The invention relates to a component intended for the internal parts or movement of a timepiece or piece of jewellery. It further relates to the method for manufacturing said component.
The black “colour” can be obtained in the mass of a material by its intrinsic colour or by the addition of pigments or dyes within the material. The black “colour” can also be present on the surface only. This surface colouring can be achieved in a number of ways, typically by oxidation/sulphurisation/carburisation of a metal substrate or by deposition of an oxide/sulphide/carbide on a substrate. Carbon is thus a well-known element used to blacken a surface. Deposited in an elongated manner in the form of nanotubes, the material formed can resemble a perfectly absorbent black body, with light absorption coefficients of up to 99.96% in the visible and near infrared range. This black is so perfect that it can hide 3D shapes of an object viewed from the front.
The use of black coatings is well known in the horological industry. European patent document No. 3 327 517 discloses a dial with a first substrate coated with a black layer of nanotubes facing the watch glass and with a second substrate fixed to the first substrate on the surface opposite the glass. The first substrate is perforated to provide openings acting as windows intended to form indexes. The second substrate comprises a luminescent coating at least in the areas facing the openings so as to create a contrast at the first substrate between the black layer and the illuminated indexes.
Thus, contrast is achieved by superimposing two substrates with different coatings. This superposition avoids the need to selectively deposit both coatings on the same surface and manipulate the particularly fragile nanotube layer more than necessary. This superposition nonetheless has the drawback of requiring two substrates to be manufactured, which increases production costs.
Swiss patent document No. 711 141 discloses a method for manufacturing a dial, wherein the decoration, i.e. indexes, is affixed to the carbon black coating. The decoration is manufactured separately from the dial and then simply added thereto, which greatly facilitates the manufacture of the dial. However, this manufacturing technique is unsuitable for certain types of decorations where the black colour underlying the decoration affects the aesthetics and/or brilliance of the decoration.
In particular, this manufacturing technique is not very suitable for a decoration made of stones, in particular diamonds. The difficulty lies in setting the stones on the dial coated with a black layer. The latter must be discontinuous at the location of the stones, otherwise the brilliance of the stones will be degraded, while at the same time perfectly surrounding the stones to obtain the desired contrast. Particular attention must be paid to the manufacturing method so as not to damage the carbon nanotube layer. The layer can be so friable that it is almost impossible to touch it without damaging the surface, showing shiny tints or even holes contrasting with the original colour of the carbon nanotubes.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a horological or jewellery component coated in black and decorated with stones, and more particularly set with stones. This method is developed in such a way that the black coating is not damaged, while at the same time obtaining a discontinuous black layer at the location of the stones.
The manufacturing method according to the invention cannot thus simply involve adding a decoration, in this case stones, to the coating as in the prior art. According to the invention, the decoration formed by the stones is manufactured directly on the substrate with the black layer selectively removed so as to maintain a surface free of any black beneath the decoration.
More specifically, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing a component intended for the internal parts or movement of a timepiece or piece of jewellery, said component including a substrate at least partially coated with a black layer comprising carbon nanotubes or aluminium oxide, the coated substrate being decorated with at least one stone seated in a bed provided in the substrate, the latter being at least devoid of the black layer on the surface of the bed, said method comprising:
According to an alternative embodiment of the method which is applicable when the black layer contains carbon nanotubes, step b) is replaced by a step b′) of depositing a layer of a precursor including carbon nanotubes. The additional step d) is thus replaced by an additional step d′) of selectively removing the precursor layer so that at least the surface of the bed is devoid of the precursor layer. This method further includes a step f) which consists of chemical or laser etching the precursor layer to reveal the black carbon nanotube layer.
The selective removal step d) or d′) can be carried out mechanically, for example using a setting tool, or preferably by laser ablation. The selective removal can also be carried out indirectly during the step of machining the bed or during a step of growing a support for the stone on the substrate via, for example, an additive manufacturing operation and more specifically by inkjet additive manufacturing.
The present invention further relates to the component of the internal parts or movement for a timepiece or piece of jewellery comprising a substrate partially coated with a black layer and decorated with at least one stone seated in a bed provided in or on the substrate, said black layer comprising carbon nanotubes or aluminium oxide, said substrate being at least devoid of the black layer on the portion facing the stone or, in other words, on the surface of the bed.
For a diamond decoration on a carbon nanotube coating, the present invention proposes producing a horological or jewellery component with two allotropic forms of carbon on the surface, one being very black for the carbon nanotubes and the other being very white for the diamond, allowing for very marked contrasts in brilliance.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear upon reading the following description given with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The invention relates to a component intended for the internal parts or movement of a timepiece or piece of jewellery. It can be selected from the non-exhaustive list comprising a dial, a hand, an index, an applique, an oscillating weight, a plate, and a bridge, etc. According to the invention, this component is at least partially coated with a black layer. The invention further relates to an assembly of two of said components at least partially coated with the black layer.
