JP2002531284A - Method and Injection Mold for Fabricating Shaped Substrate with Optically Readable Data Storage Medium and Uses of the Method and Injection Mold - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] The present invention provides a method for forming an injection mold, in which a template and a master plate as a matrix are assembled, and the master plate is coaxial with its center and in a data area corresponding to a mini CD. A hole is formed as a drive hole for storing and driving the completed substrate in a CD drive in which data is optically readable. The present invention relates to a method for producing a molded synthetic resin substrate into which a polycarbonate is injected, using a conventional CD injection molding machine. To form the outer side of a shaped substrate having a non-circular outer ring profile, on the template corresponding to the outer shape of the substrate to which the sealing lip has been previously applied, the inner circumference of the normal CD and the outer circumference of the mini CD A seal lip is formed on the outside. The present invention further provides a business card or specially formed business card readable by a drive for CD, CDR, CDRW or DVD, wherein the visually perceptible information is selectively provided on the top surface of the business card or presentation medium. The present invention relates to an injection mold for producing a data recording medium in the form of a presentation medium, and to the use of the above method and the injection mold.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method and an injection mold for producing a shaped substrate with an optically readable data storage medium according to the preamble of claim 1 or 7. The invention further relates to the use of the method or the injection mold.

It is known in the state of the art to create data storage media whose data can be read by a CD drive and whose outer shape differs from a normal CD or mini-CD. This data carrier is particularly useful as a business card with additional electronically readable information content or as an original presentation medium, for example for product programs or for sale of goods and services.

At this time, the data storage medium is originally manufactured like an ordinary CD or mini-CD, and is formed into a special shape only after being cut, punched, or cut by a laser in a separate operation step. Become.

In the case of a laptop CD drive, no other positioning aids are required to position the data storage medium, other than a central hole for the drive head in the CD drive. In order to be able to position the data storage medium in a plug-in unit of a normal CD drive, it is necessary to provide a special element as a positioning aid. In the case of large data storage media, part of the edge of the original CD is used as a positioning aid.

The production of digital optical memories in the form of CDs is, in principle, from an expert point of view,
Requires a round outer shape like a regular CD or mini-CD. This is because data reading is guaranteed only in that case. The same goes for CDR,
The same is true for CDRW or DVD. Hereinafter, for simplification, only the CD will be described.

The CD is manufactured by injection molding as is well known. During the injection molding, the CD is molded in a space formed between the matrix and the template. The data is communicated to the data carrier via a matrix, termed the master plate in terminology. The data or information is then stored in the form of CD blanks, ie the smallest depressions in the substrate. The size of this depression is 50 to 250 nm. In that case, the conventional injection molding of a polycarbonate substrate is performed at a high speed by injecting a liquefied substance from a center and filling an injection mold in a circle in a radial direction. When material reaches the outer edge relatively early, and the flow has not yet reached the radially furthest outer edge elsewhere, the undulating wavy that affects the accuracy of the digital data storage medium's shape Part.

[0007] The production of optically readable compact discs (CDs) of good quality must be very sophisticated in order to be able to read individual information without errors. For example, "Ullman's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (Ull
man's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry) A14, 206, 207, 212, 213, VCH Weinheim, 1989 ".

US Pat. No. 5,316,466 describes an apparatus for injection molding CDs. This device has an air inlet in addition to the outer holder. From this air inlet, air is introduced into the central region of the injection mold. in this case,
The air inlet is connected to a radially outer air passage. Thereby, the molten material is evenly inserted into the mold and deformation of the finished CD is avoided.

Based on this, the production of CD data storage media is not recognized as being unsuitable for injection molding in molds different from circular. Furthermore, separate injection molds with special master plates and templates for special data storage media, such as business cards made very few, are not justified for economic reasons. Swiss Patent No. 688,996 describes a business card made of synthetic resin with a printed top surface having visually directly readable information. The underside of this business card is provided with data that is electronically processed and can be reproduced optically or acoustically by a CD drive. In this case, the card is provided with means for accommodating the center of the card in the CD drive. As such means, a certain number of centering projections projecting downward from the lower surface are described. The centering protrusion is arranged so as to contact the centering protrusion of the mini CD in the CD drive. Furthermore, it is described that a business card is formed by punching a CD. In the same punching step, the centering protrusion can also be coined.

