CA1146321A - Thin plastic gelatin laminate material and method for making same - Google Patents
Thin plastic gelatin laminate material and method for making sameInfo
- Publication number
- CA1146321A CA1146321A CA000358740A CA358740A CA1146321A CA 1146321 A CA1146321 A CA 1146321A CA 000358740 A CA000358740 A CA 000358740A CA 358740 A CA358740 A CA 358740A CA 1146321 A CA1146321 A CA 1146321A
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- Prior art keywords
- gelatin
- epoxy
- layer
- laminate
- bonding
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Abstract
Abstract Epoxy is reinforced by gelatin to form gelatin-epoxy laminates. Initially the gelatin is carried on a non-bonding substrate for support and receives the desired epoxy coating which bonds to the gelatin. Next the coating is cured and the substrate is peeled from the gelatin leaving a gelatin reinforced epoxy sheet stock material. The opposite side of the gelatin may be coated in the same manner.
Description
THIN PLASTIC GELATIN LAMII~JATE MATERIAL
. . _ AND METHOD FOR MAKI~ SAME
The invention relates to the production of a thin stock sheet material and in particular to continuous methods of producing thin, reinforced sheets of plastics which flow before setting but not after.
5 The class of plastic material which includes thermoset-ting plastics and catalyst cured plastics are materials which readily flow before setting, but not afterwards.
This class includes materials such as epoxy, melamine formaldehyde, melamine phenolic, phenolic, polybutadiene, 10 thermosetting polyesters, thermosetting polyimide, polyurethane, silicone and urea. For convenience, this class will be termed "fluid-setting plastics" for this application.
Previously, fluid-setting plastics have been sold - 15 primarily as cast pieces. This implies high unit cost because of batch processing. Fluid setting plastics tend to have low tensile strength when cast in thin sheets. This has limited the ability of manufacturers to produce fluid-setting plastics in large thin sheets.
20 One approach in solving the problem of low tensile strength is to add reinforcing fibers to the material.
Cast epoxy reinfored with glass or graphite fibers is a wel] known high strength material. Another approach is to form a laminate which reinforces the 25 low strength fluid setting material. Many epoxy laminates are known.
1:146~
The present invention provides a method for making a reinforced epoxy laminate comprising the steps of:
applying a non-bonding layer of gelatin to a substrate;
applying a bonding fluid layer of epoxy to said gelatin 5 layer; curing said epoxy to form a dimensionally stable laminate with said gelatin layer; and separating said gelatin layer from said substrate, thereby producing a cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
The present invention further provides a gelatin-epoxy 10 laminate material comprising, a uniformly thick layer of gelatin bonded on a first side to a uniformly thick layer of epoxy.
.
The invention resulted through the discovery that a layer of fluid-setting plastic may be supported by a lS layer of gelatin to form a plastic-gelatin laminate sheet. The fluid-setting plastic may easily flow onto a moving layer of supported gelatin to form a continuous sheet of plastic-gelatin laminate where the fluid-setting plastic creates the shape and the 20 dimensional stability after setting and the gelatin adds - the desired tensile strength to the laminate sheet and creates a substrate for a continuous sheet. It was also discovered that gelatin has the important property as a substrate for continuous sheets that if it is coated 25 onto plastic without the use of a subbing layer to cause adherence, the gelatin may be separated from the film base by mechanical force.
First a~layer of gelatin is applied to a non-bonding plastic flexible base and then a uniform coating of a 11~632~
fluid-setting plastic is applied over the gelatin layer.
The combination of gelatin on the plastic film base resembles a photographic film. The fluid-setting plastic is then cured, forming a self-supporting 5 reinforced plastic-gelatin laminate. This combination may be separated from the non-bonded plastic base to form the desired laminate.
There are several possible alternative procedures that may be followed. For example, the gelatin could be lO coated with another layer of fluid-setting plastic on the opposite side, thereby sandwiching the gelatin.
Another alternative involves passing the laminate through water near its boiling point to remove the gelatin leaving a thin fluid-setting plastic sheet.
151An advantage of these thin sheet plastics is their long length, light weight per unit length and low cost compared to cast sheets made by batch processing.
