GB2229361A - Artificial flowers - Google Patents

Abstract

An artificial flower having one or more blooms 20 permanently attached to a stem 42 and/or branches of a stem, and one or more leaflets 10 permanently attached at intermediate positions along the stem and/or branches of the stem, the blooms and leaflets having been separately formed and being united with the stem during the moulding of the stem in an injection mould. <IMAGE>

Description

ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS This invention relates to artificial flowers.

Over the years manufacturers have produced better and better simulations of real flowers from artificial materials such as initially synthetic plastics and more recently a combination of synthetic plastics materials for the stems of the flower and printed fabric for the leaves and petals. It is however an object of the present invention to further improve the simulation to a real flower.

According to the invention there is provided a method of making an artificial flower in which as a first step one or more blooms are prepared, each having a downwardly projecting stem portion or pedicel to be joined to the main or a branch stem of the artificial flower and in which a number of leaflets are separately prepared by moulding a synthetic plastics twig and simultaneously adhering the twig to one or more preformed fabric leaves, and in which thereafter an artificial flower is completed by injection moulding the stem and joining to the end of the stem and/or ends of branches of the stem one or more of the preformed blooms and at intermediate positions along the stem and/or branches of the stem one or more preformed leaflets, the stem being moulded from a synthetic plastic material with a central metal wire as a core and the moulding simultaneously joining the thus moulded stem to the stem portion of the bloom or blooms and to the twig of the leaflet or leaflets.

The resulting artificial flower is a very accurate simulation of a real flower since the stem appears to be in one piece and to incorporate both the leaflets and one or more blooms. Also in contrast with some prior artificial flowers the blooms are themselves fully incorporated onto the stem and attached to it and so cannct fall off or be deliberately removed as it has often been the case with the previous artificial flowers where the preformed blooms have merely been pushed or wedged onto a preformed stem and therefore equally readily removable deliberately or accidentally.

By the term "bloom" we mean a flower head or bud of some sort. The making of such flower heads is conventional and well known and frequently involves using a pre-moulded pedicel or stem part over which a number of printed silk petals and the like are positioned together with members to help shape the blooms and a central pre-moulded stamen portion, and finally everything is held in place by a plug member which is frictionally engaged with the moulded stem part to lock all the parts together.

Also the making of the leaflets is well known and involves preparation of for example printed and pre-shaped leaves from a fabric material which are then joined in an injection mould to the twig which is itself moulded from synthetic plastics material and during the act of moulding the molten plastic becomes joined to the pre-formed leaves, the twig usually also incorporating a flexible wire as a central core.

It is also well known to have a central wire core for the stem and to mould a synthetic plastics material around that core so as to provide a reasonably stiff yet bendable stem which can be bent to a desired shape and will retain that shape.

In the moulding step according to the invention the preformed leaflets and blooms become permanently joined to the synthetic plastics material in the mould. Thus, the plastics material which is injected, by virtue of its temperature and fluid nature as it enters the mould, will either temporarily melt or soften the end of the stem part of the blooms or the end twig of the leaflets so that in the mould the synthetic plastic material of the stem encompasses and/or fuses with the material of the blooms and leaflets so that everything becomes united into a single unitary whole.

An example of the manufacture of an artificial flower according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagram of a preformed leaflet; Figure 2 is a cross sectional diagram of a preformed bloom or flower head; and Figure 3 is a view of the finished artificial flower.

As the first step one or more leaflets as shown in Figure 1 are formed. Such leaflets are prepared entirely conventionally from a number of fabric leaves 12.

These are printed to resemble a leaf and provided with veins and the like in the printing. They are also given an undulating leaf shape. Then a number of the leaves, in this case five, are placed in an injection mould together with a small flexible wire 14 to form a core. Synthetic plastics material is injected into the mould to envelope all but the end of the wire 14 and provide a main twig stem lo with small branches 18. The molten plastics material as it forms the small side branches 18 becomes adhered to the material of the leaves 12 and so forms a leaflet as shown in Figure 1 which can then be removed from the mould once the plastics material has cooled and set sufficiently.

The bloom or flower head 20 is also pre-formed.

This comprises a base 22 in the form of a synthetic plastics moulding including a short length of stem in the form of the pedicel of the flower and having a hollow central core 24. Also integrally formed with the pedicel are sepals 26 which are formed like the leaflets 10 by moulding portions 26a with small fabric portions 26b.

In addition petals 28 are formed from fabric material and are printed and shaped in a known manner. A number of these are joined and are positioned over the base 22. Shaping elements 30 in the form of stiff plastic fingers positioned around a central core are provided intermediate some or all of the petals to give the required shape. Again this is conventional. Further the pistils 32 of the flower are also pre-shaped and positioned over the petals in the centre. Everything is held in place by a central plug 34 which includes an integral downwardly extending stem 36 which is wedged or glued into the open top of the base 22.

Again blooms formed in this way are entirely conventional and well known and are not believed to require any further explanation.

The final step of assembling the artificial flower is made in a further injection mould. Referring to Figure 3 one or more blooms 20, together with one or more leaflets 10, are positioned in the mould. Also positioned in the mould is a central wire 40 and then synthetic plastics material is injected to encompass the wire and form a stem 42. The molten material which is injected to form the stem 42 encompasses the small projecting part of the wire 14 from the leaflet and also encompasses and becomes fused with the end of the plastics material of the twig stem 16 so that at the point marked by the broken line 44, the stem and leaflet are united and become one.

Equally the plastics material which is injected melts the plastics material at the bottom of the base 22 and so again in the region marked with the dotted line 46 the flower head 20 becomes united with and joined to the stem.

As is conventional in for example the case of a rose blossom the stem 42 may also include integrally formed and shaped thorns 48.

Claims (6)

1. A method of making an artificial flower in which as a first step one or more blooms are prepared, each having a downwardly projecting stem portion or pedicel to be joined to the main or a branch stem of the artificial flower and in which a number of leaflets are separately prepared by moulding a synthetic plastics twig and simultaneously adhering the twig to one or more preformed fabric leaves, and in which thereafter an artificial flower is completed by injection moulding the stem and joining to the end of the stem and/or ends of branches of the stem one or more of the preformed blooms and at intermediate positiOns along the stem and/or branches of the stem one or more preformed leaflets, the stem being moulded from a synthetic plastic material with a central metal wire as a core and the moulding simultaneously joining the thus moulded stem to the stem portion of the bloom or blooms and to the twig of the leaflet or leaflets.

2. A method as claimed in Claim 1 in which a bloom has been made using a pre-moulded pedicel or stem part over which a number of printed silk petals and the like are positioned together with members to help shape the blooms and a central pre-moulded stamen portion, and finally everything is held in place by a plug member which is frictionally engaged with the moulded stem part to lock all the parts together.

3. A method as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 in which the leaflets are made by joining printed and pre-shaped leaves made for a fabric material to the twig in an injection mould, the twig being itself moulded from synthetic plastics material and during the act of moulding the molten plastic becomes joined to the pre-formed leaves, the twig also incorporating a flexible wire as a central core.

4. A method as claimed in any preceding claim in which the stem has a central wire core and synthetic plastics material is moulded around that core so as to provide a reasonably stiff yet bendable stem which can be bent to a desired shape and will retain that shape.

5. A method of making an artificial flower substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

6. An artificial flower when made by a method as claimed in any preceding claim.