With this solution according to the state of the art, there is a risk that the data area with the stored data that is optically readable is damaged during mechanical molding.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The underlying understanding of the present invention is that an optically of the type mentioned at the outset, in which the substrate differs from the circular shape of a regular CD or mini-CD, and in particular has a non-circular outer contour. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and an injection mold for manufacturing a shaped substrate having a readable data storage medium. In particular, the substrate should be economically manufacturable with minimal technical costs. Another object is to provide an advantageous use of the method and the injection mold.

The invention solves the problem with the method by the features of claim 1. The problem relating to the injection mold is solved by the features of claim 7.

[0013] Other advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims and will now be described in detail with preferred embodiments of the invention including the figures.

A method or application of the injection mold is described in claim 11.

The main part of the present invention is to maintain a significant part of an injection mold for producing a conventional ordinary CD, including a master plate, and a method for producing a conventional ordinary CD. The important step is to keep the important steps and to enable the formation of substrates with special outer contours only by deformation of the template. The template is arranged axially with respect to the master plate and cooperates with this master plate during the injection molding process.

The template determines the desired special profile of the shaped substrate with the data storage medium. The data area is then limited to a range that is within the minimum radial distance of the outer edge of the substrate from the drive hole.

At that time, it was found that by maintaining the round master plate against the new template, the information was stored on the substrate in a readable manner by a CD drive. In particular, the production process is not interrupted until the substrate as a data storage medium is completed.

The separate working steps of the mechanical shaping required in the state of the art, such as punching and the associated handling operations, are not required. This allows for very economical production.

The outer contour of the substrate is freely and variably selectable and is limited only by the outer circumference of a normal CD. At that time, it is important to select the shape of the substrate so that the center of gravity is located on the axis of the drive hole. For this purpose, a special shaping of the outer contour in the radial direction can be used, or a special shaping to offset the special mass concentration by forming a part of the substrate thicker or thinner.

The laser reflective layer is substantially confined above the data area. It is easily possible to cover this area visually if the laser reflective layer covers another area of the substrate and is further coated with protective paint or text and image elements.

The application of the invention can be extended to all conceivable forms of CD, CDR, CDRW or DVD, provided that the data or information can be read on a drive. Substrates with or without this visually perceptible information can be made. The substrate can be combined with other components, such as an adhesive cardboard card that can be pivotally opened and / or removed via the substrate.

Next, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments. In doing so, an arbitrarily formed substrate having an optically readable data storage medium is manufactured.

FIG. 1 exemplarily shows a company presentation card as a shaped substrate 1. The top surface 2 is provided with a visually readable description of the company name 3 (here, the name of the applicant of the present invention) and any other visually perceptible description.

FIG. 2 shows the lower surface 4 of the substrate 1 of FIG. A mounting / driving surface 6 is provided on the lower surface 4 concentrically with the hole, that is, the driving hole 5, and a surface of the data area 7 on the upper surface 2 is provided radially outside the mounting / driving surface. is there. This data area has data or information that can be read by a CD drive. The normal surface shape of the mini CD belongs to this data area.

The name 3 is combined with, for example, a company logo 9. A very effective bulge 8 is thereby required. An image of the company logo 9 is later printed on the upper surface 2 in this bulge. This bulge 8 inevitably results in a mass shift from the center of gravity of a common data storage medium, for example a business card. As a result, imbalance occurs during rotation in the CD drive, and reading of the data storage medium is no longer guaranteed. Therefore, the actual center of gravity 10 of the substrate 1 is detected, and the center of the drive hole 5 is placed at the center of gravity 10.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show by dashed lines 11 how much the outer edge of the substrate 1 is offset with respect to the symmetrical card due to mass balance.

