AU779000B2

AU779000B2 - Semi-plastic playing card

Info

Publication number: AU779000B2
Application number: AU53923/01A
Authority: AU
Inventors: John Cintolo
Original assignee: Spicers Paper Ltd
Current assignee: Spicers Paper Ltd
Priority date: 2000-06-21
Filing date: 2001-06-19
Publication date: 2004-12-23
Anticipated expiration: 2021-06-19
Also published as: AU5392301A

Description

P/00/01i1 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: SEMI-PLASTIC PLAYING CARD SPICERS PAPER LIMITED Applicant: The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: H %COMPFILE~zonmptee fiting master dOn SEMI-PLASTIC PLAYING CARD This invention relates to an improved semi-plastic playing card.

Traditionally, playing cards have been made by painting, and then later, printing indicia on to a paperboard or card substrate. Cards made in this fashion present problems with durability, as the indicia tend to wear off in the course of use. In addition, paper board may be relatively easily damaged. This means that only a limited number of games can be played with a deck of cards.

Various improvements to traditional cards have been proposed. One of these improvements is to apply the indicia to a plastic substrate, which has the advantage of being more durable than paperboard. However, plastic playing cards do not have the same stiffness as paperboard playing cards, and may have problems with adjacent cards in a deck sticking to each other. Desirably, playing cards should have a degree of "slip" so that shuffling and dealing the cards is easier. Use of a plastic substrate also fails to address the problem of indicia wearing off the cards in use.

One means to prevent wear on indicia on playing cards is to coat the cards subsequent to printing with a transparent coating or varnish. A varnish coating helps to protect the indicia on the substrate surface, and may also assist with ensuring that cards have suitable slip.

Another means of protecting indicia on a paperboard substrate is to laminate a plastic film to the substrate after printing, thereby protecting any indicia on the substrate. In addition to protecting the indicia, the plastic film adds to the strength of the substrate, making the playing card less susceptible to tearing and similar damage. Paperboard cards which are laminated with a plastic film are referred to herein as "semi-plastic cards".

Although semi-plastic cards have improved durability over unmodified paperboard cards, they do present a further problem. Depending upon the nature of the plastic film used, the reflective characteristics or "gloss" of the playing card VV 'ACkuLRJWSPECIt- Ptsl St PWaying Cara aoc surface is changed. Whilst this may not be a problem in itself, it is possible to further modify the gloss of the playing cards surface by, for example, indenting the plastic film layer. This may allow cheating in some card games by "marking" semi-plastic cards by scratching or indenting the plastic film layer in a predetermined way. The "marked" card will then bear casual inspection, but allow a cheat to know whether, for example, a card is high or low by looking at a "mark" in the form of a variation in the gloss in the rear surface of the playing card.

The present invention provides an improved semi-plastic card which overcomes or alleviates the problems referred to above. The present invention also relates to a method for producing such an improved semi-plastic playing card.

In accordance with the invention, there is provided a semi-plastic playing card comprising a substrate; said substrate having indicia on at least one side thereof and at least one substantially transparent plastic film layer having an internal side bonded to at least one side of the substrate such that the indicia are between the substrate and the plastic film layer; wherein the plastic film layer has at least one coating layer applied to an external side of the plastic film layer which faces away from the substrate.

The substrate used in the present invention is preferably paperboard or card.

This substrate may be formed of a solid pulp layer, or may be a laminate of paper pulp stock and other material such as adhesive, fillers and the like. The substrate may include surface coatings such as whitening agents or opaquing agents.

Indicia may be printed on one or both sides of the semi-plastic playing card of the invention. Commonly, the front of the card will contain indicia used in playing the game, such as indications of suit and rank, whilst the rear of the playing card will be printed with a uniform pattern which ideally will not vary from card to card.

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4 A plastic film layer is bonded to at least one, and preferably both sides of the substrate. The plastic film may be laminated to the substrate using an adhesive such as a liquid glue, or by heat bonding or by any other means of laminating known to the art. Preferably, the plastic film layer is laminated to the substrate using a hot melt type adhesive.

The plastic film used for the present invention must be sufficiently transparent to allow the indicia printed on the substrate to be seen through the plastic film.

Where an adhesive is used to laminate the plastic to the substrate, the adhesive must also be sufficiently transparent to allow viewing of the indicia. Whilst many plastic films may be suitable for the present invention, the preferred film is a polypropylene film, especially a biaxially oriented polypropylene film.

A suitable film is sold under the trade name "Cello-sheen", which consists of a two-layer film having a 15 micron layer of polypropylene bonded to a 15 micron layer of hot-melt adhesive.

S The coating layer of the present invention is applied to each plastic film layer, in order to prevent or minimise "marking" of the improved semi-plastic card. The coating layer is preferably a ultra-violet light curable varnish or aqueous varnish suitable for use on paper board or plastic playing cards for the purposes of •protecting indicia thereon. Whilst not necessary on semi-plastic cards for the purpose of protecting indicia, it has been found that commercially available playing card varnish will protect semi-plastic playing cards from "marking", 25 allowing the production of a card which has the stiffness and durability of a semi-plastic card, without the disadvantage of being easily "marked" by dishonest players.

The present invention also provides a method for producing an improved semiplastic playing card which includes the steps of: providing a substrate; printing indicia on at least one side of the substrate; W UQaCkERJVWSPECISc.,,,,PIas, Playng CarO 0Dc 9, laminating a plastic film on to at least one side of the substrate so as to cover the indicia; and applying at least one coating layer to the or each plastic film layer.

The invention will now be discussed in relation to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 represents an enlarged partial cross-section of a semi-plastic playing card in accordance with the invention. The drawing is for the purposes of illustration only and the present invention is not limited to the embodiment depicted therein.

As depicted in Figure 1, the invention comprises a substrate 1, having indicia, 2 printed thereon. Plastic layers 4 are bonded to each side of the substrate 1 by adhesive 3, and the outer surface of each plastic layer 4 is coated with a layer of varnish 5. The adhesive 3, plastic layer 4 and varnish 5 are all sufficiently transparent to allow the indicia 2 to be seen.

*Various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be introduced to the construction and method previously described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the invention.

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Claims

1. A playing card comprising a substrate; said substrate having indicia on at least one side thereof and at least one substantially transparent plastic film layer having an internal side bonded to at least one side of the substrate, such that the indicia are between the substrate and to the at least one plastic film layer; wherein the plastic film layer has at least one substantially transparent coating layer applied to an external side of the plastic film layer which faces away distant from the substrate.

2. A playing card according to claim 1 wherein the substrate is paperboard or card, and optionally further materials selected from adhesives, fillers, whitening agents and opaquing agents.

3. A playing card according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the plastic film o o ~layer is composed of polypropylene. S4. A playing card according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plastic film layer is bonded to the substrate by hot-melt adhesive. A playing card according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the plastic °film layer is bonded to the substrate by a liquid glue. A playing card according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the coating 25 layer is an ultra-violet light curable varnish.

7. A playing card according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the coating layer is an aqueous varnish.

8. A method for producing a playing card, including the steps of: providing a substrate; printing indicia on at least one side of the substrate; W WaCk-eRJWSPCISe-Pasi1c Pay",i Caa a0m laminating a plastic film on to at least one side of the substrate so as to cover the indicia; and applying a coating layer of varnish to the or each plastic film layer.

9. A playing card substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings. DATED 18 June, 2001 PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Attorneys for: SPICERS PAPER LIMITED 9* a* *t *o*o* W QaCKW\RJWSPEC;1Sara,.PIasic Plaryig Card doc