AU2005259828B2

AU2005259828B2 - A method of printing and images printed thereby

Info

Publication number: AU2005259828B2
Application number: AU2005259828A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Jerzy Krasulak
Original assignee: GSP PRINT Pty Ltd
Current assignee: GSP PRINT Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2004-07-02
Filing date: 2005-06-30
Publication date: 2007-03-29
Anticipated expiration: 2025-06-30
Also published as: AU2005259828A1

Description

PCT/AU2005/000959 Received 06 February 2006 A METHOD OF PRINTING IMAGES PRINTED THEREBY FI EL O TF:E INVENTION The present invention relates to printing and, in particular, to the printing of large advertising signs, BACK.ROIND ART It is known to utilize the sides of buses for advertising signs and this has been done for many years. In recent years such advertising signs have been extended to cover some win dows of the bus by use of the stratagem of printing the advertising sign onto a perforated sheet. Australian Patents Nos. 697,657 and 698,329 are illustrative of this art. Essentially by printing the advertising sign onto a perforated substrate, passengers within the bus are able to view the outside by effectively looking through the perforations, whereas observers from outside the bus can only see the advertising sign and are unable to see through the perforations into the interior of the bus, The creation of such signs is a substantial market, however, a number of disadvantages apply to the current arrangements. Firstly, the perforated sheet is expensive to manufacture since the sheet is punched by being passed over a roller which is carefully machined to provide regularly spaced apart cylindrical protrusions of very small diameter. Such a roller is necessarily expensive and thus the resulting material created from the punching process is similarly expensive.

Secondly, the perforated material is provided with an adhesive backing sheet which is peeled off to allow the perforated material to be adhered to the side of the bus, This creates the problem that adhesive clings to the periphery of each of the small perforations. This adhesive readily attracts dust, grime, dirt, and other small size debris which may come into contact with the exterior of the bus. As a consequence, the advertising sign quickly becomes dirty, and therefore must be cleaned. However, cleaning is not an easy process since the adhesive means that the dirt, grime, etc cannot be easily washed off, A consequence is that the signs both quickly become dirty and are difficult to clean.

I

Amended Sheet IPE A/A: PCT/AU2005/000959 Received 06 February 2006 Thirdly, advertising operates in campaigns, each of which is different and is of a limited duration, It is therefore necessary that the advertising signs be changed at frequent intervals. Since the perforated sheet which bears the advertising sign has been substantially weakened by the creation of the perforations, when the sign is attempted to be removed, the perforated sheet repeatedly breaks and is unable to be peeled off in a single piece. As a consequence, removal of the sign is a laborious process. Furthermore, for very large signs, it is necessary to accurately piece together various smaller signs in side by side and top to bottom relationship so as to create the overall large sign Becaus of the perratios, te erfor perforated sheet is not dimensionally siable and is liable to stretch, or otherwise distort, during printing or subsequent handlig of the sheets. The consequence is that it is often difficult to correctly align the images of a multi-sheet image.

It is also noted that the prior art method of printing over a perforated sheet is significantly disadvantageous in some conditions. In the example above of the prior art signs applied to buses, the visibility from inside the bus through such a sign diminishes dramatically in wet conditions. This is caused by water being retained within the perforations and has at least a practical consequence that only a portion of the side of the bus at the rear can support the signs so as to allow bus drivers sufficient visibility out of the bus.

Further, dirt, dust or road grit are often suspended within the water retained in the perforations. Thus, when the water dries from the perforations the dust or grit is adhered to the sign base layer within the perforations. This results in the need to wash the bus is more often than would otherwise be the case to allow the driver and passengers a clearer view through the signs.

The prior art overcomes this disadvantage by applying an additional film over the top of the perforations. However, the use of the additional film layer adds to the cost of the materials used to make the signs, as well as adding at least one process step to add a protective layer during manufacture.

Amended Sheet

IPEA/AU

PCT/A J12005/000959 Received 06 February 2006 ErWCT Of TV INVENTION It is the aim of the present invention to substantially overcome, or at least ameliorate, some or all of the abovementioned disadvantages.