In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of a process for making an epoxy-gelatin laminate material;
20 Figure 2 is a plan view of a process for making an epoxy-gelatin-epoxy "sandwich" laminate material;
Figure 3 is a plan view of a process for making reinforced sheet epoxy;
Figure 4 is a top view of an example of an epoxy-gelatin 25 laminate article on a glass substrate;
114632~
Figure 5 is a sectional view of the article of Figure 4 taken along lines 5-5; and .
Figure 6 shows an epoxy-gelatin laminate article, - derived from the article shown in Figure 5, after 5 removal of a glass substrate.
The present invention contemplates the use of gelatin as a reinforcing material for fluid-setting plastics, either as a temporary support or as a permanent laminate, in order to form thin stock of the desired material.
10 Gelatin derived from cattle is a well-known material used in photography to hold photosensitive materials in photo-graphic films and papers. Gelatin acts very much like a high polymer as described in "The Macromolecular Chemistry of Gelatin" by Arthur Veis, Academic Press, 15 1964, Chapter II. It has great tensile strength when dry. It also dissolves in water near 100C.
In the discussion below, epoxy is used as an example of a fluid-setting plastic which may be reinforced and continuously produced in accord with the present 20 invention. Other fluid-setting plastics could be used, so long as they strongly adhere to gelatin when placed in contact with that material. It is believed that all fluid-setting plastics will do so.
The epoxy material discussed herein is the combination 25 of an epoxy resin and a curing agent. Many types of epoxy resins are known and any of which may be used for purposes described herein. For general applications, epoxies which are clear or not clear may be used.
1~46321 In accord with the present invention, thin epoxy layers are provided with the necessary mechanical strength for forming sheets of epoxy stock material. With refere~ce to Figure 1, epoxy is formulated in vat 11 which 5 receives constituent materials from supply tanks 13, 15.
Supply tank 13 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 15 contains the selected curing agent. The curing agent which is selected should have good sta-bility and be easy to handle, such as an acid anhydride.
10 Both are dispensed in appropriate chemical ratios into vat 11, wherein the two constituents are mixed by mechanical means. Vat 11 has an extrusion nozzle at its lower end for distributing a coating onto a passing substrate. Although not shown, extrusion may occur 15 under pressure conditions.
The starting material 17 comprises a plastic base 19 with a gelatin coating 21 thereon. The plastic base 19 may be any plastic support, whether opaque or trans-parent, as long as the base is flexible, similar to 20 common photographic film base materials, such as polyester, polyterephthalate, polycarbonate and cellulose triacetate, except that the base 19 need not be restricted to the common dimensions of film. To that base, a gelatin layer 21 is applied, in a 25 conventional manner, except that no subbing layer is applied to the plastic base 19. When the gelatin is used only for reinforcement, the gelatin layer contains no photosensitive material. However, photo-sensitive material such as silver halide may be 30 contained within the gelatin if a photographic film on an epoxy base is desired. In photographic film manufacture, a subbing layer is usually applied in 1146~32;~
order to adhere a gelatin emulsion layer to a film base layer. However, in the present case, separation of the gelatin emulsion from the base layer is desired, so that no subbing layer is used. Base 19 is referred to as a 5 non-bonding base.
The gelatin layer 21 is applied in a conventional manner, in usual thicknesses characteristic of photographic films. The starting material 17 is fed beneath vat 11 where a thin coating 31 of epoxy is applied. The 10 application is made as uniform as possible through an extrusion nozzle under positive pressure.
The extruded epoxy coating 31 immediately begins to cure, but the curing process may be aided, depending upon the curing agent, by an oven 23 which directs 15 infrared radiation or hot air onto the epoxy coating, as the base 19 moves the material overlying it down-stream of the applicator station where vat 11 is located.
Starting material 17 i5 continuously moved past the 20 extrusion nozzle of vat 11 by means of a conveyor 25 which contacts plastic base 19 with sufficient friction to drive it forward beneath a fixed roller 27. Beneath roller 27, the gelatin coating 21 is pulled from plastic base 19. The gelatin coating 21 perferentialiy adheres 25 to the epoxy coating 31 which is pulled at roll~r 27 away from the plastic film base 19. The plastic base 19 continues in the same direction as previously, around rollers 33 and 35 for subsequent cleaning and re-use. Thus, plastic base 19 may be an endless loop.
