JPS5921312B2 - Sign manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to sign making and particularly to sign making using transfer materials.

Dry transfer lettering materials have been known for many years and are described, for example, in British Patent Specifications Nos. 959,670 and 954;
No. 459.

This dry transfer material traditionally has a large number of transferable figures (
(Indicia), usually consisting of flexible transparent or translucent plastic on which are arranged alphabetical letters, numbers and punctuation marks. There is a coating of adhesive on top of each figure, which allows the figure to be transferred from the carrier sheet and adhered to the receiving sheet. To facilitate this transfer, the bond between the carrier sheet and the figure is weakened by local stretching of the carrier sheet, carried out by rubbing a suitable stylus over the back of the carrier sheet in the area of the figure. Or the relative mechanical properties between the figure and the carrier sheet are selected to be destroyed. This system is described in British Patent No. 959,670.
This dry transfer material has been widely used for many years in a variety of applications.

Because of the relatively brittle nature of the ink film from which the figures are constructed, this material is generally unsuitable for the production of signs that will be exposed to the outside air, cleaning with detergent solutions, etc., and is therefore more suitable for preform than handprint lettering. In the production of signs where it is desirable to use lettering, there has been a tendency to use die-cut vinyl lettering rather than dry transfer lettering. When producing composite signs, this lettering is covered with a protective sheet, the lettering on a suitable carrier, e.g. paper, is inserted into the frame and protected by a glass or plastic cover through which the lettering can be observed. Dry transfer lettering can be used to. This system is generally unsatisfactory and sometimes tends to be unsightly. Applicants have now discovered that visually pleasing signs with the advantage of high durability can be produced using special dual-purpose transfer materials.

The use of a transfer material and a temporary support sheet according to the invention, the transfer material comprising a light-transmissive carrier sheet carrying on one side a number of transferable figures, the temporary support sheet in a desired order. Transferring this figure by gluing to create the desired overall figure for the sign; applying the transferred figure under heat and pressure to the surface of a light-transparent sign sheet; the material on which the figure is made; The formulation provides a method for making a sign, characterized in that the figure remains on the sign sheet upon removal of the support sheet.

Thus, in particular, the transfer material comprises a transparent or translucent carrier sheet carrying on one side a multiplicity of transferable figures, which figures are sufficiently adhesive in nature to permit their transfer to the support sheet, or Each carrier sheet has a layer of adhesive on its surface separate from each carrier sheet, or is not adhesive but transferable by a coating of adhesive on a temporary support sheet, and this adhesive is present. It is suitable for adhering the figure to a temporary sheet more strongly than when the figure is glued to a carrier sheet, and the figure material is adhesive under the application of heat and force.

The heat and pressure must be sufficient to cause the graphic to adhere to the light transmissive (transparent or translucent) sign sheet more strongly than the graphic adheres to the temporary support sheet.
This temporary support can then be stripped and the figure coated with a layer of a suitable material, such as paint, so that when viewed it constitutes a background for the figure of the sign. This background may also be provided by colored paper or foil glued onto or held against the figure. Alternatively, this layer is provided by transferring the colored layer from the blocking foil under pressure and, if necessary, heat. Under the action of heat and pressure, the figure comes into intimate contact with the surface of the transparent or translucent sign sheet, so that this surface is wetted all over and the figure becomes optically intimate and Looks completely flat.

The figure of the sign is protected by a transparent or translucent sheet through which it can be viewed, and this is therefore chosen for this purpose. The transparent or translucent sheet may be glass, but is preferably a plastic material, such as acrylic plastic, polyvinyl chloride, cellulose triacetate and polymethyl methacrylate, such as perspex (P
ERSPEX) and Plexiglas (PLEXIGLA)
It is sold under the product name S). The properties of the figure, in which it must be adhesive under the action of heat and pressure, can be improved, for example, by making it based on a thermoplastic polymeric material that softens to a tacky adhesive state upon application of heat. granted to.

Alternatively, a thermoset material can be used as the base material, which also initially softens upon heating. In this case, the finished sign is made highly heat stable by heating the thermoset base after its fabrication to cure it into a hard thermoset film that is adhesive to the transparent or translucent sheet. The figure can thus be considered to be made from a hot melt or heat seal adhesive with suitable pigments or dyes to make the areas of the figure visible. Preferably, the transfer material used in the method of the invention is generally made as a dry transfer material of the stretch release type, ie as described in British Patent No. 959,670.