S1N*UMM'ARY OF THE INVENTION According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method of creating an image on a non-perforated substrate, said method comprsing the steps f screen printing an apertured foundation layer over said substrate, said foundation layer formed from a plurality of spaced apart screen printed mesas, and (ii) screen printing an image forming layer on said foundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a printed image comprising a non-perforated substrate, a foundation layer screen printed over said substrate formed from a pluraity of spaced apart screen printed mesas, and an image forming layer screen printed on said foundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of advertising utilizing a window as a displav medium, said method comprising the steps of: peeling a releasably adhered backing layer fromrn one surface of a transparent nonperforated substrate, the other surface of said substrate having screen printed thereon a spaced apart array of mesas forming a fooundation layer on said substrate and upon which an image forming layer is screen printed without contact;ing the substrate to any substantial extent, and (ii) adhering said one surface ofsaid substrate to said window.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of creating an niage on a non-perforated substrate, said method comprising the steps of' screen printing a foiundation layer formed from a spaced apart array of mesas over said subsirate, and (ii) screen printing an image forming layer on said foundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent.

Accordiny to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a printed image comprising a non-perfOrated substrate, a fOundation layer forned from an array of spaced apart mesas screen 3 Amended Sheie

]PEA/AU

PCT/AU 2005/0009D9 Received 06 February 2006 printed on said substrate and an image formring layer screen printed on said foundation layer withou contactig said substrate to any substantial extent.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method ofadvertising utilizing a window as a display medium, said method comprising the steps of: peeling a releasably adhered backing layer from one surface of a transparent nonperforated substrate, the other surface of said substrate having an array of opaque spaced apart mesas forming a foundation layer screen printed thereon and upon which an image fonrning layer is screen printed without contacting the substrate to any substantial extent, and (ii) adhering said one surface of said substrate to said window.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. I is a schematic plan view ofa prior ar sign printed on a perforated sheet having a removable adhesive backing sheet; Fig. 2 is a schematic side elevation ofa bus carrying the prior art advertising sign of Fig.

1 Fig. 3 is an enlarged schematic cross sectional view through the prior art advertising sign of Fig. I showing the various components thereof; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. I but il[ustrating the advertising sign of the preferred embodiment; Fig, 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but illustrating a cross sectional view through the sign of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a schematic plan view of part of a sign printed on a substrate according to a second pre&frrcd embodiment and Fig. 7 is an elevated perspective view of part of the sign of Fig. 6.

DETAILED .ESCRITION Referring now to Figs. 1-3, a prior art advertising sign I is printed on a perforated layer 2 typically formed from vinyl and having a very large number of small perforations 3 which are typically circular and arranged in a regular array. An image 5 is formed by printing on the upper surface of the perforated layer 2. The printing process may involve the application of successive layers of ink (not illustrated but well known in the printing art).

4 Amended She.

IPEAJAU

Received 06 February 2006 The underside of the perforated iayer 2 is provided with a releasable backing sheet 6 which is adhered to the perforated layer 2 by means of an adhesive (not illustrated) so that after the backing sheet 6 is peeled away the perforated layer 2 may be adhered to a bus 7 as illustrated in Fig. 2, Where the sign I is intended to cover both a window and a portion of a side of the bus, then the lower portion of the layer 2 need not be perforated as schematically illustrated in Fig. 1, As schematically illustrated in Fig. 3, the sign I prior to application to the bus consists of the backing sheet 6. the perforated iayer 2, and one or more ink layers 8, 9 (not illustrated to scale) and created during the conventional printing of the perforated iayer 2. During the printing process, the layers of ink 8, 9 do not extend to any appreciable extent into the perforations 3 less the perforations be blocked and the optical effects achieved by the perforations be nullified, The abovementioned arrangement suffers from all the disadvantages enumerated in the introductory portion of the specification above.

Turning now to Figs. 4 and 5, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described. The embodiment takes the form of an advertising sign 10 having a backing sheet 16 (typically of paper) which is releasably adhered to a continuous (ie non-perforated) transparent substrate 12 on which is formed by silk screen printing a relatively thick foundation layer 14, The foundation layer 14 is printed as a regular array of preferably (but not necessarily) circular dots (formed by regions of no ink) regularly dispersed throughout a matrix (formed by regions of ink). Thus the foundation layer 14 may be regarded as being apertured in the sense that it has small openings or apertures 13 formed therein during the printing process, but not punched as in the prior art perforations. Above the foundation layer 14 are one or more image layers 15 formed by printing on the foundation layer 14. The resultant image 25 produced by the image layer(s) 15 of Fig. 5 is illustrated in Fig. 4.