30 On the other hand, the epoxy layer 31 has a gelatin layer 21 adhered to it, forming a plastic-gelatin laminate.
11~63~i.
Epoxies are very useful as the plastic in this plastic gelatin laminate. They have superior adhesion and high flexural strength. The increasingly stringent requirements for flame retardancy and higher tempera-5 ture resistant systems are being met by specia]lycontrolled molecular weight distribution and higher bromine content systems.
Figure 2 shows the making of an epoxy-gelatin-epoxy "sandwich" composite sheet. Such a composite sheet 10 material has essentially the same utility as the epoxy-gelatin laminate sheet of Figure 1, with the additional characteristic that the gelatin, which is absorptive of water, is now shielded on both sides by epoxy which is generally impervious to water.
15 Figure 2 shows the application of an epoxy coating to the composite sheet which is the product of the process of Figure 1. In particular, the composite sheet 41 comprises an epoxy layer 31 and a gelatin layer 21. A conveyor 45 advances this starting material 20 in the direction indicated by the arrow A toward vat 43 which receives constituent materials from supply tanks 47, 49. Supply tank 47 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 49 contains the selected curing agent. The curing agent which is selected 25 should have good stability and be easy to handle, such as an acid anhydride. Both constituents are dispensed in appropriate chemical ratios into the vat 43, wherein the two constituents are mixed by mechanical means.
Vat 43 has an extrusion nozzle at its lower end for 30 distributiny a coating onto the starting material 41.
Although not shown, extrusion may occur under pressure conditions.
11463Z~
The extrusion is an epoxy coating 51 over the starting material 41. Immediately after extrusion, the coating begins to cure, but may be aided, depending upon the curing agent, by an oven 53 which directs infrared 5 radiation or hot air onto the extruded coating. The finished material consists of a layer of epoxy 51 over a layer of gelatin 21 which is over a layer of epoxy 31.
The thickness of the epoxy layers 31 and 51 may be the same or may be different depending upon the use for the 10 material.
Note that in Figure 2 the layer 51 may be the same fluid-setting plastic as layer 31 or may be a different one. Figure 3 illustrates a method of making reinforced epoxy wherein reinforcement comes not from 15 gelatin, because the gelatin is removed, but from internal fibers.
The starting material 17 comprises a plastic base 19 with a gelatin coating 21 thereon, just as in Figure 1.
Once again, no subbing layer is used so that film base 20 19 is a non-bonding base. The starting material 17 is fed beneath vat 11 which supplies epoxy constituents from supply tanks ]3 and 15. Supply tank 13 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 15 contains the selected curing agent. Supply tank 14 dispenses 25 strengthening fibers, such as glass fibers so that the epoxy will be self-reinforcing. Such glass reinforced epoxy is known in the prior art. However, contrary to the prior art, such an epoxy layer can be made thinner because support is provided by the gelatin layer 21.
30 For example, the epoxy layer 32 may be as thin as 0.5 ;32:~
g millimeters or less, although the present method is not limited to such thin epoxy layers, The extruded epoxy coating 32 immediately begins to cure, but curing may be aided by an oven 23 which 5 directs infrared radiation or hot air onto the epoxy coating. Beneath roller 27 the gelatin coating 21 is separated from the plastic base 19 with the gelatin coating 21 perferentially adhering to the epoxy coating 32 which is pulled at roller 27 away from the plastic 10 base 19 and toward roller 61. From roller 61 the composite epoxy-gelatin sheet is directed toward roller 63 in a bath 65 maintained near 100C which will p ca~ ~ ~;emoval of the gelatin from the epoxy, without ~ffocting the stability of the epoxy. The epoxy is 15 pulled out of the bath around roller 67, then about roller 69 and wound on a spool or otherwise stored.
The same processes described above are suitable for reinforcing other fluid-setting plastics, namely melamine formaldehyde, melamine phenolic, phenolic, 20 polybutadiene, thermosetting polyesters, thermosetting polyimide, polyurethane, silicone and urea. In each case a laminate with improved tensile properties is produced. If the thin stock fluid-setting plastic produced as described herein has sufficient intrinsic 25 tensile strength for a desired application the gelatin backing may be removed as described.
