Patent Application
20140070524
In recent years, a significant industry has developed which involves the application of customer-selected designs, messages, illustrations, and the like (referred to collectively hereinafter as “images”) on articles, such as T shirts, sweat shirts, leather goods, and the like. These images may be commercially available products tailored for a specific end-use and printed on a release or transfer paper, or the customer may generate the images on a heat transfer paper. The images are transferred to the article by means of heat and pressure, after which the release or transfer paper is removed.
Graphic images are produced on the transferable surface or coating of the heat transfer paper by a printer/copier machine (e.g., an ink-jet printer, a laser-color copier, other toner-based printers and copiers, and so forth). The image and the transferable surface are then transferred to a substrate such as, for example, a cotton T-shirt.
It would be desirable, however, to have a way to provide a method and system for transferring hand-drawn images to a substrate.
Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
Methods are generally provided for transferring an image to a substrate. In one embodiment, an image can be applied onto an image-receptive coating of a heat transfer sheet. The heat transfer sheet can further include a heat transfer layer overlying a base sheet such that the image-receptive coating overlies the heat transfer layer. The heat transfer sheet can be torn substantially along a perforation line to remove the heat transfer sheet from a coloring book, and then positioned adjacent to a substrate. The image, the image-receptive coating, and at least a portion of the heat transfer layer can then be transferred to the substrate, with the base sheet not transferring to the substrate.
Coloring books are also generally provided that include a plurality of heat transfer sheets bound together along a common edge. Each heat transfer sheet can define a perforation line proximate to the common edge, and can include a base sheet, a heat transfer layer on the base sheet, and an image-receptive coating on the heat transfer layer. The image-receptive coating and at least a portion of the heat transfer layer are configured to transfer to a substrate upon application of heat and pressure.
Other features and aspects of the present invention are discussed in greater detail below.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof to one skilled in the art, is set forth more particularly in the remainder of the specification, which includes reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the present invention.
Reference now will be made to the embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are set forth below. Each example is provided by way of an explanation of the invention, not as a limitation of the invention. in fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as one embodiment can be used on another embodiment to yield still a further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents. It is to be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present discussion is a description of exemplary embodiments only, and is not intended as limiting the broader aspects of the present invention, which broader aspects are embodied exemplary constructions.
Coloring books including a plurality of heat transfer sheets are generally disclosed, along with methods of their use. The coloring books allow for a user to manually apply an image to an individual heat transfer sheet. For example, the image can be manually drawn onto an image-receptive coating of the heat transfer sheet by the user using a crayon (e.g., comprising a colored wax), a pencil (e.g., graphite), ink (e.g., a pen or marker), or a combination thereof. As such, a user can manually draw an image onto the image receptive coating, and then transfer the image to a substrate.
An exemplary coloring book 10 is shown in
As discussed in greater below, each heat transfer sheet 12 has an image-receptive coating 46 defining its exposed surface. In certain embodiments, a colored pattern 20 is present (i.e., pre-printed) on or in the image-receptive coating 46. For example, the colored pattern 20 can be present on a transferable layer of the heat transfer sheet 12 (e.g., the image-receptive coating 46 and/or the heat transfer layer) such that the colored pattern 20 transfers to the substrate with the applied image. Alternatively, the colored pattern 20 can be on a non-transferable layer of the heat transfer sheet 12 (e.g., the base sheet 40) such that the colored pattern 20 is not transferred to the substrate with the transferable layers.
As stated, a user can manually apply an image onto the image-receptive coating 46 of a heat transfer sheet 12 via a writing instrument 22. For example, the user can manually apply a colored wax (e.g., utilizing a crayon), an ink (eg., utilizing a marker, a pen, etc.), or the like to form the image 24.
After forming the image 24, the user can then remove a single heat transfer sheet 12 from the book 10. As shown, each heat transfer sheet 12 defines a perforation line 16 proximate to the common edge 14, which allows for the user to tear the heat transfer sheet 12 along the perforation line 16 to remove the sheet 12 from the book 10.
Particularly suitable heat transfer sheets are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,916,751 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 7,238,410 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,247 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,636 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 7,604,856 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 8,172,974 of Kronzer, U.S. Pat. No. 8,236,122 of Kronzer; all of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Although not required, each heat transfer sheet 12 in the coloring book can, in one particular embodiment, have a substantially identical construction and composition.
