NZ211538A

NZ211538A - Badge with marginal edge compressed;edge tapers at front face

Info

Publication number: NZ211538A
Application number: NZ211538A
Authority: NZ
Inventors: R Gagnon
Original assignee: Badgeco Inc
Priority date: 1984-04-03
Filing date: 1985-03-22
Publication date: 1987-03-06
Also published as: AU569613B2; DE3564179D1; AU4021685A; EP0157333B1; EP0157333A1; ATE36226T1

Abstract

A badge for wearing on one's clothes or on any other surface, made of a body layer of synthetic foam and material of the type having no memory when compressed, said body layer carrying an image on its front face (2) and fastening means at its back face. The body layer has a marginal portion (5) of smaller thickness than that of the central portion of the body layer, with the foam material exposed at the periphery (6) of the body layer.

Description

21153 Priority .... \ %£■.

Complete Spv>.incai:">n Filed: ■?.=?; Class: &/?P. P. tfffMAAW Publication Date-; P.O. Journal. No: Aj V>n PATENTS FORM NO. 5 SUBSTITUTION OF APPLICANT UNDER SECTION 24 fo*0 C^XJD IroC- NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION "BADGE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME" -Tr, WEvCREST-0-MATIC LTEE, of 2600 Wurtele Street, Montreal, Province of Quebec H2K 2Rd, Canada, hereby declare the invention, for which-I-/we pray that a patent may be granted to h&/us, and the method by tdiich it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- -l- (folfowed by page I AO FIELD OF THE INVENTION 2115 •- badge and"®to annetffod The present Invention relates to a- badge' of making the same.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION U.S. Patent 4,338,737 dated July 13, 1982 to Roger W.

Lehraann describes a badge made of a body layer of foam plastic and covered at its front and back faces with a sheet of plastic material which are heat sealed together at their marginal edges.

This construction is relatively expensive, since the foam plastic material has first to be cut out to the desired contdur.

Then the wall sheets have to be cut out to a slightly greater size and then assembled with the body layer and, finally, the resulting assembly subjected to a heat-sealing operation.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The general object of the present invention is to provide a badge and a method of making the same, which is much less expensive than in the above-mentioned Patent.

Another object of the invention is to provide a badge which has the appearance of and which imitates, to a certain extent, ✓ * the standard metal badges with a tapered contour.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a badge of very light weight construction and which will resist wear and tear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The badge of the. invention comprises.a layer ef synthetic . ... . ■ * * -' ' foam material of the'*type- having no memory when compressed, an' image-bearing layer adhering to the front face of said body layer, fastening means carried by the back face of said body layer to attach the body layer to the wearer's clothing, the foam material being exposed all around the peripheral edge of saf.d body layer, the marginal portion of said badge having a smaller thickness than the central portion of said badge. The method of the invention comprises providing a laminate formed of the above-noted layers, positioning said laminate on a flat surface and applying a cutting 21 1538 • blade against the front surface of aaid laminate, vhlch not only cuta out the badge from the laminate but also compresses the laminate material in the area of the cutting blade. Consequently, the resulting badge remains with Its marginal portion In permanent compressed condition, due to the fact that the foam material used has no memory and will not come back to its original non-compressed condition.

From the foregoing, it is seen that the badge can' be made in one single operation once the various layers of the laminate have been assembled.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a perspective view of an example of the badge in accordance with the Invention; Figure 2 is a side elevation; Figure 3 is a side elevation of a badge with a different type of fastening means; Figure 4 is an exploded cross-sectional view showing the various layers composing one embodiment of the laminate used to make the badge in accordance with the invention; Figure 5 is a view similar to that of Figure 4 but showing another embodiment of the laminate; Figure is a cross-sectional view of the cutting and compressing die used to make the badge of the invention; Figure 7 is a plan view of 'the' laminate wi£K the badge . .

-Y*. •• ' '• ' cut out; • ■ , Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view of the laminate, L also taken along line 8-8 of Figure 7 but also showing the compressing and cutting die at the end of its compressing and cutting stroke. in the drawings, like reference characters indicate like elements throughout.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The badge 1 of Figures 1 and 2 is shown in its completed 2 115 3 8 f. \ condition ready to be used. It has at its front face 2 a central area 3 delimited by the dotted line 4 and a marginal portiOD 5 outside the dotted line. The edge of the badge is shown at 6.

The back face 7 of the badge is flat and, as shown in Figure 2, / the marginal portion 5 tapers towards the edge 6, so that the marginal portion 5 has a smaller thickness than that of the central area 3 of the badge 1.

Figure 4 ahows one embodiment of the laminate*to make the badge 1. The laminate consists of a body layer 8, which is made 10 of a synthetic foam material, Indicated at 9, of the type having no memory when compressed ao that, once compressed, it stays in this compressed condition. A typical example of such a foam material is expanded polystyrene, preferably euch a foam material sandwiched between two paper layers, indicated at 10. Such a body layer may, for Instance, have a thickness of two tenths of an inch. Such a body layer is made by Monsanto Inc. and marketed under the registered trade mark FOME 'COR. An lmftge-bearing layer 11 is adhered to the front face of the body layer 8 and a transparent film I2v,is in turn adhered to the image-bearing layer 11. 20 At the back face of the body layer, a sheet of paper 13 or of - plastic, coated on both sides .with a pressure adhesive, is adhered to the body layer 8 and a pealable protecting film 14 is adhered to the exposed face of the pressure adhesive to complete the laminate.. . ' . . • • ' . 1.- • * . • «•. . * - * * V Figure 5 shows an alterative emJjodimenV of, the 'laminate.

The same body layer 8 is used, together with the Image-bearing layer 11 and the protective transparent film 12 at the front face.