This application describes continuous processes for making plastic-gelatin laminate materials. It will be realized that casting methods may also be used to 30 produce these laminates. As an example, a disk which 11~63Zl may be used as an optical recording medium may be made as follows. A flat piece of glass is coated with a layer of gelatin without any intervening subbing layer. This intermediate product is similar to a 5 photographic plate in appearance. Next, two concentric rings of equal height are placed on the gelatin, the height of a desired epoxy layer. Next, liquid epoxy is poured into the annular region between the two rings and the epoxy is then cured. The epoxy is then peeled 10 from the glass and the gelatin will preferentially adh~ere to the epoxy. The rings are left in place as part of the disk. The final product is a gelatin-epoxy disk. If the gelatin contains a photosensitive emulsion an optical medium, suitable for recording data, is 15 formed.
The following is an example of a use for the gelatin-epoxy laminate of the present invention. With reference to Figure 4, a square plate 71 is shown which consists of a flat piece of glass which is coated with a uniform 20 layer of gelatin without a subbing layer. Glass is not necessary; a plastic substrate may be used. The gelatin layer is smooth and continuous and has approximately the same thickness as a gelatin layer on a photographic plate. For the purpose of making an 25 optical recording medium, the gelatin may contain an unexposed silver-halide black and white emulsion for photographically recording data. Two concentric rings 73, 75 are placed on the gelatin. The outer ring 75 could be as large as to be tangent with edges of plate 30 71 or can be as small as to permit several disks to be made on the same glass substrate. The height of the rings 73, 75 corresponds to the height of an epoxy 114632~
layer.
The gelatin is coated with a thin layer of fluid setting epoxy which is poured between the rings 73 and 75. After the epoxy is cured, a sharp instrument, 5 like a razor blade, is used to cut the gelatin around the outer diameter of the outer ring 75 and around the inner diameter of the inner ring 73. Then the epoxy-gelatin laminate is peeled from the glass substrate. The glass substrate may be reused.
10 Depending upon the application the epoxy may be opaque or clear. When it is opaque its thickness need not be uniform and some bubbles may exist in the epoxy without detrimental effect. If the epoxy must be clear for recording or reading data through it, then 15 it must be optically flat and devoid of bubbles in the active area of the disk. For application where the disk forms a photosensitive medium, the gelatin would typically be under eight microns thick and at least one micron thick. The epoxy coating would typically be ~ 20 greater than 250 microns thick and less than 2500 ; microns thick.
Figure 5 shows a sectional view of a portion of the disk of Figure 4 with a glass substrate 91 supporting the laminate. The laminate consists of the gelatin 25 layer 93 and the epoxy layer 95 on top of it.
In Figure 6, the laminate of Figure 5 is shown to have been separated from the glass substrate. What remains is the epoxy layer 95 adhearing to the gelatin layer 93. The finished disk is gelatin epoxy laminate which 30 has good dimensional stability required for use as a data recording medium.
. . _ AND METHOD FOR MAKI~ SAME
The invention relates to the production of a thin stock sheet material and in particular to continuous methods of producing thin, reinforced sheets of plastics which flow before setting but not after.
5 The class of plastic material which includes thermoset-ting plastics and catalyst cured plastics are materials which readily flow before setting, but not afterwards.
This class includes materials such as epoxy, melamine formaldehyde, melamine phenolic, phenolic, polybutadiene, 10 thermosetting polyesters, thermosetting polyimide, polyurethane, silicone and urea. For convenience, this class will be termed "fluid-setting plastics" for this application.
Previously, fluid-setting plastics have been sold - 15 primarily as cast pieces. This implies high unit cost because of batch processing. Fluid setting plastics tend to have low tensile strength when cast in thin sheets. This has limited the ability of manufacturers to produce fluid-setting plastics in large thin sheets.
20 One approach in solving the problem of low tensile strength is to add reinforcing fibers to the material.
Cast epoxy reinfored with glass or graphite fibers is a wel] known high strength material. Another approach is to form a laminate which reinforces the 25 low strength fluid setting material. Many epoxy laminates are known.
