Coating implements with material supply – Material flows through porous tool – Wick feed from within reservoir to tool
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-05
2001-03-06
Eloshway, Charles R. (Department: 3751)
Coating implements with material supply
Material flows through porous tool
Wick feed from within reservoir to tool
C401S206000, C427S140000, C427S429000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196744
ABSTRACT:
This invention concerns a method and apparatus for repairing the surfaces of plastic parts such as, for example, may be present in the interior of an automobile or in other locations.
BACKGROUND
Various parts of an automobile are manufactured as a hard plastic member or are provided with an outer plastic skin or sheet, which serves to cover a substrate with a foam material therebetween. In either case, the outer surface of the plastic part serves as a wear surface as well as a surface that is aesthetically attractive. In the manufacture of such parts, at times the outer or appearance surface of the plastic member may be scratched or scuffed or have a slight discoloration which causes the part to be rejected during final inspection and, as a result, discarded. Obviously, if such part could be repaired and saved, the overall cost of manufacture could be reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to prevent finished plastic parts from being rejected and discarded because of blemishes of the type described above, we have found, after much experimentation, that by using a specially developed applicator device in a predetermined manner, such blemishes can be concealed to the naked eye. This allows the part to be salvaged and used as original equipment for a new automobile.
In this regard, the applicator used for realizing this achievement, takes the form of a pen and includes a dispenser assembly connected to a tubular member that serves as a reservoir containing a filler/coating material preferably made of a liquefied one-component, water-borne vinyl. For the purposes of this specification, a one-component, water-borne material has at least one polymer dispersed in water as the primary carrier. Water is the primary carrier where its percentage by weight is greater than that of any other carrier in which the polymer(s) may be dispersed, or where water is the only carrier. In this instance, the preferred polymer is vinyl. More specifically, the dispenser assembly has an outer housing that includes a cylindrical body portion that serves as the reservoir for the filler/coating material. A fluid control device is located within the dispenser assembly and includes a spring-biased valve which is normally in a closed position. In addition, the dispenser assembly includes a dispenser tip made of a fibrous material that is slidably supported within the assembly. In order to saturate the dispenser tip with the filler/coating material so that the applicator device can be used according to the present invention, the dispenser tip must be moved inwardly so as to cause the rear end of the dispenser tip to unseat the valve. This is accomplished by manually holding the applicator device by its tubular body and forcibly pressing the dispenser tip against the blemish in the plastic surface being repaired.
In order to repair the blemish in the appearance surface of a plastic member in accordance with the present invention, the blemish is first cleaned using a lint-free clean cloth moistened with a cleaning fluid such as isopropyl alcohol if the plastic member is made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). If the plastic member is made of thermoplastic olefin (TPO), thermoplastic urethane (TPU), acrylonitrile-butadiene styrene (ABS), or thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), the cleaning fluid would be a 50/50 mixture of methyl ethyl ketone/toluol (MEK/Toluol). Toluol is also known as toluene. After cleaning the repair area, the plastic member is allowed to air dry. If the plastic member is made of TPO, TPU, TPE or ABS, an adhesion promoter will first need to be applied to the blemish. If the plastic material is PVC, the adhesion promoter need not be applied. Afterwards, the applicator device is used for filling in the blemish with the filler/coating material by first positioning the dispenser tip at one end of the blemish. Downward pressure is then applied to the applicator device to cause the spring-biased valve to open and cause the filler/coating material to flow into the body of the tip. The applicator device is moved along the blemish permitting the filler/coating material to cover and conceal it. Afterwards, the filler/coating material is cured at a room temperature before the plastic member is released for production use.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for repairing the appearance surface of a plastic part that may have undesirable chips, scuffs, scratches, mars, stains, or localized discoloration.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for eliminating blemishes in the outer surface of a plastic sheet of a particular color that covers a part and wherein such blemishes are removed by using an applicator device provided with a one-component, water-borne vinyl material of the same color as the particular color and having a fibrous tip which is capable of being saturated with the water-borne vinyl material.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus which takes the form of a pen having a plastic reservoir containing a liquefied coating/filling material and being selectively conveyed to an applicator tip made of an acrylic fiber material having a density which allows the liquid material to flow through the tip at a desired rate onto the skin while the tip is manually pressed against the outer surface of a plastic sheet so as to fill and repair the damaged area of such surface.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method and apparatus for repairing the outer surface of a plastic member by using a one-component, water-borne vinyl material which is applied to the damaged area through a pen type device having a reservoir containing the one-component, water-borne material that is selectively fluidly connected to a spring biased dispenser tip upon being manually pressed into engagement with the damaged area so as to cause the water-borne material to flow from the reservoir and through the dispenser tip to fill and repair the damaged area of the plastic member.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3377124 (1968-04-01), Matsumoto
patent: 4596848 (1986-06-01), Speer
patent: 4948443 (1990-08-01), Speer
patent: 5082386 (1992-01-01), Hironaka et al.
patent: 5248521 (1993-09-01), Yamane et al.
patent: 5399373 (1995-03-01), Mrozinski
patent: 5470605 (1995-11-01), Lundeen
patent: 5470609 (1995-11-01), Leach et al.
patent: 5480250 (1996-01-01), Birden
Donovan George M.
Landry William J.
Eloshway Charles R.
Reising, Ethington. Barnes, Kisselle, Learman & McCulloch, PC
Textron Automotive Company
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for repairing plastic parts does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for repairing plastic parts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for repairing plastic parts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2516465