Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Decorative article for viewing from one side only
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-06
2004-01-13
Jones, Deborah (Department: 1775)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Decorative article for viewing from one side only
C428S031000, C040S001500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06677065
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
Graphic indicia, including such items as nameplates, descriptors, appliques, emblems etc., are used to decorate, enhance appearance, identify or describe many articles. The present invention relates to such graphic indicia, methods of its use and methods of making such indicia.
More particularly, the present invention relates to automobile emblems, products for industry, and methods for making the same, wherein the methods include printing surfaces of emblems.
Decorative automobile emblems are used to identify and distinguish most makes and models of automobiles today. Such emblems are often used to identify a manufacturer, a line of vehicles, or a particular style or version. The quality of an emblem used on a lower end vehicle may often be lower than the quality for a higher end vehicle, in terms of the materials used, the design, the tolerances, and the subjective visual appearance.
As is often the case, the traditional manufacturing techniques offer a trade-off between perceived quality and cost. The current benchmark or standard for classic high-end, high quality automobile emblems are those made with a Cloisonné process. This process utilizes a hobbed, cast bronze, or other soft metal component. A channel or recess is then formed into the component and glass frit is added to the channel or recess. The component and the glass are then heated until the glass melts. The component is then buffed so that the layer of glass is polished, even with the remainder of the components, smooth, and visually appealing. Sometimes chrome or another material is electroplated (or otherwise applied) to the remaining portion of the component, while leaving the glass exposed. This tends to raise the height of the chromed portion above the glass, providing a visually distinctive transition.
When properly done, the Cloisonné process produces aesthetically pleasing, highly decorative emblems. However, the process is time consuming, very labor intensive, and extremely expensive. Such expensive emblems usually only appear on more expensive vehicles. In addition, because soft metal is so often used, the emblems are somewhat flexible. While this generally does not affect the metal portions, flexing the emblem tends to fracture the glass which often ruins the visual appearance. As such, careful manual application is required during assembly and, even then, attachment of the emblem to the vehicle may often result in damage so that increased labor costs result.
For more common emblems, a blank or a workpiece is produced by any suitable process such as casting or injection molding. The blanks could be formed from any suitable material, including plastic or metal. A pattern is defined that may include various recessed portions having vertical sidewalls. The blank is masked so that only the desired pattern is exposed and the blank is then spray painted to achieve a final product. The near-vertical sidewalls are required so that the mask can engage the recess and prevent errant spraying. While producing acceptable results, spray painted emblems are generally considered to be less visually appealing than emblems produced by the Cloisonné process. Even spray painting emblems is fairly labor intensive in that each blank must be aligned with the mask; however, the final cost of the emblem is much less than those produced with the Cloisonné process, thus providing one advantage.
With cost often being the deciding factor, and bolstered by the physical difficulties in using the softer Cloisonné emblems, spray painted emblems are more frequently utilized by automobile manufactures for most vehicles lines. Still, manufactures would prefer to use and discerning consumer would prefer to receive more visually appealing and higher quality emblems, if the price could be reduced.
With most of the emblems being produced with the spray painting process, other significant environmental concerns materialize. As with most spray painting operations, over-spray is produced which, in combination with evaporation and other mechanisms results in the introduction of large amounts of VOC's (volatile organic compounds) into the environment. For example, in producing just one automobile manufacturer's signatory identifying emblem (for most of that manufacturer's vehicles), the emblem manufacturer estimates that some 1500 pounds of VOC's are released into the environment per month.
Conventional paints are often a mixture of components that have their own level of toxicity. Many of the components contain VOC's, which are often responsible for the strong chemical odor of fresh paint. When exposed to high concentrations of VOC's, they may be harmful to humans. For example, breathing vapors with VOC's may lead to respiratory problems, headaches and even cancer.
One common source of VOC's in paint comes from solvents which are used to keep paint in liquid form. The VOC's in solvents are primarily released by evaporation as the paint dries. Another source of VOC's comes from binders. Binders are resins and oils that harden the paint. Acrylic is the binder found in the latex water-based paints while oil-based paints usually contain alkyd resin as a binder. Latex paints also contain styrene butadiene, and polyvinyl acetate.
The pigments sometimes used in commercial paints may be another source of toxins, often in the form of toxic heavy metals. Paints also contain a multitude of additives like dryers, thickeners, preservatives, anti-fungals, and mildewcides—all of which are known to be extremely toxic.
Thus, the continued use of spray painting to produce mass quantities of components for objects as plentiful as automobiles would require the introduction of significant volumes of VOC's into the environment. As a result, there may be a negative environmental impact and in addition, the potential exists for causing harm to humans.
Thus, there exists a need to produce high quality automobile emblems having a high visual and aesthetic quality at a reduced cost while simultaneously reducing the emissions of VOC's into the environment.
SUMMARY
In one embodiment, the present invention utilizes pad printing to print patterns on decorative items.
In one embodiment, the present invention comprises pad printing recessed portions of automobile emblems. The pad printing technique produces deep, rich color patterns with precise, realistic patterning that results in a visually striking presentation. The process allows for multi-color printing to further enhance the resulting printed image. The finished product is as visually appealing, if not more so, than products produced with the Cloisonné process. Furthermore, the patterning achieved with the present invention cannot be produced using the Cloisonné process or masking and spray painting. Pad printing is cost effective and can be fully automated, thus resulting in tremendous manufacturing advantages because the costs of producing a high quality, visually striking automobile emblem are greatly reduced compared with using known techniques, such as Cloisonné. Furthermore, because various types of emblems can be manufactured from many different types and kinds of materials, the products and processes of the present invention are not limited to soft metals and, furthermore, do not suffer from the same damage when a resulting product is flexed.
The pad printing process is also significantly less harmful to the environment than spray painting. That is, the process greatly reduces the volume of VOC's that are introduced. For example, by replacing spray painting with pad printing, one manufacture can reduce the amount of VOC's being introduced by 91%.
In one embodiment, the pad printing process of the present invention uses a silicone transfer pad to receive an ink pattern and to the press that pattern against a workpiece so that the ink is transferred to the workpiece. In some embodiments, the ink pattern is transferred into a recess located on the workpiece wherein the sidewalls of the recess are not vertical or perpendicular with re
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Douglas Corporation
Jones Deborah
Sperty Arden
LandOfFree
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