1:146~
The present invention provides a method for making a reinforced epoxy laminate comprising the steps of:
applying a non-bonding layer of gelatin to a substrate;
applying a bonding fluid layer of epoxy to said gelatin 5 layer; curing said epoxy to form a dimensionally stable laminate with said gelatin layer; and separating said gelatin layer from said substrate, thereby producing a cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
The present invention further provides a gelatin-epoxy 10 laminate material comprising, a uniformly thick layer of gelatin bonded on a first side to a uniformly thick layer of epoxy.
.
The invention resulted through the discovery that a layer of fluid-setting plastic may be supported by a lS layer of gelatin to form a plastic-gelatin laminate sheet. The fluid-setting plastic may easily flow onto a moving layer of supported gelatin to form a continuous sheet of plastic-gelatin laminate where the fluid-setting plastic creates the shape and the 20 dimensional stability after setting and the gelatin adds - the desired tensile strength to the laminate sheet and creates a substrate for a continuous sheet. It was also discovered that gelatin has the important property as a substrate for continuous sheets that if it is coated 25 onto plastic without the use of a subbing layer to cause adherence, the gelatin may be separated from the film base by mechanical force.
First a~layer of gelatin is applied to a non-bonding plastic flexible base and then a uniform coating of a 11~632~
fluid-setting plastic is applied over the gelatin layer.
The combination of gelatin on the plastic film base resembles a photographic film. The fluid-setting plastic is then cured, forming a self-supporting 5 reinforced plastic-gelatin laminate. This combination may be separated from the non-bonded plastic base to form the desired laminate.
There are several possible alternative procedures that may be followed. For example, the gelatin could be lO coated with another layer of fluid-setting plastic on the opposite side, thereby sandwiching the gelatin.
Another alternative involves passing the laminate through water near its boiling point to remove the gelatin leaving a thin fluid-setting plastic sheet.
151An advantage of these thin sheet plastics is their long length, light weight per unit length and low cost compared to cast sheets made by batch processing.
In the drawings, Figure l is a plan view of a process for making an epoxy-gelatin laminate material;
20 Figure 2 is a plan view of a process for making an epoxy-gelatin-epoxy "sandwich" laminate material;
Figure 3 is a plan view of a process for making reinforced sheet epoxy;
Figure 4 is a top view of an example of an epoxy-gelatin 25 laminate article on a glass substrate;
114632~
Figure 5 is a sectional view of the article of Figure 4 taken along lines 5-5; and .
Figure 6 shows an epoxy-gelatin laminate article, - derived from the article shown in Figure 5, after 5 removal of a glass substrate.
The present invention contemplates the use of gelatin as a reinforcing material for fluid-setting plastics, either as a temporary support or as a permanent laminate, in order to form thin stock of the desired material.
10 Gelatin derived from cattle is a well-known material used in photography to hold photosensitive materials in photo-graphic films and papers. Gelatin acts very much like a high polymer as described in "The Macromolecular Chemistry of Gelatin" by Arthur Veis, Academic Press, 15 1964, Chapter II. It has great tensile strength when dry. It also dissolves in water near 100C.
In the discussion below, epoxy is used as an example of a fluid-setting plastic which may be reinforced and continuously produced in accord with the present 20 invention. Other fluid-setting plastics could be used, so long as they strongly adhere to gelatin when placed in contact with that material. It is believed that all fluid-setting plastics will do so.
The epoxy material discussed herein is the combination 25 of an epoxy resin and a curing agent. Many types of epoxy resins are known and any of which may be used for purposes described herein. For general applications, epoxies which are clear or not clear may be used.
1~46321 In accord with the present invention, thin epoxy layers are provided with the necessary mechanical strength for forming sheets of epoxy stock material. With refere~ce to Figure 1, epoxy is formulated in vat 11 which 5 receives constituent materials from supply tanks 13, 15.
Supply tank 13 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 15 contains the selected curing agent. The curing agent which is selected should have good sta-bility and be easy to handle, such as an acid anhydride.
