GB2060485A - Manufacture of Badges, Medallions and the Like - Google Patents

Abstract

A badge, medallion or the like is made by silk-screen printing a multi- coloured pattern onto a flexible backing sheet, preferably using synthetic resin-based inks, in particular vinyl-based inks, and then using heat and pressure to bond this to the back of a transparent body, e.g. a disc, of thermoplastic synthetic resin, in particular an acrylic resin, with the printed surface in contact with the body.

Description

SPECIFICATION Manufacture of Badges, Medallions and the Like This invention relates to the manufacture of badges, medallions and the like. Traditionally these have been made of metal, with the design on the front face and either formed in relief (by coining, stamping or casting) or with the design painted on. It is also known to combine these techniques, i.e. to have a pattern in relief and with areas picked out in different coloured paints, often enamel paints applied by hand and then stoved.

This produces an excellent result, but high in cost because of the fine hand work involved.

In recent years badges and medallions have often been made of plastics material, usually a transparent plastics with the design on the back surface so that the plastics material protects the pattern. In the case of large badges, for example for fitting to consumer articles like washing machines, a relief pattern may be moulded on the back and paint applied to selected areas.

However, in the case of small badges with fine detail, this is impractical and the tooling costs of the dies make it uneconomic except for very large quantities. Moreover it would involve detailed hand painting work. It is also known to form a badge by applying a metallic outline to the back of a transparent plastics disc by a known hot gold blocking process and then fill in the detail in the different colours by hand. Again, although producing an excellent result, this is labourintensive and therefore inevitably expensive.

Clearly it would be convenient simply to apply a coloured patter, sor example painted on paper to the back of a transparent disc all in one go. However, adhesives are unsatisfactory as they are liable to detract from visibility of the pattern and are not easy to apply uniformly. In the desire to produce a transparent badge with a multicoloured pattern on the back it is even known to secure a printed paper pattern to the back of a plastics disc by the use of a metal backing plate, the periphery of which is crihpee around the pattern a e the disc in a press to hold them together mechanically. However this produces an unattractive result and the press operation makes it relatively expensive.

Yet another known proposal employs a doublesided adhesive sheet to stack a printed pattern onto the front, not the back of a disc of plastics, but this loses the advantage of using plastics at all, namely that of providing a transparent protection over the pattern. Consequently it has been necessary to provide a further protective transparent layer, so that the overall result is a relatively complex laminated assembly.

Hitherto, surprisingly, it has not been thought possible to apply a multi-coloured impression satisfactorily to the back of a rigid disc, and it is for this reason that the process mentioned above, involving gold blocking and hand painting, is widely used.

The aim of the invention is therefore to enable a printed pattern to be applied directly, and unexpectedly we have found a way of doing this.

According to the invention a multi-coloured ink pattern produced by a known silk-screen process on a flexible backing is affixed to the back of ransparent body of thermoplastics material simply by the application of heat and pressure.

Preferably, according to an important subsidiary feature, the inks used in the printing are of a synthetic resin type, in particular vinyl inks. It is believed that the heating, provided it is not excessive, softens the ink and allows it to form an effective bond with the thermoplastic body yet without losing the fine detail of the pattern.

The body is, in the case of a round badge, simply a disc, and it is preferably of an acrylic resin such as polymethyl methacrylate.

The flexible backing may be of paper or of a synthetic resin film, for example polyester film, or any other material suitable for receiving the printing. A continuous web of the printed maerial may be used, making the process suitable for high volume production in conjunction with a feed mechanism for bringing successive discs into contact with the web between dies, at least one of which is heated.

An example of the invention will now be described with referece to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of suitable apparatus; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a web of printed backing material and the transparent body before joining; and Figure 3 shows a finished badge.

Referring first to Figure 1, a vertically moving tool 1 of a press (not shown) carries an internal heating element 2 and can be brought down towards a fixed bed 3 on which there is mounted a resilient cushioning support 4. A body 5 of transparent synthetic resin (in the example shown it is a disc of acrylic resin) is placed face downwards on the support 4. The disc shown has a convex front face so that it forms a lens.

On top of the disc 5 is laid a flexible sheet 8 carrying the required multi-coloured silk-screenprinted design 9 on that face which is in contact with the isc. The heated tool 1 is brought down to squeeze the sheet 8 against the disc 5 for a time sufficient to cause the vinyl-based ink of the pattern 9 to bond itself securely to the back of the disc 5, yet insufficient to damage the pattern or the disc. The pressure, temperature and duration are all interrelated and the best combination can be found by trial and error. It will also depend on the size and thickness of the components. In a typical example an axial force of two tons is applied for two or three seconds and the temperature of the heating element 2 is 2000C.

The sheet 8 can be in the form of a continuous web, carrying a line of images, or a twodimensional array of images. For large-scale production of badges, it will be understood that the whole process can be made automatic, with the press tool 1 reciprocating continuously, and the sheet 8 in the form of a web unwound from a roll and advanced at each stroke of the tool, whilst the discs 5 are fed in turn beneath the tool.

For example the bed 8 may be replaced by a rotary indexing table with pockets around its periphery. Fresh discs are fed in at one station and the finished badges are removed at another. As shown in Figure 1, the tool 1 can carry a cutting edge 10 that separates the patterned backing from the web at each stroke.

The process according to the invention is equally suitable for short runs, since it is an easy matter to replace a roll of one pattern with a roll of another, and to replace the pockets in the indexing table to receive a different diameter and/or thickness of disc. The process is equally suitable for badges of non-circular outline, for example shields.

Claims (6)

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a badge, medallion or the like comprising printing a multicoloured pattern on a flexible backing sheet by a silk-screen ink printing process, placing the backing sheet in contact with a body of transparent thermoplastic synthetic resin, with the pattern facing the body, and applying heat and pressure sufficient to bond the printed backing sheet to the body.

2. A method according to Claim 1 in which the ink used in the printing process is a synthetic resin-based ink.

3. A method according to Claim 2 in which the ink used is a vinyl-based ink.

4. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 in which the body is made of an acrylic resin.

5. A method of manufacturing a badge, medallion or the like, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. A badge, medallion or the like, manufactured by the process of any of the preceding claims.