This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 98145810, filed on Dec. 30, 2009. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a decorated device and a method of fabricating a decorated device, in particular, to a decorated device having holographic pattern decoration and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Credit cards, cashes, checks, and other important files need to have a feature of being not easy to be duplicated. The recent duplicating equipment and duplicating technique become increasingly developed, so it is also necessary to develop an updated anti-forgery technique. Hologram is a diffractive optical element, and is widely applied in authentication, security, anti-forgery, and other purposes, such as holographic pigeon pattern or holographic globe pattern on the credit cards.
The main reason is that it is impossible to forge the hologram by means of scanning or printing, and it is not easy to forge in a holographic manner except for the experts familiar with the holographic technique. Presently, the holographic patterns are formed on a paper or a film sheet to construct a tag or a mark. The tag or the mark is adhered on a device so as to accomplish the anti-forgery design. However, the adhesion of the tag or the mark on the device is not reliable because the adhesion material may be deteriorated through the weathering, the oxidation, or the like so that the tag or the mark may be peel-off from the device. In addition, the hologram may easily scrapped or damaged.
Accordingly, the invention is directed to a decorated device having holographic patterns.
The invention is also directed to a method of fabricating a decorated device having holographic patterns.
The invention provides a decorated device including a body, a hologram layer, and an adhesion layer. The hologram layer is disposed on the body and includes a transparent base layer having an uneven structure and a reflective layer substantially conformable covering the uneven structure to form a plurality of holographic patterns, wherein the reflective layer is located between the adhesion layer and the transparent base layer. The adhesion layer is disposed between a surface of the body and the hologram layer.
In a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the surface is a non-plane surface and the hologram layer is conformed to the non-plane surface.
In a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the transparent base layer is a releasing layer.
In a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the transparent base layer is a durable layer.
In a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, an ink layer is further disposed between the transparent base layer and the adhesion layer.
In a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, a material of the reflective layer includes Al, Cu, Ni, Zn, Cr, Ag, Ti, W, Au, Pt, Pb, Sn, Mg, metal oxide, alloy oxide or any combination thereof.
The invention also provides a method of fabricating a decorated device. First, a hologram layer having a plurality of holographic patterns is formed on a substrate. An adhesion layer is formed on the hologram layer away from the substrate. Thereafter, a body is formed by a decoration process so that the hologram layer is conformably adhered on a surface of the body through the adhesion layer.
In a method of fabricating a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the method of forming the hologram layer on the substrate includes: forming a transparent base layer on the substrate; performing a pattern transferring process on the transparent base layer to form an uneven structure away from the substrate; and forming a reflective layer on the transparent base layer and the reflective layer conformably covering the uneven structure. In an embodiment, the method of performing a pattern transferring process on the transparent base layer includes performing an embossing process on the transparent base layer to form the uneven structure away from the substrate. In addition, the method of forming the reflective layer on the uneven structure includes performing an evaporation coating process or a sputtering process. It is noted that the reflective layer can be formed after forming the uneven structure on the transparent base layer. Alternatively, the reflective layer is formed before forming the uneven structure on the transparent base layer. Specifically, the method of fabricating a decorated device further includes: forming a mask layer on the base layer to expose a portion of the uneven structure before forming the reflective layer; and removing the mask layer after forming the reflective layer so that the reflective layer covers a portion of the uneven structure.
In a method of fabricating a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the method of the decoration process includes: putting the substrate and the hologram layer disposed thereon in a fixture; filling a body material in the fixture; ejecting the body and the hologram layer from the fixture; and separating the substrate from the hologram layer. For example, the body material includes a plastic material. In an embodiment, the substrate is separated from the hologram layer simultaneously when the body and the hologram layer are ejected. Nevertheless, the substrate may be separated from the hologram layer after the body and the hologram layer are ejected.
In a method of fabricating a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, the decoration process includes adhering the hologram layer on the surface of the body through performing an in-mold rolling process.
In a method of fabricating a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, an ink layer is further formed on the hologram layer before forming the adhesion layer.
In a method of fabricating a decorated device according to an embodiment of the invention, a releasing layer is further formed on the substrate before forming the hologram layer so that the releasing layer is located between the hologram and the substrate. In addition, after forming the body, the substrate and the releasing layer are further separated from the hologram layer. Herein, the transparent base layer can be a durable layer.