In the preferred embodiment, the backing layer 16 is paper or polyethylene or any other backing liner and is typically 80-100 microns thick. The transparent substrate 12 is a polyester sheet typically approximately 50-100 microns in thickness. The foundation layer 14 is preferably approximately 200 microns in thickness but can be from 100 to 300 microns in thickness. The foundation layer 14 is printed using a relatively viscous ink which is curable in ultraviolet light and when applied to white paper in typical thin layers has a grey, generally Amended Sheet

IPEA/AU

Received 06 Febmary 2006 translucent, appearance. However, when thickly applied as is, the printing of the foundation layer 14, the ink is sufficiently thick to provide a black appearance. The size of the apertures 13 is typically 1300 microns in diameter, and preftrably within the range of from 1200 to 3000 microns, The shape of the apertures 13 can be circular, hexagonal, octagonal, square, rectangular, or any other desired shape.

Once the foundation layer 14 with its apertures 13 has been created, and cured, the image can be created by printing the image layer(s) 15. This is preferably done by printing (without need fbr any registration) a first base layer in white (or yellow) and then subsequently printing, in registration, using conventional four colour process (cyan, yellow, magenta, and black).

Typically the total thickness of the base layer and all four colour layers is less than 100 microns and within the range of 20-50 microns.

it is apparent from the fregoing that a number of advantages are achieved. Firstly, the transparent substrate 12 is very much less expensive than the perforated layer 2 and thus the total cost of the sign 10 is much less than that of the sign 1. Furthermore, the polyester substrate 12 constitutes a single relatively strong entity and therefore is dimensionally stable. So individual substrates can be easily pieced together to manufacture signs 10 of very large extent. Similarly, the absence of any mechanical perfbrations in the transparent substrate 12 means that the sign can be removed as a single sheet without difficulty.

Furthermore, since the adhesive between the backing sheet i6 and transparent substrate 12 which is used to adhere the sign 10 to the bus, or other object, is entirely covered by the substrate 12, there is no adhesive within the apertures 13. Thus the sign 10 does not become dirty in the same way as the sign 1. Similarly, if dirty the sign 10 is easily cleaned.

Turning to Figs, 6 7, there is shown part of a sign 30 according to another preferred embodiment. The sign includes a releasable backing layer 31 which is adhered to a transparent advertising substrate 32. The advertising substrate 32 is formed from optically transparent vinyl but can be formed from other preferred transparent materials such as transparent polyester.

The releasable backing layer 31 can be attached to the advertising substrate 32 by means of an adhesive or by electrostati attraction. Neither the advertising substrate 32 nor the backing layer 31 are perforated, and the advertising substrate 32 has printed on a portion of one surface a regular array of oval shaped mesas 33. The mesas 33 are preferably applied using screen 6 Amended Sheet

IPEA/AU

PCT/AU2005/000959 Received 06 February 2006 printing techniques such as flat-bed screen printing. it will be appreciated that any other preferred printing method can be employed.

The mesas 33 are formed from a foundation layer of black ink and have a thickness of 200 microns. Preferably, the mesas 33 have an ink thickness of between 100 microns and 300 microns. The ovals have a minor axis of 1500 microns and a major axis of2500 microns. The minor axis is preferably between 700 microns to 2000 microns, and the major axis is preferably between i 150 microns to 3300 microns, An image base layer or layers of ink (not illustrated) are preferably screen printed on top of each of the black mesas 33 in the array. This thereby extends the height of the mesas 33 by the thickness of the image base layer(s), The image base layer(s) are preferably formed from white ink and each have a thickness of about 5 microns. it is over of the image base layer(s) that an advertising image is printed. If desired, a coating can be disposed over the top of the aray of mesas 33 after an image is printed.

The shape of the mesas 33 can be circular, square, rectanrgular, triangular, diamond shaped, oblong or any other preferred shape. It wiil be appreciated that the mesas 33 do not need to possess side walls extending exactly vertically from the advertising substrate 32.

The ink used to form the image base layer or the foundation layer of the mesas 33 can be any preferred colour or can likewise have a fluorescent or phosphorescent ink or dye added to it.

It wil be apparent that the sign 30 allows improved visibility, for example, the visibility from inside the bus through such a sign 30. The visibility does not diminish dramatically in wet conditions since there are no perforations for the water to be retained in. This is advantageous since a larger portion of the side of the bus can support a sign 30 whilst allowing the bus driver sufficient visibility through the sign 30 out of the bus, especially in wet conditions. It will be appreciated the ability to cover a larger area of a bus in advertising is significantly economically advantageous.