The image-bearing paper is glued onto the paper layer 10 of the body layer 8 by means of liquid glue, indicated at 15. In this embodiment, the sheet of double-coated pressure adhesive 13 is replaced by a single layer of pressure adhesive 16 applied in liquid form to the back of the body layer 8. Once the pealable film 14 at the back of the badge is removed, the badge can be 2 1 1 '5-3 € adhered to one's clothing by the exposed pressure adhesive of strip 13, or of Layer 16.

This exposed pressure adhesive constitutes the fastening means for the badge. However, this fastening means can be replaced by a metal safety clip, of conventional'construction, as shown at 17 in Figure 3. The assembled laminate is cut out to form the badge in a single operation. For this purpose, the cutting andvcompressing die, shown In cross-section in Figures 6 and 8, is used. This die, generally Indicated at 18, Includes 10 a rigid backing block 19, a cutting blade 20 aind a layer of com pressible material' 21. The cutting blade 20 is fixed to and protrudes from one face of the block 19, having an exposed cutting /****\ edge 22. This cutting blade 20 normally extends to the top surface of block 19 and is longitudinally shaped in accordance with the desired final contour of the badge 1 to be made. The layer 21 of compressible material is adhered to block 19 on the same face from which the cutting blade 20 protrudes. The layer 21 may be made of rubber and it extends on the outside as well as on the inside of the closed figure formed by the cutting blade 20, with 20 a suitable slot 23 formed in the layer 21 in which the cutting blade freely extends. In its non-compressed condition, the layer 21 protrudes at its outer face from the cutting edge 22 of blade 20, as shown in Figure 6. '—•' The above-described ; laminate of either Figure;.i- or V • • r' ' ie supported on a flat-supporting-surface 'as'shpwn in. t Figure 8, and the die' 18 is pressed against the laminate. The top' face of the laminate is engaged by the compressible layer 21 and u is pressed in place while the cutting blade 20 cuts through the laminate in accordance with the desired contour of the badge 30 1. Due to the pressing action of the cutting blade, the foam core 9 of the body layer 8 is compressed on each side of the blade 20, and since this foam 9 has no memory, it remains in compressed condition, therefore defining the 9- ■ ... ' _ 7 1 f s: - i; compressed marginal portion 5 of the finished badge 1. After the die cutting operation, the badge is already in its completed condition, with the foam layer 8 being exposed at the edge 6 of the badge. However, since the badge has a much reduced / i thickness at its marginal portion, the exposed foam is hardly visible and will not detract from the general appearance of the badge. Obviously, several badges can be cut out simultaneously from a single sheet of laminate, with the images properly spaced at the top face of the laminate, in which case the die would 10 Include several cutting blades 20 adapted to register with the respective images.

Claims

9WB EHI10DIHCNTS OF fftfr HfVENTtON ftt-WHICH *N-tXCLUSIVE PROPERTY'-OR PRIVILEGE -€S-'&LAIMED, JlftE jiEExupo JLR-Fnr r/wt-* <WHAf+/WH CLAIM !!?•. *■

1. A badge comprising ■ body layer of aynthetlc foam material of the type having no memory whan compraaaad and having a front face and a back faca, an image-bearing layer adhering to aaid front face of aald body layer, fastening means carried'by the back face of aald body layer to Attach aald body layer to a wearer's clothing, aaid body layer having a peripheral edge,- aald foam material being exposed at aald peripheral edge, aald badge having a marginal portion extending all around the aame and which haa a smaller thicknaaa than that of the central portion of aaid badge.

2. A badge as defined in claim 1, wherein the front face of the badge -slopes tcward the "'back face.of the badge at said marginal portion to define said smaller thickness.

3. A badge aa defined in claim 2, wherein aald body layer conslsta of a core of expanded polyatyrene aandwlchad between two sheets of paper.

4. A badge aa defined in claim 3, wherein^aald Image-bearing layer is covered by a protecting tranaparent film adhering to aald last-named layer-.

5. A badge as defined In claim 4, wherein aald '1 fastening means consists of a layer of preaaure adheaive .applied to aald back face jOf the body lay£r.

6. A badge aa defiXUSS in claim 4, wherein aaid faatening means consists of a metal aafety pin.

7. A badge as defined in claim 4, wherein aald faatening means is- a strip coated on' both faces with a pressure adheaive coating, one coating directly adhered to the back face of aaid body layer. 2(1-532

8. A method of making a badge comprising the steps 0^ .of-making a laminate consisting of a body layer of synthetic foam material of the type having no memory when compressed and having a front face and a back face, an image-bearing layer adhering to aald front face, a layer of pressure adhesive carried by aaid back face, a pealable protective film covering said layer of pressure adhesive; providing a cutting and pressing die including a rigid backing block, a cutting blade fixed to and protruding from one face of said backing block, aaid blade forming a closed figure and longitudinally shaped in accordance with the desired contour of the finish badge, a layer of compressible materiaL adhering to said one face of said block and extending within and outside said closed figure .said compressible layer, when in non-compressed condition, protruding from said cutting edge of said blade, said blade being free in a slot formed through said layc-i; positioning said_laminate on a flat support surface with said image-bearing layer topmost, and pressing said die against said laminate towards said rest surface, whereby said .and blade cuts said laminate to form said badge/simultaneously compresses the area of said laminate adjacent said blade on each side of the same, to thereby obtain the finished badge with said material foam/exposed at the outer edge of said badge apd the marginal • > portion of said badge tapering toward said edge at the front fare • * • * of said badge. • //'V% \ ^ ^ , ^ "or- £ 27JANS987; /. 8.

9. A badge arranged and constructed substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

10. A method of making a badge as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. BA