JPS6089565A - External parts for watch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To develop a gold color which is different from the color of titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride by coating titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride by an ion plating method and forming a zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride film. CONSTITUTION:A titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride layer of about 1mum thickness is formed on each of external parts for a watch as an underlayer by a reactive ion plating method. A zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride layer of about 0.1mum thickness is then formed as a finishing layer by said reactive ion plating method.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to an exterior part for a watch, that is, a case.

Regarding the improvement of gold-colored exterior parts such as bands, crowns, and buttons, we applied a titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride layer to the base layer of the exterior parts base material using the reactive ion blasting method.
This invention relates to an exterior part for a watch that is characterized by having a finishing layer formed of a combination of either zirconium nitride or titanium gold carbonitride. Value tends to be influenced by the appearance of the exterior parts, and since wristwatches are always carried around, the quality of the exterior parts has characteristics that can be used for long periods of time. That is required. Therefore, exterior parts for watches must have excellent appearance in terms of color tone and gloss, and in terms of durability, they must have excellent corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, and impact resistance.

Conventionally, gold-colored materials for exterior parts for watches that meet the above requirements have been made of solid gold materials consisting entirely of gold or gold alloys, gold plating on nonmetallic substrates, or Fully coated alloy plating has been used, as well as fired crystals of some bright-colored carbide materials such as tantalum carbide and titanium nitride.However, these materials have drawbacks in production cost, workability, and durability. However, even plated products that relatively meet these conditions have had problems such as pollution.

In recent years, titanium, zirconium, and tantalum conjugates and carbonitrides formed by the ion-blating method have gold or gold-like colors, and have been attracting attention as materials that can replace the above-mentioned materials. This ion brating method is a method in which the introduced gas and evaporated substances are ionized and adhered to the substrate using discharge plasma, which is an atmosphere activated by direct current or high frequency energy, in a vacuum chamber. be. Here, if a reactive substance is used as the gas and the evaporated substance, it becomes a method called reactive ion blating to form a compound film. If a mixed gas is used, a film of nitride or carbonitride can be formed. However, in order to obtain a compound film that can be used for golden exterior parts, high-melting point metals such as titanium, zirconium, and tantalum must be evaporated, and with the exception of titanium, the film formation rate cannot be increased. First, it is difficult to uniformly coat the entire surface of the part without any unevenness, so if the base material is non-metallic, there are problems with durability, especially load resistance, and in areas with poor coverage, the film is thin and the material is There were problems such as not being able to produce the original color tone, and it was not suitable for mass production.

The present invention seeks to eliminate this drawback. Thank you,
In advance, a golden-yellow titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride is formed on the watch exterior part, which is the coating material, to a thickness sufficient for the watch exterior part by reactive ion blasting.
Next, by forming a golden-colored zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride, an exterior part for a watch having a golden-colored zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride coating, which is different from titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride, can be obtained. , the present invention will be explained based on examples.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an ion brating device for obtaining an exterior part for a timepiece according to the present invention.

First, vacuum chamber 1 is heated to I
Orr, vacuum evacuation and then multiple crucibles for multilayer film formation? By applying a positive voltage of 59V to the electron gun evaporation source 3 and the ionization probe electrode 4, the gas introduction system 5! While introducing nitrogen gas to maintain an atmosphere of 7XLO-'TOrr, titanium was subjected to reactive ion blating, and titanium was injected into a stainless steel watch case at a rate of about 0, iμm/min. 1μ? The material was attached to the surface. Next, zirconium was evaporated by an electron gun evaporation source 3 using a zirconium evaporation crucible while keeping the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 in a vacuum. At this time, a positive pressure of 5 DV was applied to the ionization globe electrode 4, and nitrogen gas was introduced through the gas introduction system 5 to maintain an atmosphere of 5 X + O-' TOrr, thereby performing reactive ion plating. The deposition rate of zirconium nitride is about 100 min/min, and when the film was opened for 10 minutes, a film with a golden color different from that of magnetized titanium was obtained, and there was no unevenness like when zirconium nitride was used alone. There wasn't. In order to evaluate this as an exterior part for watches, we conducted corrosion resistance tests for 48 hours each in artificial sweat immersion and salt water immersion. Almost no wear was observed even after 50,000 cycles of a cowhide abrasion test at a load of 5001.

Embodiment 2 In FIG. 1, the vacuum chamber 1 is
Evacuate with 0-' Torr 'j, evaporate titanium from the titanium evaporation crucible using the electron gun evaporation source 3, apply a positive voltage of 50 V to the ionization probe electrode 4, and apply a positive voltage of 50 V to the stainless steel watch substrate. Negative voltage f 3 is applied to the exterior part 6
00 V applied, nitrogen gas atmosphere f 7 x 10-'
The titanium nitride film was coated with a thickness of about 1 μm while controlling the gas introduction system 5 to maintain Torr.
Formed. Next, zirconium is evaporated from the zirconium evaporation crucible in the same vacuum using the electron gun evaporation source 3, and a positive voltage of 5'OV is applied to the ionization globe electrode 4. A negative voltage of 3000V is applied to the
Nitrogen and
By introducing a mixed gas with an acetylene ratio of 10:1, a titanium carbonitride film was formed to a thickness of about 0.1 μm at a coating speed of about 100 min/min, and a film different from titanium nitride or zirconium nitride was formed. was being formed.

In order to evaluate this as an exterior part for a watch, the same test as in Example 1 was conducted, and no results were found that would cause any problems.

As described above in the examples, according to the present invention, titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride is completely coated on the exterior parts of a watch by ion blasting, and then a zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride coating is formed by ion blasting as well. Compared to forming only a single zirconium compound, the resulting film is more homogeneous and has a faster deposition rate, so it has higher productivity. In the example, when forming the zirconium compound film, an electron gun evaporation source for multilayer film formation was used, and the same vacuum chamber and vacuum chamber as for the formation of the titanium compound were used. However, it is clear that it is also possible to form a complete zirconium compound coating on objects that are once placed in the atmosphere by forming a titanium compound in another vacuum chamber or after forming a titanium compound coating. It is clear that the present invention can also be applied to materials other than stainless steel, such as carbide, stellite materials, brass, etc., for exterior parts.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figure is a sectional view of an ion brating device for providing all the exterior parts for a timepiece according to the present invention. 1... Vacuum chamber 2... Exhaust system 3... Electron gun evaporation source 4... Ionization probe electrode 5... Gas introduction system 6... Exterior parts for watches and above Applicant: Seiko Hiroko Industries Co., Ltd. Company Representative Patent Attorney Mogami

Claims (1)

[Claims] An exterior part for a watch, characterized in that a titanium nitride or titanium carbonitride layer is formed as a base layer and a zirconium nitride or zirconium carbonitride layer is formed as a finishing layer on the exterior part for a watch by a reactive ion blating method.