It is also apparent from the foregoing that other advantages are achieved with the preferred embodiment of Figs 6 7. Particularly, the transparent advertising substrate 32 is 7 Amended Sheet

IPEAIAU

Received 06 February 2006 substantialy k less expensive than using the knowvn perkorated layer and thus the total cost of the sign 30 is much less than that of the sign I, As with the embodiment of Figs. 4 and 5, the polyester advertising substrate 32 constitutes a relatively strong entity and is dimensionally stable, Thus, individual substrates can be easily pieced together to manufacture signs of very large extent, Similarly, the absence of any mnechanical perforations in the transparent advertisin substrate 32 means that the sign 30 can be removed as a single sheet without difficuly.

The foregoing descrbes onl- some preferred embodiments of the present invention and modifications. obvious to those skilled in the printing and labelling arts, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of"having' or "including" and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'.

8 Amended Shet

IPE.A/AU

Claims

2. The method according to claim 1 including the further steps of: (iii) selecting said substrate to be substantially transparent or translucent, and (iv) selecting said foundation layer to be substantially opaque.
3. The method according to claim I including the further step of: forming said foundation layer to be thick relative to said image forming layer.
4. The method according to claim 3 including the step of: (vi) forming said foundation layer with a thickness in the range of from 100 to 300 microns, and screen printing said image forming layer with a thickness in the range of from 20 microns to 150 microns. The method according to any one ofclaihns 1 to 4 including the further step of: (vii) providing said substrate with a releasable adhesive backing layer,
6. The method according to any one ofclaims I to 5 inchlding the further step of: (viii) forming the apertures in said foundation layer in a substantially regular array.
7. The method according to any one of claims I to 6 including the further step of: (ix) forming the space between said mesas in said foundation layer to have a maximum dimension in the range of from 1200 microns to 3000 microns.
8. The method according to claim 7 including the further step of: forming the space between said mesas from the class of shapes consisting of circular apertures, hexagonal apertures, octagonal apertures and rectangular apertures.
9. The method according to any one of claims I to 8 including the further step of: (xi) forming said foundation layer by screen printintg same with viscous ink. The method according to any one of claims I to 9 wherein said screen printing is silk- screen screen printing or flat-bed screen printing.
11. The method according to any one of claims I to 10 wherein said screen printing is effected without image registration of said screen printed foundation layer.
12. A printed image comprising a non-perforated substrate, a foundation layer screen printed over said substrate formed fromn a plurality of spaced apart screen printed mesas, and an image 9 Amended Sheet IPEA/AU PCT/AU2005/000959 Received 06 February 2.006 forming layer screen printed on said toundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent. 13, Tihe image according to claim 12 wherein said substrate is substantially transparent or translucent and said foundation layer is substantially opaque,
14. The image according to claim 12 or 13 wherein said foundation layer is thick relative to said image forming layer. 1 5 The image according to claim 14 wherein said foundation layer has a thicknress of from 100 to 300 microns and said image forming layer has a thickness of from 20 microns to 150 microns. 16, The inage according to any one of claims 12 to 15 wherein said substrate has a releasable adhesive backing layer,
17. The image according to any one of clains 12 to 16 wherein the space between said mesas on said fbundation Layer are arranged in a substantially regular array. I8. The image according to claim 17 wherein said apertures have a maximum dimension in the range of from 1200 microns to 3000 microns.
19. The irnage according to claim i8 wherein the space between said mesas are selected from the class of shapes consisting of circular apertures, hexagonal apertures, octagonal apertures and rectangular apertures. The image according to any one of claims 12 to 19 wherein said foundation layer is printed with viscous ink.
21. The image according to any one of clains 12 to 20 wherein said screen printing is silk- screen screen printing or flat-bed screen printing,
22. The image according to any one of claims 12 to 21 wherein said screen printing is effected without image registration of said screen printed foundation layer.
23. A method of advertising utilizing a window as a display medium, said method comprising the steps of: peeling a releasably adhered backing layer from one surface of a transparent non- perforated substrate, the other surface of said substrate having screen printed thereon a spaced apart array of mesas forming a foundation layer on said substrate and upon which an image forming layer is screen printed without contacting the substrate to any substantial extent, and (ii) adhering said one surface of said substrate to said window.
24. A method of creating an image on a non-perforated substrate, said method comprising the steps of- screen printing a foundation layer formed from a spaced apart array of mesas over said Amended Sheet IPEAJAil PCT1/AUZUU/UU<1.2y Received 06 February 2(06 substrate, and (ii) screen printing an image forming layer on said foundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent. The method as defined in claim 24 including the further steps of: (iii) selecting said substrate to be substantially transparent or translucent, and (iv) selecting said foundation layer to be substantially opaque.