10 Both are dispensed in appropriate chemical ratios into vat 11, wherein the two constituents are mixed by mechanical means. Vat 11 has an extrusion nozzle at its lower end for distributing a coating onto a passing substrate. Although not shown, extrusion may occur 15 under pressure conditions.
The starting material 17 comprises a plastic base 19 with a gelatin coating 21 thereon. The plastic base 19 may be any plastic support, whether opaque or trans-parent, as long as the base is flexible, similar to 20 common photographic film base materials, such as polyester, polyterephthalate, polycarbonate and cellulose triacetate, except that the base 19 need not be restricted to the common dimensions of film. To that base, a gelatin layer 21 is applied, in a 25 conventional manner, except that no subbing layer is applied to the plastic base 19. When the gelatin is used only for reinforcement, the gelatin layer contains no photosensitive material. However, photo-sensitive material such as silver halide may be 30 contained within the gelatin if a photographic film on an epoxy base is desired. In photographic film manufacture, a subbing layer is usually applied in 1146~32;~
order to adhere a gelatin emulsion layer to a film base layer. However, in the present case, separation of the gelatin emulsion from the base layer is desired, so that no subbing layer is used. Base 19 is referred to as a 5 non-bonding base.
The gelatin layer 21 is applied in a conventional manner, in usual thicknesses characteristic of photographic films. The starting material 17 is fed beneath vat 11 where a thin coating 31 of epoxy is applied. The 10 application is made as uniform as possible through an extrusion nozzle under positive pressure.
The extruded epoxy coating 31 immediately begins to cure, but the curing process may be aided, depending upon the curing agent, by an oven 23 which directs 15 infrared radiation or hot air onto the epoxy coating, as the base 19 moves the material overlying it down-stream of the applicator station where vat 11 is located.
Starting material 17 i5 continuously moved past the 20 extrusion nozzle of vat 11 by means of a conveyor 25 which contacts plastic base 19 with sufficient friction to drive it forward beneath a fixed roller 27. Beneath roller 27, the gelatin coating 21 is pulled from plastic base 19. The gelatin coating 21 perferentialiy adheres 25 to the epoxy coating 31 which is pulled at roll~r 27 away from the plastic film base 19. The plastic base 19 continues in the same direction as previously, around rollers 33 and 35 for subsequent cleaning and re-use. Thus, plastic base 19 may be an endless loop.
30 On the other hand, the epoxy layer 31 has a gelatin layer 21 adhered to it, forming a plastic-gelatin laminate.
11~63~i.
Epoxies are very useful as the plastic in this plastic gelatin laminate. They have superior adhesion and high flexural strength. The increasingly stringent requirements for flame retardancy and higher tempera-5 ture resistant systems are being met by specia]lycontrolled molecular weight distribution and higher bromine content systems.
Figure 2 shows the making of an epoxy-gelatin-epoxy "sandwich" composite sheet. Such a composite sheet 10 material has essentially the same utility as the epoxy-gelatin laminate sheet of Figure 1, with the additional characteristic that the gelatin, which is absorptive of water, is now shielded on both sides by epoxy which is generally impervious to water.
15 Figure 2 shows the application of an epoxy coating to the composite sheet which is the product of the process of Figure 1. In particular, the composite sheet 41 comprises an epoxy layer 31 and a gelatin layer 21. A conveyor 45 advances this starting material 20 in the direction indicated by the arrow A toward vat 43 which receives constituent materials from supply tanks 47, 49. Supply tank 47 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 49 contains the selected curing agent. The curing agent which is selected 25 should have good stability and be easy to handle, such as an acid anhydride. Both constituents are dispensed in appropriate chemical ratios into the vat 43, wherein the two constituents are mixed by mechanical means.
Vat 43 has an extrusion nozzle at its lower end for 30 distributiny a coating onto the starting material 41.
Although not shown, extrusion may occur under pressure conditions.
11463Z~
The extrusion is an epoxy coating 51 over the starting material 41. Immediately after extrusion, the coating begins to cure, but may be aided, depending upon the curing agent, by an oven 53 which directs infrared 5 radiation or hot air onto the extruded coating. The finished material consists of a layer of epoxy 51 over a layer of gelatin 21 which is over a layer of epoxy 31.
