Product and process for producing an image on a substrate

Details Product and process for producing an image on a substrate Product and process for producing an image on a substrate

1986-05-22

1988-04-05

Swisher, Nancy A. B.

Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th

Imaging affecting physical property of radiation sensitive...

Forming nonplanar surface

430271, 430293, 430295, 430324, 430329, 430330, 430394, 430523, 430935, G03C 500

Patent

active

047358920

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to photosensitive elements and processes intended for producing a coloured typeface or other design image on a substrate. The invention relates particularly to elements and processes for the production of wear resistant images or rigid substrates, the products thus serving as, for instance, nameplates and design boards.
At the present time, nameplates and similar such signs for directory boards and so forth are often made by a commercial anodising process wherein a metal substrate is made the anode is an electroplating system and the typeface or design colouring is electrodeposited on an unprotected portion of the metal substrate. While this process produces a good fixed image on the substrate it is, however, severly limited in respect of the substrates and colours which can be employed. For instance, the only really practical substrate is aluminium and the colours are restricted to a few anodising colours.
It is well known to form an image on a substrate for certain purposes by image-wise exposure of a photosensitive coating on the substrate followed by development of the exposed coating to reveal the substrate image-wise where the photosensitive coating is removed. It is also well known to provide an inert coloured layer between the photosensitive layer and the substrate and this coloured layer may also be removed image-wise during development of the photosensitive layer. Cured photosensitive material therefore forms the image against a background of the coloured layer or the substrate. The cured photosensitive layer is usually sufficiently wear resistant for the purposes for which it is intended, for instance for printing, but the process has also been adapted for use in the production of, for instance, nameplates.
This process entails coating a substrate with a photosensitive resinous lacquer and projecting the required image onto the layer of photosensitive lacquer using ultraviolet radiation. The image in the coated substrate is then developed in an appropriate developer to form a tough chemical-resistant layer and the unexposed portion of the coating dissolved away. While this process is suitable for use with a considerably larger variety of substrates than can be used with the anodising process, it is, however, restricted insofar as it cannot be employed on plastics substrates, as these are generally soluble in the photosensitive lacquer or developer and is restricted to the single colour to which the lacquer turns on exposure, generally black.
It is also known from GB No. 2049210B to make a keybutton board by imagewise photoexposure of a light-sensitive layer to reveal an intermediate layer over a substrate, etching the photosensitive and intermediate layers imagewise to reveal the substrate imagewise, and then casting a clear polymeric material over the resultant surface. The etchant for the intermediate layer penetrates down through the intermediate layer until the etchant reaches a non-etchable surface carried by the substrate, i.e., the surface of the substrate, and this non-etchable surface serves as the background. Although this process is satisfactory for keybutton boards it is again restricted to a single colour and the properties of the final product may be inadequate for external use, for instance as name plates.
Accordingly the existing processes all tend to suffer from the disadvantage that the colour choice is limited and also the wear resistance of the final design is often unsatisfactory for nameplate use, paticularly outdoors. For instance the background colour or the raised lettering or both may crack or otherwise deteriorate when exposed to the weather.
A photosensitive element according to the invention is one which comprises, in order, a substrate, a non-etchable background surface carried by the substrate, an etchable curable polymeric layer and a photosensitive layer and in which, after imagewise photoexposure, the curable layer and the photosensitive layer can be etched imagewise and the residual curable layer can be revealed and cured to provide a cur

REFERENCES:
patent: 4262080 (1981-04-01), Fuhr

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