Patent Application
20130248095
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a decoration film, a method of fabricating a decoration film, and a method of fabricating a decoration device, in particular, to a decoration film having a relief surface and fabricating by an embossing process, a method of fabricating a decoration film having a relief surface, and a method of fabricating a decoration device by using a decoration film having a relief surface.
2. Description of Related Art
The illustrations or decorations formed on the surface of the plastic or the metal housing can be fabricated by a decoration process using a decoration film which has predetermined decoration layers formed on the substrate. Conventionally, the process for decorating a metal housing is performed after the metal housing is stamped to have a predetermined shape. The decoration processes include an in-mold decoration (IMD) technique, a heat transfer printing process, a sublimation heat transfer process, a hot stamping process, an ink-jet printing process, a water transfer printing process, and the like.
For example, the process of the IMD technique includes placing the decoration film into a mold of the injection machine, injecting a melted resin or plastic material at a side of the decoration film in the mold so that the melted resin and the decoration layers of the decoration film are combined to form a decoration device, and thereafter ejecting the decoration device from the mold. Accordingly, the in-mold decoration process is completed.
With the variety of the requirements on the decoration device, the predetermined decoration layers must have various properties such as specific sense of touch. For example, the decoration device may be required to provide a relief outer surface such that a user can feel the roughness of the decoration device when touching thereon. Particularly, the portion capable of providing the roughness feeling in the decoration device can be further requested to be aligned to the illustration patterns formed on the decoration device. However, the portion capable of providing the roughness feeling in the decoration device and the illustration patterns are formed in different layers so that the alignment between the illustration patterns and the portion capable of providing the roughness feeling in the decoration device may be difficult.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a decoration film having relief pattern layer with a relief marker for position alignment.
The present invention is directed to a method for fabricating a decoration film having relief pattern layer with a relief marker for position alignment.
The present invention is directed to a method for fabricating a decoration device having relief pattern on the outer surface thereof and the method uses a decoration film having a relief pattern layer with a relief marker for position alignment.
The present invention is directed to a decoration film for in-mold decoration process. The decoration film includes a substrate and a relief pattern layer disposed on the substrate. The relief pattern layer has a relief surface away from the substrate and includes a decoration relief portion and a marker relief portion located around the decoration relief portion, wherein the relief pattern layer is remained on the substrate after the in-mold decoration process.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a material of the relief pattern layer comprises a rapid-cured material. For example, the rapid-cured material includes a UV-curable gum suitable for being cured immediately during an embossing process. The material of the relief pattern layer can further includes a dye, a pigment, a filler, or a combination thereof.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the decoration film further includes a hard coat layer disposed on the relief surface of the relief pattern layer, wherein the hard coat layer has a decoration relief and a marker relief respectively corresponding to the decoration relief portion and the marker relief portion. The decoration relief and the marker relief are substantially conformed to the decoration relief portion and the marker relief portion, respectively. In an alternate example, a space is defined between the hard coat layer and a part of the decoration relief portion such that the decoration relief is substantially conformed to the other part of the decoration relief portion. Furthermore, the decoration film further includes an adhesion layer disposed on the hard coat layer away from the relief pattern layer. Alternately, the decoration film further includes a function layer disposed between the hard coat layer and the adhesion layer, wherein the function layer can include an ink layer, a metal layer, or a combination thereof. The decoration film can further include a releasing layer disposed between the hard coat layer and the relief pattern layer.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a relief depth of the marker relief portion in the relief pattern layer is from 3 μm to 25 μm.
The present invention is further directed to a method for fabricating a decoration film. A rapid-cured material is applied on a substrate. An embossing process is performed on the rapid-cured material and the rapid-cured material is immediately cured to form a relief pattern layer having a relief surface away from the substrate, wherein the relief pattern layer can include a decoration relief portion and a marker relief portion located around the decoration relief portion.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the rapid-cured material comprises a UV-curable gum.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for fabricating a decoration film further includes forming a hard coat layer on the relief surface of the relief pattern layer, wherein the hard coat layer has a decoration relief and a marker relief respectively corresponding to the decoration relief portion and the marker relief portion.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the decoration relief and the marker relief are substantially conformed to the decoration relief portion and the marker relief portion, respectively.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method of forming the hard coat layer includes applying a hard coat material on the relief pattern layer; adjusting an amount of the hard coat material on the relief pattern layer such that a space is defined between the hard coat material and a part of the decoration relief portion; and curing the hard coat material such that the decoration relief of the hard coat layer is substantially conformed to the other part of the decoration relief portion. In an example, the method for fabricating a decoration film further includes forming an adhesion layer on the hard coat layer away from the relief pattern layer. The method for fabricating a decoration film can further include forming a function layer disposed between the hard coat layer and the adhesion layer, wherein the function layer comprises an ink layer, a metal layer, or a combination thereof. In another example, the method for fabricating a decoration film can further include forming a releasing layer disposed between the hard coat layer and the relief pattern layer.
