Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-22
2001-06-05
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S230000, C156S247000, C156S250000, C156S252000, C156S257000, C427S146000, C427S147000, C427S148000, C430S200000, C430S202000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06241842
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a transfer film for printing onto at least partially three-dimensional articles, the article having at least one raised portion with an upper level, which is arranged on a planar portion with a lower level, and the raised portion having a plan-view contour line.
It is known to print onto soft and hard articles by means of a transfer film, to which pressure is applied while increasing the temperature. The pressure is applied by means of a rolling or stamping device and the outer adhesive layer of the transfer film then adheres together with the actual color printing layer on the article.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,020 describes a method of applying a decoration to plates or plate-shaped articles by means of round transfer films which have, as a major feature, radial incisions in the region in which the transfer film cannot follow the shape of the surface of the article owing to inadequate elasticity. As a result, in one application there can be seen triangular interruptions in the print, corresponding to the number of incisions, and in the other application there can be seen a partial overlapping of the areas lying to the left and right of the incisions, which means an overlaying of the print.
DE-B-3 813 359 (O. Z. 0078/5358) of the applicant also discloses printing onto the surface area of the housing of a magnetic tape cassette, both housing walls being treated simultaneously by printing on different patterns and/or colors in a single or repeated operation by means of printing units opposite one another in pairs. The printing units are in this case suitable, for example, for offset printing or inking-pad printing/tampon printing.
With this surface-area printing process, in the case of compact cassettes only the major faces of the housing are printed onto, either without printing onto the surfaces of the raised head portion or said surfaces are printed onto separately in a second printing station.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to print onto the surface areas at different levels as simply as possible and in one operation and to provide a suitable transfer film for this purpose.
We have found that this object is achieved according to the invention with a transfer film of the type described at the beginning which is partially cut into in the region of the contour line(s). This prevents a pinching of the transfer film in the region of the contour line(s). This advantageously allows short printing times to be achieved along with troublefree film transport and satisfactory printing results on the articles printed onto.
In practice, in the case of an article having a raised portion with transitional regions, the cut/incisions are located in the region of the contour lines of the said transitional regions. This makes it possible to avoid the folds extending from each transitional region (each corner), normally forming in the case of a transfer film which has not been cut into, since the film cannot deform freely enough or be thermoformed freely enough there. During the printing operation in the printing unit, the parts of the film printed onto can be made to lie around the transitional region (the corners) without folds, so that a fold-free, good printing result can be obtained.
For the purposes of the invention, a transitional region is understood to mean a transition of the contour line from the region in the longitudinal direction into the region in the transverse direction, or vice versa. The transition may in this case take the form of a sharp or not so sharp corner (corner region) or else take the form of a curve (for example an arc).
With the arrangement of the incisions it is expedient for contour lines which run substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the transfer film to have complete longitudinal incisions and for contour lines running approximately transversely to the longitudinal direction to be provided with partial transverse incisions.
It is assumed here that the transfer film is subjected to winding forces, and consequently tensile forces, in the longitudinal direction and is consequently at risk of tearing and pinching.
When the longitudinal incisions are formed in practice, they are provided with extension incisions protruding beyond the contour line of the raised portion.
The length of the extension incisions should be dimensioned in such a way that it corresponds at least approximately to the distance of the lower level from the upper level, multiplied by the factor {square root over (2+L )} (1.414 . . . ).
This in turn avoids a pinching of the film and consequently the formation of folds.
The incisions may also be expediently formed as prepunched separating lines.
A transfer film for printing onto compact cassettes may in practice take the form that the substantially planar outer face(s) form the lower planar portion and the surface of the raised portion of the housing extending from the front wall forms the upper level and incisions are arranged on the contour line of the transitional regions of the raised portion of the housing.
In this way, the advantages of the invention are obtained by applying it to the printing of compact cassettes. The form taken by the incisions is advantageous if the partial transverse incisions are all the shorter the greater the plan-view angle of the transitional regions.
This achieves the effect that even relatively thin film material can be processed unproblematically and with good printing results. In addition, it is expedient if each partial transverse incision is dependent in its length on the size of the distance of the lower level from the upper level.
A three-dimensional article with printing produced on it by means of a transfer film, there being a raised portion having at least two transitional regions lying within a planar portion, the surface of the raised portion forming the upper level and the planar portion forming the lower level and the raised portion having a plan-view contour line, which encloses the transitional regions, is obtained according to the invention if printing defects in the marginal zone of the printing are present in the region of the contour line(s) between the transitional regions.
This allows the characteristic nature of the printing achieved by means of the transfer film according to the invention to be evident, without significantly impairing the printing quality.
The abovementioned can be readily seen from the fact that the marginal zone deviations of the printing are of the order of magnitude of 0.05-0.2 mm.
In the case of a compact cassette, the outer faces of which are at least partially printed on by means of a transfer film, the substantially planar outer faces of the cassette walls forming the planar portion with the lower level and the surface of the trapezoidal raised head portion forming the planar portion with the upper level, there being a trapezoidal contour line between the upper level and the lower level, a printing according to the invention is evident from the fact that printing defects in the form of marginal zone deviations from rectilinearity, in the range from about 0.05 to 0.2 mm, are present in the region of the contour line between the corner regions of the trapezoid shape which are joined to each other by the shorter side of the trapezoid shape.
In a more precise form, the printing defects may occur over a length (L
2
) of about 40 mm on the shorter parallel side of the trapezoid shape.
As already mentioned above, the printing defects are present only in a negligible order of magnitude. The advantages of transfer printing are very much predominant there.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3886020 (1975-05-01), Shank, Jr.
patent: 4670084 (1987-06-01), Durand
patent: 5014150 (1991-05-01), Breuer et al.
patent: 5255143 (1993-10-01), Wolf et al.
patent: 5318739 (1994-06-01), Katagiri et al.
patent: 59-062184 (1984-09-01), None
Nägele Gilbert
Schottle Klaus
Wollensack Heinrich
Crispino Richard
EMTEC Magnetics GmbH
Keil & Weinkauf
Lorengo J. A.
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