Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Including variation in thickness
Patent
1992-01-03
1993-07-13
Loney, Donald J.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Including variation in thickness
428156, 428161, 428163, 428167, 4285422, 428213, 4289133, B32B 300, A47G 3500
Patent
active
052272206
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to objects whose exterior surfaces formed in a particular way in order to achieve an aesthetic effect.
The invention relates in particular to a decorated object which has a special surface structure that is formed from unevennesses and/or lacunae to which an optical interference layer system is applied.
PRIOR ART
A widespread method of decorating objects consists in providing the surface of the objects with a structure, structure being understood in the wider sense as a composition of elements that is in some way perceptible. These elements can be unevennesses of the surface structure, for example, or else areas of modified color.
A spacial surface structure, as opposed to a color-modified surface structure, which consists of unevennesses of the surface is also visually perceptible, although only through differences in brightness. As a rule, there are no color modifications to observe which are controlled by the unevenness of spacial structure.
A spacial surface structure which produces a play of color is a very interesting decorative possibility. A lot of expense is sometimes undertaken in order to produce such a combination of spacial and visual effects. One example of this is the production of cut glass. This glass uses the effect of dispersion of light, and it is indeed possible to produce colors from the surface structure.
However, close examination shows that this technique has substantial disadvantages. FIG. 1 represents a comparatively flat spacial surface structure. Set out in the associated Table 1 are the angles of the beam splitting for different angles of inclination of the surface. The beam splitting .beta..sub.f -.beta..sub.c is a measure of the color effects of the structure. It can be seen from Table 1 that the beam splitting only becomes noticeable at large deflection angles .delta.. The structure according to FIG. 1 would not be able to show any recognizable play of color even in direct sunlight and even with deliberate observation. However, it must be demanded of a decoration that it becomes effective to some extent under normal conditions.
It is also the case, however, that there is frequently no recognizable play of color in spacial surface structures that have steep edges. Under normal illumination, light originates from more or less extended surfaces: windows, unshielded lamps, walls. The angular deviation that is caused by the origin of the light from different directions is normally substantially larger than the effects of beam splitting (FIG. 2). That is to say light of all spectral colors falls onto the eye of the observer. The colors supplement the original light coloration and all play of color disappears. This is the reason why cut glass can be presented extremely beautifully by means of spot illumination while seldom exhibiting colors in daily use.
A similar disappearance of colors takes place when the spacial surface structures are too small. In this case, the eye of the observer integrates to form a resultant color (e.g. autotype), so that it only makes sense to use spacial surface structural elements which extend laterally a distance of more than 1 millimeter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to create a decorated object which, has a play of color which is controlled by spacial surface structure (unevennesses). The play of color is to become effective under normal illumination conditions, and also to occur on flat structures.
The object is achieved according to the invention when
a) an optical interference layer system which consists of at least three layers of alternating refractive indices are applied directly on the surface structure of an object to be decorated, and
b) the distance between crests of unevennesses on the spacial surface structure typically extend laterally more than 1 millimeter. The essence of the invention consists in that
1. an interference layer system exhibits a typical angular dependence for its optical properties and
2. the normal methods of producing an interference la
REFERENCES:
patent: 4138515 (1979-02-01), Dial
patent: 4447473 (1984-05-01), Mashida et al.
patent: 4798994 (1989-01-01), Rijpers et al.
patent: 4798998 (1989-01-01), Rijpers et al.
patent: 4871503 (1989-10-01), Ishii et al.
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