The present invention is also directed to a method for fabricating a decoration device. A decoration film is provided and the decoration film includes a substrate, a relief pattern layer, a hard coat layer, and an adhesion layer. The relief pattern layer is disposed on the substrate and has a relief surface away from the substrate. The relief layer includes a decoration relief portion and a marker relief portion located around the decoration relief portion. The hard coat layer is disposed on the relief surface of the relief pattern layer, wherein the hard coat layer has a decoration relief and a marker relief respectively corresponding to the decoration relief portion and the marker relief portion. The adhesion layer is disposed on the hard coat layer away from the relief pattern layer. Subsequently, the decoration film is adhered on a body and the substrate and the relief pattern layer are subsequently removed from the body to form a decoration device, wherein the relief pattern layer is remained on the substrate and the hard coat layer is exposed.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method of adhering the decoration film on the body comprises an in-mold decoration process.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the decoration film further includes a releasing layer between the hard coat layer and the relief pattern layer, and the releasing is further removed during removing the substrate and the relief pattern layer from the body.
In light of the foregoing descriptions, in the decoration film according to an embodiment of the invention, the relief pattern layer formed on the substrate is fabricated by an embossing process and includes both a decoration relief portion and a marker decoration portion. Accordingly, the relief pattern layer on the substrate can be properly aligned to the pattern of the decoration layers subsequently formed on the substrate. The decoration device fabricated by the decoration film can provide certain roughness touching feeling at a part of the outer surface corresponding to the pattern and complies with the requirement of the user.
In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanying figures are described in detail below.
Herein, the same or similar reference numbers used in the drawings and the descriptions are referred as the same or similar elements. For clearly describing the concept of the invention, the shapes and the thickness of the elements in the embodiments accompanying with the drawings may not definitely comply with the real circumstance. In addition, the following descriptions are directed to the elements or the combinations thereof, but the elements are not particularly restricted in the contents or the descriptions. Any form or shape known by one skilled in the art is applicable in the invention. Moreover, the description that a material layer disposed on a substrate or disposed on another material layer means that the material layer is directly located on the substrate or the another material layer, and may also mean that some interlayer is interrupted between the material layer and the substrate or between the material layer and the another material layer.
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.
For achieving a required touching feeling in a decoration device, the following descriptions exemplified depict a decoration film and the application thereof. Several decoration processes such as an in-mold decoration (IMD) technique, a heat transfer printing process, a sublimation heat transfer process, a hot stamping process, an ink-jet printing process, a water transfer printing process, and the like are provided for forming the decoration device, wherein the IMD technique substantially includes an in-mold labelling (IML) process, an in-mold film (IMF) process, an in-mold roller (IMR) process, or the like. It is noted that the decoration film described hereinafter can be applied in any of the aforesaid decoration processes, but the invention is not limited thereto.
During performing the embossing process, a rapid-cured material 120′ is applied on the substrate 110 at the upstream of the pattern roll 10 in the predetermined direction D. The rapid-cured material 120′ on the substrate 110 can be squeezed by the pattern roll 10 and the pressing roll 20 when the substrate 110 is transmitted in the direction D. In addition, the rapid-cured material 120′ can be cured immediately by the energy source 30 after squeezing of the pattern roll 10 and the pressing roll 20 and the cured rapid-cured material 120′ can be separated from the pattern roll 10 to form the decoration film 100 including the relief pattern layer 120 formed on the substrate 110 as shown in
It is noted that the surface of the pattern roll 10 can have a predetermined concave-convex structure 12 thereon and thus the relief pattern layer 120 can have a relief surface 122. Specifically, the relief surface 122 is configured away from the substrate 110 and the relief pattern layer 120 includes a decoration relief portion 126 and a marker relief portion 124 located around the decoration relief portion 126.
In the present embodiment, the substrate 110 can be a flexible substrate and a material of the substrate 110 can be polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), polyethylene glycol-co-cyclohexane-1,4 dimethanol terephthalate (PETG), thermalplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyurethane (PU), polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC), amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (A-PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Polystyrene (PS), triacetyl cellulose (TAC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), methylmethacrylate-styrene (MMA-st, MS) copolymer, cyclo olefin copolymer (COC) and a combination thereof, but the invention is not restricted herein.
In addition, a material of the rapid-cured material 120′ can include a UV-curable gum suitable for being cured immediately during the embossing process. Therefore, the energy source 30 according to the present embodiment can be a UV source. Certainly, the rapid-cured material 120′ can be other materials capable of being cured immediately during the embossing process. In one example, the rapid-cured material 120′ can be a thermal curable material and the energy source 30 can be correspondingly a heater. In addition, the material of the relief pattern layer 120 can further includes a dye, a pigment, a filler, or a combination thereof such that the relief pattern layer 120 can represent certain color. In an example, the pigment can be carbon black, titanium white, or the like and the filler can include the materials such as CaCO3, ZnO, Al2O3, BaSO4, or the like. When the marker relief portion 124 provides the position alignment function in the subsequent process, the colored marker relief portion 124 can be detected easily. However, the invention is not restricted thereto and the relief pattern layer 120 can be colorless when the marker relief portion 124 has suitable dimension for detecting by the position alignment apparatus. For example, the relief depth of the marker relief portion 124 in the relief pattern layer 120 can be designed according to the detecting limitation of the position alignment apparatus and can be from 3 μm to 25 μm in an exemplary example.