The thickness of the epoxy layers 31 and 51 may be the same or may be different depending upon the use for the 10 material.
Note that in Figure 2 the layer 51 may be the same fluid-setting plastic as layer 31 or may be a different one. Figure 3 illustrates a method of making reinforced epoxy wherein reinforcement comes not from 15 gelatin, because the gelatin is removed, but from internal fibers.
The starting material 17 comprises a plastic base 19 with a gelatin coating 21 thereon, just as in Figure 1.
Once again, no subbing layer is used so that film base 20 19 is a non-bonding base. The starting material 17 is fed beneath vat 11 which supplies epoxy constituents from supply tanks ]3 and 15. Supply tank 13 contains the selected epoxy resin while supply tank 15 contains the selected curing agent. Supply tank 14 dispenses 25 strengthening fibers, such as glass fibers so that the epoxy will be self-reinforcing. Such glass reinforced epoxy is known in the prior art. However, contrary to the prior art, such an epoxy layer can be made thinner because support is provided by the gelatin layer 21.
30 For example, the epoxy layer 32 may be as thin as 0.5 ;32:~
g millimeters or less, although the present method is not limited to such thin epoxy layers, The extruded epoxy coating 32 immediately begins to cure, but curing may be aided by an oven 23 which 5 directs infrared radiation or hot air onto the epoxy coating. Beneath roller 27 the gelatin coating 21 is separated from the plastic base 19 with the gelatin coating 21 perferentially adhering to the epoxy coating 32 which is pulled at roller 27 away from the plastic 10 base 19 and toward roller 61. From roller 61 the composite epoxy-gelatin sheet is directed toward roller 63 in a bath 65 maintained near 100C which will p ca~ ~ ~;emoval of the gelatin from the epoxy, without ~ffocting the stability of the epoxy. The epoxy is 15 pulled out of the bath around roller 67, then about roller 69 and wound on a spool or otherwise stored.
The same processes described above are suitable for reinforcing other fluid-setting plastics, namely melamine formaldehyde, melamine phenolic, phenolic, 20 polybutadiene, thermosetting polyesters, thermosetting polyimide, polyurethane, silicone and urea. In each case a laminate with improved tensile properties is produced. If the thin stock fluid-setting plastic produced as described herein has sufficient intrinsic 25 tensile strength for a desired application the gelatin backing may be removed as described.
This application describes continuous processes for making plastic-gelatin laminate materials. It will be realized that casting methods may also be used to 30 produce these laminates. As an example, a disk which 11~63Zl may be used as an optical recording medium may be made as follows. A flat piece of glass is coated with a layer of gelatin without any intervening subbing layer. This intermediate product is similar to a 5 photographic plate in appearance. Next, two concentric rings of equal height are placed on the gelatin, the height of a desired epoxy layer. Next, liquid epoxy is poured into the annular region between the two rings and the epoxy is then cured. The epoxy is then peeled 10 from the glass and the gelatin will preferentially adh~ere to the epoxy. The rings are left in place as part of the disk. The final product is a gelatin-epoxy disk. If the gelatin contains a photosensitive emulsion an optical medium, suitable for recording data, is 15 formed.
The following is an example of a use for the gelatin-epoxy laminate of the present invention. With reference to Figure 4, a square plate 71 is shown which consists of a flat piece of glass which is coated with a uniform 20 layer of gelatin without a subbing layer. Glass is not necessary; a plastic substrate may be used. The gelatin layer is smooth and continuous and has approximately the same thickness as a gelatin layer on a photographic plate. For the purpose of making an 25 optical recording medium, the gelatin may contain an unexposed silver-halide black and white emulsion for photographically recording data. Two concentric rings 73, 75 are placed on the gelatin. The outer ring 75 could be as large as to be tangent with edges of plate 30 71 or can be as small as to permit several disks to be made on the same glass substrate. The height of the rings 73, 75 corresponds to the height of an epoxy 114632~
layer.
