Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41M—PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; COLOUR PRINTING
  • B41M5/00—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein
  • B41M5/025—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet
  • B41M5/035—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet by sublimation or volatilisation of pre-printed design, e.g. sublistatic
  • B41M5/0358—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet by sublimation or volatilisation of pre-printed design, e.g. sublistatic characterised by the mechanisms or artifacts to obtain the transfer, e.g. the heating means, the pressure means or the transport means
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B44—DECORATIVE ARTS
  • B44C—PRODUCING DECORATIVE EFFECTS; MOSAICS; TARSIA WORK; PAPERHANGING
  • B44C1/00—Processes, not specifically provided for elsewhere, for producing decorative surface effects
  • B44C1/16—Processes, not specifically provided for elsewhere, for producing decorative surface effects for applying transfer pictures or the like
  • B44C1/165—Processes, not specifically provided for elsewhere, for producing decorative surface effects for applying transfer pictures or the like for decalcomanias; sheet material therefor
  • B44C1/17—Dry transfer
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41M—PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; COLOUR PRINTING
  • B41M5/00—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein
  • B41M5/025—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41M—PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; COLOUR PRINTING
  • B41M5/00—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein
  • B41M5/025—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet
  • B41M5/035—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein by transferring ink from the master sheet by sublimation or volatilisation of pre-printed design, e.g. sublistatic
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41M—PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; COLOUR PRINTING
  • B41M5/00—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein
  • B41M5/26—Thermography ; Marking by high energetic means, e.g. laser otherwise than by burning, and characterised by the material used
  • B41M5/382—Contact thermal transfer or sublimation processes
  • B41M5/38207—Contact thermal transfer or sublimation processes characterised by aspects not provided for in groups B41M5/385 - B41M5/395
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
  • B41M—PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; COLOUR PRINTING
  • B41M5/00—Duplicating or marking methods; Sheet materials for use therein
  • B41M5/26—Thermography ; Marking by high energetic means, e.g. laser otherwise than by burning, and characterised by the material used
  • B41M5/382—Contact thermal transfer or sublimation processes
  • B41M5/38242—Contact thermal transfer or sublimation processes characterised by the use of different kinds of energy to effect transfer, e.g. heat and light