In view of the above, the hologram layer having holographic patterns is formed on a body of a device through the in-mold decoration technique. Therefore, the holographic patterns are prevented from being damaged to extent the lifetime and improve the reliability of the hologram layer. Accordingly, the hologram layer provides superior anti-forgery function.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
Next, referring to
Next, a reflective layer 126 is formed on the uneven structure 124 as shown in
Thereafter, referring to
Specifically, the method of forming the body 140 of the device 100 can be a decoration process. The decoration process can be performed by the following steps. First, the substrate 110 and the hologram layer 120 disposed thereon are placed in a fixture (not shown). In the present step, the fixture (not shown) can be a mold for fabricating the body 140. Then, a body material is filled in the fixture (not shown) and subsequently the body 140 and the hologram layer 120 are ejected from the fixture (not shown). Herein, the substrate 100 is separated from the hologram layer 120 simultaneously when the body 140 and the hologram layer 120 are ejected. Nevertheless, the substrate 110 may be separated from the hologram layer 120 after the body 140 and the hologram layer 120 are ejected in other embodiments. Based on the above steps, the in-mold process is performed. In an example, the body material can be a plastic material such as polycarbonate (PC), polypropylene (PP), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), MMA-St, MS, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyoxymethylene (POM) or a combination thereof, but are not restricted herein. The above-mentioned process can be a conventional injection molding process used in the art. Nevertheless, the decoration process of the present embodiment is not restricted in the above-mentioned process; the decoration process can also be an in-mold rolling process, laminating process, thermoforming process, blow molding process, stamping process, compression molding process, or a combination thereof so as to combine the hologram layer 120 to the body 140 of the device 100.
In the present embodiment, the body 140 of the device 100 is configured with the hologram layer 120, and the holographic patterns H are sandwiched between the releasing layer 122 and the adhesion layer 130. Therefore, the holographic patterns H are protected from scraping and damaging. Specifically, after using the device 100 for a long time, the holographic patterns H are still clear and can be easily distinguished. If the holographic patterns H are used as an anti-forgery mark, the holographic patterns H can provide a desirable and reliable anti-forgery effect. In addition, the hologram layer 120 of the present embodiment is fabricated through the decoration process to be combined with the body 140 so that the hologram layer 120 can be conformed to a surface 142 of the body 140. No matter the shape of the body 140 is, the hologram layer 140 can be formed thereon. Namely, the hologram layer 120 can be tightly adhered on any surface such a plane surface, a curved surface, a rugged surface, or a stingy surface so that the utility convenience of the hologram layer 120 is largely enhanced. Accordingly, the design of the device 100 having the holographic patterns H can be variety.
Thereafter, referring to
Next, referring to
In the present embodiment, the decoration process is conducive to tightly connect the hologram layer 220 to the surface 142 of the body 140 through the adhesion layer 130 so that the hologram layer 220 has high reliability. In an embodiment, the hologram layer 220 can be embedded in the body 140 through the decoration process and the holographic patterns H are sandwiched between the durable layer 222b and the body 140. Accordingly, the holographic patterns H are difficultly scrapped and damaged. Furthermore, the hologram layer 220 is conformed to the surface 142 of the body 140 so that the surface 142 can be a plane surface or a non-plane surface. Consequentially, compared with the conventional design which additionally adhere a paper with holographic patterns on a plane surface of a device, the design of the device 200 can be variety and the hologram layer 220 of the present embodiment has better reliability.
In other embodiments, the reflective layer 126 can be partially formed on the substrate 110 so as to fabricate a partial holographic pattern. In particular,
Then, referring to
Specifically, in addition to the holographic patterns, some other patterns such as ink patterns can be form on the surface of the device, and the related fabricating process is schematically shown in
Next, referring to
The holographic patterns H of the hologram layer 320 are partially distributed on the surface of the body 140 so that the ink layer 460 can be exposed by a portion of the uneven structure 324 without being covered by the reflective layer 326. Therefore, the holographic patterns H and the ink layer 460 together construct the complex holographic pattern C exemplified illustrated in
In summary, the hologram layer of the invention is formed on a body of a device through a decoration process. The hologram layer is conformed to the surface of the body of the device so as to improve the variety of the design of the device. In addition, the holographic patterns constructed by the hologram layer are sandwiched between a transparent base layer and the body so as to prevent from the ambient destruction. Accordingly, the reliability and the lifetime of the hologram layer is improved so as to provide a better anti-forgery function.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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98145810 | Dec 2009 | TW | national |