JPH0712760B2 - Graphic transfer medium and method for applying graphic to display surface - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Retailers often provide visual notification by lettering or stencil-shaped display surfaces such as windows or by hanging posters or newspaper advertisements. Such a notice would be unsightly if it was not exorbitant to create and apply it.

Also, the visual notice may take the form of a decal mania that incorporates embellishments and may be very attractive. However, decals are expensive to create and difficult to remove. Water-immersed decal mania has become widely used because of its cumbersome, slow application and difficult positioning.
However, the adhesive must be applied in register with the graphics or some mechanism must be provided to separate the adhesive to the precise contours of the graphics. These requirements are particularly difficult to achieve if the graphics have delicate details.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION With the method of the present invention, a graphics having fine details and good appearance can be accurately and easily applied to a display surface at a significantly low cost. The simple adjustment of this method makes the transferred graphics difficult or easy to remove from the display surface.

In summary, the new method provides: (a) (a) a matrix synthetic resin sufficient to prevent soiling of the graphics during transfer; (b) providing adhesion of the graphics to the display surface. A liquid mixture of sufficient binder synthetic resin, and (c) photochromic agent, wherein the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin are well mixed and the matrix synthetic resin is A coating comprising at least 2% by weight of the resin) in the form of graphics on a flexible low-adhesion carrier web, (b) solidifying the coating of graphics, and (c) the binder. A volatile non-volatile material that at least partially dissolves the synthetic resin and does not substantially damage either the matrix synthetic resin or the carrier web. Of a solid transfer fluid to wet the solidified coating of graphics, and said transfer fluid is applied in an amount at least sufficient to barely wet the entire solidified coating; Pressing the wet surface, (e) causing a stronger bond than the bond between the graphics coating and the carrier web between the coating and the display surface, and (f) peeling the carrier web. Then, a sequential step of leaving the coating of the graphics on the display surface is included.

In step a), the liquid mixture may be applied by any conventional coating technique such as screen printing, spray painting or knife coating. By printing the liquid mixture on a carrier web, the graphics have very fine details and can be applied in halftones and multicolors. Like the prior art conventional printable inks, the liquid mixture may contain pigments, dyes, fillers and / or other photochromic agents, and also UV absorbers,
Antioxidants, flow control agents and surfactants may be included, some of which may also be photochromic agents. Fine grain photochromic agents are preferred and are more resistant than dyes to the transfer fluid used in step c). Also, the photochromic properties of the fine particles appear to change less with time than the dyes.
The photochromic granules can be used in proportions up to the critical pigment volume concentration, but if opacity is not required any smaller proportion can be carried out.

The liquid mixture may include solids dissolved or dispersed in a volatile vehicle, so that step b) involves evaporation of the vehicle. Alternatively, the liquid mixture may comprise a polymerizable liquid monomer that polymerizes in situ to the solid state in step b). Such polymerizations can be carried out by heating or exposure to actinic radiation and usually require a suitable catalyst contained in the liquid mixture.

Flexible, low-adhesion carrier webs include polyethylene, polypropylene, polyallomers and polytetra-polyethers, which are known to be highly resistant to fluids that damage the binder resin while having a low affinity for resin coatings. Fluoroethylene film is preferred. Each of these films is transparent, which makes it easier to position the graphics on the display surface. Polyethylene is preferred because of its low cost. Other useful plastic films tend to be more expensive than polyethylene and may have low adhesion coatings which increase their cost. The plastic film may incorporate reinforcing fibers or fabric. Plastic coated papers are also useful.

The binder synthetic resin is preferably a film-forming resin that adheres well to many surfaces, but is preferably at least partially soluble in an economical and readily available transfer fluid such as turpentine or mineral spirits. . Useful binder resins include acrylic resins such as butyl methacrylate, vinyl acetate copolymers, polyamides, polyurethanes and other resins typically used in paints and paints to enhance adhesion. The binder resin preferably has a Tukon hardness of less than 10.

Matrix synthetic resin is a film-forming synthetic resin that imparts a polymeric network that is resistant to a transfer fluid that dissolves at least a portion of the binder synthetic resin. The matrix synthetic resin and binder synthetic resin must be mixed sufficiently to prevent any application of the coating of the graphics, even if the volatile non-aqueous transfer fluid completely dissolves the binder synthetic resin. Preferred matrix resins are polyurethanes, cellulose-containing polymers and vinyl chloride copolymers. Both matrix and binder synthetic resins can be polyurethanes because of their wide range of solubilities. Polyurethanes made from monofunctional or low molecular weight reactants have better solubility and therefore tend to be useful as binder synthetic resins.

