Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
Patent
1997-12-17
2000-03-14
Wu, David W.
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
525217, 525232, 525233, 525234, 525238, 525241, 525190, 525197, 525418, 5253261, C08F 800
Patent
active
060374152
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a method of finishing plastic surfaces, and more particularly polymer surfaces.
Large numbers of thermoplastic articles are discarded because they cannot be refinished. Whereas articles of metal or wood are traditionally painted, the painting of plastic surfaces has not proved an effective method of restoring a plastic surface to its original quality. Typically plastic articles are coloured with a pigment, that is with a colorant that is put into the liquid plastic mix. This is to avoid the problems obtaining an effective bond to the surface.
The finishing of telephones presents a particular problem. A telephone handset may be discarded when it is in perfectly good working condition simply because its appearance has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer acceptable to the public. A number of proposals have been made for finishing plastic surfaces, particularly telephones, but all have some disadvantages. Representative of this prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,133,912 and 4,247,580.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,355, for example, discloses a lacqueur for refurbishing telephones comprising, for example, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin, dissolved in a solvent component, which is a mixture of ketone and a second solvent selected from a group including, for example, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate.
While the lacqueur described in the above patent can result in satisfactory coatings, complicated equipment, such as ball mills and the like, must be employed on site to prepare the lacquer. This means that a special solution must be prepared for each colour desired by the customer. Once dissolved in the solvent, the mixture is not stable over long-term storage so it cannot be delivered in this form.
British patent no. 1,572,996 describes a method of making a paint wherein a dry composition is dissolved in a solvent. However, this patent does not allow the user to conveniently prepare a coating composition of the right colour on site.
An object of the invention is to alleviate this problem.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a product for use in the finishing of a polymer surface, comprising at least two parts, each part consisting of pellets comprising a dry (i.e. free of solvent), stable homogeneous mixture of pigment and a thermoplastic resin compatible with the polymer surface, the homogeneous mixture being soluble in a solvent to form a lacquer that has a colour determined by the amount and chromatic characteristics of the pigment, and the pigments of each part having different colours selected so that a lacqueur of a desired colour can be obtained by dissolving predetermined proportions of said parts in said solvent.
Since the premixed composition made in accordance with the invention is dry and stable in long term storage, it can be stored and delivered to the customer as required, who merely has to mix the composition with a commercially available solvent. Different compositions with predetermined base colours can be provided so that the customer can obtain any desired colour simply by mixing different dry compositions in predetermined ratios in accordance with the instructions and then dissolving the resulting dry mix in a solvent. Alternatively the dry compositions can be added directly to the solvent so long as the ratios for the colour desired are maintained.
The invention also provides a method of finishing a polymer surface, comprising first making the product defined above, transporting the product to an application site, subsequently dissolving the product in a solvent at the application site to form a lacquer, and applying the lacqueur to the polymer surface and allowing it to dry.
The present invention thus provides a method of finishing a polymer surface that has achieved excellent results, in particular for which the colour and quality of the surface are consistent, and which avoids the need for the customer to have complicated mixing equipment, such as ball mills and the like.
The colorant may be present in the range of 3 to 6% by weight of a dr
REFERENCES:
patent: 4197355 (1980-04-01), Shepherd
patent: 4544578 (1985-10-01), Duane
patent: 4802769 (1989-02-01), Tanaka
Blendex MPE Technical Data Sheet, GE Specialty Chemicals, General Electric Company, 1996.
Rabago Roberto
Stuart Plastics Ltd.
Wu David W.
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