The maximum radius of the data area 7 concentrically arranged with respect to the driving hole 5 is located at a position 12 closest to the outer edge of the substrate 1. The data area 7 on the upper surface 2 is defined with a minimum distance of, for example, 0.5 mm from the outer edge. On the surface between the data area 7 and the outer edge, a sputtering mask can be applied on the substrate 1 in a method cycle.

Outside the data area 7, coaxial to the drive hole 5, there are provided two circular parts 14 ′, 14 ″ of a centering collar 14 having a height of, for example, 0.55 mm. Has a diameter corresponding to the diameter of the mini-CD, through which the finished substrate 1 can be positioned without problems in a plug-in unit of a conventional PC drive.

Next, the production of the substrate will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the template 16. The outer shape of the template conforms to the template for normal CD production. The template is arranged in the injection mold so that it can be replaced with another template without any problem.

FIG. 4 shows a master plate 17, that is, a matrix, as a counterpart member of the template 16. This master plate is held in the housing 18.
The template 16 and the master plate 17 are on the same axis 19. This axis coincides with the center of the master plate 17 and thus the center of the data area 7 'on the master plate 17. At that time, the center of gravity 10 and the axis 19 of the completed substrate are on the same axis.

On the axis 19, a master plate 17, a housing 18, and an injection hole 20 in the present embodiment are provided.

In the present invention, the substrate is manufactured such that the sealing lip 21 is formed on the template 16 at the above-mentioned position relative to the axis 19 or the driving hole 5. This sealing lip matches the outer contour of the substrate 1. Furthermore, similar to the sealing lip, the drive hole 5
Is formed. This edge 22 is formed so that the polycarbonate can get over the edge 22 during the injection molding process. However, the thickness of the substrate at this edge is so small that the inner material can be easily torn off when the substrate 1 is later removed from the injection mold. The drive hole 5 is generated by this tearing.

For example, an annular concave portion 23 is formed in the template 16. This recess serves to form the centering collar 14 (14 ', 14 ").

FIG. 4 shows the position of the seal lip 21 by a broken line 21 ′. After producing an injection mold substantially consisting of the template 16 and the master plate 17, the template and the master plate are pressed together, and liquid polycarbonate is injected into the intermediate chamber through the injection holes 20.

Subsequently, the substrate 1 formed by the injection molding process is taken out, and a sputtering mask conforming particularly to the outer shape of the substrate 1 is placed on the upper surface 2. Side is supported by the substrate 1. The empty area of the sputtering mask is the entire data area 7 and, for example, the area where the company logo 9 is printed on the upper surface later.

On the substrate 1 covered with the mask, an aluminum layer is sputtered as a laser reflection layer. As a result, the depressions in the data area reflect the laser beam as needed, thereby affecting the laser beam. Thereby, in CD equipment,
Laser beam modulation can be formed as data or information.

The laser reflective layer is coated with a protective paint and has a name 3 which is visually perceptible information.
And the company logo 9 are printed by screen printing. The protective coating and the other layer structure by screen printing simultaneously have the advantage that the data on the finished data storage medium is reliably and reliably confined inside the plate and can only be read via the polycarbonate from the underside. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a data storage medium as viewed from above.

FIG. 2 shows the same data storage medium as viewed from below.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a template for forming the substrate of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an associated master plate together with the position of the contour of the substrate of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Upper surface 3 Name 4 Lower surface 5 Driving hole 6 Mounting / driving surface 7 Data area 8 Swelling part 9 Company logo 10 Center of gravity 11 Dashed line 12 places 14 Centering collar 16 Template 17 Master plate 18 Housing 19 Axis 20 Injection hole 21 seal lip 22 edge 23 recess

[Procedural Amendment] Submission of translation of Article 34 Amendment of the Patent Cooperation Treaty