The invention will be described hereinbelow in the context of an application to a watch dial 1 formed by a substrate 2 coated with a black layer 3 as shown in
The substrate 2 includes a bed 5, shown in
According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the black layer contains carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube layer contains at least 1 wt %, preferably at least 10 wt %, of carbon nanotubes. Said layer can be a varnish comprising at least 1 wt %, preferably at least 10 wt %, of carbon nanotubes. The higher the proportion, the darker the shade. The carbon nanotubes are randomly dispersed within this varnish. This varnish can be deposited, for example, by spraying. Alternatively, the layer contains at least 50 wt %, at least 60 wt %, at least 70 wt %, at least 80 wt %, or at least 90 wt % of carbon nanotubes aligned vertically relative to the plane of the substrate, the remainder consisting of other forms of carbon. Preferably, the layer contains 100 wt % of carbon nanotubes aligned vertically relative to the plane of the substrate. The vertical alignment of the nanotubes results in a deeper black than the random orientation of the carbon nanotubes in the varnish, but has the drawback of having a lower mechanical strength than the varnish. In order to overcome this drawback, a protective layer can be deposited on the black layer, however this results in a reduction of the light absorption coefficient. This protective layer can be a varnish or a thin layer of a material, for example Al2O3, TiO2 or SiO2, or a stack of layers of one or more of these materials deposited by ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition). The vertically-oriented nanotubes are deposited by vacuum methods such as PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition), CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) or laser ablation synthesis. The carbon nanotube layer has a thickness of between 1 and 100 μm.
According to another alternative embodiment, the black layer is a layer comprising mainly aluminium oxides AlxOy such as Al2O3 with additional non-ferrous metal oxides such as, for example, copper, zinc or manganese oxides. This layer contains at least 90% AlxOy, preferably 100% AlxOy. The aluminium oxide has an aluminium content of between 45 wt % and 65 wt %, preferably between 45 wt % and 50 wt %. This layer has a thickness between 1 and 50 microns, preferably between 2 and 10 microns, and more preferably between 4 and 7 microns. It can be deposited by PVD, CVD or PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition).
The component according to the invention can be manufactured according to several embodiments of the method which are diagrammatically illustrated in
The method for manufacturing the component includes, in an unspecified order for steps b) to e):
According to a first embodiment illustrated in
It further comprises a step c) of machining the bed 5 in the substrate 2 and a step e) of positioning and fixing the stone 4 on the substrate 2. Fixing includes setting as well as other fixing techniques such as bonding.
For the alternative embodiment shown in
For the alternative embodiment shown in
For the alternative embodiment shown in
For the alternative embodiment shown in
According to a second embodiment illustrated in
Step d) of selectively removing the precursor layer 7 deposited in the bed 5 is then carried out. Preferably, this selective removal is carried out by laser ablation, but it could also be achieved manually using a suitable tool. This is followed by step e) of positioning and fixing the stone 4 within the bed 5 of the substrate 2. Finally, in step f), the precursor layer 7 is chemically or laser etched to reveal the carbon nanotubes in the precursor layer to form the black layer 3. Chemical etching can be carried out in an acidic medium (e.g. formic acid, acetic acid, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid or hydrofluoric acid) or in a suitable solvent (e.g. m-Cresol) depending on the nature of the polymer matrix. This etching step partially dissolves the polymer matrix of the precursor layer, creating a surface roughness and thus revealing a microstructure rich in carbon nanotubes and suitable for trapping light. Laser etching with a pulsed laser (e.g. a femtosecond or picosecond laser) can also be considered in order to create such a surface microstructure.
Alternatively (not shown), step b′) can be carried out before step c) of machining the bed, steps c) and d′) thus being a single, concomitant step of machining the bed and selectively removing the precursor layer from the bed. Alternatively (not shown), the precursor layer can be deposited on the substrate set with the stone, with the selective removal of the precursor thus being carried out on the stone.
According to a third embodiment illustrated in
The material growth step is carried out by additive manufacturing such as digital printing, electroforming, selective laser melting or any other derived additive method. The material can be metallic, ceramic or polymeric. During this step, the black layer 3 will automatically be selectively removed from the support 11, thus freeing the substrate 2 facing the stone 4 to be set.
The bed 5 can be directly produced during the growth step h) or can be machined at a later stage before step e).
All embodiments are shown for a setting element which is covered with a black layer so as to blend in with the background of the dial. However, the present invention does not preclude the selective removal of the black layer from the bed from also including the setting element.
Finally, the present invention further relates to an assembly comprising a first component and a second component, each intended for the internal parts or movement of a timepiece or piece of jewellery. According to the invention, the first and second components include at least one portion coated with the black layer. Preferably, the first component can move relative to the second component and is mounted facing the latter. This first component is decorated with one or more stones. For example, the first component is a hand coated with the black layer and decorated with a stone set or bonded to the tip of the hand, and the second component is a dial coated with the black layer.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20190566.8 | Aug 2020 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2021/070692 | 7/23/2021 | WO |