26. The method as defined in claim 24 including the further step of: forming said foundation layer to be thick relative to said image forming layer.
27. The method as defined in claim 26 including the step of: (vi) forming said foundation layer with a thickness in the range of from 100 to 300 microns, and printing said image forming layer with a thickness in the range of from 20 microns to 150 nicrons.
28. The method as defined in any one of claims 24 to 27 including the step of printing an image base layer intermediate the foundation layer and the image forming iayer.
29. The method according to any one of claims 24 to 28 including the further step of: (vii) providing said substrate with a releasable adhesive backing layer. The method according to any one of clains 24 to 29 including the further step of: (viii) forming said mesas on said foundation layer in a substantially regular array.
31. The method according to any one of claims 24 to 30 including the further step of: (ix) forming said mesas on said foundation layer to have a maximum dimension in the range of from 1150 microns to 3300 microns,
32. The method according to claim 31 including the further step of: forming said mesas fromn the class of mesas consisting of circular mesas, polygona mesas, rectangular mesas, and triangular mesas.
33. The method according to any one of claims 24 to 28 including the further step of: (xi) forming said foundation layer by screen printing same with viscous ink.
34. The method according to any one of claims 24 to 33 wherein said screen printing is silk- screen screen printing or flat-bed screen printing, The method according to any one of claims 24 to 34 wherein said screen printing is effected without image registration of said screen printed foundation layer. 36 A printed image comprising a non-perforated substrate, a foundation layer formed from an array of spaced apart mesas screen printed on said substrate and an image forming layer screen printed on said foundation layer without contacting said substrate to any substantial extent. Amonded Sheet IPEAiAU rL, I/ALsuu J Received 06 February 2006
37. 'The image according to claim 36 wherein said substrate is substantially transparent or translucent and said foundation layer is substantially opaque.
38. The image according to claim 36 or 37 wherein said foundation layer is thick relative to said image forming layer.
39. The image according to any one of claims 36 to 38 including an image base layer disposed intermediate said foundation layer and said image forming layer. The image according to claim 39 wherein said image base layer is between 5 microns and microns thick.
41. The image according to any one of claims 36 to 40 wherein said foundation layer has a thickness of from 100 to 300 microns and said image forming layer has a thickness of from microns to 150 microns,
42. The image according to any one of claims 36 to 41 wherein said substrate has a reieasable adhesive backing layer.
43. The image according to any one of claims 36 to 42 wherein said mesas in said foundation layer are arranged in a substantially regular array.
44. The image according to claim 43 wherein said mesas have a maximum dimension in the range of from I 150 microns to 3300 microns. The image according to claim 44 wherein said mesas are selected from the class of mesas consisting of circular mesas, polygonal mesas, rectangular mesas or triangular mesas.
46. The image according to any one of claims 36 to 45 wherein said foundation layer is screen printed with viscous ink. S47 The method according to any one of laims 36 to 46 wherein said screen printing is silk- screen screen printing or flat-bed screen printing,
48. The method according to any one of claims 36 to 47 wherein said screen printing is effected without image registration of said screen printed foundation layer.
49. A method of advertising utilizing a window as a display medium, said method comprising the steps of: peeling a releasably adhered backing layer from one surface of a transparent non-- perforated substrate, the other surface of said substrate having an array of opaque spaced apart. mesas forming a foundation layer screen printed thereon and upon which an image forming avyer is screen printed without contacting the substrate to any substantial extent, and (ii) adhering said one surface of said substrate to said window. The method according to claim 49 wherein said screen printing is silk-screen screen printing or flat-bed screen printing. 12 Amended Sheet IPEA/AU 6L-LO-LOOZ alBO L VL:01 aWL :e!ieJisnv dl Aq paA!iaOa OL6LL6SO-1f9S :ON (l SIfOO 0 0 ci S 51. The method according claim 49 or 50 wherein said screen printing is effected without image registration of said screen printed foundation layer.
52. A method of creating an image as a non-perforated substrate, said method being substantially as herein described with reference to any of Figs. 4 to 7. 0
53. A printed image comprising a non-perforated substrate, said image being substantially as 00 herein described with reference to any one of Figs. 4 to 7. 54: A method of advertising utilising a window as a display medium said method being o substantially as herein described with reference to any one of Figs. 4 to 7. S 55. A printed image being substantially as herein described with reference to any one of Figs. 4to7. 13 ,I "d OO 2SS662T9+ WHOS*I*a10*a3SUad OT:G LO0 uar 61