The figure is preferably produced by screen printing using a suitable printing ink, followed by applying a substantially tack-free pressure sensitive adhesive to the entire printed surface of the sheet, including the spaces between the figures. . In a known manner, by printing a graphic area and a visible image with colored ink on a colorless carrier film.
You can also configure this figure. The figure is printed by screen printing and the visible image is printed either before or after printing the film, for example by gravure, letterpress or lithography. Virtually tack-free pressure-sensitive adhesives are generally not particularly strong, and in practice relatively weak adhesives do not have sufficient tensile strength to remove figures from carrier sheets when using dry transfer materials. To ensure this, the stretch release technique described above must be utilized.

The bond created by heat and pressure between the transparent or translucent sheet and the figure through which the figure is to be observed is generally much stronger than the adhesive bond made by the adhesive of the transfer material or on the temporary support sheet. Depending on the fact, the temporary support sheet to which the figure is initially transferred when the message etc. is being constructed is peeled off either hot or cold and firmly adheres to a transparent or translucent sign sheet. You can leave a picture of. The individual components of dry transfer materials suitable for use in the method of the invention will now be described in detail.

Carrier Sheet The carrier sheet for the transfer material of the present invention may be any conventionally used for making dry transfer lettering sheets.

Transparent or translucent plastic films are preferred, with polyethylene, styrene/butadiene copolymer, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate films being most suitable. Coated paper can also be used. The thickness of the film is preferably 0.1 to 0.15 mTIL. The carrier sheet may have a release coating on the figure-bearing surface.

Figure: The figure is made from a printing ink based on a film-forming polymeric thermoplastic material.

Both plastisol and organosol inks can be used and, while based on thermoset polymeric materials, inks with a suitable content of modifiers to give thermoplastic heat seal or hot melt adhesion to the overall figure are used. You may. For example, nitrocellulose-based inks can be given thermoplastic heat-sealing properties by appropriate selection of plasticizers, and polymeric plasticizers used at sufficiently high levels can impart the desired properties while still making it difficult to British Patent Specification No. 9596
As described in No. 70, the so-called Stretch Release 2
It is possible to produce a dry transfer material that acts by Figures can be easily applied and modified with a single printing step and can be built up with multiple layers applied with successive printing steps. Alternatively, suitable figures can be produced photographically by a modification of one of the known photographic methods of producing dry transfer materials. This method is described in British Patent Specification Nos. 1,079,661 and 1,291;
No. 960 and No. 1,364,627. The melting point or softening point in the figure should be carefully selected,
And particular attention should be paid to the type of transparent or translucent sheet to which the figure is to be glued. Adhesive: As mentioned above, the adhesive is preferably of the substantially tack-free, pressure-sensitive type.

Suitable adhesives consist of highly tacky polymeric components such as polyisobutylene, polyvinylethyl ether, polyvinyl isobutyl ether, or mixtures containing one or more of these together with tack-modifying or tack-reducing components. Typical tack-reducing ingredients are finely divided mineral materials, especially finely divided silica, and wax-like materials, such as natural or synthetic waxes. The ink formulations making up the figure are selected for the intended use of the materials.

For example, if it is desired to use a material in the production of a figure consisting of a sheet of acrylic plastic through which the figure is to be viewed, this material should be chemically compatible with the material of the transparent or translucent sheet. Mix the diagram. Similarly, if the transparent or translucent sheet is polyvinyl chloride, the ink is selected to be compatible with it and to provide an ink that can be easily heat sealed onto this surface with visually satisfactory results. do. Types of plastic sheets that can be used to make signs include polymethyl methacrylate, polyvinyl chloride sheets, polystyrene sheets, polyethylene and polypropylene sheets, polycarbonate sheets and cellulose triacetate sheets of the types described above. Suitable materials for the temporary support sheet are plastic films, such as polyethylene terephthalate sheets, various treated papers, and, for example, aluminum foil. This temporary support material must of course be able to withstand the heat applied during the process of gluing the figure to the transparent or translucent sheet under heat and pressure. Similarly, the adhesive-forming portions of the transfer material of the present invention should not be adversely affected by the heat and pressure used to adhere the figure to the surface of a transparent or translucent sheet. In particular, the adhesive should not melt at too low a temperature or it will cause slippage between the image and the temporary support during the thermal transfer process. Particularly preferred adhesives include a highly tacky thermoplastic polymer component with a suitable amount of finely divided silica to reduce the overall tackiness of the adhesive. The adhesive is preferably solvent soluble in a non-solvent for transparent or translucent sheets.

