer poses as a limitation. Designs with ergonomics can be implemented to enhance the user experience and to reduce the possible occupational health risks caused by poor ergonomics. Furthermore, the thickness of the proposed structure is much slimmer comparing to the conventional anti-scattering film, it is possible to further slim down the design of the product, particularly the products with precision electronics design.
While the disclosure has been described in terms of what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure need not be limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures. Therefore, the above description and illustration should not be taken as limiting the scope of the present disclosure which is defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102221356 | Nov 2013 | TW | national |