[Submission date] January 8, 2001 (2001.1.8)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Van de Friedhold Haynes The Netherlands, 6291 Sézette Vaals, Schömpenbank Straße, 41F term (reference) 4F202 AA28 AH79 AJ08 CA11 CB01 CK11 CK41 4F206 AA28 AH09 AJ08 JA07 JL02 JM04 JN11 JQ81 [Continuation of abstract]

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. To form an injection mold, a template and a master plate as a matrix are assembled, and the data is optically coaxial with the center of the master plate and in a data area corresponding to the mini CD. A hole as a drive hole is formed in the center of the data area to accommodate and drive the readable stored and completed substrate in the CD drive, and a predetermined amount of polycarbonate is formed in the inner space formed at that time. Is formed, whereby a substrate having an upper surface and a lower surface is formed, data is stored in the data region on the upper surface, and a sputtering mask is formed on the upper surface of the substrate, having a free mask region including at least the surface of the data region. A shaped synthetic resin substrate, with the laser reflective layer sputtered and a protective coating applied, In a method for making on an injection molding machine for CDs, a sealing lip is pre-applied on a template to form the outer geometric shape of a shaped substrate having a non-circular outer contour. Corresponding to the outer shape of the board
A method characterized by being formed inside the outer circumference of a normal CD and outside the outer circumference of a mini CD. 2. A molding for forming a sealing lip and / or possibly a special mass concentration part is arranged relative to the driving hole such that the center of gravity of the substrate is located on the axis of the driving hole. The method of claim 1, wherein: 3. A geometrically shaped part is formed on the template, the shaped part on the underside of the finished substrate serving as a positioning aid for accommodating in a disk tray of a CD drive. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: 4. As a positioning assisting member, at least three portions of the seal lip are disposed relative to the drive hole such that at least three portions of the seal lip are located on the outer circumference of a normal CD or mini CD as a radially outermost portion. The method of claim 1, wherein: 5. The positioning assisting member is formed with at least three portions, particularly a ring-shaped centering collar or a part thereof, and this portion is positioned relative to the drive hole so as to be located within the outer circumference of the mini CD. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein at least a portion of the sealing lip is disposed radially outside the outer circumference. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the maximum radius of the data area is located within the seal lip.
The seal lip on the template and the data area on the master plate are arranged so as to face each other in the axial direction, and the surface serving as a part of the mounting surface for mounting the sputtering mask later on the substrate is the data surface. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is formed between the region and the sealing lip. 7. A master plate in which data is arranged coaxially with a center in a data area, and a template for forming an outer shape of the substrate.
For making ordinary CDs or mini-CDs in an injection mold for making shaped plastic substrates having a non-circular outer contour and a data storage medium for optically readable data. It comprises a master plate (17) and a template (16) whose outer shape corresponds to the template for producing normal CDs or mini-CDs, the template (16) having a sealing lip within the outer circumference of a normal CD. (21), wherein the inner contour of the sealing lip corresponds to the non-circular outer contour of the substrate (1) and the hole as the central drive hole (5) of the data area (7) for accommodating in a CD drive An injection mold comprising a mold element for forming 8. A mold plate (16) having a molded portion, and the molded portion forms a positioning assisting member on a completed substrate (1) for insertion into a disc tray of a CD drive. The injection mold according to claim 7, characterized in that: 9. The molded part forms at least three radially outermost points on the completed substrate (1), and this point is located on the outer circumference of an ordinary CD or mini-CD. 9. The injection mold according to claim 8, wherein: 10. The molded part forms at least three places, in particular a ring-shaped centering collar or a part thereof, on the completed substrate (1), and these places are mini-C.
9. The injection molding die according to claim 8, wherein the injection molding die is disposed relatively to the drive hole so as to be located within the outer peripheral circle of D. 11. The use of a method or an injection mold according to any one of claims 1 to 10 for producing a data storage medium in the form of a business card or a specially shaped presentation medium, The data storage or presentation medium is readable by a drive for CD, CDR, CDRW or DVD;
An application in which visually perceptible information can be selectively coated on top of a business card or presentation medium.