This allows adhesive residue to be easily cleaned from the sign, thus producing a clean finish. Removal of this residue is particularly important if the figure is to be covered with a spray paint coating. In the examples below, the adhesive can be dissolved in hexane or heptane. In case of error, it is also preferred to be able to remove the transferred image from either the temporary support sheet or the transparent or translucent base sheet by solvent action.

In the examples below, the figures can be removed by dissolving them in industrial methylated spirits. If the transparent or translucent sheet onto which the figure is to be transferred is very thin, for example a thin plastic foil, this sheet can be lined during the thermal transfer process with a suitable rigid backing. The following examples serve to illustrate the invention.

In these examples, all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified. A mixture was made from Example 1.

Next, 43 parts by weight of the above mixture were milled on a triple roll with 9 parts by weight of aniline black pigment, 0.2 parts by weight of fumed silica (Aerosil 300 (trade name) from Degutsa), and 3.8 parts by weight of ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate. Shattered.

This grinding was continued up to a bakematsu gauge of 7. This mixture was then combined with an additional 24 parts by weight, 10 parts by weight of a 40% by weight solution of methyl methacrylate/butyl methacrylate copolymer (Paraloid B66 from Rohm and Hass) in ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate and methyl methacrylate copolymer. 10 parts by weight of the coalescing solution (40% by weight solution of Paraloid B82 (trade name) from Rohm & Hass in ethylene glycol monoethyl ether acetate) were added and the mixture was stirred homogeneously.

The black ink thus prepared was used to print characters on a 150 micron thick sheet of high density polyethylene. Silkscreen printing was used and printed through a 240 mesh screen. The printed image was dried in a belt dryer at 60°C with a dwell time of 30 seconds. The adhesive was made as follows: The following ingredients were stirred together in the proportions by weight shown below: The last ingredient was added to the other with hot stirring at 50-60°C.

Next, 99.0 parts by weight of a 10% by weight solution of polyethylene wax was added.

This polyethylene wax is type A from Allied Chemical Company.
CP6 and the solvent was Kuzusol 145/160 (trade name). Finally, melt 50 weight of fatty amide (oleamide, Clodamide O (trade name) from Kuroda Chemical) in Kuzusol 145/160? The solution was added and stirring continued to produce a homogeneous adhesive. The adhesive was applied by screen printing the entire layer through a 240 mesh screen onto a previously printed polyethylene sheet. The adhesive coating was dried by passing the sheet through a belt dryer on Impression 65C with a dwell time of 30 seconds.

The transfer sheets thus produced were protected by inserting sheets of siliconized vegetable parchment paper. Using the transfer material thus produced in the usual manner, words were constructed from individual letters on a 50 micron thick sheet of polyethylene terephthalate film (from Melinex 1.C.I.). .

The letters were then brought into contact with a double sheet of polymethyl methacrylate (Perspex (trade name), manufactured by ICI) and the letter-bearing film was passed through a heated nip. The temperature of the nip roll was 170°C and the assembly was passed between the rolls at a speed of 4 m/min. The polyethylene terephthalate sheet is then peeled away from the polymethyl methacrylate sheet, leaving letters firmly adhered to the surface of the polymethyl methacrylate sheet, which are then viewed through the sheet in a near perpendicular direction.

Spray paint was then applied to the side bearing the letters, resulting in a sign in which the black letters stood out clearly against the colored paint background and had a generally pleasing appearance. Example 2 The following ingredients were mixed together in the following proportions by weight: This mixture was dispersed on a triple roll mill until a fineness of 7 on the Hegman gauge was obtained and then the methyl methacrylate butyl methacrylate copolymer solution (Example 1 10 parts by weight (as in Example 1) and 10 parts by weight of methyl methacrylate copolymer solution (as in Example 1) were added.

Dry transfer sheets were prepared by printing this ink as in Example 1 onto 150 micron thick high density polyethylene sheets and subsequently drying these sheets exactly as in Example 1. And glued. 5
These sheets are used in the conventional manner to build up words by transferring individual letters onto 0 micron polyethylene terephthalate.

The word-bearing sheet is then passed through a heated nip along with a 1 mm thick transparent polyvinyl chloride sheet. The nip temperature was 120° C. and the polyethylene terephthalate and PVC sheets were passed through at a rate of 4 TrL/min. After passing through the nip, the polyethylene terephthalate sheet was peeled away leaving white letters adhered to the PVC sheet. The side of the PVC sheet bearing the letters was then sprayed with black cellulose lacquer and allowed to air dry. The signs produced were of a pleasant appearance. Higher operating temperatures for higher nip temperatures, e.g. a nip temperature of 160°C and 9 m
A passing speed of /min can be used.