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the decoration of articles by the transfer of heat-activatable substances, such as thermo-activatable inks, especially sublimable inks or gilding substances.
• European Patent EP0451067 relates to a method for decorating the surface of an object by transfer of a decoration using a machine comprising two frames articulated between them, one of whose faces is secured to a deformable membrane elastically to form a sealed enclosure, of the type consisting of:
• European Patent EP0606189 discloses a machine for sublimating a decoration on objects of any shape, of the kind comprising two frames articulated together and one of their faces is integral with an elastically deformable membrane, characterized in that one at least deformable membranes has preformed pockets able to completely receive each one of said objects to be decorated.
• European Patent EP0544603 describes a method for decorating the surface of an object by sublimation of ink, characterized in that it consists in: using as a sublimable ink support a material that is sufficiently extensible and permeable to air in order to be able to adapt to the shape of the object to decorate without risk of deterioration of the decor to sublimate;
• the L'OREAL company has in turn filed the European patent application EP1099569 for a method for applying a decoration to an article comprising the steps of: placing in contact with a face of the article a support coated with an ink sublimable; heating the support by means of heating means to cause the sublimation of the ink and its transfer to the article, while cooling the opposite face of the article using cooling means.
• the company KOLORFUSION has filed a PCT patent application WO9962722 which relates to a method for applying a decoration to the surface of an object using sublimation ink printing.
• a heat-shrinkable film with a sublimation ink decoration is used as an ink carrier or as a transfer sheet.
• an ink carrier or a conventional transfer sheet and an overwrap of film are used. shrink.
• the film sheet may be provided with seams so as to form an envelope and a decoration with sublimation ink may possibly appear on the inner surface of the envelope.
• the object to be decorated is disposed inside the film envelope.
• a conventional transfer sheet it is arranged on the object before the heat-shrinkable film is overpackaged.
• the object Before printing with sublimation ink, the object can be pre-treated with a coating on which the decoration will be printed.
• the film envelope is heated so that the film shrinks to fit the surface of the object.
• the retraction of the film around the object when combined with heat, produces the pressure necessary to transfer the decoration of the film to the surface or coating of the object to be decorated.
• the film can be held in place as an overpack or removed, as can the conventional transfer sheet having been used, thereby uncovering the newly decorated object.
• the solutions of the prior art are not totally satisfactory because they require numerous and delicate manipulations to carry out a precise transfer, in particular when the article to receive the transfer is fragile or has complex shapes.
• the heating necessary for the sublimation of the ink imposes long heat-up times, leading to a heating of the article to be decorated. This is not appropriate for fragile items, or made of temperature sensitive materials.
• the object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the solutions of the prior art by proposing an improved method and equipment.
• the invention relates, in its most general sense, to a method of decorating an article comprising a step of preparing a printing transfer sheet with at least one thermo-activatable ink, a transfer step by application of said sheet on the article to be decorated, and by heating this assembly characterized in that the heating is achieved by dipping the article to decorate associated with the transfer sheet in a bath of nonferrous metal alloy maintained at a temperature nominal for the activation of the heat-activatable ink, and in that said sheet is a sheet of flexible paper.
• flexible paper sheet is meant a sheet of paper of low stiffness and high bulk, that is to say of low specific gravity.
• Such papers are used especially in the sanitary and domestic field for the manufacture of disposable tissues, paper towels, toilet paper or toilet paper.
• said paper sheet is made of cellulose wadding.
• Cellulose wadding is the paper most frequently used in the sanitary and domestic field, especially in the manufacture of disposable tissues. The grammage is very low.
• said paper sheet has a grammage of less than 20 g / m 2 .
• said sheet of paper is a sheet of the type used to make disposable tissues.
• transfer film Other types have been envisaged: a TEFLON film, a transfer paper sheet used for sublimation fabric decoration, a silicone paper film, a glue, an elastomer, a natural latex, a latex of synthesis or a sheet of natural polyisoprene floques.
• the flocks consist of cotton fibers, viscose fibers, polyamide fibers, acrylic fibers or polyester fibers.
• the sheet of flexible paper as defined above has both the advantage of being very inexpensive and can perfectly match the contours of the article to decorate.
• the bath is formed by an alloy based on antimony, tin, bismuth and lead.
• the bath is formed by an alloy based on bismuth, lead, tin, cadmium.
• the bath is formed by a non-ferrous metal alloy comprising bismuth.
• said heat-activatable ink is a sublimable ink.
• the heat-activatable ink is a "hot-melt" type ink.
• the heating for the activation of the ink during the transfer step is provided by a bath of an alloy consisting of bismuth, lead, tin, and cadmium. (Bi 50%, Pb 25%, Sn 12.5%, Cd 12.5%) whose melting point is approximately 70 ° C., maintained at a temperature of approximately 190 ° C.
• the invention also relates to equipment for carrying out the method characterized in that it comprises a thermostatically controlled tank containing a nonferrous metal alloy bath.
• the transfer sheet for the implementation of the process is advantageously constituted by a sheet of tissue paper, for example a sheet of cellulose wadding of the type used to make disposable tissues.
• the sheet is printed with sublimable ink, by a conventional transfer image printing process, such as gravure printing, screen printing or simply printing by an ink jet printer.
• the image, digitized and processed by a computer, is printed with a special sublimable ink on a printer professional inkjet or any ad hoc printing equipment.
• Sublimable inks generally consist of molecules of modest sizes and masses, with a compromise between the existence of conjugated double bonds and conjugated rings allowing the molecules to be stained and the reduction in molecular weights so that the molecules are compatible with sublimation.
• phase-change inks and more particularly hot-melt inks are also conceivable to use, for the printing of the transfer sheet.
• the printed transfer sheet is then applied to the article to be decorated.
• the skilled person will know by simple routine tests determine the optimal conditions. For this, he will choose a first temperature and duration, for example 180 ° for 2 seconds, and increment in regular steps, for example in steps of 5 ° C and in steps of 0.5 seconds, until reaching a level in the transfer quality.
• the heating can be provided by a flow of hot air, a bath in a hot fluid.
• the assembly formed by the transfer sheet and the article to be decorated is immersed in a non-ferrous metal alloy bath with a low melting point.
• a non-ferrous metal alloy bath with a low melting point.
• This is for example an alloy consisting of bismuth, lead, tin, and cadmium. (Bi 50%, Pb 25%, Sn 12.5%, Cd 12.5%) whose melting point is approximately 70 ° C., maintained at a temperature of approximately 190 ° C.
• the invention can also be implemented for decorating a wire, for example a cable or an electric wire.
• the wire may come into contact with the transfer sheet made in the form of a strip.
• the wire runs between a system of rollers located upstream and downstream of the bath.
• the transfer sheet also scrolls on a system of rollers located upstream and downstream of the bath.
• the wire and the transfer band come into contact upstream of the bath to plunge together in the heating bath, in which there is a roller guiding inside this bath.
• the transfer is done inside the bath, and the decorated wire comes out of the bath where it is recovered on a reel.

Landscapes

• Decoration By Transfer Pictures (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=34954996

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Families Citing this family (1)

Family Cites Families (14)

• 2004
  • 2004-12-15 FR FR0452990A patent/FR2879124A1/fr not_active Withdrawn
• 2005
  • 2005-12-13 US US11/792,978 patent/US20080206453A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2005-12-13 CA CA002590297A patent/CA2590297A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 2005-12-13 EP EP05825970A patent/EP1824686A1/fr not_active Withdrawn
  • 2005-12-13 WO PCT/FR2005/003115 patent/WO2006064120A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2005-12-13 CN CNA2005800475103A patent/CN101111389A/zh active Pending

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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