Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-23
2002-12-24
Lorengo, Jerry (Department: 1762)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S240000, C156S277000, C156S384000, C427S149000, C118S402000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06497779
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention pertains to a method of printing a print pattern by transferring it on a transfer objective body having a three-dimensional surface such as a curved surface or the like by using a liquid pressure on an objective article (a body onto which the print pattern should be transferred) and more particularly, this invention pertains to a method of transferring the predetermined print pattern by using the liquid pressure on the transfer objective body having a relatively larger transfer face area such as a fender, a door, a bonnet or the like of a car, for example.
Furthermore, this invention pertains to an apparatus useful for practicing the aforementioned method and also to a liquid pressure pattern-transferred article formed by the aforementioned method.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
A so-called liquid pressure transfer method has been used for printing various patterns onto a transfer objective body or article having a complicated surface configuration. Typically, this liquid pressure transfer method is one in which a liquid-soluble pattern transfer film having a predetermined print pattern of no liquid solution provided thereon is floated on a surface of a liquid flowing within a transfer bath and is made swollen by the liquid and then the transfer objective body is immersed into the liquid within the transfer bath while it contacts the transfer film and has the print pattern transferred from the transfer film by using a liquid pressure.
In a prior art, the transfer objective bodies are sequentially supported on a plurality of holding frames which are mounted on a reversely triangular conveyor in a spaced manner while the reversely triangular conveyor is disposed so that a conveyor portion adjacent to an underside apex of the triangular conveyor is immersed into the liquid. The reversely triangular conveyor conveys the transfer objective bodies so that each of the objective bodies contacts the liquid within the transfer bath just before or upstream of the underside apex conveyor portion going to be immersed into the liquid, is then immersed into the liquid and leaves the liquid on the opposite side or downstream of the underside apex conveyor portion whereby the pattern-transferred objective bodies are pulled out of the transfer bath (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,571 specification and Japanese patent Application Publication No. 13064/1991 (JP3-13064)).
According to the prior art, the transfer objective body is immersed into the liquid with the transfer bath at a constant velocity while it is held onto the reversely triangular conveyor with the same pose maintained. Thus, it will be noted that the condition in which the surface of the transfer objective body contacts the transfer film remarkably varies in accordance with variation in a three-dimensional configuration of the surface of the transfer objective body.
More particularly, many transfer objective bodies have a surface varying in a three-dimensionally complicated manner except to a plane article. If such a whole transfer objective body is immersed into the liquid by the conveyor with the same pose maintained, the relationship of position-between the individual portions of the transfer objective body being immersed into the liquid and the transfer film floating on the transfer bath remarkably varies on the surface configuration or profile of the transfer objective body.
In case that the transfer objective body is small-sized, a radius of curvature of the surface of the transfer objective body is relatively smaller and has a smaller area of the individual portions having the three-dimensional surface different from each other even though the surface configuration of the transfer objective body largely varies or is complicated whereby the three-dimensional configuration (a curvature, for example) mutually varies. Therefore, the print pattern is transferred onto such surface portions of the transfer objective body having the three-dimensional configuration different from each other without having such remarkable variation in appearance as adversely affects the transferred pattern.
However, in case that the print pattern on the transfer film is transferred onto a relatively larger body such as a car panel including a fender, a door, a bonnet, a bumper of a car or the like by using the liquid pressure transfer method, the radius of curvature of the individual surface portions having the three-dimensional configuration different from each other is larger and as a result, the area of the individual surface portions gets larger. As such a transfer objective body is immersed into the liquid with the same pose, the print pattern is transferred onto the individual surface portions on the conditions different from each other and as a result, the transferred pattern on the whole transfer objective body is made irregular whereby the appearance of the transfer objective body tends to be deteriorated.
This tendency gets remarkable particularly in case that the surface portion of the transfer objective body which is just going to be immersed into the liquid greatly protrudes toward the liquid surface or toward the side opposite thereto. More particularly, in case that the surface portion of the transfer objective body which is just going to be immersed into the liquid greatly protrudes toward the liquid surface (or dent on the side opposite to the transfer film), the print pattern on the transfer film is extended due to the protruding surface of the transfer objective body so that the pattern is distorted (deformed) or so that the thickness or density of the ink of the print pattern is lowered. Similarly, in case that the surface portion of the transfer objective body which is just going to be immersed into the liquid greatly dents on the side opposite to the transfer film (or protrudes toward the side opposite to the transferring film), the print pattern on the transfer film is extended due to the protruding surface of the transfer objective body so that the pattern is distorted (deformed) or so that the thickness of the ink of the print pattern is lowered. Thus, in both of the aforementioned cases, the transfer objective body cannot disadvantageously provide good appearance.
Generally, the transfer film has a transferring pattern painted while it extends in a uniform direction (such as in a longitudinal direction, for example). As the printed pattern is transferred onto the transfer objective body such as a fender of a car or the like having a surface curved in a curved line, but not extending in a rectilinear line in a longitudinal direction while being used together with other transfer objective body or bodies such as a door of the car or the like having a surface extending in a rectilinear line in a longitudinal direction, the patterns transferred onto these objective bodies get disunited. Thus, an article formed of a combination of these objective bodies has an extremely poor surface appearance.
A large-sized article such as a door panel of a car is sometimes required to have along an edge of a back face thereof the same transferred pattern as that on the surface thereof in a successive manner. Such an operation of transferring on the back face cannot be effectively made by the prior art in which the transfer objective body is immersed into the liquid with the same pose.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a liquid pressure transfer method and an apparatus therefor adapted to provide satisfactory transfer characteristics having no deformation and no thinner color of a transferred pattern even though a transfer objective body onto has a large-sized and complicated surface configuration.
It is another object of the invention to provide a liquid pressure transfer method and an apparatus therefor adapted to apply onto a surface of a transfer objective body a transferred pattern extending in an appropriate direction even though the transfer objective body extends not along a linear line in a longitudinal direction, but along a complicated line such as a curved line.
It is another object of the
Kiyotaki Tomomi
Otaki Nobuyuki
Suzuki Eiji
Suzuki Makoto
Cubic Co. Ltd.
Lorengo Jerry
Pearne & Gordon LLP
Tadesse Yewebdar T.
LandOfFree
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