It is noted that other function layers or decoration layers can be further formed on the substrate 110 and the decoration film 100 can be used in an IMD process for forming a decoration device. The following descriptions provide several designs of the decoration film and several decoration device fabricated thereby according to the present invention for clearly pointing out the scope of the invention, but it should be noted that the following descriptions are not intent to be construe as a limitation of the invention.
In the present embodiment, the method for adhering the decoration film 100 on the body 2100 includes the IMD process or any decoration process mentioned in above. Specifically, when the body 2100 is formed by an in-mold ejection process, the decoration film 100 can be adhered on the body 2100 by performing the in-mold decoration process and the body 2100 can be made of plastic material. Alternately, when the body 2100 is formed by a punching process of a metal piece, the decoration film 100 can be adhered on the body 2100 during the punching process and the body 2100 can be made of metal. The decoration relief 142 and the marker relief 144 are substantially conformed to the decoration relief portion 124 and the marker relief portion 126, respectively. Accordingly, the hard coat layer 140 has a rough surface away from the adhesion layer 150 corresponding to the relief surface 122 of the relief pattern layer 120. The rough surface of the hard coat layer 140 is exposed after the substrate 110 and the relief pattern layer 120 formed thereon are separated from the body 2100.
It is noted that the decoration relief 142 is located at a part of the outer surface of the hard coat layer 140 so as to provide specific roughness touching feeling at certain location for a user. It may be requested that the location of the decoration relief 142 is well-aligned to other pattern or structures of the decoration device 2000 for satisfying the design purpose. In the present embodiment, the marker relief portion 126 of the relief pattern layer 120 can provide the position alignment function so that the alignment of the decoration relief 142 can be desirable, which is conducive to improve the quality of the decoration device 2000.
It is noted that the specific function provided by the function layer 160 may be required to corresponds to the location having the roughness touching feeling. Therefore, the function layer 160 and the hard coat layer 140 must be well-aligned to each other. In the present embodiment, the configuration of the marker relief portion 126 provides the alignment reference to the function layer 160, which is conducive to render the decoration device 3000 having desirable quality.
It is noted that the hard coat layer 140 can have the releasing function for applying in the decoration process. Specifically, the substrate 110 and the relief pattern layer 120 of the decoration film 400 must be separated from the body 2100 of the decoration device 2000 such that the hard coat layer 140 can be exposed to provide the roughness touching feeling. Accordingly, the hard coat layer 140 in contact with the relief pattern layer 120 preferably has the releasing function. In an example, the hard coat layer 140 can be fabricated by a material having better adhesion property with the adhesion layer 150 than with the relief pattern layer 120 and such material can include silicon acrylate, fluoro acrylate, or some of additives having release property.
In the foregoing embodiments, the outline of the decoration relief portion 126 on the relief pattern layer 120 can be determined by the concave-convex structure 12 of the pattern roll 10 depicted in
When the decoration film 600 is applied in fabricating a decoration device, the decoration device can have hairline relief on the hard coat layer. Accordingly, the roughness touching feeling can correspond to the hairline distribution. When compared to the recent design of the decoration device which merely have the hairline vision effect, the design of the present embodiment can further provide the hairline touching feeling, which improves the variety of the design of the decoration device.
It is noted that the hairline relief on the decoration device is usually determined by the concave-convex structure 12A of the pattern roll 10A. However, in certain circumstances, the designer may want to modify the distribution of the hairline relief on the decoration device. As such, the designer may need to buy or fabricate a new pattern roll, which is time consumption and cost increasing. Therefore, a decoration film fabricated by using the pattern roll 10A is provided in
Referring to
In the present embodiment, a portion of the hairlines of the relief pattern layer 620 may not be required to form in the end product according particular design and thus the method of fabricating the decoration film 700 can include applying a hard coat material on the relief pattern layer 620; adjusting an amount of the hard coat material on the relief pattern layer 620 such that a space S can be defined between the hard coat material and a part of the decoration relief portion 622; and curing the hard coat material such that the decoration relief 722 of the hard coat layer 720 is substantially conformed to the other part of the decoration relief portion 622. That is to say, a part of the concaves defined by the decoration relief portion 622 of the relief pattern layer 620 is not completely filled by the hard coat material so that the pattern of the decoration relief portion 622 is not completely transformed onto the hard coat layer 720. A decoration device made by the decoration film 700 can have the hairline roughness which is not completely the same to the hairline traces H of the pattern roll 10A, which satisfies the requirement of the designer without increase the fabrication cost.
In view of the above, the decoration film according to the present invention can have the relief pattern layer for fabricating the decoration device with roughness touching feeling and the relief pattern layer has the design for alignment. Accordingly, the relief structure and other patterns in the decoration film can be well-aligned to each other, which is conducive to improve the quality of the decoration device made by the decoration film. Furthermore, the relief structure on the decoration device fabricated by using the decoration film of the present embodiment can be modified through adjusting the hard coat material and can be different from the relief pattern layer of the decoration film, which provides better variety of the design of the decoration device.
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.