The gelatin is coated with a thin layer of fluid setting epoxy which is poured between the rings 73 and 75. After the epoxy is cured, a sharp instrument, 5 like a razor blade, is used to cut the gelatin around the outer diameter of the outer ring 75 and around the inner diameter of the inner ring 73. Then the epoxy-gelatin laminate is peeled from the glass substrate. The glass substrate may be reused.
10 Depending upon the application the epoxy may be opaque or clear. When it is opaque its thickness need not be uniform and some bubbles may exist in the epoxy without detrimental effect. If the epoxy must be clear for recording or reading data through it, then 15 it must be optically flat and devoid of bubbles in the active area of the disk. For application where the disk forms a photosensitive medium, the gelatin would typically be under eight microns thick and at least one micron thick. The epoxy coating would typically be ~ 20 greater than 250 microns thick and less than 2500 ; microns thick.
Figure 5 shows a sectional view of a portion of the disk of Figure 4 with a glass substrate 91 supporting the laminate. The laminate consists of the gelatin 25 layer 93 and the epoxy layer 95 on top of it.
In Figure 6, the laminate of Figure 5 is shown to have been separated from the glass substrate. What remains is the epoxy layer 95 adhearing to the gelatin layer 93. The finished disk is gelatin epoxy laminate which 30 has good dimensional stability required for use as a data recording medium.
Claims (9)
1. A method for making a reinforced epoxy laminate comprising the steps of: applying a non-bonding layer of gelatin to a substrate; applying a bonding fluid layer of epoxy to said gelatin layer; curing said epoxy to form a dimensionally stable laminate with said gelatin layer; and separating said gelatin layer from said substrate, thereby producing a cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of: applying a second bonding fluid layer of epoxy to a side of said cured gelatin-epoxy laminate opposite the side of the gelatin to which the first bonding fluid layer of epoxy was applied; and curing said second layer of epoxy to form a dimensionally stable laminate.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of: adding reinforcing fibers to said bonding fluid layer of epoxy prior to curing; and dissolving said gelatin layer from said cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
4. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein a non-bonding layer of gelatin is applied to an endless flexible substrate forming a supported gelatin base; moving said supported gelatin base in one direction past an applicator station;
said bonding fluid layer of epoxy is applied to said gelatin layer at said applicator station; said epoxy layer is cured at a location downstream of said applicator station; and said gelatin layer is separated from said substrate down-stream of said curing location, thereby producing said cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
said bonding fluid layer of epoxy is applied to said gelatin layer at said applicator station; said epoxy layer is cured at a location downstream of said applicator station; and said gelatin layer is separated from said substrate down-stream of said curing location, thereby producing said cured gelatin-epoxy laminate.
5. A gelatin-epoxy laminate material comprising, a uniformly thick layer of gelatin having on a first side a directly contacting, bonding,uniformly thick layer of epoxy.
6. The laminate of claim 5 further comprising a second directly contacting, bonding, uniformly thick layer of epoxy on a second side of said gelatin opposite said first side.
7. The laminate of claim 5 wherein said gelatin layer contains a photosensitive silver-halide emulsion.
8. The laminate of claim 7 wherein said laminate has an annular disk shape.
9. The laminate of claim 5 wherein said gelatin layer is less than 8 microns thick and said epoxy layer has a thick-ness in the range of 250-2500 microns.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000358740A CA1146321A (en) | 1980-08-21 | 1980-08-21 | Thin plastic gelatin laminate material and method for making same |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000358740A CA1146321A (en) | 1980-08-21 | 1980-08-21 | Thin plastic gelatin laminate material and method for making same |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1146321A true CA1146321A (en) | 1983-05-17 |
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Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000358740A Expired CA1146321A (en) | 1980-08-21 | 1980-08-21 | Thin plastic gelatin laminate material and method for making same |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1146321A (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN115125758A (en) * | 2021-03-26 | 2022-09-30 | 齐鲁工业大学 | Modified gelatin for paper fireproof flame-retardant coating and preparation method and application thereof |
-
1980
- 1980-08-21 CA CA000358740A patent/CA1146321A/en not_active Expired
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN115125758A (en) * | 2021-03-26 | 2022-09-30 | 齐鲁工业大学 | Modified gelatin for paper fireproof flame-retardant coating and preparation method and application thereof |
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| MKEX | Expiry |