Patent Application
20060249243
(a) Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manufacturing of transparent ball with color image, and in particular, a color image between an enhanced layer and a transparent layer of the ball.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
The method of manufacturing balls such as basketballs, soccer balls, volley balls, handballs, captain balls, American footballs, Rugby, training balls, etc., includes a hand stitching method and a non-hand stitching method. The structure of non-hand stitching includes wrapped layer and rubber bladder formation. The color images are printed onto the surface of the ball and the drawbacks include the fading of the colors of the images, the quality of the images is poor and above 3 million pixel image cannot be printed, the discontinue layer of the ball affecting the sight of the ball; and the multi-color screen printing is expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,345 discloses a method of forming color images and then transferring the images onto the inner side of the transparent rubber plate. The drawbacks include high resolution (above 3 million pixel) images cannot be obtained, the cost of production is high, in particular, when a plurality of colors is needed; larger surface cannot be printed; and the procedure is complicated.
The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a transparent, color image ball including an inner ball inflated bladder layer, an enhanced layer, and a laminate layer, the method of manufacturing the laminate layer comprising the steps of injecting a transparent and a color thin film as the laminate layer; cutting the laminate layer into a plurality of plates of the surface of the ball; adhering the plates onto the enhanced bladder layer so as to form the color image which allows the direct vision of the interior of the ball from the outermost layer.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a transparent, color image ball including an inner ball bladder layer, an enhanced layer, and a laminate layer, the method of manufacturing the laminate layer comprising the steps of hot pressing to form a transparent layer and a color thin film as the laminate layer; cutting the laminate layer into a plurality of plates of the surface of the ball; adhering the plates onto the enhanced bladder layer; placing the plates with the enhanced bladder layer of step (c) into a two semi spherical mold to proceed with vulcanization so as to form the color image which allows the direct vision of the interior of the ball from the outermost layer.
The porous film materials include synthetic papers, fiber, plastic film and plastic material including polyethylene, polypropylene, PET, TPU, PVC, Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE).
The method of laminate formation includes injection molding hot press molding method, high periodic wave method, and extruding process method.
In accordance with the present invention, the transparent layers include Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS), Styrene-Isoprene-Styrene (SIS), Styrene-Ethylene Butylene Styrene (SEBS), Styrene-Ethylene Propylene Styrene (SEPS), Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), Poly Olefin Elastomer (POE), Ethylene-Propylene Rubber (EPR), Ethylene-Propylene-diene Rubber) EPDM, Butadiene Rubber (BR), Solution Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SSBR), Isoprene Rubber (IR), Polyurethane Rubber (PUR). If these transparent layers need to be undergone a vulcanization process, before the process of lamination, peroxides or resin can be added as a cure agent or a crossliking agent. The peroxide is selected from the group consisting of DCP (dicumyl peroxide), BPO (Benzo peroxide), MEKPO (methyl ethyl ketone peroxide), etc. The amoLmt of additive added is ranging from 0.1 to 8 parts per hundred resin.
The advantages of the present invention include:
The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.
Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to die detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
The second method is by high periodic wave melting. PVC or TPU film is selected as the transparent material. Similarly, color film is added and by way of high periodic wave melting, a laminate layer with color image is obtained. The laminate layer is cut and stitched one piece by one piece then adhered onto the enhanced bladder layer to form hand stitching ball.
The third method of lamination is first forming into a plate body as the transparent layer 10 and together with color film 21 to place into a flat press. By means of the flat press, color image laminate layer 20. The laminate layer 20 is finally adhered onto the enhanced bladder layer and undergone a vulcanization process to form a transparent laminate rubber ball.
Referring to
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In the process where vulcanization is not needed, the surface of the wrapped bladder is covered with an enhanced rubber layer. After vulcanization, a groove is formed which divides the ball body into 8 regions. After that, PU adhesives are used to stick onto the laminate layer to form into a leather ball.
Referring to
In accordance with the present invention, the color film can be automatically printed using printing device and the quality of the image is above 3 million pixels.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