When using high temperatures at low speeds, the PVC sheet tends to deform. EXAMPLE The black ink of Example 1 was used to print a figure on a 100 micron high density polyethylene sheet by screen printing using a 361T mesh.

The figures thus produced were aligned and overprinted using a colorless carrier of the following formulation: after each print,
The sheet was belt dried with an 85 second dwell at 85°C.

The sheet was then completely overprinted with an adhesive of the following formulation and subsequently dried by passing the transfer material through an 85 25a belt dryer.

The words were made up using the transfer material thus made on a 50 micron thick polyethylene terephthalate sheet (Melinex grade S, from .I.C.I.).
The overall figure thus formed was then brought into contact with a polymethyl methacrylate sheet having a thickness of 211 mm.

The assembly of polymethyl methacrylate sheet and character-bearing polyethylene terephthalate sheet was then passed through a heated nip. The nip was heated to 180°C and the speed was 8 m/min. The polyethylene terephthalate sheet was then peeled away leaving letters that adhered tightly to the polymethyl methacrylate. To make these letters stand out, this polymetal methacrylate sheet is then lined with a retro-reflective material (e.g., Scotchilite, from 3M or a microbead-containing paint) and when framed, can be used with a vehicle registration number sign or So-called license plate 7
, which had a pleasant appearance and was very easy to read.

Example 4 Example 1 was repeated, but using white and black inks, the inks were made up as follows: 1.
The base medium was first created by mixing Vnono and ▲υ哩 together.

The base medium was then used to make up the inks of the following formulations: The ingredients were premixed using a palette knife and then ground in a triple roller mill to a fineness of 7 degrees Hegman gauge.

Examples 1 and 4 for making signs and license plates
The inks thus prepared were used as in: similar satisfactory results were obtained. If it is desired to use a very fine figure, this figure can be printed in two steps: first, using an ink containing no pigments as described above but deposited on a colorless carrier film; Print the general area.

A minute figure is then printed over this area with colored ink. Alternatively, the figure may be printed first and then the transparent film area overprinted. Since the colorless carrier film is based on acrylic polymers, this does not adversely affect the appearance of the finished sign. Example 5 Example 1 was repeated using a black ink and a white ink of the following composition and using the following adhesive: The ink was triple rolled to Hegman 7 and the final viscosity was oxytol acetate. Adjusted for printing in.

The ink was triple roll milled to Hegman 7 and adjusted to final viscosity for printing with oxytol acetate.

Similar very satisfactory results were obtained.

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. Using a transfer material and a temporary support sheet comprising a light-transparent carrier sheet carrying a number of transferable figures on one side, and applying said transfer material to said temporary support sheet. Transfer the figures by applying pressure to the carrier sheet in each desired figure area and peeling the carrier sheets to create the desired overall figure for the sign. leaving the image adhered to the support, bringing the thus transferred image into contact with the surface of the light-transmissive sign sheet, and applying heat and pressure to the assembly of the temporary support sheet and sign sheet. A method for producing a sign using a transfer material, characterized in that the formulation of the material from which the figure is made is such that the figure remains on the sign sheet upon removal of the support sheet. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the image of the transfer material is sufficiently adhesive in nature to enable its transfer to the temporary support sheet. 3. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that each image of the transfer material carries a layer of adhesive allowing its transfer to the temporary support sheet. 4 Patent characterized in that the surface of the temporary support sheet to which the figure is transferred is provided with a coating of adhesive of sufficient strength to enable transfer of the figure from the transfer material to the temporary support sheet A method according to claim 1. 5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the image of the transfer material is formed on the basis of a thermoplastic polymeric material which softens into a tacky state under the action of heat. 6. Any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the image of the transfer material is formed from a nitrocellulose-based ink having a sufficient proportion of polymeric plasticizer to impart thermoplastic heat sealability to the image. or the method according to paragraph 1. 7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the temporary support sheet is a polyethylene terephthalate foil. 8. By passing the assembly of the temporary support sheet, the figure forming the overall sign figure, and the sign sheet through a heated nip between rollers, the figure is brought into contact with the sign sheet under heat and pressure. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in: 9 Claims 1 to 8 in which the sign sheet is transparent
Method according to any one of the following. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the marker sheet is translucent. 11. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the marking sheet is an acrylic plastic material, polyvinyl chloride or cellulose triacetate. 12. Claims 1 to 1 characterized in that, after removal of the temporary support sheet, the surface of the sign sheet carrying the figure is coated with a layer of a color that contrasts with the color of the figure.
Method according to any one of 1.