For example, referring to
As stated, the image-receptive coating 46 overlies a heat transfer layer 44 and a base sheet 40. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the image-receptive coating 46 is adjacent to and directly overlies the heat transfer layer 44, without any intermediate layers. In turn, the heat transfer layer 44 is adjacent to and directly overlies the base sheet 40, also without any intermediate layers. However, in other embodiments, intermediate layers may be positioned between the image-receptive coating 46, the heat transfer layer 44, and/or the base sheet 40. For example, a conformable layer may be positioned between the base sheet 40 and heat transfer layer 44 to facilitate the contact between the heat transfer sheet 12 and the substrate 50 to which the image is to be transferred. An example of a suitable conformable layer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,781 to Kronzer, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.
The heat transfer sheet 12 of
After the image 24 has been applied onto the image-receptive coating 46, the heat transfer sheet 12 is positioned adjacent to a substrate 50. The heat transfer sheet 12 is positioned such that the image-receptive coating 46 and the image 24 are adjacent to the substrate 50, as shown in
Heat (H) and pressure (P) are then applied to the exposed base sheet 40 of the heat transfer sheet 12 adjacent to the substrate 50, as shown in
At the transfer temperature, both the image-receptive coating 46 and the heat transfer layer 44 soften and melt. The image-receptive coating 46 softens and flows directly onto or into the substrate 50. Once the heat (H) and pressure (P) are removed from the heat transfer sheet 12, the base sheet 40 is removed before the heat transfer sheet 12 can substantially cool (i.e., while the heat transfer sheet 12 is still hot). Removing the base sheet occurs by separating the heat transfer layer 44. A first portion (44A) of the heat transfer layer 44 remains on the base sheet 40 and is removed from the substrate 50, while a second portion (44B) of the heat transfer layer 44 is transferred to the substrate 50 along with the image-receptive coating 46. This process is an example of a hot peelable transfer process. As used herein, the phrase “hot peelable transfer process” refers to a process wherein one or more meltable layers is still in a molten state when a non-transferable portion of a heat transfer sheet is removed. Such a process allows release of the heat transfer sheet 12 via splitting of the meltable layer(s). Particularly suitable heat transfer sheets 12 having a splittable heat transfer layer 44, and their method of use, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,887,667 entitled “Heat Transfer Materials and Methods of Making and Using the Same” issued Feb. 15, 2011 to Russell Dolsey, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Alternatively, a “cold peel” heat transfer process can be utilized after the heat transfer sheet 12. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,668 titled “Printable heat transfer material having cold release properties”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,725 titled “Printable heat transfer material having cold release properties”; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,179 titled “Printable heat transfer material having cold release properties” disclose suitable cold transfer sheets and methods, and are incorporated by reference herein.
In such an embodiment, a release layer 42 can be included within the construction of the heat transfer sheet 12 between the base sheet 40 and the heat transfer layer 44, as shown in
Thus, in these embodiments, the image-receptive coating 46 and at least a portion of the heat transfer layer 44 are configured to transfer to a substrate 50 upon application of heat and pressure, along with the image 24. Additionally, in these embodiments, the image 24 is coated on the substrate 50 to help provide durability to the image 24.
In another embodiment, a peelable heat transfer sheet 12 can be utilized, such as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,636 of Kronzer, which is incorporated by reference herein.
The peeled intermediate sheet 70 can then be posited on a substrate 50 with the peelable film layer 60 adjacent to the substrate 50 and the image 24 exposed, and a parchment paper 72 or other release paper is positioned over the image, as shown in
In this embodiment, a plurality of parchment papers (or other release papers) can also be bound with the plurality of heat transfer sheets 12 along the common edge 14. Similar to the heat transfer sheets 12, each parchment paper can also define a perforation line proximate to the common edge such that the parchment papers can be removed from the book 10 to transfer the image 24 to the substrate 50.
These and other modifications and variations to the present invention may be practiced by those of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, which is more particularly set forth in the appended claims. In addition, it should be understood the aspects of the various embodiments may be interchanged both in whole or in part. Furthermore, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing description is by way of example only, and is not intended to limit the invention so further described in the appended claims.
