Coating processes – Nonuniform coating – Deforming the base or coating or removing a portion of the...
Patent
1993-08-23
1995-04-11
Ball, Michael W.
Coating processes
Nonuniform coating
Deforming the base or coating or removing a portion of the...
427282, 427284, 427421, 118 44, 118 72, 118301, 118213, 81485, B05B 1504, B05D 312
Patent
active
054056519
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a method of masking sealing gaskets. More especially, but not exclusively, the invention relates to a method of masking window sealing gaskets, for example, in the course of painting or refinishing a vehicle.
BACKGROUND ART
The windows of vehicles, particularly road vehicles, are frequently held in place in the vehicle frame using rubber or plastics window sealing gaskets and which are sometimes known as sealing rubbers. The free edge of the sealing gasket commonly rests on a painted surface and when the vehicle requires to be painted or refinished, e.g. after an accident, it is difficult and time consuming to accurately place a masking strip along the edge of the window gasket. Commonly, the net result is that the paint either does not reach up to the edge of the gasket or, more often the gasket is coated at its edge with paint which needs to be cleaned off as a final step.
Swedish Patent Application No. 440982 describes a system for lifting window gaskets in which a round section strip is pressed under the gasket by feeding the strip through an applicator having a tubular guide. This system has not been successful in practice and there have been difficulties in accurately placing the strips beneath the gasket and also in the strip becoming misplaced or misaligned during the re-painting or re-finishing operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is concerned with the provision of an improved system for lifting the edge of a gasket including an improved design of lifting strip and a more reliable and convenient method for feeding a flexible plastic strip beneath the gasket.
According to one aspect of the present invention is provided a method of painting a vehicle which comprises introducing a flexible plastics strip beneath a window sealing gasket in the vicinity of a part of the vehicle to be painted, the plastics strip having a tapered profile in cross-section so that as the strip is pressed beneath the gasket, the latter is lifted and held in the raised position, masking the edge of the raised gasket and applying paint to the vehicle so that paint reaches the area normally covered by the edge of the gasket.
The invention also provides a method of painting an object having a resilient gasket which comprises introducing a flexible plastics strip beneath the gasket, the plastics strip having a tapered profile in cross-section so that as the strip is pressed beneath the gasket, the gasket is lifted and held in a raised position, masking the edge of the raised gasket and applying paint to the object so that paint reaches the area normally covered by the edge of the gasket.
Preferably, the flexible plastics strip is formed from a plasticised polyvinyl chloride. The plastic strip may be transparent or colored and may be printed or coloured on one surface to show the surface which is placed in contact with the underface of the window gasket or rubber.
It is an advantage of the lifting strip of the present invention that it may be rapidly inserted by hand under the window sealing gasket without requiring a special tool. However, it may be more convenient to introduce the plastics lifting strip by means of an applicator having a pointed end for lifting the free edge of the window rubber and has a recess or aperture for receiving the plastics strip, the recess or aperture having a configuration which substantially corresponds to the cross-section of the plastics strip.
In use, the plastics strip may be inserted in the aperture or recess in the applicator, the pointed end of the applicator being pushed under the edge of the window rubber and the applicator pushed along underneath the edge of the gasket to introduce the strip underneath the edge of the gasket and lift it free from the painted bodywork.
The plastics strip is normally triangular in cross-section but slight variations from a triangular profile are possible, e.g. trapezium shaped. In use the more sharply tapered portion (or one of the sharply tapered portions) of the strip is inserted un
REFERENCES:
patent: 2189138 (1940-02-01), Eichner
patent: 2430873 (1947-11-01), Haas
patent: 4313970 (1982-02-01), Jones et al.
patent: 4433463 (1984-02-01), DuVal
patent: 4697789 (1987-10-01), Parkins
Ball Michael W.
Lorin Francis J.
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