The volatile non-aqueous transfer fluid applied in step c) may completely dissolve the binder synthetic resin or the transfer fluid adheres in step d) if the wet graphics are pressed onto the display surface. The binder synthetic resin may simply be softened and tackified so that the above expression is achieved. Preferred volatile non-aqueous transfer fluids are characterized by high hydrogen bonding index (greater than 8.5) or low hydrogen bonding index (less than 4.0). This is because these transfer fluids tend not to damage the preferred matrix resin. If the transfer fluid damages some matrix resin, this problem can usually be avoided by replacing the transfer fluid, which may have the same hydrogen bonding index but different solubility coefficients. For example, toluene and turpentine have the same hydrogen bond index (3.
Although it has 8), toluene (solubility factor 8.9) damages the resin more than turpentine oil (solubility factor 8.1).
The hydrogen bond index of mineral spirits is 2.2. Other useful transfer fluids include isopropyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol, each having a hydrogen bond index of 8.9. Their solubility coefficients are 11.5 and 13.6, respectively. Also, "Penola" 150, a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons having a flash point of 65 ° C, a hydrogen bonding index of about 3.8 and a solubility coefficient of about 8.5, has been found to be useful.

The matrix resin may comprise at least 2% by weight and at most 50% by weight of the total of matrix resin and binder resin, preferably at least 5% by weight when using a transfer fluid which dissolves the binder resin. May be. When the proportion of matrix resin is low, the amount of transfer fluid is preferably limited to an amount sufficient to barely wet the entire coating of graphics. The proportion of matrix resin is usually kept to a minimum that does not reliably result in fouling of the graphics coating. This is because the high proportion of the binder synthetic resin ensures good adhesion to the display surface. For this reason, the percentage of matrix resin preferably does not exceed 30% by weight of the total of matrix resin and binder resin.

Graftix solidification coating has a thickness of 0.0025 mm to 0.025 mm
It is preferable to have within the range. Within this range, the graphics after being transferred to the display surface can have the appearance of a paint applied with precision, giving a high quality appeal. Below 0.0025 mm, the graphics will include transfer problems. Greater than 0.05 mm will usually waste material.

Once the coating has solidified in step b), the carrier web and its graphic coating can be rolled up for storage and shipping, yet retailers (ie, consumers) to apply the graphic to display surfaces such as windows. ) Provides a graphics transfer medium that can be used by
In order to transfer the graphics to the display surface, these graphics simply activate the binder resin with the transfer fluid,
Many consumers can produce high quality graphics in the central area.

As mentioned above, the graphics transfer medium of the present invention will be most useful in that it allows the consumer to convey high quality visual information at low cost. However, this new medium will have many other important applications.
For example, the media can be used to apply decorative and functional graphics to vehicle surfaces, and for such applications the light altering agent may include retroreflective beads. The new medium can also be used in cases such as where graphics that do not significantly rise above the display surface are required.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1 which is a schematic cross-sectional view of a graphics transfer medium of the present invention, and FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the use of the media of FIG. 1 for transferring a coating of graphics to a display surface. It will be further described with reference to the drawings shown in FIG.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The graphic transfer medium 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a flexible low-adhesion carrier web 12 and a graphic coating 14.
Is included. After wetting the coating 14 with the transfer fluid, the medium 10 is applied to the display surface 20 as shown in FIG. 2 and the carrier 12 is then peeled off to transfer the graphic coating 14 to the display surface.

In the examples below, all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise stated.

Example 1 g Polybutylmethacrylate binder resin (2044 from Deupon) 21.56 Nitrocellulose Matrices resin (SS 1/4 from Herquiures) 2.16 Light yellow pigment ["Krolor" from Deupon]
15.21 Dimethyl siloxane flow regulator (SF-96 from General Electric) 0.019 Fluorochemical surfactant (FC-430 from 3M) 0.46 Dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether solvent 58.76 Xylene 1.83 Solids recommended by raw material supplier Thus, in addition to the solvent, a screen-printable ink having a viscosity of about 2500 cps was obtained. This ink was screen printed onto a transparent medium density polyethylene carrier web about 0.125 mm thick. The screen printing was a test pattern including alphabets, various geometric patterns, fine lines and halftones. The coating was dried in air overnight to give a dry thickness of about 0.01 mm. The resulting graphic transfer medium could be wound into rolls for storage and shipping.

The turpentine transfer fluid was sprayed onto an aluminum panel in an amount sufficient to barely wet the surface. A coating of media was placed in contact with the wet side and then rubbed against the grit. After about 30 seconds, the polyethylene carrier web was peeled off leaving behind a graphic that appeared to have the same quality as the original test pattern. After drying overnight, the graphics were scratched, resistant to moisture and sunlight.

The other test pieces of Example 1 were successfully transferred to polyester film, glass sheet, polycarbonate sheet, polymethylmethacrylate sheet and baked enamel metal panel.

Examples 2 to 8 A transparent low density polyethylene film was used as a flexible, low density carrier web to produce a graphics transfer medium similar to Example 1. The components of the graphic coatings are given in parts by weight in Tables A and B, except that Examples 5-8 contained 0.015 parts siloxane, 0.37 parts fluorochemical and 1.485 parts xylene used in Example 1.

Example 2 that used to transfer to a variety of substrates Gurafuitsukusu example 8, example transcription Fluid 2 isopropyl alcohol or "Penola" 150 3 turpentine 4 turpentine 5 Mineral Spiritus bract 6 turpentine 7 turpentine 8 turpentine the matrix resin to Additional graphics transfer media identical to Examples 1-8 were prepared except that the total matrix and the percentage of binder resin were varied. Within the following range, the resin % of the example 1 4-20 2 24-45 3 4-20 4 9-20 5 15-30 6 4-20 7 15-35 8 4-20 Good results were shown.

The graphics transferred from the medium of Example 4 were peelable from various display surfaces such as glass plates, polyester films, and lacquer-coated metals. The graphics transferred to such surfaces from the media of Examples 1 to 3 and Examples 5 to 8 could not be removed as such.

The photochromic agent is a nearly colorless silica as in Example 8,
Moreover, when the graphic is transferred to the glass plate,
The image looked very much like etched glass.

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A method for applying graphics to a display surface, comprising: (a) (a) a matrix synthetic resin sufficient to prevent dirt from adhering to the graphics during transfer; (b) the matrix on the display surface. A liquid mixture of a binder synthetic resin sufficient to provide graphics adhesion, and (c) a photochromic agent, wherein the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin are well mixed and the matrix synthetic resin is Which comprises at least 2% by weight of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin) in the form of graphics on a flexible low-adhesion carrier web, and (b) applying said coating of graphics. Solidifying, (c) at least partially dissolving the binder synthetic resin, and removing the matrix synthetic resin or the carrier web. A volatile, non-aqueous transfer fluid that does not substantially damage the offset, but is applied in an amount at least sufficient to wet the solidification coating of the graphics, yet said transfer fluid barely wets the entire solidification coating; ) Pressing the wet surface of the graphics against the display surface, and (e) developing a stronger bond between the coating and the display surface than the bond between the graphics coating and the carrier web. And (f) peeling the carrier web to leave a coating of the graphics on the display surface, a sequential step. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step a) comprises printing the liquid mixture on a carrier web. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein step a) includes screen printing. 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein step a) comprises spray coating the liquid mixture by means of a stencil onto a carrier web. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein step a) comprises knife coating. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein between step b) and step c), the coated carrier web is wound into a roll shape for storage or shipping. 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the liquid mixture comprises a volatile vehicle and step b) comprises evaporating the vehicle. 8. The method of claim 1 wherein step c) comprises applying a volatile non-aqueous transfer fluid in an amount sufficient to barely wet the graphics coating. 9. The matrix synthetic resin is 2 wt% to 50 wt% of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin.
The method according to claim 1, wherein 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the matrix synthetic resin accounts for 5% by weight to 30% by weight of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin. 11. The photochromic agent according to claim 1, which comprises a pigment.
The method described in the section. 12. A graphics transfer medium comprising a flexible low adhesion carrier web carrying a coating in the form of a graphic thereon, said coating transferring to a display surface when contacted with a volatile non-aqueous transfer fluid. The coating is (a) a matrix synthetic resin that is sufficient to prevent soiling of the graphics during transfer and that is resistant to the transfer fluid; and (b) to the display surface. A binder synthetic resin that is sufficient to provide adhesion of the coating and is at least partially soluble in the transfer fluid (the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin are well mixed and The matrix synthetic resin is at least 2% by weight of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin.
And (c) a mixture of photochromic agents, said coating when wetted with at least a sufficient amount of said volatile non-aqueous transfer fluid to wet the entire coating.
A graphics transfer medium, wherein a bond to said display surface can be formed sufficient to allow said coating to be transferred from said carrier web to said display surface. 13. The medium according to claim 12, which is wound into a roll shape for storage or shipping. 14. The medium according to claim 12, wherein the matrix synthetic resin comprises 2 wt% to 50 wt% of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin. 15. The medium according to claim 14, wherein the matrix synthetic resin comprises 5% by weight to 30% by weight of the total of the matrix synthetic resin and the binder synthetic resin. 16. The synthetic resin binder is Tuko (Tuko).
n) The medium of claim 15 having a hardness of less than 10. 17. The medium of claim 16 wherein the carrier web is transparent. 18. The medium according to claim 12, wherein the photochromic agent comprises a pigment.